Enthusiasm could best describe what American beach volleyball fans felt when two of the game’s living legends, Phil Dalhausser and Nicholas Lucena, decided to play together just a few weeks ago. Both ended great partnerships with Sean Rosenthal and Theodore Brunner respectively, who are now going to compete together, by the way, to try out something they might have done much earlier.
“We got back from Yokohama, Japan, and I landed and saw an e-mail from Nick and he wanted to see if I was interested in playing with him,” Dalhausser explained. “Nick is one of the best defenders in the world and he’s my buddy and I always envisioned myself finishing my career with him. I was just like, ‘Let’s do it’. Sean and I kind of fell flat in Japan and it just didn’t seem right. I calculated, I weighed out all the pros and cons and everything to do and all that. There were a lot of pros for Nick.”
Lucena and Dalhausser, both 35 (Lucena turns 36 in September), arrived to California from Florida as partners in 2003, then went their separate ways. Phil Dalhausser was actually Nick Lucena’s first-ever partner on the international stage when the two long-time college friends finished 25th twice at the Paris and the Klagenfurt Grand Slams in 2005. Previously, Dalhausser had only appeared at the 2014 Rio de Janeiro Open with Adam Roberts (finished 25th) and at the 2005 World Championship in Berlin with Todd Rogers (7th).
In an article for the Red Bull website, Sean Rosenthal shared, “Right now, we need to come out of the gates playing well and I think a side switch would put us a couple of steps back. We need to keep making steps forward. When we weren’t injured, we (Dalhausser and Rosenthal) were the best team in the world. We’ve had to deal with some injuries, and I don’t think either of us have had to do that our whole career, so that put a little more pressure on us: ‘Why aren’t they winning all the time? Why aren’t they the best team in the world?’ When we’re healthy, we were. So I think injuries held us back a little bit from being what most people thought we could be, and maybe even what we thought we could be.”
Dalhausser was also quoted: “When we first got together, everyone was saying we were going to win every event – which didn’t happen. But we did win most events on the World Tour in 2013 and 2014. We were really inconsistent. We had some really bad finishes, and we had some good finishes. Nick (Lucena) plays a really similar game as my old partner Todd (Rogers). He’s the same type of player, same style. So I don’t think we’ll have a problem.”
The first serious test for the two new American teams, Lucena-Dalhausser and Rosenthal-Brunner, will be at the domestic Long Beach Grand Slam in California. However, Lucena and Dalhausser sent signals already that their partnership, despite their age, might be successful as they won the Manhattan Beach Open, part of the AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) US Tour. In the final in New York they defeated Hyden-Bourne in straight sets (21-19, 21-17).
Biel/Bienne to host the 2016 European Championship
Only several days after the spectacular 2015 European Championship in Klagenfurt, the international beach volleyball ‘Mecca’ in Austria, came to a close, CEV announced where next year’s event will be held. The actions will move to neighbouring Switzerland as the small town of Biel/Bienne will welcome Europe’s beach volleyball elite. Currently second in the overall men’s standings at European Championships with 4 gold medals (all consecutive, achieved in the period 1998-2001), Switzerland has previously hosted the continent’s premier tournament only once – in Basel in 2002.
The organizers have provided a 3-year strategic plan with the focus lying on the championship in 2016. So far, Biel/Bienne has successfully hosted two Masters in 2014 and 2015 as part of the European beach volleyball tournament. The 2016 European Championship will take place from 1 to 5 June in the town that is located around 30 km from Bern on the shores of Lake Biel.
Sensational gold for Mexico at the Pan Am
Ever since Juan Virgen and Lombardo Ontiveros teamed up at the beginning of 2013, Mexican beach volleyball has reached levels they had never experienced before. Less than a month ago, in the 3-week pause in the international calendar, Virgen-Ontiveros stepped on the highest place on the podium at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto, Canada. They entered the final against the Brazilian representatives as underdogs, having already lost in three sets to Alvaro Filho-Vitor Felipe in the Round of 16 at the 2015 World Championship in the Netherlands, but took a sweet revenge for the straight-set loss in the preliminary group (14-21, 31-33) and eventually won the gold for Mexico following a 2-1 victory (18-21, 21-13, 15-8).
The bronze medals went to another team that impressed at the recent World Championship. Cuba’s Gonzalez-Nivaldo defeated the Chilean cousins Grimalt in three sets (18-21, 25-23, 15-12).
There was no Canadian team in the battle for medals as the local heroes and one of the tournament’s favourites, Binstock-Schachter, lost the quarterfinal match versus Virgen-Ontiveros (19-21, 24-26). The Canadians forfeited the remaining playoffs in the bracket for distribution of places 5 to 8.
