Fort Lauderdale, USA, February 11, 2017 - After upsetting the Olympic champions late Friday evening and losing early Saturday morning to a new team, Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena rebounded to defeat American compatriots Ryan Doherty and John Hyden in a three-set afternoon bronze medal match at the $600,000 Fort Lauderdale Major.
Seeded first in the opening FIVB World Tour event on the 2017 international beach volleyball calendar, Dalhausser and Lucena scored a 2-1 (14-21, 21-13, 15-10) win in 41 minutes over the 24th-seeded Doherty and Hyden. With the win, Dalhausser and Lucena split $20,000 for third-place while their American rivals shared $16,000.
Dalhausser and Lucena, who posted a three-set quarterfinal win Friday evening over Brazilian Olympic champions Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt, dropped a 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) semifinal decision in 43 minutes to eighth-seeded Evandro Gonçalves/Andre Loyola of Brazil.
Doherty and Hyden, who scored a three-set quarterfinal win Friday afternoon over Italian Olympic silver medal winners Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai, were defeated in the semifinals by Alvaro Filho/Saymon Barbosa as the ninth-seeded Brazilians posted a 2-0 (21-16, 21-9) victory in 33 minutes.
With the two Brazilians teams meeting for the Fort Lauderdale Major gold medal, the winning team will share the $40,000 first-place prize with the losing team splitting $32,000. The all-Brazilian finale marks the 66th-time two teams from the South American country have met in a FIVB World Tour men’s finale in 353 international stops since the start of the circuit in 1987.