Hamburg, Germany, August 27, 2017 - Newly-crowned world champions Evandro Goncalves and Andre Loyola of Brazil gained the second spot in the gold medal match for the $800,000 Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals presented by Vodafone by defeating European champions Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai of Italy in a two-set semifinal contest.
Seeded second in the 12-team competition, Evandro and Loyola posted a 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) win in 41 minutes over the fifth-seeded Lupo and Nicolai in the first-ever FIVB World Tour meeting between the two teams.
While the Italians play Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak of Poland for the bronze medal and the $50,000 first-place prize, Evandro and Loyola meet Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena of the United States in the gold medal contest where the winning team splits $100,000 and the losers $75,000.
The two teams have played twice this season in semifinal matches at Swatch Major Series events in the United States and Switzerland. Evandro and Loyola won the Fort Lauderdale Major semi and Dalhausser and Lucena were the victors in the Gstaad Major final four match.