Olympians earn Austin Open titles
Dalhausser, Ross both on a roll in AVP tour events.
The final day of the AVP Austin Open pro beach volleyball tournament saw two fan favorites take home championships as Olympic medalists Phil Dalhausser and April Ross won with their teams Sunday.
The victory brought Dal- hausser and teammate Nick Lucena full circle, with their first win in an AVP tourna- ment coming in 2005, the last time the AVP tour stopped in Austin.
“Back then, we were just a couple of knuckleheads playing volleyball that just happened to slip into the final, got lucky and won,” Dalhausser said. “Now we’re like the griz- zled veterans that have been around forever. We’ve seen just about everything and are playing at a way higher level than we were 12 years ago.”
Ranked as the top seed in the men’s bracket, Dalhausser and Lucena faced the sec- ond-seeded pair of Trevor Crabb and Sean Rosenthal in the finals Sunday, beating them in straight sets 21-12, 21-19.
It was Dalhausser’s 51st AVP title and the sixth time he’s won with Lucena in the duo’s eighth appearance in the finals. They have now won 15 consecutive AVP matches since reuniting in 2015 after a 10-year split.
For Lucena, it’s his eighth AVP championship in 17 finals appearances, winning six times with Dalhausser. The other two were with Matt Fuer- bringer and Theo Brunner.
“Phil is easy to play with,” Lucena said. “We kind of play for each other, I guess. We want to win, I want to win for Phil, and I think he wants to win for me. We’re pretty competitive, and we work hard at everything. It’s a good mix for us.”
In the men’s semifinals, Dalhausser and Lucena advanced after beating Billy Allen and Stafford Slick 21-17, 21-16. Crabb and Rosenthal advanced after defeating Jeremy Casebeer and John Mayer 20-22, 21-19, 15-10.
The win for Ross is her 28th AVP championship in 41 finals appearances but her first with teammate Whitney Pavlik. As the second-seeded pair in the women’s bracket, Ross and Pavlik avenged a loss to the third-seeded Kim DiCello and Emily Stockman, who beat them the previous day in three sets.
“I think we were really unhappy with how we played in the second and third set against them yesterday,” Ross said. “We kind of started the final the same way; I think we were afraid to make mistakes again. I think we had to get that out of our system.
“With our backs against the wall, we were forced to step up and do everything we could to win, and it forced us to make some crazy plays.”
After dropping the first set in the finals 21-14, Ross and Pavlik won the final two 21-16, 15-11. Ross has now won 15 of her last 18 AVP events.
It is just the second AVP championship for Pavlik, winning once before with threetime Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings. Pavlik missed an entire year of competition in 2015 after undergoing three shoulder surgeries.
“It’s been a hard two years, coming back from surgeries,” Pavlik said. “After the last (surgery), I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, so this is the best feeling ever.”
Ross and Pavlik beat Angela Bensend and Geena Urango 21-11, 21-15 in the semifinals. DiCello and Stockman advanced after defeating Amanda Dowdy and Irene Hester Pollock 21-13, 17-21, 15-13.