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| MATTHEW HEALEY photos/For The Patriot Ledger |
| Todd Rogers dives for a ball during the AVP men's final match at Marina Bay against Matt Fuerbringer and Casey Jennings. |
at Open
The Patriot Ledger
QUINCY - The AVP’s visit to Boston this weekend may have been a rarity, but it was business as usual in the sand, as the best team in the men’s division took home its eighth title of the year, the most on tour, Saturday at Marina Bay.
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| Phil Dalhausser, left, goes up to block a shot by Casey Jennings during the AVP mens final match at Marina Bay. |
Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers defeated the No. 8 seeded team of Casey Jennings and Matt Fuerbringer, 21-16, 21-12, for the Boston Open title, padding their lead in the AVP Crocs Tour standings and taking home $28,000 in prize money.
“They just couldn’t put many balls down without us touching them,” Rogers said. “If it wasn’t a great serve by Phil, it was a great block, or I was playing defense or digging. Everything seemed slowed down a bit out there for us.”
Jennings and Fuerbringer simply ran out of steam after beating the tournament’s No. 1 seed, Mike Lambert and Stein Metzger, and the No. 3 seeded Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal earlier in the day.
“Phil, he was just like a train and we had a BB gun,” Jennings said. “You don’t win that battle today. Today he was really good and we were OK - we were average.”
In a dominating performance, Dalhausser and Rogers lost only three games total on their way to the Boston Open title. They have already matched their win total from last season, with three events remaining this season.
Both Rogers and Dalhausser were quick to praise the spectators for their enthusiasm throughout the four-day event.
“For a first-time event, this is the biggest crowd we’ve seen - and the loudest,” said Dalhausser. “People say Boston is the best sports city in the world, and after this, there’s no doubt in my mind that that’s true.
“The fans were just going crazy.”
Before this weekend, Boston hadn’t hosted a professional beach volleyball event since 1995.
The first half of the first game was competitive, with the heavily-favored Dalhausser and Rogers holding a slight advantage. Dalhausser began to step up after the score reached 10-7.
The AVP’s best male team put together a run of six straight points to make the score 16-7 and put game one out of reach. The game ended, 21-16.
“They didn’t let up,” Fuerbringer said. “They just stayed on top of us, and that shows you what to do - that’s how you win. They beat us in every way.”
In game two, Fuerbringer and Jennings again kept it close until, once more, at 10-7, Dalhausser and Rogers took off. They outscored their opponents, 11-5, for the remainder of the match, with Dalhausser shining particularly bright at the net. Rogers described his partner’s play as, simply, “silly.”
“We sort of step up our game in the finals,” Dalhausser said. “You can check our record - we do step it up.”
The team will gun for their ninth title this year next weekend at Coney Island, the site for the Brooklyn Open, in N.Y.
Matthew J. Nielsen may be reached at mnielsen@ledger.com.
