Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena earned $100,000 Sunday as they won the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Finals, with a 21-15, 21-13 victory over Brazilians Evandro Goncalves and Andre Loyola.
The big paycheck is the largest of their career. The top-seeded Americans have had the most consistent results on the FIVB Tour this year, which included victories in FIVB Moscow and FIVB Gstaad, but earlier this month finished a disappointing fifth in the World Championships in Vienna that were won by Goncalves and Loyola.
Earlier Italians Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai defeated Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor 21-17, 19-21, 15-12 in the bronze-medal match.
Sunday’s semifinals were won by identical 21-19, 21-15 scores, as Dalhausser and Lucena advanced over Poland’s Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak and Goncalves and Loyola defeated Italy’s Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai.
In the gold-medal match, Dalhausser controlled things from the net, with two blocks in the first set, five in the second, with a nice run of blocks at 7-3, 8-3, and 10-4.
Evandro’s lethal jump serve was not a factor in the 39-minute match, as he committed four service errors and no aces.
