Phil Dalhausser named as the USA Volleyball Beach Male Athlete of the Year
The American Beach Volleyball Star, Phil Dalhausser, has been recently named as the Athlete of the Year 2011 by USA Volleyball (USAV).
The Olympic champion has earned the honour for fourth consecutive year. The Santa Barbara, California native Dalhausser and his teammate Todd Rogers worked out great performance during the 2011SWATCH World Tour.
They added four gold, three silver, and two bronze medal victories to their tally and emerged as the second best team of SWATCH FIVB Tour. Moreover, they proved their endeavours at the domestic level and firmly held the top spot in national rankings.
Both partners make a great team and perfectly complement each other in their matches. Dalhausser was named the Most Outstanding Player in four tournaments that awarded U.S. tandem with gold-ware. Moreover, he also settled for the title of Best Setter by
the Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB). It was the third year in row that FIVB bestowed this honour on him.
Dalhausser/ Rogers opened the season on a strong footing and pulled off success in first two stops of the tour. They won Brasilia Open in Brazil and further continued with success at the Shanghai Open in China. They set a record of 40 straight wins until
Brazil's Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego detracted them with defeat at the Prague Open in Czech Republic. This was how their long winning streak of 40 matches came to an end. Speaking of achievement, Dalhausser said that it was the biggest highlight of the
year for them.
In the next run, they competed at the Beijing Grand Slam where Dalhausser met an injury. The sprained ankle of Phil forced forfeit for the duo in the third round of the tournament. They returned to action in the next event but couldn’t get their real form
back, which resulted in the ninth place finish. Later on, they improved and managed to get hold of the fifth position at the Grand Slam in Stavanger. Gradually, they moved up and finished second in Gstaad, Switzerland. Phil and Todd got their full form back
at the Quebec Open and Mazury Orlen Grand Slam where they seized gold-medals. Later on, they claimed another silver medal win at the PAF Open and totalled nine medals in the year 2011. Despite having injuries on the tour, they managed to finish second, which
was pretty impressive.
The duo has bright prospects to represent USA in the 2012 London Olympic Games. They captured the Olympic title in 2008 and intend to recollect the honour. Dalhausser revealed his thoughts in this regard.
He said, “I’m a little smarter. Over the year I’ve picked up on things that have helped my game. Things like passing, moving lower and moving my feet. I’ve been a lazy passer, but in the past year I’ve cleaned that up.”
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