Gold for Walsh/Ross in Moscow, Fourth for Gibb/Patterson but clinch Olympic berth - Articles

The Moscow Grand Slam is in the books; let's re-examine the Olympic qualifying ramifications for the Americans. Two U.S. teams, April Ross/Kerri Walsh Jennings take home gold, defeating No. 2 Larissa Franca and Talita Antunes of Brazil, 22-20, 21-17. No. 5 Nummerdor/Varenhorst of the Netherlands upset No. 1 Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil for gold 21-19, 7-21, 17-15. Nummerdor/Varenhorst scored ten less points than Cerutti/Schmidt, but they won the right points. Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson finished in fourth, dropping a close match to No. 17 Bartosz Losiak/Piotr Kantor of Poland 19-21, 22-20, 15-12. Their fourth place finish puts the team of Tri Bourne/John Hyden out of Rio contention. The top American men's team, No. 3 Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena, lost a squeaker to No. 13 Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo of Italy 22-20, 23-21 in the first round of playoffs. Some will recall that this Italian team spoiled the American's 2012 Olympics in London, upsetting them in the round of 16. Nicolai/Lupo apparently are Dalhausser/Lucena's kryptonite. Even so, Dalhausser/Lucena have officially qualified for the Olympics by completing their 12th event, although they will only earn 120 points/person for their 17th place finish. The 240 points will take them to 5,720 points. Dalhausser/Lucena are currently ranked fourth in the Olympic rankings. After Moscow, Dalhausser/Lucena drop to fifth, as Nummerdor/Varenhorst, made a significant leap with their gold finish, adding 560 points for a new total of 5,840, reaching fourth place. Brouwer/Meeuwsen finished in 5th place, and will increase their points total by 180, for Olympic ranking scores of 6,160...

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