Field set for tonight's ConocoPhillips Grand Slam quarterfinals in Stavanger

Under clear skies and a near capacity crowd of over 4,000 warmed by the Scandinavian sunshine and enjoying beach volleyball, after several usual upsets in the first two rounds of elimination play Saturday, eight of the world's top men's teams, representing five countries, advanced to tonight's quarterfinals of the US$600,000 ConocoPhillips Grand Slam on the dockside courts in Stavanger's Vaagen Harbour. Germany, the Netherlands and the United States have two teams each in the quarterfinals while Austria and China will each be represented by one team.

Advancing to the elite eight in the SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam event were: top-seeded Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers of the United States, second-seeded Julius Brink/Christoph Dieckmann of Germany, third-seeded Reinder Nummerdor/Richard Schuil of the Netherlands, fifth-seeded Penggen Wu/Linyin Xu of China, 11th-seeded Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal of the United States, 12th-seeded Jonas Reckermann/Mischa Urbatzka of Germany, 13th-seeded Emiel Boersma/Bram Ronnes of the Netherlands and 21st-seeded Clemens Doppler/Peter Gartmayer of Austria.

Dalhausser/Todd Rogers, Brink/Dieckmann, Nummerdor/Schuil, Wu/Xu and Gibb/Rosenthal won their respective pool play competition on Thursday and Friday on the Vaagen Harbour dockside courts and needed to win only match Saturday afternoon to advance to the quarterfinals later in the day.

Reckermann/Mischa, Boersma/Ronnes and Doppler/Gartmayer needed to win two matches to reach the quarterfinals of the ConocoPhillips Grand Slam. This will be the first time either Boersma or Ronnes will play in a "Final Four" and the first time Doppler/Gartmayer are in the "Final Four" as a team.

Dalhausser/Rogers, the reigning SWATCH-FIVB World champions and winners of last week's Grand Slam in Paris advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating 26th-seeded Kentaro Asahi/Katsuhiro Shiratori of Japan, 21-14 and 21-17 in 41 minutes.

Brink/Dieckmann eliminated 22nd-seeded Benjamin Insfran/Franco Neto of Brazil, 21-17 and 21-15 in 46 minutes, while Nummerdor/Schuil, who finished second in last year's ConocoPhillips Grand Slam, eliminated sixth-seeded Harley Marques/Pedro Salgado of Brazil, 21-18 and 28-26 in 54 minutes. Wu/Xu, who won the bronze medal in Stavanger last year, beat 20th-seeded Renato "Geor" Gomes/Jorge "Gia" Terceiro of Georgia, 21-17 and 21-13 in 38 minutes to advance to tonight's quarterfinals.

Gibb/Rosenthal, in their first Grand Slam "Final Four" as a team, advanced by defeating fellow Americans Stein Metzger/Mark Williams, 14th-seeded in the event, 21-15, 15-21 and 15-12 in 56 minutes.

Reckermann/Mischa won their two matches earlier today against 31st-seeded Congrad Leinermann/Rich VanHuizen, 22-20 and 22-20 in 47 minutes and seventh-seeded Matt Fuerbringer/Casey Jennings of the United States, 23-21 and 21-14 in 48 minutes.

Earning their first "Final Four" appearance on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour, Boersma/Ronnes defeated 17th-seeded Ricardo Lione/Matteo Varnier of Italy, 29-27 and 23-21 in 53 minutes and eighth-seeded Dmitri Barsouk/Igor Kolodinsky of Russia, 21-19, 13-21 and 15-13 in 50 minutes.

Doppler/Gartmayer, earned their first "Final Four" appearance with two wins Friday, eliminating 30th-seeded Florian Gosch/Alexander Horst of Austria, 21-12 and 21-19 in 41 minutes and fourth-seeded David Klemperer/Eric Koreng of Germany, 21-18, 16-21 and 15-12 in 66 minutes.

In tonight's quarterfinal matchups, Dalhausser/Rogers will face Wu/Xu, Brink/Dickmann will play Gibb/Rosenthal, Nummerdor/Schuil will line up against Reckermann/Mischa and Boersma/Ronnes will meet Doppler/Gartmayer for the first time,.

Dalhausser/Rogers have a 3-0 career record against Wu/Xu but this will be the first time they have met this year. Gibb/Rosenthal lead the series with Brink/Dieckmann, 3-2 and Nummerdor/Schuil lead the series with Reckermann/Mischa, 3-0.

The SWATCH FIVB World Tour double gender competition continues through the weekend with the women's semi-finals and medal matches today and the men's "final four" contests being played Sunday. The winning two teams will each share the $43,500 first-place prizes.

The ConocoPhillips Grand Slam is the third to last qualifying event for the Summer Games as the process runs through July 20. The SWATCH FIVB World Tour continues next week in Russia for the first stop in Moscow since 1999. After a week off for the European Championships in Hamburg, Germany, France hosts the final Beijing qualifier July 15-20 in Marseille.

(Credit: FIVB. Click here for further information.)