The fourth-seeded Dalhausser (Orlando, Fla.) and Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) will challenge Brazil’s top-seeded Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos, the 2003 world champions and reigning Olympic gold medal winners, for a spot in Sunday’s finale.

The Americans defeated 20th-ranked Clemens Doppler and Peter Gartmayer of Austria in the round of 16 on Saturday before advancing to the semifinals with a 21-19 and 22-20 win in 55 minutes over No. 9 Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu, one of two teams from China in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

The last time a U.S. men’s beach team reached the World Championship semifinals was in 2005, when Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger went on to win the silver medal.

Americans Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), seeded 14th, started Saturday on a positive note, upsetting Brazil’s No. 2-seeded Franco Neto and Pedro Cunha, 2-1 (18-21, 23-21, 15-11) to get to the quarterfinals. However, once there, they fell to Russia’s sixth-seeded Igor Kolodinsky and Dmitri Barsouk in straight sets, 0-2 (19-21, 17-21).

This year is only the second-time in six men’s SWATCH-FIVB World Championships that four different countries will vie for a the gold medal in the US$1-million “Beach Bash” in the Swiss Alps. Play in the sixth annual world championships ends Sunday when the final two teams compete for the $60,000 first-place prize.

Australia and Russia’s teams at will face each other in Sunday’s first semifinal. Australian 2004 Olympians Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack will challenge Russia’s Kolodinsky and Barsouk.

While Brazil and the United States have now advanced nine and five teams, respectively, to the semifinals at six SWATCH-FIVB World Championships since 1997, Australia and Russia will be competing for the first time for the second-most prestigious gold medal in beach volleyball Sunday morning and afternoon.

Emanuel and Ricardo, who placed 17th in the 2005 SWATCH-FIVB World Championships in Berlin after being upset by teams from the Netherlands and Norway, advanced to the semifinals with a 23-21 and 21-12 win in 42 minutes over Kristjan Kais and Rivo Vesik of Estonia. The Brazilians opened play Saturday with a 21-16 and 21-16 win over Florian Gosch and Alexander Horst of Austria in 42 minutes

“Obviously, we have a lot more incentive this year for the world championships after not playing well in Berlin,” said the 34-year old Emanuel, who will be seeking his third SWATCH-FIVB World Championships gold medal after winning in 1999 with Jose Loiola in Marseille, France. “We played poorly in defense of our 2003 world title, so we are motivated this year. It will not be easy since there are three other teams just as motivated as us.”

Dalhausser, who was born in Switzerland before moving to the United States at a young age with his parents, and Rogers started play Saturday with a 21-13 and 21-15 win in 36 minutes over Doppler and Gartmayer of Austria. The Americans will be facing Emanuel and Ricardo for the sixth time with their only win over the Brazilians being in the finals of last August’s grand slam stop in Austria.

Schacht and Slack, who lost a gold medal final earlier this month in Canada to Emanuel and Ricardo, posted wins over David Klemperer/Eric Koreng of Germany (21-23, 21-18 and 15-11 in 68 minutes) and Shun Zhou/Jian Li of China (21-19 and 21-16 in 42 minutes) Saturday. The Aussies have played Barsouk and Kolodinsky once before with the Russians winning the bronze medal match earlier this season in Croatia.

Kolodinsky, nicknamed by Emanuel as the “Bazooka” due to his service game, and Barsouk advanced to the semi-finals by defeating Bram Ronnes and Emiel Boersma of the Netherlands 21-16 and 21-16 in 37 minutes and Americans Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal 21-19 and 21-17 in 45 minutes.

The eighth of 13 double gender stops on the 2007 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour, the women’s 2007 SWATCH-FIVB World Championships ended Saturday with reigning Olympic champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh of the United States defeating Jia Tian and Jie Wang of China 21-16 and 21-10 for their third-straight world title.

More information is available on the FIVB beach volleyball web site at www.fivb.org/en/BeachVolleyball/index.asp.

World Championship Sports Network (WCSN), the premier destination for fans of Olympic and lifestyle sports, is offering the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) beach volleyball season via its broadband network at www.WCSN.com, available to everyone in the USA and its territories. www.WCSN.com will have extensive FIVB webcasts of every World Tour and Grand Slam event, including free coverage of the 2007 World Championships.