Stavanger, Norway, June 29, 2008 -- The top-seeded team as expected and the 12th-seeded team surprisingly advanced to the ConocoPhillips Grand Slam men’s finals here today, setting up an American vs. German gold medal match late this afternoon on the Vaagen Harbour centre court for the “famed” Viking swords and the $43,500 first-place prize.

Playing in their sixth-straight SWATCH FIVB World Tour “final four”, top-seeded Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers of the United States set the stage for the title match by defeating 13th-seeded Bram Ronnes and Emiel Borsma of the Netherlands, 21-19 and 21-13 in 43 minutes.

The reigning world champions, Dalhausser and Rogers will now meet 12th-seeded Jonas Reckermann and Mischa Urbatzka in the gold medal match.

Competing in their 18th FIVB event together with 11 “final fours”, Dalhausser and Rogers have won six matches on their road to the championship match. Besides Ronnes and Borsma, the Americans have defeated teams from Norway (Hordvik/Spinnanger), Italy (Lione/Varnier), Switzerland (M. Laciga/Schnider), Japan (Asahi/Shiratori) and China (Wu/Xu). Dalhausser and Rogers won five of the six matches in two sets with the match with M. Laciga/Schnider the only one going three sets.

For only the second-time in 218 SWATCH FIVB World Tour events, Germany had two teams in the semi-finals and 12th-seeded Reckermann and Urbatzka upset second-seeded compatriots Julius Brink and Christoph Dieckmann, 21-18, 15-21 and 15-11 in 62 minutes to continue their amazing run to the gold medal match.

After losing their first pool play match on Thursday, Reckermann/Mischa the Germans have reeled off six straight wins, including defeats of the second, third and seventh seeded teams from Germany (Brink/Dieckmann), the Netherlands (Reinder Nummerdor/Schuil) and the United States (Matt Fuerbringer/Casey Jennings). Competing in their 21st SWATCH FIVB World Tour event together, this will be the third title match appearance for Brink/Urbatzka, finishing second last year in Kristiansand, Norway and Aland Finland.