USA's Phil Dalhausser, Nick Lucena hear boos but win beach volleyball opener

RIO DE JANEIRO — Americans Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena cruised to a win in their first preliminary match of the Olympics, easily handling Choaib Belhaj and Mohamed Naceur of Tunisia in straight sets.

The largely Brazilian crowd booed the Americans at several points during the match, and chanted loudly for the underdog Tunisians for the duration. While the crowd was certainly pro-Tunisia, there were no audible “Zika!” chants made against the Americans, as there were against USA’s Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat earlier in the day.

“(The fans) don’t want the U.S. to win, so we have to deal with that,” Lucena said. He also said that he hadn’t heard the Zika chants directed at Fendrick and Sweat but had watched on TV similar chants that fans directed at Hope Solo.

Dalhausser, competing in his third Olympics, and Lucena, in his first, overwhelmed the Tunisian team, which struggled with the power of the American duo. The Tunisians were especially stymied by the play of the 6-foot-9 Dalhausser, who was a monster at net. His repeated blocks left the Tunisian duo visibly frustrated during the first set, which the Americans won 21-7.

The second set was more interesting, as Belhaj and Naceur found some early success going around and over Dalhausser. But the Americans picked up the intensity with the second set tied at 6-6, and rallied to win 21-13.

“We did our best not to make any mistakes,” Lucena said. “We didn’t have any information on them. We knew they played Worlds last year, but we didn’t have too much video. I knew they were pretty physical. We just had to focus on me sliding out and Phil scoring points.”

The weather for the match was cool and light rain had begun to fall by the end. The high wind that had so severely affected earlier matches of the day was all but gone.

Though Dalhausser is a three-time Olympian and Lucena is a rookie, the two said Dalhausser was the one who woke up nervous before the match.

“I woke up with butterflies today,” Dalhausser said. “It’s the first time since, man, I can’t tell you how long. I can’t remember being nervous in London, maybe Beijing was the last time I was nervous before a match.”

Dalhausser and Lucena will next face Juan Virgen and Lombardo Ontiveros of Mexico on Tuesday.