May-Treanor, Walsh Win in Three LONDON (Aug. 1, 2012) – The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, seeded No. 3, lost their first Olympic set as a team, but still closed out pool play with a 17-21, 21-8, 15-10 win over Austria’s No. 15 Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger (0-2) on Wednesday at Horse Guards Parade. May-Treanor and Walsh win Pool B with a 3-0 record. Including London, Beijing and Athens, they had won 32 straight sets in the Olympic Games before losing the first set on Wednesday. “Obviously we wanted to win in two straight sets,” May-Treanor said. “But a victory is a victory and I’m proud with how we came out that second set and carried on.”
Kerri Walsh receives the ball as Misty May-Treanor gets ready. (FIVB photo)
May-Treanor and Walsh led Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger in attacks (3026) with May-Treanor totaling 19 kills. Doris Schwaiger led in kills with 21. The U.S. team led in aces 4-3 with Walsh totaling three. Stefanie Schwaiger and Walsh each had four blocks. The U.S. women led in dig, 31-26. May-Treanor had 24 digs. “We came out a little bit flat and you never want to come out flat in Olympic competition, or any competition,” Walsh said. “So that was all on us. I think we put ourselves in a good position to come back and win game 1. So we just didn’t seal the deal because we weren’t crisp in game 1.”
Gibb, Rosenthal Defeat Latvia in Quick Sets LONDON (Aug. 1, 2012) – The U.S. men’s beach volleyball team of Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal ensured they would advance to the next round of the 2012 Olympic Games with a 21-10, 21-16 victory in 37 minutes over Latvia’s No. 16 Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Ruslans Sorokins (2-0) at Horse Guards Parade. Jake Gibb tries to go over Latvia’s block. (FIVB photo)
Gibb and Rosenthal won Pool D with a 2-1 record ahead of Poland’s No. 9 Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel (2-1) and also Samoilovs and Sorokins (2-1). All three teams had 2-1 records and five points. Gibb and Rosenthal won the tiebreaker, which is points ratio (1.337). The team was relieved to be through to the next round after a loss to Fijalek and Prudel on Sunday. “We’re feeling good. That was a big win for us,” Rosenthal said. “Poland played great the other night. We didn’t play our best game, but they played great so it made us not as good. It’s hard to sit there for two days and think about a loss and try to fix it.” Gibb and Rosenthal scored 16 points on Latvia errors while committing only eight. The U.S. team also led the match in kills (24-15), aces (2-1) and digs (107). Rosenthal had 14 attacks and nine digs for the U.S. Samoilovs and Sorokins led in blocks, 2-0, with Sorokins having both.
Misty May-Treanor dives to make the save. (FIVB photo)
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