By B.J. Hoeptner Evans

The U.S. men's beach volleyball team of Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal defeated No. 22 Konstantin Semenov and Serguei Prokopiev of Russia, 21-14, 22-20 on Saturday in the first round of single elimination in the Olympic tournament at Horse Guards Parade.

Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.), who are seeded No. 4 in the tournament and are competing in their second Olympic Games after finishing fifth in Beijing, will play Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins of Latvia (No. 17) in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. (11 a.m. PT) on Aug. 6.

Gibb and Rosenthal improve their record to 3-1. Sememov and Prokopiev finish the Olympics at 2-2.

Gibb and Rosenthal led the match in kills (29-22) led by Gibb with 16. They also finished with a 4-3 led in blocks and 25-20 in digs.

Rosenthal said the team had trouble with Serguei Prokopiev, who is nearly 7 feet tall.

"We knew (Semenov) was big at the net and I really showed everybody that he was that big," Rosenthal said.

Gibb said the team tried to play the net aggressively.

"We had a good game plan just coming out and being aggressive with our setting and I guess it paid off in the first set," he said.

Gibb and Rosenthal led 5-4 in the first set when Rosenthal scored on an attack followed by a Gibb block and Rosenthal attack to lead 8-4. Russia was never able to get closer than two points.

The next set stayed closer as the teams battled. Gibb and Rosenthal played to an 8-4 lead, including three Gibb attacks, two from Rosenthal and two blocks. Russia came back to pull itself to within one point at 10-9. Russia tied the score at 13-13 and went on to lead by as many as two points at 15-13 and later at 18-16. Gibb and Rosenthal used two straight Rosenthal attacks to tie the score at 18-18. Gibb and Rosenthal reached match point first at 20-19, but Prokopiev answered with a kill. However two straight Russian errors gave Gibb and Rosenthal the match victory.

 

Originally published by USA Volleyball (http://www.teamusa.org)

 

 

Gibb and Rosenthal Chart Win over Russia in Men's Beach Volleyball