By B.J. Hoeptner Evans

The U.S. women's beach volleyball team of Jen Kessy and April Ross qualified for the Olympic semifinals on Sunday with a 25-23, 21-18 victory in 49 minutes over Czech Republic's No. 10 Marketa Slukova and Kristyna Kolocova at Horse Guards Parade.

Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) are first-time Olympians and seeded No. 4 in the tournament. In Tuesday's semifinals, they will face Brazil's No. 1 Larissa França and Juliana Felisberta Da Silva. The Brazilian team defeated Germany's No. 8 Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig, 21-10, 21-19 in Sunday's last quarterfinal.

The U.S. is assured a women's beach volleyball medal as the U.S. team of Misty May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh (San Jose, Calif.) will play in the other semifinal on Tuesday. The semifinal winners will meet in the gold medal match at 9 p.m. local time (1 p.m. PT) on Thursday. The losing teams will play for the bronze at 7 p.m. local time (11 a.m. PT).

The last time the U.S. had two teams in the Olympic beach volleyball semifinals was in 2004 in Athens when May-Treanor and Walsh won and advanced to the gold medal match where they defeated Brazil's Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar. The U.S. women's beach team of Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs lost, and went on to win the bronze medal over Australia's Natalie Cook and Nicole Sanderson.

The U.S. had two teams in the men's beach semifinals at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta where Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes advanced as did the U.S. team of Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh. Kiraly and Steffes went on to win the gold.

On Sunday, after battling to win the first set, Kessy and Ross took an 18-11 lead in the second, only to see the Czech team fight back.

"For two-thirds of the match I thought I played really well," Ross said. "I don't know what happened there at the end. I maybe thought they were going to roll over, which is a terrible thought to have in the Olympics. I knew they weren't going to. I really think I was trying as hard as I could to put the ball away and they just read me really well and made some good plays."

Kessy and Ross led in attacks (29-21) and in aces (4-3). Ross had 20 attacks for the U.S. and two aces, which came two in a row at the beginning of the second set. She was clocked with the fastest serve at 80 kilometers per hour (49 miles per hour).

The teams tied in blocks (3-3) and Slukova and Kolocova held the edge in digs (19-18). The Czech team also took advantage of 14 U.S. errors while committing only 10.

"We needed to win that first set. It was huge," Kessy said. "I was really impressed by our composure, though not at the end."

In the first set, Kessy and Ross held a 4-3 lead at the first side change and an 8-6 advantage at the second. The Czech Republic came back to tie the score at 10-10 and the teams battled back and forth. The score was tied 19-19 when the Czech team reached set point on Kolocova's kill off the block. The U.S. called timeout and the Czechs' next hit off a joust went out of bounds. With the score tied 20-20, Kessy scored with a kill and Czech Republic called timeout. Slukova fought off the set point with her own attack. The U.S. reached set point again at 22-21 and the Czechs fought it off. Czech Republic reached its first set point at 23-22 on a block from Slukova, but Ross responded with an attack. The Czech Republic's next attack attempt went into the net and its final attempt sailed long to give the U.S. the win.

In the second set, the score was tied at 6-6 when Ross scored with a kill off the block. The U.S. scored two straight points on Czech errors and then got a Kessy kill after a long rally. A Ross kill and Czech error put the U.S. team up 13-6. Kessy and Ross seemed to have things well in hand with an 18-11 lead when they opened the door with two straight errors. Slukova attacked to pull to within four at 18-14. The U.S. called timeout, but its next attack attempt went long. Kessy finally scored with a kill and a block to give the United States match point at 20-16. But the Czechs weren't done as they scored on a Slukova attack and block before the U.S. scored the final point on Ross's attack.

 

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

 

 

Kessy and Ross Make it to Olympic Beach Volleyball Semifinals