By B.J. Hoeptner Evans

The U.S. women's beach volleyball team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, seeded No. 3, overwhelmed No. 7 Greta Cicolari Marta Menegatti, 21-13, 21-13 in 33 minutes in the quarterfinals of the Olympic tournament at Horse Guards Parade.

May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Walsh (San Jose, Calif.), the two-time defending Olympic gold medalists, improve to 5-0 (19-0 in Olympic matches going back to Athens and 38-1 in Olympic sets) and will face China's No. 2 Chen Xue and Xi Zhang (4-1) in Tuesday's semifinals (Time TBD).

Xue and Zhang, who won the bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic Games, defeated Austria's No. 15 Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger, 21-18, 21-11 in 35 minutes in Sunday's first quarterfinal match.

The U.S. women's beach volleyball team of Jennifer Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.), seeded No. 4, faced No. 10 Marketa Slukova and Kristyna Kolocova at 10 p.m. (2 p.m. PT) in the third quarterfinal match on Sunday.

Sunday's victory over the Italian team made up for a previous loss May-Treanor and Walsh had suffered to them at the Rome Grand Slam in June.

"Prior to Rome was Moscow and we made it to our first final and got our butts kicked," Walsh said. "We went to Rome and got our butts kicked again by that Italian team. We came home and we were so sick of losing that way.

"Misty and I have come together. We really looked deep at ourselves both individually and as a team and decided to take on this challenge."

May-Treanor and Walsh credit both their coach, Marcio Sicoli, and their sport psychologist, Mike Gervais, with helping them turn their season around. They went on to win the gold medal at their next event, the Grand Slam in Gstaad, Switzerland.

On Sunday, May-Treanor and Walsh led the Italian team in attacks (33-22) and blocks (2-0). May-Treanor had 19 attacks for the United States while Walsh had both blocks. May-Treanor and Walsh also had 19 digs as opposed to 14 for the Italians, and scored on seven Italian errors while committing only three.

The loss was so frustrating for Menegatti that she could be seen in tears on the court in the second set.

"That's by us being aggressive," May-Treanor said. "She probably thought, ‘I don't know what to do.' And that's how you get teams in trouble. She's a young player and she'll learn."

The score was tied 5-5 in the first set when Walsh scored on a kill, sparking 5-0 run, including one more Walsh attack and three from May-Treanor. Later, with the U.S. leading 16-11, May-Treanor scored with a kill. Italy followed with an error before May-Treanor added two more attacks to bring the U.S. to set point at 20-11. Italy scored on a Menegatti attack and May-

Treanor's hit into the net before the U.S. won it on a kill from Walsh.

The second set saw May-Treanor and Walsh jump out to a 5-2 lead at the first side change. With the U.S. leading 7-4, Walsh scored with a kill. Italy followed with an error and Walsh added another kill. After another Italy error, Walsh blocked Menegatti. Yet another Italy error gave the U.S. a 12-5 advantage. May-Treanor eventually increased their advantage to 18-10 at the fourth side change and then 19-10 on a Walsh attack. The U.S. reached match point at 20-11 on May-Treanor's attack. Italy scored two points on one attack each from Cicolari and Menegatti before May-Treanor ended it with a kill.

 

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

 

 

May-Treanor and Walsh Overwhelm Italy to Advance to Semi-Finals