With respect to British rock band Led Zeppelin, the song remained the same in London for beach volleyball’s best team, whose partnership between Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor ended on a high note when the Golden Girls captured their third consecutive Olympic gold medal.
Prior to Olympic competition, May-Treanor had announced she will retire after the Summer Games, marking the end to one of the most successful teams in any sport.
Not only did Walsh Jennings, a resident of Manhattan Beach, and May-Treanor make history with their third straight gold medal, but for the first time since beach volleyball became an Olympic sport in 1996, two teams from the same country squared off in a gold-medal match.
Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor posted a 21-16, 21-16 victory over compatriots Jen Kessy and April Ross at Horse Guards Parade, improving to 21-0 in Olympic matches and 42-1 in Olympic sets. Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor are coached by Redondo Beach resident Marcio Sicoli.
Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor reached the championship match with a 22-20, 22-20 hard-fought battle over second-seeded Chen Xue and Xi Zhang of China. The Americans fought their way back from a six-point deficit in the first set and were forced to stave off a set point at 20-19 in the second game.
The Golden Girls were familiar with the Chinese team, having faced them numerous times in international competition and spending hours on South Bay beaches training together in the off season.
“It was amazing. I feel like we eked it out and we eked it out with a lot of heart,” Walsh said after defeating the Chinese team. “We didn’t play that great because they made us so uncomfortable. They’re just big, physical athletes.”
May-Treanor added, “I am very, very proud of how we really stuck together, stayed patient and adjusted.”
Even a case of pink eye contracted by Walsh Jennings during the first week of competition could not keep the former Stanford standout from losing focus of her third Olympic gold medal.
Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor saw their consecutive set winning streak in the Olympics snap at 32 when Austria scored a 21-17 victory in the first game of a pool-play match. The loss seemed to serve as a wake-up call for the defending gold medalists, as the team won the next two sets 21-8, 15-10 to finish pool play undefeated, routed the Netherlands 21-13, 21-12, and dominated Italy 21-13, 21-14 in the quarterfinals.
Kessy and Ross advanced to the gold-medal match after upsetting the top-seeded Brazilian team of Larissa França and Juliana Felisberta Da Silva 15-21, 21-19, 15-12.
On Wednesday, Brazil appeared to be on the road to its second straight loss in the bronze-medal game. China dominated the first set with a 21-11 victory and held a 19-16 lead in the second game before the South Americans turned it around for a 21-19 win. Brazil took control during the final set, posting a 15-12 win to reach the podium.
Kessy and Ross, who will take home silver medals after their Olympic debut, was battle tested throughout the tournament. Kessy and Ross went undefeated in pool play with victories over Argentina (21-11, 21-18), the Netherlands (21-15, 12-21, 15-8) and Spain (21-19, 19-21, 19-17).
In the first round of 16, Kessy and Ross eliminated Switzerland 21-15, 21-19 before knocking off the Czech Republic 25-23, 21-8 in the quarterfinals.
Men fall short
With both men’s beach volleyball teams ranked in the top four in the world, it seemed a good bet that at least one of the squads would vie for an Olympic medal. Surprisingly, neither team advanced past the quarterfinals suffering upset losses at the hands of lower-seeded teams.
Defending Olympic gold medalists Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers lost their bid for a second straight championship with a 21-17, 21-19 loss to 15th-seeded Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo of Italy in the round of 16.
Dalhausser and Rogers went 3-0 in pool play
Seeded No. 4, Sean Rosenthal (Hermosa Beach) and Jake Gibb finished 2-1 in pool play but entered the single elimination bracket as the pool’s top team by way of the tie-breaking method of point ratio and set ratio.
Rosenthal and Gibb defeated Russia 21-14, 22-20 in the first round of elimination play but fell in the quarterfinals in their second straight Olympic Games.
Playing Latvia, the match started well for Rosenthal and Gibb who took the first set 21-19. But inconsistent play by the Olympic veterans helped keep Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins in the match. Bringing their A-game, Latvia went on to post 21-18, 15-11 wins in the final sets.
