In a match that would send one of the two U.S. women’s beach volleyball teams to the gold-medal match, Misty May and Kerri Walsh defeated Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs in a mere 41 minutes Monday night.
The top-seeded May and Walsh will play for gold Tuesday against Brazil’s Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede, silver medalists at the 2000 Games.
McPeak and Youngs also will play–for bronze–against Australians Natalie Cook and Nicole Sanderson. Cook, playing with a different partner, won gold in Sydney.
May and Walsh, who advanced 21-18, 21-15, head into the final as the odds-on favorites. Until a loss earlier this year, they had won 90 consecutive matches on the professional circuit. In international play their record since July 5, 2003, is 53-2–and both losses were injury-related forfeits.
May and Walsh have played the Brazilians 20 times over the last three years, winning 13. All but one loss came before 2003. May and Walsh have won the last six matches.
But before the semifinal, May and Walsh confessed to jitters.
“I was just anxious,” May said. “You want to do your best, you want to perform. You don’t know if that’s going to happen or not. You just get really nervous.”
On the court, it didn’t show. McPeak and Youngs kept it close early in the first game. It was tied 10-10, but then Walsh and May built a three-point lead and never were headed.
The second game wasn’t close. Walsh and May reached match point at 20-13, finishing it out at 21-15 on a spike by Walsh.
McPeak had been a medal favorite in 1996 and 2000, playing in Atlanta with Nancy Reno and in Sydney with May–only to finish fifth both times. With gold now out of reach, she said she’d still be thrilled with bronze.
“I’m going for a medal,” she said. “I want to be on the podium. I want to be up there representing the United States with Kerri and Misty, and my good friends Shelda and Adriana for Brazil. I want to be up there more than anything.
“I came to the Olympics to win gold, but I lost to the best team in the world.”
Youngs said she would have no trouble getting ready for the bronze-medal match. Asked if she would be emotionally down because of Monday’s loss, she said, “I’m already over it.”
For their part, Walsh and May, who have yet to lose a game in six matches here, said they can play better.
“I don’t feel like I have peaked yet at this tournament,” May said.
The two U.S. men’s teams were eliminated before the medal rounds.
