American women make beach volleyball medal round

American duo Elaine Youngs and Nicole Branagh powered into the medal round of beach volleyball at the Beijing Olympics with a three-set victory over Cuba Wednesday.
Youngs and Branagh beat Milagros Crespo and Imara Esteves Ribalta 21-19, 13-21, 15-12 to win their pool. The round-robin stage of the competetion wraps up Thursday, followed by a draw that will place the 16 teams in a single-elimination bracket that begins on Friday.
After being dominated in the second set, the Americans took a 14-11 lead in the tie-breaker. Youngs dinked the ball to the side, past a block, then blocked a spike to reach match point; Crespo fisted a ball into the open court to make it a two-point game, but Young tipped another soft shot to the sand for the clincher.
Also reaching the medal round were Americans Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, the pre-tournament favorites who lost their opener to No. 23 seed Latvia but beat Argentina on Wednesday in straight sets to finish 2-1.
But with the defense-minded Rogers leading the attack, the Americans beat Conde and Mariano Baracetti in 39 minutes and never trailed in the match.
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"They were forced to serve to me because Phil is big, and they're not as big as he is," Rogers said. "I enjoy it when people serve me. In general, I enjoy the challenge. It's kind of a mano-a-mano thing."
Forced to attack because the 6-foot-9 Dalhausser was forced to pass, Rogers converted 22 of the team's 28 killshots.
"I think I'm a little too tall for them," said Dalhausser, who was left to set for his 6-foot-2 partner.
Conde and Baracetti missed the medal round when the Latvian team of Martins Plavins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs beat Sascha Heyer and Patrick Heuscher of Switzerland 21-17, 21-23, 15-13. The Latvians won the pool by virtue of their head-to-head victory over the Americans.
Also Wednesday, Renato Gomes and Jorge Terceiro of Georgia beat Morais Santos Abreu and Emanuel Fernandes of Angola 21-14, 21-13; and Martin Laciga and Jan Schnider of Switzerland beat Joerre Kjemperud and Tarjei Skarlund of Norway 21-17, 21-13.
Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of the Netherlands beat Eric Koreng and David Klemperer of Germany 21-16, 21-16; and Brazilians Ricardo and Emanuel beat Austrailians Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack 21-14, 21-17.
On the women's side, Cook and Tasmin Barnett improved to 3-0 while beating previously undefeated Brazilians Ana Paula and Larissa 23-21, 23-21; Georgia's Cristine Santanna and Andrezza Martins beat Russians Alexandra Shiryaeva and Natalya Uryadova 10-21, 22-20, 15-12 in a match tainted by the overtones of the war between the two countries.
China's Wang Jie and Tian Jia remained unbeaten by stopping Kathrine Maaseide and Susanne Glesnes of Norway 17-21, 21-14, 15-8; Liesbet van Breedam and Liesbeth Mouha of Belgium stayed alive by beating Simone Kuhn and Lea Schwer of Switzerland 21-18, 21-17; and Stephanie Pohl and Okka Rau of Germany beat Merel Mooren and Rebekka Kadjik of the Netherlands 21-19, 21-18.

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