U.S. pair needed three sets to get past the Italians.
PARIS (AP) — Americans Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes lost a set for the first time in the Paris Olympics beach volleyball tournament.
All that did was fire them up.
“When we bring the fire, the energy, the passion, we play better. So, we want to bring that all the time,” Hughes said after beating Italy 21-18, 17-21, 15-12 on Sunday. “Kelly and I really fight to stay in that present moment, and that really helps our team.”
Hughes and Cheng, the defending world champions, trailed 17-16 in the first set before scoring five of the next six points. In the second, Italians Marta Menegatti and Valentia Gottardi scored five points in a row to pull away after an 8-8 tie.
In the third, the Italians erased an early six-point deficit and closed to 12-11. Cheng and Hughes, pumping their fists and kicking up sand in celebration like they hadn’t in their previous matches, made it 14-11 and then clinched on their second match point.
“It’s not pool play anymore,” Cheng said. “You lose and you’re out. So for sure there’s emotions. It’s something we’ve been working for for a long time. So, yeah, the points, you feel them, for sure.”
Cheng and Hughes, who won a national title together at USC, will next next play Switzerland’s Tanja Hueberli and Nina Brunner, who beat Spain earlier Sunday.
In the other night match, Brazil’s Evandro and Arthur eliminated the Dutch team of Matthew Immers and Steven van de Velde. Van de Velde was convicted of raping a 12-year-old British girl in 2016.
Defending world champions David Schweiner and Ondrej Perusic from Czechia fell to the other Dutch team earlier in the round of 16.
“We knew that if we can play well, we can beat them,” said Holland’s Yorick de Groot. “But for the last four matches they beat us, and we’ve been struggling against them.”
The Netherlands will play Germany in the quarterfinals.
“The last time we played them was also the first time we beat them, so that was a good feeling for us and we’re going to take a lot of that into the next game,” said his teammate, Stefan Boermans. “They will also definitely see the footage back from that match and will adjust.”
The Czechs played in Tokyo but didn’t make it out of the group stage.
“To be a bit positive, it was a way, way better experience than Tokyo. Finally we experienced real Olympics,” Schweiner said. “It was an unbelievable venue. The city, the country, the whole Europe is really living for the Olympics. It’s amazing and we’re feeling really privileged to go through it, to be here.”
Sweden, which arrived in Paris as the No. 1 team in the world, went just 1-2 in the group stage to land a tough Cuban team in the round of 16. The Swedes won the first set 21-11 but then fell in an extended second, 28-26, before clinching with a 15-11 result in the decisive third set.
“We only said that we have to go for it,” 22-year-old first-time Olympian David Ahman said. “’It’s going to be super tough, but we have to take every chance and believe in ourselves. Let’s go for it.’ And that’s what we did.”
In earlier women’s matches, Australia defeated the Brazilian team of Carolina and Barbara 2-0. Switzerland’s two women’s teams both won in straight sets: Zoe Verge-Depre and Esmee Boebner beat China, and Tanja Hueberli and Nina Brunner knocked out four-time Olympian Liliana Fernandez Steiner and her partner, Paula Soria Gutierrez, of Spain.
Former USC stars Kelly Cheng, Sara Hughes bring innovative relationship to Olympic beach volleyball
