Olympic beach volleyball results 2016: USA’s Jake Gibb, Casey Patterson eliminated in Rio after loss to Spain

Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson’s hopes for Olympic beach volleyball gold ended Wednesday afternoon with a 2-1 loss to Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira. The No. 6-seed American team finished last in its pool, winning just three sets in three games.

There was a bit of controversy in the final set of the Americans’ 18-21, 21-16, 7-15 loss to Spain, however. Down 5-2, the U.S. team rallied for a point that swung them back in the right direction. Problem was, the Spaniards challenged a no-call after the rally had ended, arguing that 40-year-old Gibb had hit the ball four times. The dispute came from a play in which Herrera met Gibb’s hit at the net in what is referred to as a joust. The play, by rule, shouldn’t have even been challengeable.

“We should have four contacts after that,” Gibb said, via the Salt Lake City Tribune. “Any time you hit the ball with somebody at the same time, it’s a joust. I thought it was a bad call, but we didn’t lose that match because of that call. That’s one call.”

The one point didn’t make the difference in an eight-point loss in the final set.

There was a chance, however, that the loss wouldn’t mark the end of their run in Rio. The Americans, sitting in third place, had to await the results of the final game in their pool as Qatar played Austria.

The top two third-place teams from each of the six pools advance to the sixteen-team final and the worst four are allowed a chance to qualify in what’s called a lucky losers playoff.

With both teams each winning and losing a game, no matter who lost, one team would sit in a 1-2 tie based on record with the Americans. The tie is determined by point ratio.

The Americans had no such luck break as they watched Qatar -- a team they beat -- win over Austria, who had a better point ratio of 145-140 over the Americans’ 125-126.