After Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings moved on to their third consecutive gold medal final in women’s beach volleyball early Tuesday evening, April Ross and Jennifer Kessy followed suit later in the night, setting up an all-American clash for the top spot in the sport.
April Ross, Jennifer Kessy Set Up All-Team USA Women’s Beach Volleyball Final
Ross and Kessy defeated the top-ranked Brazilian team of Larissa Franca and Juliana Silva in three sets, 15-21, 21-19, 15-12. Ross and Kessy trailed at 12-8 in the second set before turning the tide, and never trailed in the third set.
The all-U.S. final will be the first women’s beach volleyball final matching two teams from the same country since 1996, when Brazil’s Sandra Pires and Jackie Silva took gold while fellow Brazilians Monica Rodrigues and Adriana Samuel won silver in the inaugural women’s beach volleyball tournament at the Summer Olympics. The gold medal match will take place Wednesday at 9 p.m. in London, or 4 p.m. ET. The May/Walsh pairing has won gold in each of the last two Olympics, and has never been beaten in Olympic play.
Brazil’s top-ranked team will meet the Chinese team of Chen Xue and Xi Zhang, defeated in the other semifinal, for bronze. That match will be contested at 2 p.m. Eastern.
For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation’s London 2012 Olympics hub. For more on Olympic beach volleyball, follow the 2012 Olympic beach volleyball section.
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