May-Treanor and Walsh play to defend title
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 -
They have won 107 consecutive matches, and now the beach volleyball power-duo of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh will attempt to keep the streak alive, this time for the gold medal in Beijing. They have made the path to the gold medal final look easy, beating Brazilians Talita Antunes and Renata Ribeiro 21-12, 21-14 in the semifinals. Thursday they will face the Chinese team of Tian Jia and Wang Jie in the final match, who are the technical top seed, but only because of an FIVB rule that gives the top Olympic seed to a team from the host country if it finishes among the top six in Olympic qualifying points. A win would make May-Treanor and Walsh the first beach volleyball team, men or women, to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals; in two Olympic Games, May-Treanor and Walsh have won an all-time best 13 straight matches.