McPeak & Youngs pace USA beach volleyball play in German tourney

Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs will be the United States' only hope in the remaining two days of women's competition at the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour after Americans combined to win three of six matches on Thursday in Berlin, Germany.

Playing only one match in the $600,000 Smart Grand Slam Thursday, the third-seeded McPeak and scored a 21-17 and 21-15 win over 27th-seeded Italian Olympians Lucilla Perrotta and Daniela Gattelli to advance to a match Friday against second-seeded Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede of Brazil.

With top-seeded Misty May and Kerri Walsh forfeiting two matches in the double-elimination Tournament, the other two USA teams in the Main Draw each split elimination matches. Injured June 6 while playing in a domestic semi-final in Huntington Beach, May has a abdominal strain.

While May and Walsh still maintain their edge as the No. 1-ranked team in the world on the women's Olympic qualifying list with 3,960 points. If McPeak and Youngs win one match Friday, they will secure the No. 2 American berth in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

McPeak and Youngs improved their Olympic qualifying point total to 2,956 by being quaranteed a fifth this week. Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson did not improve their Olympic total and leave Germany with 2,702 points.

Davis and Johnson Jordan need to win the next two Olympic qualifying events in Norway and Mallorca and hope for McPeak and Youngs not to win again this weekend along with not finishing fourth or better in Norway.

The fifth-seeded Davis and Johnson Jordan defeated a team from the Czech Republic Thursday before being ousted by Norway's Susanne Glesnes and Kathering Maaseide 22-20 and 21-16), who also benefited from the withdrawal of Ana Paula Connelly and Sandra Pires.

Nancy Mason, who had to play three qualifying matches to enter the Main Draw, defeated a Chinese tandem Thursday before being eliminated by Kerri Pottharst and Summer Lochowicz of Australia 21-12 and 21-17. Both Davis/Johnson Jordan and Mason/Busch collect a $7,000. May and Walsh shared $4,000 for their 17th.

In the men's competition, the United States posted three wins in seven matches Thursday. The teams of 10th-seeded Todd Rogers/Sean Scott, 12th-seeded Eric Fonoimoana/Kevin Wong and 19th-seeded Dain Blanton and Jeff Nygaard each won their opening match Friday before losing in the second round.

Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger were upset 15-21, 21-18 and 15-13 by Kristjan Kais and Rivo Vesik of Estonia in their only match Thursday. All four American teams play Friday in the double-elimination event. To make the semi-finals Holdren and Metzer must win six-straight elimination matches while the other three have to each win five teams in the elimination rounds.

Blanton and Nygaard pace the USA men on the Olympic qualifying list by ranking sixth overall with 2,296 points. Holdren and Metzger have 1,800 for their best eight finishes since the start of the Olympic qualifying process in January 2003.

Holdren and Metzger will leave Berlin with at least 1,824 points while Rogers and Scott currently have 1,624 points. For Rogers and Scott to move back into second on the USA list, the pair needs to finish fifth or better this weekend and hope for Holdren and Metzger to drop their first match Friday to Jody Holden and Conrad Leinemann of Canada.

For more information on FIVB beach volleyball, go to the FIVB web site.