USA's Fontana/Youngs and May/Walsh advance to FIVB Japan semfinals

The USA teams of Barbra Fontana and Elaine Youngs, and Misty May and Kerri Walsh, each won a pair of matches on Saturday (August 11) on Tannowa Beach to advance to the semifinals in this week's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event in Osaka, Japan.

Sunday's semifinal matches has Fontana (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Youngs (Encinitas, Calif.) challenging top-seeded Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede of Brazil, while seventh-seeded Misty May (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh (Los Gatos, Calif.) of the United States play sixth-seeded Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst of Australia.

Behar and Bede have split four matches this season with Fontana and Youngs. Three of the meetings have been Gold Medal matches with Behar and Bede defeating the Americans for the top prize in Switzerland and the Canary Islands. Cook and Pottharst won the only match this season with May and Walsh in France.

Fontana and Youngs, who have now advanced to an event "final four" in all 11 of their pro beach starts this season, earned a semifinal berth with a 21-15, 21-11 win over AVP rivals Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak in 32 minutes. Eight of Fontana and Youngs' semifinal appearances have been at international events.

Winners of FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour events in Italy and France this season, Fontana and Youngs opened play Saturday by defeating seventh-seeded Dalixia Larrea Peraza and Tamara Fernandez Grosset of Cuba 21-13, 21-15, before losing to Cook and Pottharst, 21-18, 21-19, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Gold Medallists.

Arce (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and McPeak (Manhattan Beach), who split $9,000, have now placed fifth for the fifth-time this season on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. Arce and McPeak, who lost Behar and Bede in their first match Saturday, 17-21, 21-17, 15-13 in 56 minutes), posted a 4-2 match mark this weekend with a pair of elimination wins over teams from Bulgaria and Brazil.

Sandra Pires and Tatiana Minello of Brazil, who captured the Silver Medal at last week's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Austria after losing the title match to Behar and Bede, placed seventh on Tannowa Beach. Arce and McPeak eliminated the fourth-seeded Brazilians 21-17, 21-19 in 42 minutes.

May and Walsh, who defeated Pires and Minello 18-21, 25-23, 15-13 in their first match Saturday, dropped into the elimination bracket after losing to Behar and Bede 21-17, 21-15. May and Walsh advanced to their third international "final four" this season with a 21-13, 21-17 win in 33 minutes over 12th-seeded Jackie Silva and Claudia Costa of Brazil.

Third-seeded Nancy Mason (Belleville, Ill.) and Leanne Schuster (Mesa, Ariz.) placed ninth in the competition after dropping both of their matches Saturday to Cook/Pottharst 21-18, 21-18, and 19th-seeded Stephanie Pohl/Okka Rau of (21-16, 21-15. Mason and Schuster shared $5,500.

Mason and Schuster, who placed third last November in Brazil, were competing in their first international main draw berth this season. Mason and Schuster, who had missed qualifying for FIVB Main Draws this season in Macau, Italy, Switzerland, France and Portugal, won five of eight matches this week.