USA's Fonoimoana/Heidger earn Goodwill Game semifinal spot

Sixth-seeded Eric Fonoimoana and Rob Heidger scored an upset win over third-seeded Julien Prosser and Lee Zahner of Australia on Sunday (September 2) to guarantee the United States its third-straight medal in the beach volleyball competition at the Goodwill Games.

Playing in their first international event together at these Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, Fonoimoana (Hermosa Beach, Calif.), and Heidger (Redondo Beach, Calif.) outlasted the Australians 21-17, 26-24 (the highest scoring set in the 2001 Goodwill Games) in 53 minutes. Despite the defeat, Prosser and Zahner remain in the competition and will play Monday at 12 p.m.

With both United States teams in the semifinals, the Americans will be trying for their first Goodwill Games Gold Medal after placing third in 1994 in St. Petersburg, Russia (Sinjin Smith/Bruk Vandeweghe) and second in 1998 in New York (Adam Johnson/Karch Kiraly).

In the meantime, second-seeded Jose Loiola and Ricardo Santos of Brazil overcame a first-set loss to win the next two sets to defeat their Russian opponents to gain the fourth and final spot in the men's semifinals.

Loiola and Ricardo will face Fonoimoana and Heidger in Monday's second men's semifinal at 8:30 p.m. at the South Bank Piazza. Loiola and Ricardo defeated seventh-seeded Sergey Ermishin and Mikhail Kouchnerev of Russia 18-21, 21-13, 15-11 in 54 minutes.

That semifinal match will be at 8:30 p.m. Monday. World Champions Mariano Baracetti and Martin Conde of Argentina play fourth-seeded Stein Metzger and Kevin Wong of the United State at 2 p.m. in Monday's first semifinal.

Fonoimoana, who captured the Gold Medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, and Heidger scored a 25-23, 22-20 win over 11th-seeded Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel of Switzerland Thursday. Fonoimoana is now 7-0 on Australian sand after teaming in the Bondi Beach Olympics with Dain Blanton to win five-straight matches.

The United States split a pair of matches Saturday. Metzger (Honolulu, H.) and Wong (Pearl City, Hi.) earned a semifinal berth by defeating fifth-seeded Emanuel Rego and Para Ferreira of Brazil 16-21, 21-11, 15-12 in 57 minutes. Winners of three events this season, including two AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour events in California (Santa Barbara and Manhattan Beach), Metzger and Wong opened the competition with a injury forfeit win over 13th-seeded John Child and Mark Heese of Canada Wednesday. Metzger and Wong led 14-9 in the first set against the Canadians before Child had to withdraw from the competition.