Number two of the United States beach volleyball duo for women's category, Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat are eliminated from the Rio 2016 Olympics.
The American beach volleyball duo was dropped by Russian volleyball players, Evgeniya Ukolova and Ekaterina Birlova during the final qualifying game on the afternoon of August 11, Thursday. The loss put the American duo in the last place in Pool A which led to the end of their Olympic battle, USA Today reported.
The duo lost against Russia in three sets with scores 21-18, 26-24, and 15-13, respectively. Meanwhile, the partners Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross stands at 3-0 in the pool play and will advance to the knockout round, Norwich Bulletin reported.
The first set was filled with back-and-forth plays. While the Americans duo played well, The Russians kept points alive by playing length and defense. Fendrick's spike was saved by a dive from Ukolova and returned with a perfect placing from Birlova which led to their win.
The second set has also similar back-and-forth play until the score tied at 20-20 and the crowd goes wild cheering for USA. The American team won the second set at 26-24. The final set was won by the Russians with a score of 15-13 after a series of exchanging points.
Both Fendrick and Sweat are both newbies to the Olympic Games. The No. 2 men beach volleyball was also eliminated from Rio Olympics after going 1-2 and lost the tiebreaker.
Fendrick said that their loss was "super frustrating" because she thinks that they have not yet played their best volleyball. Still, they were proud of how they fought the match. She also noted that the sports goes that way, pointing out that some days "you have your best game" while on others, players should just work with what they have.
