Walsh Jennings and Ross will play for bronze.
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Devastated.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – If Kerri Walsh Jennings winds up with a fourth medal in Olympic beach volleyball, it will be bronze – not gold, like the other three she has earned in what had been an unblemished record at the Summer Games. Ross-Walsh Jennings finished the tourney 6-1 while Larissa and Talita were handed back-to-back losses (5-2) and exit the tourney on their home soil without medals. “It was a highlight of my athletic career”.
Walsh Jennings was better with her passing Wednesday night than she was in Tuesday’s semifinal loss to Agatha and Barbara, and she also tallied six successful blocks.
Talita has made two Olympic appearances to date, three including the Rio Games. Ross-Walsh Jennings trimmed the lead to three at 19-16 and 20-17, but the Brazilians knocked down the final point in a 21-17 victory.
“I’m combining what I’ve I always wanted to be, which is a working mom, a loving wife and a kick-butt athlete”, Walsh Jennings said. I knew they were going to come at me, and I knew they were going to put some stuff on the ball, and I just didn’t stick my passes. After both teams traded point after point, the set was finally decided on a serve down the middle which Walsh Jennings and Ross both thought would sail out of bounds. Instead, Kerri said the Brazilians had a gameplan to attack the weakest link, and that was her. “If you ask everybody, everybody will say ‘Kerri'”.
Brazil has clinched 13 medals, though only two gold, with a chance to add two more in Rio.
With 10 total Olympic Beach Volleyball medals, the American men medaled in 1996 (gold and silver), 2000 (gold) and 2008 (gold) quadrennials.
Asked if she and her partner will return four years from now, Ross indicated it was possible, but joked it could depend on the health of her partner, who already is the oldest female medal victor in beach volleyball history.
Walsh Jennings had never lost an Olympic match until the semi-final defeat to Brazil’s Barbara Seixas and Agatha Bednarczuk and she looked in no mood to repeat the experience. The bronze medal match is the gnarliest match I’ve ever played in in my career, because you either go home with a attractive medal or you get nothing. She recently got her Master’s degree from Concordia University in Irvine, CA and was named director of volleyball operations at Long Beach City College back in June, according to Bustle.
And she said the Brazilians “should” have picked on her because she wasn’t playing well.
“It hit the heart”, said Walsh Jennings. The beach volleyball venue is located directly atop the Copacabana sand.
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“It still hasn’t sunk in what we’ve done, beating a player who has never lost at the Olympics”, said Bednarczuk, who won the world championships previous year with Seixas.
