Aged 29 and 33, respectively, Seixas and Bednarczuk won the 2015 beach volleyball world championships to earn their first Olympic berth.
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Kerri Walsh Jennings may not have won gold this Olympics, but she says she will cherish this bronze medal even more.
Now, they will play another team from Brazil, Larissa Franca and Talita Antunes at 6 p.m. Brazil time-for the Bronze medal. Ross went back and served an ace to give United States of America a 19-15 lead, but Brazil scored consecutive points, the second on its sixth ace of the match, to get within two at 19-17. She holds three consecutive beach volleyball gold medals from 2004, 2008 and 2012 with former partner Misty May-Treanor.
As she approached a few US reporters waiting to speak with her after she regaled the Brazilian media, she still radiated joy over what she’d just felt and accomplished.
With the Americans starting slowly in the first set, Ross and Walsh Jennings awoke in the second set.
Later Wednesday, Brazilian world champions Agatha and Barbara will fight for gold against Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst. They will be facing another Brazilian team in the match for the 3rd place.
With the temporary Olympic stadium literally shaking from the noise and stomping, Agatha and Barbara rode the crowd momentum to a two-set victory, 22-20 and 21-18.
Walsh Jennings overestimated the amount of aces – the Brazilians only had five total in the match – but she clearly felt her return game was a major deciding factor in the outcome.
It wasn’t until she and Ross arrived at the venue Wednesday and got a pep talk from coach Marcio Sicoli that they were able to refocus on the competition.
Omar McLeod converted his season dominance of the 110-meter hurdles into an Olympic gold medal, a first for Jamaica in the event.
Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross have won the beach volleyball bronze medal, coming back after losing the first set to beat the host Brazilians at Copacabana.
Netherlands’ Robert Meeuwsen, left, lifts up his teammate Alexander Brouwer, right, after loosing to Brazil in a men’s beach volleyball semifinal match at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. Italy defeated Russian Federation in the other men’s semifinal to clinch its first Olympic beach volleyball medal. A win would mean that Eaton, who is leading the field, would join his wife, women’s heptathlon bronze medal victor Brianne Theisen-Eaton, as a Rio medalist. The gap was enough to slow Brazil’s momentum and the USA women took the second set 21-17.
Well that’s how you respond, Talita with a huge spike, but Ross matches her a moment later. Kemboi’s disqualification meant that Mekhissi-Benabbad was awarded the bronze medal.
Walsh Jennings and Ross became a team shortly after May-Treanor retired following the London Olympics (she and Walsh Jennings had beaten Ross and her playing partner, Jen Kessy, in the gold-medal match).
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Likewise, the women’s indoor volleyball team suffered a stunning upset to China in Tuesday’s quarterfinal match, ending one of Brazil’s best bets for a gold.
