American beach team wins 107th straight

BEIJING, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor won their 107th consecutive match Tuesday and moved within one victory of their second straight Olympic gold medal.

The top female beach volleyball team in the world recorded a surprisingly easy 21-12, 21-14 victory over Renata Ribeiro and Talita Rocha of Brazil in the first of the morning semifinals.

That put the Americans in the gold medal match against Wang Jie and Tian Jie, who rallied for an exhausting 22-24, 29-27, 15-8 victory over Xue Chen and Zhang Xi in an all-China semifinal.

The Brazilian team made a number of miscues early in the match and the American duo used its experience to take full advantage.

Four straight points gave May-Treanor and Walsh a 5-1 lead in the first set and they coasted from there. In the second set, the Brazilian team trailed only 13-12 when the United States pair ran off seven straight points effectively putting the match away.

In the second match, Wang and Tian fought off three match points in the second set and finally broke away in the third set by winning eight of the last 10 points.

The gold medal will be determined Thursday.