U.S. beach volleyball's Alix Klineman, April Ross beat Swiss duo, reach final

Aug. 4 (UPI) -- The United States' women's beach volleyball duo of April Ross and Alix Klineman will compete for the gold medal at the Summer Games in Tokyo after cruising to a straight-sets victory against Switzerland in the semifinals Wednesday.

The American pair dominated Switzerland's duo of Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Heidrich to reach the final. Ross and Klineman beat the Swiss pair 21-12 in the first set and 21-11 in the second.

"We have an amazing crew and we spent a lot of time scouting. They got us prepared," Ross said after the win. "Huge props to [Switzerland]. ... We were just fired up."

Ross and Klineman will play the winner of the Australia-Latvia match in the final. The gold medal match is set for Thursday at 10:30 p.m. EDT.

"We're going to be around the clock to recover and prepare," Klineman said of the gold medal match.

The U.S. duo, also known as the "A-Team," earned a 2-0 win over Cuba earlier this week to set up a quarterfinals showdown against Germany at Shiokaze Park. Ross and Klineman topped the Germans on Tuesday in straight sets to secure passage to the semifinals.

Ross, who won silver at the 2012 Games in London and bronze at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, is searching for her first gold medal at the Olympics. Klineman is competing at the Olympic level for the first time in her career.