Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor win third gold
LONDON -- The serve of April Ross kept on going and going, landing long on match point.
Kerri Walsh Jennings watched it hit the sand and thrust her arms in the air, child-like delight on her face on this electric night.
Three-peat achieved.
The enduring duo of Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor won gold for the third time, beating Ross and Jennifer Kessy, 21-16, 21-16, in the London Olympics women’s beach volleyball final Wednesday.
It was an all-American meeting, a volleyball finale that could have been played in Huntington Beach or Manhattan Beach, not London.
The first set was tight until the 13-13 mark, when Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor surged to a 19-14 lead and would go on to take the first set, converting on their second set point with a May-Treanor spike.
May-Treanor, 35, is retiring from international competition, and this will the closing chapter of a stellar Olympic career. Their partnership has been an incredible one, lasting 11 years.
In three Olympics, they dropped one set. And that was in London.
The only time teams from the same country met for the gold in this sport was an all-Brazilian showdown at the Atlanta Games in 1996, in the debut of beach volleyball in the Olympics.
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