Olympic beach volleyball: Americans Benesh, Partain onto quarterfinals
Onto the quarterfinals for men’s beach volleyball tandem Andy Benesh and Miles partain defeated Italy’s Samuele Cottafava and Paolo Nicolai in two sets (21-17 and 21-18).
Partain’s ace in the second set to put the U.S. up 16-11 helped the duo secure the match, and Benesh followed with an ace to make it 18-13.
Italy scored five of the next seven points to make the Americans sweat. But a final Italian service – of eight total – ended the match.
In the first, they jumped out to a 13-8 lead and relied on the early margin to carry them to a Set 1 victory.
It’s been an interesting Games for the duo. They parted ways with their coach for unclear reasons over the weekend and have yet to be transparent on the matter.
They won their final two matches of group play after starting these Games with a loss to Cuba.
Their three-set victory over Brazil last week sent them into the Round of 16 and a date with Italy.
The youngest U.S. men’s beach team in Olympic history will play the winner of Chile vs. Qatar in the quarterfinals.
