US beach volleyball stars reach finals

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings won two tense sets over a team from China Tuesday and reached the Olympic beach volleyball finals. May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings are trying for their third Olympic gold medal in a row and they had to do plenty of work to get past Xue Chen and Zhang Xi 22-20, 22-20. The Americans fell behind 13-7 in the opening set before running off six consecutive points. The Chinese team saved one set point at 19-20 but couldn't salvage the second one. China had a chance to win the second set at 20-19 but the U.S. stars scored three straight points to finish the match. May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings could face fellow Americans April Ross and Jennifer Kessy in the finals Wednesday. Ross and Kessy were to meet Juliana Silva and Larissa Franklin of Brazil in the second semifinal later Tuesday. In the first of the men's semifinals, Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego of Brazil defeated Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins of Latvia in two sets.