July 30, 2012

Stanford Olympic Page

Official London 2012 Olympic Page

STANFORD, Calif. - Another successful day for Stanford's Olympic athletes is in the books as the sixth day of competition at the 2012 London Games wrapped up Monday.

Stanford's athletes helped the U.S. women's water polo and volleyball teams to action, while the Cardinal also made its presence felt in beach volleyball and rowing.

In Beach Volleyball action...
In their second match of preliminary round play, the top-seeded pair of Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor made quick work of Marketa Slukova and Kristyna Kolocova, posting a 2-0 (21-14, 21-19) sweep Monday night.

Walsh made seven kills with three blocks and served up three aces in the victory.

The American pair continues preliminary play Wednesday with a 3 p.m. PT (11 p.m. local time) match against sisters Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger of Austria.

In Equestrian action...
Incoming Stanford freshman Nina Ligon is in 37th place with a score of 69.90 after Monday's cross country portion of the equestrian eventing competition. The jumping qualifiers are set for Thursday at 2:30 a.m. PT (10:30 a.m. local time).

In Men's Rowing action...
Two Stanford oarsmen were in action Monday, with one's Olympic dream earning a reprieve and the other's coming to a heart-breaking end.

Silas Stafford '08 and partner Tom Peszek finished third in the men's pair repechage, good enough to earn the final berth in the semifinals and stay alive in the gold medal hunt. Stafford and Peszek led early on in the race, before yielding water to the pairs from Germany and Serbia by the 1,500-meter mark.

The fight for the third and final semifinal spot came down to the final 500 meters between the U.S. and Hungary, and in the end Stafford and Peszek held off the Hungarian pair by 0.47 of a second to stay alive in the competition.

The U.S. pair will next race in Thursday's first semifinal at 3 a.m. PT (11 a.m. local time). Stafford and Peszek will face Germany, Italy, Australia, Canada and The Netherlands, needing a top-three finish to advance to the Gold Medal Final.

On the other end of the spectrum, Alex Osborne '09 and the rest of the U.S. quadruple sculls boat had their Olympic run come to an abrupt end in a tough repechage. The boat was off to a good start in the four-boat race until 350 meters in, when Wes Piermarini's blade dug too deep into the water and got stuck, bringing the U.S. to a dead stop.

The setback put the U.S. well behind the pack, but the quartet made a game effort of it the rest of the way. Osborne and the crew brought their pace to more than 40 strokes a minute in an effort to grab one of the three semifinal spots, but their challenge fell just short, its time of 5:45.62 coming in 0.72 of a second behind third-place Switzerland.

In Women's Volleyball action...
Foluke Akinradewo and Logan Tom combined for 21 kills as the U.S. defeated defending champion Brazil, 3-1 (25-18, 25-17, 22-25, 25-21) Monday.

Tom accounted for 12 kills in the contest while Akinradewo added nine to her haul. The U.S., as in Saturday's win over South Korea, captured the first two games of the match to put Brazil in an early 0-2 hole.

The U.S., 2-0 in Group B play, next faces China Wednesday at 12 p.m. PT (8 p.m. local time).

In Women's Water Polo action...
The Class of 2016's Maggie Steffens scored a game-high seven goals to lead the U.S. past Hungary, 14-13, in the team's Olympic opener.

Steffens scored the first three U.S. goals and six of the team's eight first-half goals as the Americans held a slim 8-7 advantage at the break.

Steffens and captain Brenda Villa '03 would score back-to-back goals over a 3-0 stretch that put the U.S. up 12-9 in the early moments of the fourth period. However, Hungary continued to fight back, scoring twice in a 23-second span to cut the deficit to one at 12-11.

Over the final four minutes, Courtney Mathewson of the U.S. and Barbara Bujka of Hungary traded a pair of goals each to make it 14-13 in favor of the Americans. The U.S. would hold on for the final 52 seconds to claim the victory.

Fellow Cardinal players Annika Dries '14, Melissa Seidemann '13 and Jessica Steffens '10 also saw action in the contest, with Seidemann attempting five shots.

The U.S. , 1-0 in Group A, next faces Spain Wednesday at 10:20 a.m. PT (6:20 p.m. local time).