U.S. men's beach volleyball team loses

By KEVIN TRESOLINI

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece - Stein Metzger was drenched with sweat and covered with sand, a remnant of his diving attempt to keep a ball in play.

That effort on the match's last point fell short, as did Metzger's and teammate Dax Holdren's quest to advance in Sunday's beach volleyball quarterfinals at the Olympic Beach Volleyball Centre.

Metzger, a Honolulu native, and Holdren lost 21-16, 21-19 to Switzerland's Patric Heuscher and Stefan Kobel in a match contested in brutal mid-afternoon heat and under a bright sun.

Metzger and Holdren were the last American men left in a sport in which U.S. men had won gold in 1996 and 2000. Teammates Dain Blanton and Jeff Nygaard didn't get out of pool play.

"Our key was to go after Stefan on the right side, to serve him and challenge him," Metzger said. "He got himself out of trouble many times, and I made a few unforced errors on sideout.

"And I think they were in really good shape today. The heat was a big factor, and we weren't able to play with the same energy we normally do. When we've won our best games against our toughest teams, we're usually pretty energized."

The temperature on the sand reached 107 degrees, with only a breeze from the nearby Saronic Gulf providing some relief. The match lasted 43 minutes.

"We see them as indoor guys who converted to beach," Metzger said. "We consider ourselves beach players. So we really tried to play the beach game, give them some deep floaters, challenge their setting, serve them short so they had to move the ball and control it a little more.

"But it wasn't enough today. They played well."

The Swiss duo was seeded fifth in the Olympics and is ranked fourth in the world. Metzger and Holdren were seeded 12th and are ranked 18th. But they had beaten the Swiss in the quarterfinals of the 2003 worlds in Brazil en route to a second-place finish.

"You have to give them credit," said Holdren, a Santa Barbara, Calif., resident. "They didn't make a lot of errors and played good volleyball. They were just better than us today."

The U.S. pair never led in the first game. In the second, which was tied on 11 occasions, they led by two early before falling behind. A key point came with Metzger and Holdren down 19-18. Heuscher blocked Metzger's kill attempt at the net to give the Swiss match point.

"He's a big guy, and he's explosive and quick," Metzger said. "He just came out of nowhere and got me."

Metzger, 31, walked away satisfied with the effort, if not the result.

"It's been a great experience," he said of his first Olympics. "And to do it with somebody like Dax is really special, because we've gotten along really well personally. That really helps. I think you'll notice that some of the teams out here can't stand each other, even the brothers. So that just makes the whole experience that much better.

"Dax and I both realize there's more to life than just winning and losing. To be able to travel through Europe and come to the Olympics with somebody you really enjoy and get along well with is just as special as winning a medal."