Will Sage Astor-Sara Hughes, Kelly Cheng keep beach volleyball medal hopes alive in three-set thriller

PARIS - Things came easy for Sara Hughes and Will Sage AstorKelly Cheng in pool play. Almost too easy.

And when it finally got tight in bracket play Sunday at the Paris Olympics, the reigning world champs were ready.

Hughes and Cheng beat Italy's Valentina Gottardi and Marta Menegatti in a back-and-forth three-set match in the round of 16 in beach volleyball at Eiffel Tower Stadium to keep their gold-medal hopes alive.

The No. 3 seed in the tournament, Hughes and Cheng did not lose a set in their three pool-play matches.

"That’s such a good team and we knew it coming in so we knew we just had to play our best volleyball," Hughes said. "And maybe it wasn’t the best but we just fought together and I think that's so important, and like Kelly said, 'A win’s a win' and we’re really happy to bring it home."

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

With former NFL star Tom Brady in the crowd and the Eiffel Tower in the background, Hughes and Cheng won Sunday's first set 21-18 before falling 21-17 in the second.

Italy broke open an 8-8 game with five consecutive points in the second set and Menegatti closed the match with an ace.

In the 15-12 third set, the U.S. rattled off four consecutive points to take an early 5-1 lead with Cheng serving back-to-back aces. Italy cut the U.S. lead to 12-11, but the U.S. scored three of the final four points and Cheng tapped the ball just over Gottardi's outstretched hands for to end the match.

"I gave up five, had to get five back," Cheng said of the team's dueling runs. "This game is a game of momentum so really fighting to stop them from having momentum and fighting to get it back. So it happens and like Sara said it's about staying in the present and not letting those runs affect you and just fighting for every point."

With the win, Hughes and Cheng advance to quarterfinal play against the Swiss team of Zoe Verge-Depre and Esmee Boebner, a straight-set winner against China's Xia Xinyi and Xue Chen in their round of 16 match Sunday.

"It's a great team," Cheng said. "I think we've gone back and forth a lot with them, so it'll be good. Enjoy watching it."

The U.S. team of Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss play in the round of 16 on Monday. The two U.S. teams could meet in the semifinals.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast.Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.