Paris Olympics: USA's Sara Hughes, Kelly Cheng edge Italy in 3-set thriller to advance to beach volleyball quarterfinals

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In a tense match, USA's Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes defeated Italy's Valentina Gottardi and Marta Menegatti in beach volleyball Sunday to advance to the Olympic quarterfinals.

The sides split the first two sets, setting up a winner-take-all third in the elimination match. Cheng and Hughes jumped out to an 11-5 lead in the final set, but Gottardi and Menegatti battled back with four straight points to keep the pressure on Team USA.

USA scored a kill to stop the run and went on to a 14-11 lead to serve for match point. Italy responded with a kill to take back the serve. But Cheng secured the match with a kill at the net for the 2-1 (21-18, 17-21, 15-12) USA win.

The Americans advance to face Switzerland's Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli in the quarterfinals. The Swiss scored a 2-0 (23-21, 21-16) win over Spain's Liliana Fernández and Paula Soria Gutierrez in their Round of 16 match on Sunday.

USA and Switzerland each have a day off before their quarterfinal match on Tuesday.

Former USC teammates now 3 wins from Olympic gold

Hughes and Cheng are now 4-0 in Paris as they each seek their first Olympic medal. The Paris Games are the first for Hughes. Cheng was eliminated in the Round of 16 at the Tokyo Games in 2021 while playing with Sarah Sponcil. USA's April Ross and Alix Klineman won gold in Tokyo.

Cheng has since reunited with Hughes, her former teammate at USC. The pair helped lead USC to the inaugural NCAA beach volleyball championships in 2016 and 2017, including an undefeated 36-0 season in 2016. They first played together as pros in 2017, but split to play with different partners ahead of the Tokyo Games.

The pair teamed up again in 2022 and went on to win the 2023 World Championship in Mexico over reigning champions Eduarda Lisboa and Ana Patrícia Ramos of Brazil.

With Sunday's win, they remain undefeated in Olympic play and stand three wins away from an Olympic gold medal.