Todd & Phil upset early in Beijing

BY STEVEN LIBOWITZ
DAILY SOUND SPORTS WRITER

If Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser had a dream about their march to the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, it certainly didn’t begin like this.
The No. 2-seeded American duo, who came to Beijing after posting three straight tournament wins on the international tour, were upset by Latvians Martins Plavins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs, the next to last seed of the 24-team beach volleyball field.

Native Santa Barbaran Rogers, lives in Santa Ynez, and Dalhausser, a former local resident who now lives in Ventura, went down meekly, losing in straight sets, 21-19 and 21-18.
“They were crisp and we weren’t,” Rogers told NBC Sports after the match. “We made some stupid mistakes and I wish I could take them back, but obviouosly I can’t.”
Leter, he told Reuters News Service “Phil was making uncharacteristic errors I’ve not seen him make in two years. He usually cracks these balls away and the crowd goes wild but even he was saying ‘What’s going on?’”
Dalhausser admitted:“(The Latvian hitter)kept beating me down the line and I didn’t make the adjustment.”
While psychologically devastating, the loss doesn’t prevent Rogers-Dalhausser from competing for a medal.
Sixteen of the 24 teams will advance to the single-elimination format beginning Friday, including the top two from each pool. So the Americans will likely advance if they win their next two matches.
Rogers and Dalhausser return to the sand against Switzerland’s Sascha Heyer and Patrick Heurscher on Monday evening at 10 p.m., 7 a.m. Pacific time. They close out pool play with a match againtst Argentina’s Martin Alejo Conde and Mono Baracetti on Wednesday morning (Tuesday evening PDT). “Absolutely nothing went our way so we’re going to have to take care of business,” Rogers told Reuters.
Meanwhile, UCSB graduate Jason Lezak swam an astonishing anchor leg of the 4 x 100 freestyle relay to earn gold and pad his tally of four previous Olympic medals. He’s back in the pool for the 100 freestyle on Wednesday and the 4 x 100 medley relay on Saturday.
San Marcos grad Adam Duvendeck tries for a medal in track cycling team spring on Friday afternoon (3:45 a.m. PDT.)