Pepperdine, USA's Blanton and Nygaard End Olympics Disappointed
8/18/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
Aug. 18, 2004
Athens, Greece, - With experience from an Olympic Beach Volleyball gold medallist and the blocking ability of a two-time Indoor Olympian, one would figure that the United States had a strong entry for the Athens 2004 Games. What looked good on paper, did not materialize on the sand at the 10,000-seat Olympic Beach Volleyball Centre for Dain Blanton and Jeff Nygaard as the Americans failed to win any of their three pool play matches, including a 16-21, 21-13 and 15-13 setback to Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel of Switzerland here Tuesday afternoon. Heuscher and Kobel are the fifth-seeded team in the competition and won Pool E with three-straight wins over Julien Prosser/Mark Williams of Australia, John Child/Mark Heese of Canada and the Americans. When asked about his third Olympic Games and any positives from the experience, Nygaard said he would have to "take a few days to think about that. Today's match was our best, but overall, we are disappointed with our play. The entire season has been a struggle and we just did not have it when we needed it." Blanton, the Sydney 2000 Olympic gold medallist with Eric Fonoimoana, said that the "Olympics are not only about winning, but the effort you put out. I wasn't satisfied with our team's effort, so that adds to it all. It's one thing to go out and play hard. It's another thing to just play. It's sad not to be able to walk out on that court anymore." With Blanton and Nygaard out of the competition, the United States hopes for another Beach Volleyball rests with Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger, who play the world's No. 1 team of Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos Thursday at 8 p.m.
