May-Treanor (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Walsh (Santa Clara, Calif.) won their third-straight world championship on July 28 in Gstaad, Switzerland without losing a set. The last time they played a three-set match was in the final of the SWATCH-FIVB Tour stop in Berlin, Germany, where they defeated Brazil's Larissa Franca and Juliana Felisberta Da Silva, 18-21, 21-15, 15-7.

On Thursday, after easily winning their first two pool-play matches, the tournament’s top seeds were taken to three sets by China’s 14th seeded Lu Wang and Man Zuo; May-Treanor and Walsh still won out, 18-21, 21-11, 15-12.

May-Treanor and Walsh got a bye to Friday’s second round of single-elimination play, where they will face the winner of the first-round match between Cuba’s Dalixia Fernandez Grasset and Tamara Larrea Peraza, ranked 21st and Finland’s Emilia and Erika Nystrom, seeded 25th.

The U.S. No. 5 duo of Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) and Elaine Youngs (El Toro, Calif.) also advanced to the second round after winning all three of their pool-play matches of Thursday. They will face the winner of the match between No. 17 Kathrine Maaseide and Susanne Glesnes of Norway and Leila Barros and Ana Paula Connelly, the sixth-ranked team from Brazil.

The No. 19 team of Tyra Turner (Fort Meyers Beach, Fla.) and Rachel Wacholder (Laguna Beach, Calif.) went 2-1 in pool play and will play in the first round of elimination against 26th-seeded Morgane Faure and Virginie Sarpaux of France. The No. 22 team of Jen Boss (San Juan Capistrano) and April Ross (Newport Beach, Calif.) also went 2-1 and will go up against 14th-ranked Maria Clara Salgado Rufino and Carol Solberg Salgado from Brazil in the first round.

In the men’s tournament, newly crowned world champions Phil Dalhausser (Orlando, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.), seeded second, were upset in their opening pool-play match by Italy’s 31st-seeded Riccardo Bizzotto and Eugenio Amore, falling 17-21 and 21-23.

The defending A1 Grand Slam champions, Dalhausser and Rogers will attempt to rebound from their first pool setback with Friday matches against teams from Estonia and Spain as the top-three finishers in each of the eight men’s pool qualify for the 24-team elimination bracket.

Dalhausser and Rogers dropped a pair of A1 Grand Slam pool matches last year before winning five-straight to capture their first international gold medal together with a 21-19 and 21-17 victory over Brazilians Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos, the reigning Olympic champions and three-time Klagenfurt finalists.

The other U.S. men’s team competing, Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) were upset by 20th-seeded Bram Ronnes and Emiel Boersma, of the Netherlands, 22-24, 21-18 and 15-8 in 61 minutes.

More information is available on the FIVB beach web site at www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/index.asp?sm=12.