Williams and Prosser Advance to Beach Volleyball Semifinals
August 22, 2004 | Bruin Athletics
Aug. 22, 2004
Australians Mark Williams (UCLA '01) and Julien Prosser eliminated the team from Germany Saturday in the quarterfinals of the Beach Volleyball competition of the Athens Olympics. Williams and Prosser defeated Christoph Dieckmann and Andreas Scheuerpflug 16-21, 21-19, 15-10 in 62 minutes in a match where the temperatures reached 108 degrees on the sand. The victory avenged Friday's first round loss of Australia's other beach volleyball team, Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack, to the same German team. Although Dieckmann and Scheuerpflug enjoyed a huge 11-5 advantage in blocking, an adjustment after the first set enabled the Australians to negate the German block as the match ensued. "I am so excited we won the match," said Williams, a member of the Bruins' 2000 NCAA Championship team. "I am out of breath, but the thing is that we had to make some adjustments to make their blocks a non-factor, and I think we did that and wore them down. I am happy we won." The Australians will meet Javier Bosma and Pablo Herrera of Spain in a 9 p.m. semifinal match on Monday.