U.S. women win silver medal in synchronized diving at London Olympics

Americans Abby Johnston and Kelci Bryant pose with their silver medal after finishing second in synchronized diving on Sunday. (Lars Baron / Getty Images / July 29, 2012)

LONDON -- After Kelci Bryant and Abby Johnston folded every article of clothing in their rooms, the synchronized diving tandem headed to the bus Sunday morning. En route, Johnston turned to Bryant with a muted reminder: Don't forget to bring the podium outfit. You know… just in case.

And after breakfast and some episodes of"Burn Notice"and "Pretty Little Liars," bobbing along to the music in her headphones, contemplating a meet that would be her last, Bryant was in a happy place and offered her own reminder to Johnston: No matter what, we've done amazing things. I love you.

"We had this weird moment," Bryant said. "It was super corny. SUPER corny."

"It was," Johnston said. "Afterwards we were both like, that was corny, put our headphones on and just walked away."

They had one more thing to do, as it happens. They ended the United States' profound Olympic diving medal drought, with Bryant teaming with Johnston for silver in three-meter synchronized diving, the first American hardware in diving since 2000 and the first American synchronized diving medal in history.

It wasn't close to the dominant Chinese tandem of He Zi and Wu Minxia, who won gold with a score of 346.20, a healthy 24.30 points ahead of Bryant and Johnston. But finally standing on the podium allowed the U.S. diving squad to get its head above water, so to speak, as Bryant and Johnston plunged under it.

"It's definitely been spoken about," Bryant said of the dearth of diving medals. "Everyone has said something about wanting to get those medals that we haven't been able to get. ... It's a goal for any country to walk away with as many medals as they can get. I think that this is a great start for USA Diving."

Bryant and Johnston first dived as a team in 2010 at a meet in Mexico City, picking up a bronze medal after practicing together for all of one week.

"We were both kind of like, huh, yeah, we're pretty good together," Johnson said.

Since September, they have dived with no one else. Their international results in 2012 included one fourth-place, two third-place and one second-place finish. Still, there was an element of surprise to Sunday's results.

"We definitely expected a lot out of ourselves, and obviously we wanted a medal, but we also knew we could only control ourselves," Bryant said. "Our goal was to hit every one of our dives to the best that we could do. We did that. The medal is definitely a good bonus."

Bryant only folded her garments after Johnston did it first as part of her personal ritual, but now she'd return to her room Sunday bearing a shiny new accessory to go with fastidiously creased clothing. She went out with a silver medal. A tidy ending all around.

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U.S. men defeat Montenegro in water polo at London Olympics, 8-7

Peter Varellas throws during a match against Montenegro. (Alexander Hassenstein / Getty Images / July 29, 2012)

LONDON — After a silver-medal performance in the Beijing Olympics' water polo tournament, which U.S. goalkeeper Merrill Moses insists was really losing the gold medal, players vowed to stay together another four years and take that final, triumphant step as a group.

They put their lives and careers on hold, rejecting lucrative contracts in Europe so they could train at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks and build the unity they'd need against opponents whose players stayed sharp in high-level professional leagues. That harmony, they said Sunday, was crucial to their 8-7 victory over a persistent Montenegro squad at the Water Polo Arena in their London Olympic opener.

"We trained together for seven months to be able to do what we just did," Moses said.

Peter Varellas scored three times and Moses made 11 saves for the U.S., which scored on two of six man advantages and remained composed each time Montenegro tried to mount a comeback.

An astute timeout called by Coach Terry Schroeder with 1 minute 23 seconds left and his team up by one goal was a key moment. After the break, U.S. captain Tony Azevedo scored from long range for an 8-6 lead, and that became the difference after Vladimir Gojkovic scored with 46 seconds left.

Montenegro had the ball in the final seconds but couldn't get a shot off.

"That was clutch," attacker Shea Buckner of Villa Park said of the timeout. "It gave us a chance not only to set up that play but to organize for the rest of the game and what's going to happen the rest of the game. That was a good use of a timeout to get our heads together and realize the situation and what was left in the game."

They all realized they had been pushed, and they welcomed it.

"It was a great test," Varellas said. "I was thinking back to 2008. In Beijing we opened with China, the host country, which was really exciting … but not one of the stronger teams. Here we opened with a stronger team, a good test to kind of see where we're at."

After a tight first quarter, the U.S. built a 4-2 lead by halftime. Montenegro cut that to 4-3, but the U.S. took a 6-3 lead on a lob by Adam Wright and a long shot by Varellas. Montenegro pulled to within one at 6-5 and again at 7-6 and 8-7, but the U.S. men held on.

"There's going to be a lot of games that are one goal," Schroeder said. "It's a great start for us to win the one-goal game. It builds that confidence and puts us in a great place in our bracket. We've got to celebrate for 15 minutes and get ready to play in two days."

The team next plays Romania on Tuesday.

In other games Sunday, Serbia beat Hungary, 14-10, and Romania beat Britain, 13-4, in the U.S. team's group. In the other group, Croatia beat Greece, 8-6; Spain beat Kazakhstan, 14-6; and Italy beat Australia, 8-5.

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U.S. sweeps past Serbia in men's volleyball at London Olympics

American Donald Suxho lunges for a dig against Serbia on Sunday. (Jeff Roberson / Associated Press / July 29, 2012)

LONDON -- Busy with training responsibilities for his Korean club team, Matthew Anderson didn't watch any of the U.S. men's volleyball matches from their galvanizing run to gold at the Beijing Olympics.

But last year, after a disappointing sixth-place finish at the FIVB World Cup, somebody popped in a DVD of the gold-medal match.

"It was pretty cool," Anderson said.

Expectations for a repeat are low, but the U.S. opened its defense in impressive fashion Sunday at Earls Court. Thanks in large part to Anderson's relentless attacking, the U.S. swept defending European champion Serbia, 25-17, 25-22, 25-11, in 90 minutes.

Anderson joked he was nervous he'd be nervous, but his 16 spikes and two kills suggested otherwise.

"I thought Matt played very similar to how he has played the last two years; and that is, you wouldn't really notice it was an Olympic debut," Coach Alan Knipe said. "And that's maybe his best quality besides his skill set. There aren't a lot of peaks and valleys to his demeanor."

It's an approach abetted from listening to old standbys Reid Priddy, Clayton Stanley and Richard Lambourne, three of the five veterans from the 2008 squad.

"In training, things will happen and they'll say, 'Remember this. It's going to happen in a big-time match,' " Anderson said. "And you have to be able to come back from that."

The U.S. displayed impressive resiliency in the second set after Donald Suxho put his fingerprints all over a dominant first set. Trailing early, the U.S. didn't lead until 20-19 on a point featuring Priddy and Russell Holmes combining for a block that appeared to land out of bounds.

Priddy and Holmes followed with clean block kills and when Bojan Janic committed Serbia's fifth service error on set point, a test had been passed.

"We were able to chip away and not show a lot of panic," Knipe said. "I'm proud of the guys for that."

Priddy was everywhere, diving for a dig here, acing a third-set serve there.

"Reid was the driving force to us staying focused on the little things," Knipe said.

The U.S. hopes little things can turn to big things, and Germany is next on Tuesday in a stacked pool that also features top-ranked Brazil. The Germans beat the U.S. in a taut five-set match at the World League finals in May.

Anderson, as is his nature, is undaunted.

"I think we have a chance to win the gold," Anderson said. "We're a good team. It just takes one match and you can move on. Hopefully, we can do that."

In other matches Sunday, Bulgaria swept Britain, Argentina swept Australia, Russia swept Germany, Italy beat Poland, 3-1, and gold-medal favorite Brazil swept Tunisia.

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