Top US pair Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers made up for their earlier loss by beating Swiss tandem Patrick Heuscher/Sascha Heyer in their second preliminaries Monday.

Phil/Todd, after suffering an unexpected defeat by tenacious Latvians Saturday, fought valiantly to dominate the game from the start and made a 21-15, 21-10 victory.

The 42-minute encounter was proved to be a lopsided game, in which the Swiss had a hard time to respond to the blocks and spikes of the 2.06-meter Phil.

"Phil's blocking today was increabile and we really had problem in going around his block, he was just all over me, " said the 36-year-old Patrick, who captured the bronze medal with Stefan Kobel in Athens.

Todd said after the match that they not only try to get out of the pool but also win the pool. "We've done a good job today," he said.

The U.S. tandem were trounced 0-2 by Latvian Martins Plavins/Aleksandrs Samoilovs, ranked 23rd on the Olympic seed list.

The beach volleyball preliminaries run through Aug. 9 to 14, followed by elimination match until Aug. 22.

Top teams from each pool and two best third-placed teams advance to the 16-team knockout stage. The remaining four third-placed teams play two playoffs to determine the remaining two berths in top 16.

(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2008)