Paris Olympics: American entries halved for beach volleyball tournament

On the Champ de Mars, where the first mayor of Paris was sent to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror, the American beach volleyball squad got cut in half.

Two U.S. teams fell on the sand at Eiffel Tower Stadium on Monday, with Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss losing to Canada in the women's round of 16 a few hours after Chase Budinger and Miles Evans lost to Norway in the men's.

Only Miles Partain and Andy Benesh advanced on the day, joining Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes in the elite eight.

Definitely a little heartbroken, said Nuss, who along with her former LSU teammate formed the No. 2 team in the world rankings. We came in wanting to bring home gold back to the United States. That's been our goal for the past four years. So to go out in the round of 16 is obviously an earlier exit than we would have liked.

Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes beat Nuss and Kloth 21-19, 21-18, leaving the country that has won four of the last five women's gold medals with just one team i