Two US pairs to meet in women's ConocoPhillips Grand Slam semi

(BEIJING, June 28) -- Four teams from Brazil, Greece and the United States will meet in the semifinals of this week's SWATCH FIVB World Tour event in Stavanger, Norway.

Top-seeded American team Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, three-time SWATCH-FIVB World champions, will conduct their 51st SWATCH FIVB World Tour semifinal appearance against eighth-seeded compatriots Jen Boss and April Ross, defending ConocoPhillips Grand Slam champions.

May-Treanor and Walsh have never pocketed a SWATCH FIVB title in Norway, finishing fourth, second and third in the three previous events staged in the Scandinavian country. "Since this is our last FIVB event before the Olympics, we feel it is important to finish our travels the past three weeks with our first title in Norway," said May-Treanor.

The other semifinal will see fifth-seeded Shelda Bede and Ana Paula Connelly of Brazil going against 12th-seeded Vassiliki Arvaniti and Vasso Karadassiou of Greece. It will be the fourth meeting this season between the two teams (Bede and Connelly have defeated Arvaniti and Karadassiou twice in their last three encounters). Both games will be played on Saturday.