Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh: USA's Dynamic Duo Faces Huge Test in Semis

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh have a formidable foe lined up for Tuesday’s women’s beach volleyball semifinal. The Chinese pair of Xue Chen and Xi Zhang were the bronze-medal winners at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In an AP report from USAToday.com, the duo said they want to crush the competition:

"We want to crush everybody," Walsh said. "We don't care where they're from."

Crushing the Chinese duo of Xue Chen and Xi Zhang may pose a problem for America’s favorite volleyball players.

Prior to the Olympics, the Chinese pair was ranked first in the world on the FIVB’s Swatch World Tour 2012 rankings.  May and Walsh were ranked eight on that very same list.

Coming into the Games, the pair was the second-ranked team in the competition according to the FIVB Olympic rankings. May and Walsh were third.

The Americans will have their hands full with the most talented team they have met yet in these Olympics.

Xi Zhang and Xue Chen’s youth and size are factors the aging American's will need to account for in this matchup.

These two teams have never played head-to-head, though, so there will be a lot of studying and preparation that goes into Tuesday’s semifinal.

In the 2008 Olympics Xue Chen and Xi Zhang lost in the semifinals to the other Chinese team. That is the team that met the Americans in the gold medal game.

May and Walsh dispatched the Chinese in two sets (21-18, 21-18) and became the first pair in Olympics history to win back-to-back gold medals in the beach competition.

If May-Treanor and Walsh do in fact come out on top, there is a very real possibility they will meet the other U.S. women’s beach volleyball team in the finals.

April Ross and Jennifer Kessy go up against the defending world champion Brazil team on Tuesday morning.

Follow me on Twitter @BigHoagowski for breaking sports updates and stories. Disclaimer: You will have to deal with my slight Cleveland sports obsession at times as well.