The 2012 London Olympics beach volleyball semifinals are scheduled to begin Tuesday at 11 AM CDT on MSNBC. The women's semifinals matches each feature American teams—the infamous Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings combo are the No. 3 seed, and they'll face No. 1-seeded Brazil; on the other side of the bracket, No. 4-seeded Jan Kessy and April Ross will take on Xue Chen and Zhang Xi of China.

The Americans could make a three-medal swing on China—who currently leads in the medal count—if both sides win and China loses, but they represent the Americans' last chance at medals in beach volleyball; the U.S. men were eliminated in the quarterfinals—by Latvia, of all countries.

MSNBC's beach volleyball coverage runs from 11 AM-1 PM, according to NBC's current schedule. The men's semifinal moves to NBC at 3 PM, but I don't think I'll be able to watch it knowing that the Americans lost to Latvia, much as I admire their ability to recover from the economic disaster in Europe through gut-wrenching internal devaluation. At least, I think that was them.