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2016 Rio Olympics: Brian and Sauerbrunn help USWNT clinch spot in knockouts, Vittese and field hockey beat Argentina

Team members flourish while individual competitors struggle a bit at Day One

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Olympics: Football-Women's Team-1st Round Group G-United States (USA) vs France (FRA) John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

The UVA athletes in Rio wasted no time with a busy first day of competition, on the fields and in the water. Here’s a quick recap of how they fared.

Rowing

Meghan O’Leary finished fourth in her heat in the women’s double sculls. Only the top 3 finishers in each heat qualify straight through to the semifinals, but O’Leary has a chance to break into the semis via the repechage round. Repechage was scheduled for today but has been postponed.

Inge Janssen, part of Netherlands’ quad sculls team, finished fifth in their heats. The top two from quads go straight to the finals. Janssen and her teammates will compete in the repechage tomorrow.

Swimming

In the men’s 100 meter breaststroke, Yannick Kaeser (Switzerland) won his heat but his time was not fast enough to qualify for the semifinals. He missed qualifying for the semifinals by four-tenths of a second. Yannick’s Olympics is not over, however: he competes in the 200 meter breaststroke as well, which will begin on Tuesday.

Soccer

More glory for the United States, and more involvement for Morgan Brian. Team USA beat France 1-0 to clinch a spot in the knockout rounds. After Morgan Brian set up Alex Morgan’s game-clinching goal against New Zealand on Wednesday, she was right back in the thick of things against France.

Brian’s through ball to Tobin Heath set up Carli Lloyd on the rebound to give the US all the room they’d need to advance. When Brian was subbed in in the second half, the announcers were gushing praise for her smarts and technical ability, emphasizing the future she is expected to have as a key piece of the US Women’s National Team.

Co-captain Becky Sauerbrunn had several key stops for the American women as well, interrupting build-up and turning back the French attack during some of the match’s most threatening moments.

Becky, Morgan, and the rest of Team USA will return to action Tuesday night to face Colombia.

Field Hockey

USA field hockey knocked off Argentina, 2-1. Michelle Vittese came off the bench to log 33 minutes of action for the United States, who will next face Australia on Monday in what should be the stiffest competition for the US in group play.

Tennis

Dom Inglot (Great Britain) and his doubles partner Colin Fleming lost their first round doubles match, 6-3 6-0, to the Mexico doubles team of Santiago Gonzalez and Miguel-Angel Reyes-Varela. Ingot’s only event was men’s doubles, so his Olympics are over. But he did get some primo face time during Team GB’s entry at the opening ceremonies. (He also recorded this cool point-of-view footage for the UK’s Telegraph.)