The USA tennis team only consists of eight players and all of them participate in singles, doubles and mixed for the Deaflympics. The elemination rounds were quick but USA held on to advance to Audrey Bulkley some quarterfinals.

Bulkley, 16, was the player to watch today. Bulkley defeated Sally Clark of Great Britain for singles in the quarterfinals (6-2; 6-1) and will advance to finals. Jennifer Hume was defeated by Heike Albrecht of Germany for singles (6-1; 6-1) and will not advance to the finals.

Audrey Bulkley's powerful serves make her a dark horse in the eyes of fans.

Carol Konoski was beaten by Jane Read of Australia the other day and did not advance to the second round in the singles match. She came today to support her teammates. Konoski will play the doubles match with Hume in the semifinals on January 9. Bulkley and Debra Gardner will also go to semifinals in doubles match.

On the men's side, Chris Daniels and John Silva played doubles against Australia and lost 6-0; 6-1. Lee Cook and Jim Crane were defeated in the doubles match by Australia as well, their score 6-0; 6-0. For men's singles, USA will not advance to the quarterfinals or semifinals. Daniels and Hume lost in mixed doubles but there's still hope for Konoski and Silva on January 9.

Russia was USA's competitor in Rome so the anticipation was high this year, especially with the women's 4x200m freestyle relay on January 8. The relay team consisted of Stephanie Danner, Seda Ozdemir, Carly Robinson and Caitlin Morgan. Russia won, breaking USA's world record from the Bulgaria Games in 1992. Their time was 9:06 and USA came in second at 9:19. They received a silver medal.

The women swam impressively in their respective individual events that same night. Robinson came in fourth, clocking at 1:08 in the 100m butterfly finals. Kristin Ates came in fourth in the 200m breaststroke, her time being 3:01.

USA men swimmers were up against world-record holder Terrence Parkin in two events. Jonathan Tikhonoff came across Parkin in the 400m freestyle. In the previous round, both got first and second place in their times, so all eyes were on them for the final race. Parkin won the 400m with a time of 4:07.46, beating his own Deaflympics record of 4:08.50. Jonathan Fidrych came in first with a 4.26 in the 400m freestyle but not a medal, since the other race containing Parkin and Dale Parker contained of faster times than him, bumping him past third place. In the same race, aymond Clark came in fourth with 4.29.

In the 50m breaststroke, Parker competed against Parkin as well and held up his own ground. Parkin's time was 29.36, setting a new world record. Parker's time was an impressive 30.62, earning him a bronze medal.

The Americans went into this game full of hope because the team pulled off an exciting first-round victory against gold-winners Italy four years ago. Several of the USA players at that game are part of the team here in Melbourne, including Josh Reiher, Mike Higgins, Mike Lawson, and Christos Nicholas. Loyal fans supported the team, watching and cheering them on.

Despite two Italy players ganging up on him, Adam Ramey scores USA's only goal.

The first half was tense, with the Americans dominating and hitting hard. The Italians seemed tentative and tried to outwit the USA team. The US had many good runs but shot over the net. About the 23rd minute, Italy brought the ball forward and a player was taken down hard in the box. Italy scored on a penalty kick. Towards the end of the first half, Italy scored again.

In the second half the Italians stepped up the pressure and scored three more. With about 8 minutes left Adam Ramey scored on a header. Stand-out players for the USA team included DJ Rowse and Matt Eby.

USA will compete for between ninth to twelfth place on January 12, their fans in tow.

Virginia Keeler earns a hat trick as she racks up a total of 5 goals in 2 games while teammate Katie Romano trails by 1 goal as USA Women defeats Norway 5 – 0. USA Kelli Beechy collects 2 assists marking a total of 3 assists in 2 games while Lindsey Dolich adds another assist under her belt.

First (1st) place USA Women will face a formidable Russians on Monday at 9:30am (local time in Melbourne) at Green Gully Reserve who trail with 4 team points with Great Britain trailing in 3rd place.

USA faces host Australia on Tuesday, 11 Jan at 18:00 at Kingston Heath Reserve, Heatherton and its final qualifying game against Great Britain on Thursday, 13 Jan at 16:00 at Kingston Heath Reserve, Heatherton. Top four (4) team will advance to the single elimination round on Friday, 14 Jan at the Olympic Park.

Chris Stehle looks for an open teammate to drive the ball into the net.

The USA water polo's opening game was January 8 against Hungary. The team consisted of seven players and no subs. So the team worked doubly hard during the game. They struggled with defense but worked well as a team where offense was concerned.

During the first period, Chris Prewitt and Thomsen Young, both scored one goal each in the opponent's net and the end of the period showed a 5-2 score. In second period, the Hungary starter got the ball before USA starter Young was able to. Hungary tried to score the ball in almost immediately but that attempt was unsuccessful due to goalie Josh Allmann's save.

Young scored the third goal with six minutes to go in the third period. USA's challenge was their defense against Hungary but they coordinated well on the offense side. Greg Marecek scored the fourth goal with 4:30 to go in third period. Then Chris Stehle scored a goal with 2:30 left, bringing the period to an end with 14-5. The fourth period did not produce much result for either team with scoring. Young got a ball in the net during fourth period, then when the buzzer sounded, the final tally was 15-6 in Hungary's favor.