AVP.com Article from the Chicago Open

.."byline"-->They hadn't eaten in hours, they were running solely on adrenaline and had to play four straight matches with less than 30 minutes of rest in between.

Yet Hans Stolfus and Ty Loomis still made their first semifinals of the 2007 season, coming painfully close to reaching the final in the McDonald's AVP Chicago Open presented by Nautica.

The pair attributed much of their recent success to their trip to the Pan American Games last month, when they took the silver medal after losing the gold medal match to one of the top men's teams in the world — Brazilians Ricardo Santos and Emanuel Rego.

Since the games were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Stolfus and Loomis were the perpetual underdogs, receiving an unwelcome reception replete with boos from the crowd all tournament long.

"I think that playing in that kinda environment takes the pressure off," said Stolfus, who was warmly cheered in all his matches in Chicago. "Just playing in that kind of an environment and that kind of a crowd and having everybody boo you for entire matches."

But Stolfus and Loomis were still relieved to come back to their home turf and play their game on American soil.

"Obviously there's still pressure and we've never made a final, so it's exciting just to be in these [AVP] tournaments," said Stolfus of his homecoming.

Friday play started off slowly for the duo, who lost their second game of the tournament to Nick Lucena-Mark Williams, 21-16, 21-15.

After dropping into the contender's bracket, they closed out Friday on a high note, steadily improving their play. Their momentum continued on Saturday, culminating in their fourth straight match of the day in the semifinals.

Facing Brad Keenan and John Hyden — who were the eventual runner-ups in Chicago — Loomis and Stolfus absolutely owned the first game of the match, 21-15. But then something happened and they could not continue their high level of play to close out the match, losing the next two games, 21-15, 15-12.

"We played god-awful [on Friday] and then we kept getting better and better and better until we just kind of ran out of gas in that game, which is unfortunate," said Stolfus. "It was our fourth straight and then we played five [on Saturday] to get where we are today."

Their run in the semifinals was impressive considering all their setbacks. A group of hecklers taunted both sides of the net, adding another factor to the mix. Stolfus amazingly was able to remain confident and calm, telling his partner that every setback was no big deal even as he took a break in the match to grab a snack since he and Loomis never found time to grab lunch.

Stolfus kept up his usual witty humor, declaring at one point across the net, "Brad, you're on fire. Stop." And then Loomis took over and knocked down two blocks to get his side within reach in the third game, a contest in which they started out on the wrong side of a 6-3 score.

But ultimately, the victory was not in the cards this time for the Pan Am silver medalists. After his first semifinal appearance of the 2007, Stolfus still remained optimistic and hopeful about future tournaments.

"I think every tournament is a different tournament, so for us to go out and expect to do the same next time is a little unrealistic," said Stolfus. "I just think that we need to go out and play every match and you never know the draw and you never know where you're gonna be seeded. So I'd love to have finishes like this the rest of the year, but that'd be too good to be true."

After reflecting on his comment, he finally added, "You never know, it's possible."