SANTA BARBARA -- The good news for Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor is that they won their first three matches Saturday at the AVP Crocs Tour Santa Barbara Open and will play Sunday in the semifinals.

The even better news? Their semifinal doesn't begin until 12:15 p.m. PT Sunday afternoon.

The Golden Girls, it seems, are in need of some Golden Slumbers.

They have been on a whirlwind multi-media tour since winning the Olympic gold medal in Beijing 16 days ago, making appearances on the talk show circuit as well as fulfilling interview requests from seemingly every reporter with a tape recorder and autograph requests from just about every fan with a pen.

Throw in May-Treanor's upcoming appearance on the hit television show Dancing with the Stars and it's no wonder the pair, the first to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in beach volleyball, now needs a security escort at tournaments.

"It's a little overwhelming," said Walsh. "Especially when you have a job to do. We're trying to win a tournament and there's only so much you can give of yourself because you need to keep some reserves when you play."

The top-seeded tandem needed every bit of those reserves when they edged No. 4-seeded Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan, 18-21, 21-15, 19-17, in the third round Saturday.

Davis and Johnson Jordan overcame a 16-10 deficit in the first game, then erased a 9-2 deficit in the third game and tied it at 12-12. They had four match points, but couldn't capitalize and Walsh made them pay with a hard shot down the line to give her team an 18-17 lead -- its first since 12-11.

"That's what they do," Davis said. "They play well when it's down to the wire and they have to play well."

Blowing big leads has become a disturbing trend for Walsh and May-Treanor the last two weeks, especially considering they had gone 111 consecutive matches-more than a year-without losing a match before Elaine Youngs and Nicole Branagh overcame a 13-8 deficit in Game 3 and won the Cincinnati final on Aug. 31.

"I think it's our focus more than anything," Walsh said. "We played good for the first half and then it kind of dwindles and usually it's kind of the opposite. Usually we're more focused at the end."

The difference Saturday was remembering how it felt to lose a week earlier.

"I didn't want to freaking lose," Walsh said. "We were in control. We did that last week and we didn't want that to happen again. We're better than that. We know how to play this game, we know how to win, it's just a matter of focusing."

Davis and Johnson Jordan move into the contender's bracket where they hope a victory will get them a rematch with Walsh and May-Treanor.

"That would be a good thing for us," Davis said.

In other women's action, second-seeded Youngs and Branagh joined May-Treanor and Walsh in the semifinals by winning all three of their matches in straight sets, including a 23-21, 21-19 nail-biter against third-seeded April Ross and Jennifer Boss. Ross and Boss will play fifth-seeded Holly McPeak and Angie Akers with a spot in the semifinals on the line.

A subplot for the weekend is that the Santa Barbara Open is part of the Crocs Cup Shootout-a four-tournament playoff run during which four teams are eliminated each week and the top eight automatically advance to the Manhattan Beach Open to play for a $1 million purse, the richest in AVP history.

Eliminated Saturday because they finished out of the top 12 were Katie and Tracy Lindquist, Angela Lewis and Priscilla Lima, Julie Romias and Lisa Rutledge and Sarah Dukes and Chrissy Zartman.

Those teams won't be able to play next week in San Francisco, but can still enter the qualifier at Manhattan Beach, where teams will be competing to get into the 32-team main draw.

That, however, was a little too far off in the future for Walsh to think about. For now, she's thinking about only one thing.

"Sleep," she said. "That's just about the only free time we have these days."