Holdren and Metzger, a Punahou graduate, lost 21-16, 21-19 to Switzerland's Patric Heuscher and Stefan Kobel. Metzger and Holdren were the last American men left in a sport in which U.S. men had won gold at the past two Games.

"Our key was to go after Stefan on the right side, to serve him and challenge him," Metzger said. "He got himself out of trouble many times, and I made a few unforced errors on sideout.

"And I think they were in really good shape today. The heat was a big factor, and we weren't able to play with the same energy we normally do. When we've won our best games against our toughest teams, we're usually pretty energized."

The beach was so unbearable before the match warmups were delayed so volunteers could water the sand, where the temperature reached 107 degrees. Only a breeze from the nearby Saronic Gulf provided relief. The match lasted 43 minutes.

"We see them as indoor guys who converted to beach," said Metzger, who had 17 kills. "We consider ourselves beach players. So we really tried to play the beach game, give them some deep floaters, challenge their setting, serve them short so they had to move the ball and control it a little more.

"But it wasn't enough today. They played well."

The Swiss duo was seeded fifth in the Olympics and is ranked fourth in the world. Metzger and Holdren were seeded 12th and are ranked 18th. But they had beaten the Swiss in the quarterfinals of the 2003 worlds en route to a second-place finish.

The U.S. never led in the first game. The second was tied 11 times, the last at 18. Metzger, 31, walked away satisfied with the effort, if not the result.

"It's been a great experience," he said of his first Olympics. "And to do it with somebody like Dax is really special, because we've gotten along really well personally. That really helps. I think you'll notice that some of the teams out here can't stand each other, even the brothers. So that just makes the whole experience that much better."