The U.S. women's softball team, seemingly on another roll to an Olympic gold medal, may run into its toughest test yet today against Japan. Japan, coming off a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics, gave the Americans their toughest battle in Athens with a 3-0 victory in eight innings and has defeated the American team twice since then. Both the USA and Japan had tough victories against Australia in recent days.

OLYMPIC UTAHNS

Baseball

• Matt Brown hit a solo home run in the second inning, with the first baseman going 2-for-2 with two walks in the United States' 8-0 victory over The Netherlands (0-2). Pitcher Kevin Jepsen didn't play for the U.S. (1-1)

• Ryan Radmanovich went hitless in his one at-bat as a substitute designated hitter, and Steve Green struck out two and walked two while pitching the eighth inning for Canada (1-1) in a 7-6 loss to Cuba (2-0).

Men's basketball

• Deron Williams logged five points, three assists and two rebounds and Carlos Boozer added four points and an assist as the United States (3-0) clobbered Greece (1-2) 92-69. The win avenged Greece's upset of the U.S. in the semifinals of the 2006 World Championships semifinals.

• Andrei Kirilenko scored 17 points — but only shot 3-of-9 from the floor and 10-of-19 from the line — and added six rebounds, six steals, six assists and three blocks. However, Russia (1-2) fell to Lithuania (3-0) by a 86-79 score.

• A couple of Beijing Olympic firsts in this game — Andrew Bogut broke into double figures with 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds, while Australia (1-2) picked up a much-needed victory by whipping Iran (0-3), 106-68.

• Raul Lopez once again started but finished with only five-plus minutes of court time and three points as Spain (3-0) downed Germany (1-2), 72-59.

Beach volleyball

Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal finished Group F play with a perfect 3-0 mark and advanced to a Round of 16 match Saturday. But they had to go the three-set distance in downing the Japanese side of Katsuhiro Shiratori and Kentaro Asahi 21-15, 19-21, 18-16 for the win.

Men's volleyball