Fresh off pushing world number one Mol and Sorum from Norway to an achingly close 3-setter, McHugh and Schumann will aim to notch their first win of the Games on Monday afternoon at 4pm AEST.

The ROC pair enter the tournament ninth in beach volleyball Olympic ranking, with Tokyo the third Games for Semenov and Leshukov making his debut.

McHugh and Schumann said their strong performance against dominant net forces Norway gives them confidence heading into Monday’s matchup.

“They’re a tough team, Semenov has been a force on the world tour for a decade and Leshukov is crafty and has a cannon of an arm,” Schumann said.

“We played well against Norway who have a big net presence so we’ll look to do that again - they're going to get some blocks, we’ve just got to be really aggressive, concentrate on making the best shots and hits that we can.

“We’re at the Olympics, every team we’ll face is elite, so we know we’ve got to go in 100% guns blazing to have a chance. We know if we do that, we’re a chance."

“They’re a really talented team,” McHugh agreed. “I think our game style matches up very well with them.

“The key to the game is going to be the ball movement. We need to get Semenov to move around a lot, which puts a lot of pressure on us to play our way and back our game in.

“We’ve got a good array of skills in our game that can affect them negatively.”

With the top two teams from each pool advancing to the next round, along with the two best third-place finishers, the Aussies know this matchup is crucial. 

“We’re backed into a corner and the only way out is to go 100%, that’s actually a really good place to be,” Schumann said,

You can catch the matchup live and free on Seven and 7Plus at 4pm AEST.

Dominic Sullivan