Tokyo, Japan - Team USA shined on Tuesday as a few spectacular women got closer to Olympic glory.

In beach volleyball, "The A-Team" was playing in spectacular form as they outlasted Team Germany's Laura Ludwig and Margareta Kozuch in straight sets, (21-19, 21-19) during their quarterfinal match in the sand. April Ross (39) and Alix Klineman (31) have been rolling on through the Olympic tournament and are now just two matches away from Olympic gold.

Should they survive Thursday's semifinal, the A-Team could play for it all in Friday's gold medal match.

Meanwhile, competing in her final Olympic games, track and field star Allyson Felix moved closer to history as she won her heat in the 400-meter event, crossing the finish line in 50.84 seconds. The 35-year-old six-time gold-medalist is on her way to becoming the winningest women's track and field athlete of all time if she can medal in this event, during her fifth Olympic appearance.

"I'm so excited to get out here... I feel good. The first one, it's always nice to get it out of the way and on to the semi," said Felix in her post-race comments to NBC Sports.

The semifinals of the women's 400-meter race will be on Wednesday.

And not to go unnoticed was some record-breaking was done on the men's side in the 400-meter hurdles on Tuesday. American runner Rai Benjamin broke the previous world record in the event, but he wasn't the first one to cross the line. Slightly ahead of him was Norway's Karsten Warholm, who won gold and is the new record holder with an incredible 45.94 seconds.

"It’s just so big. It’s almost like history here. It was the only thing missing from my collection. I had a world championships (gold). I had European championships, I had the world record, the European record. The Olympic gold medal is what everybody talks about. I knew this race was going to be the toughest of my life, but I was ready," Warholm said.

Benjamin earned silver at 46.17, while Brazil's Alison dos Santos got the bronze medal with 46.72.