Both Spc. Alex Love and Spc. Melissa Parker are no strangers to the national boxing stage; each have won national tournaments, but never at the 119-pound class, where both fought in this week's event in Spokane, Washington.

Parker scored a fourth-round TKO over California's Marisol Lopez in Wednesday's preliminary round, then notched a 3-0 decision over Arizona's Kathy McPherson on Thursday to reach the semis. Her Army World Class Athlete Program teammate earned a bye through the prelims, then took out Amanda Pavone of Massachusetts 2-1 in the quarterfinal round.

But the Army pair's run would end at the hands of two established rivals: Parker fell to 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Marlen Esparza via 3-0 decision, and Love lost to Virginia Fuchs by the same margin, setting up a finals meeting between Esparza and Fuchs for the third straight year. Esparza remained perfect in those showdowns via 3-0 decision Saturday night.

While only the top two finishers in the tourney earned automatic bids in Team USA's Olympic trial, two more qualifying tournaments will be held in the coming months, with the top three boxers in each event filling out an eight-woman field of Olympic hopefuls.

The same qualifying procedures are in place for the 132-pound class, where Pfc. Rianna Rios reached the quarterfinals thanks to a 3-0 decision over New York's Alexandria Williams in Wednesday's prelims. Rios fell to California's Lisa Porter in the round of eight the next day.

Sgt. Felisha Estrada Gonzalez, the least-experienced boxer in the Army quartet, fell in the preliminary round to Mioshia Wagoner of Kansas, who went on to lose to Porter in the semifinals.

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