Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Anxiously awaiting reunion


Americans Kerri Walsh, right, and Misty May celebrate a victory over Brazil's Adriana Behar and Shelda Kelly at the beach volleyball World Tour final in Gstaad, Switzerland. 
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Chris Duncan Associated Press

BELMAR, N.J. — Misty May and Kerri Walsh were once unbeatable in beach volleyball, winning 90 consecutive matches and 15 straight tournaments from July 2003 to last spring.

The streak ended only after May pulled an abdominal muscle, and now rivals sense vulnerability in the world’s top-ranked tandem, which will be digging for gold at the Athens Games.

“I don’t see an aura of invincibility. I don’t think they’ll dominate like they have been,” said Holly McPeak, who became the sport’s winningest female player this summer.

McPeak and partner Elaine Youngs won a duel with 2000 Olympians Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan to earn the second American berth in Athens.

May played through her injury for three weeks in June, then sat out a month to let it heal. The 2000 Olympian said in early July she would rejoin Walsh at a tournament in Hermosa Beach in late July.

“I’m just being conservative, playing it safe. We’ll be fine,” May said as she mingled with beach-goers at Belmar, N.J., a stop on the AVP tour.

But Walsh is a little nervous, fighting the daily urge to call her partner for an update.

“We’re invested in each other, so what she’s feeling, it affects me,” Walsh said. “She puts me at ease when she answers my questions.”

With May sidelined and Walsh playing with substitute partners, McPeak and Youngs emerged as medal contenders. The pair won five tournaments between May 30 and July 10, including a victory over Walsh and Jennifer Meredith in the championship match at Belmar.

American women have never won a beach volleyball medal.

May and McPeak teamed for a fifth-place finish in Sydney. Afterward, May told McPeak she wanted a new partner.

“I just wanted to step back and learn the game at a slower pace,” May said.

Walsh was a member of the 2000 indoor team that finished fourth in Sydney. She was soured by the experience and decided to try the beach.

Family members and friends suggested they become partners and the duo earned five top 10 finishes in 2001 and earned $111,750.

“For the first year, we did very well,” May said.

The strongest international challengers in Athens are expected to be Brazilian pairs Shelda Bede-Adriana Behar and Ana Paula Connelly-Sandra Pires.

Bede and Behar, the 2000 silver medalists in Sydney, are the top two all-time money winners on the FIVB, an international tour. They’ve won two events this year and haven’t finished out of the top three in six starts.

Connelly and Pires were the last two to beat May and Walsh before their 90-match winning streak began. Pires won the 1996 gold medal with Jackie Silva and a bronze in 2000 with Adriana Samuel. Connelly will make her Olympic debut after teaming with Pires for the 2003 FIVB money title.

The Brazilians are established international powers on the men’s side as well — except in the Olympics. Brazilian tandems were the gold-medal favorites in 1996 and 2000, but have only a silver medal to show for it.

Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos are the world’s top-ranked team heading to Athens. Emanuel is the all-time money leader on the FIVB tour, but he has failed to reach even the quarterfinals in two previous Olympic Games. Americans Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana upset Ricardo and Ze Marco de Melo to win the gold medal in 2000.

Blanton is back this year, but Fonoimoana is not. They never won again after their unexpected run in Sydney, and Blanton teamed with former indoor Olympian Jeff Nygaard.

They haven’t finished better than seventh in an international event this year as Nygaard has struggled with back pain.

Blanton said he and Nygaard, a two-time Olympian with the indoor team, have an important intangible that gives them a shot: experience.

“The Olympics eats some people alive and it can mess them up and take them out of their games,” Blanton said. “If we do what we need to do and play to our potential, I have no question we will have an opportunity to bring home a medal.”

Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger locked up the second American berth on July 3.