The Official Site of Misty May

Thu, Jul 24th 2008, 11:25

May-Treanor, Walsh victory tour hits LB

The Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh world tour requires a good travel agent.

The best women’s beach volleyball team since the sport began kicking up sand won its latest Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) tourney in that traditional bastion of volleyball – Brooklyn – over the weekend and Monday night stopped by the White House to meet President and Laura Bush in a special Olympian dinner.

They will be here, in May-Treanor’s adopted hometown of Long Beach, for the AVP Crocs Slam Bud Light Long Beach Open stop on Marina Green starting Friday before heading to Beijing, China, to seek their second Olympic Games gold medal.

It’s likely their last competition before the Olympics. The next AVP date is the following weekend in San Diego, but they are scheduled to begin Olympic play in China on Aug. 10.

Winning and traveling has become second nature for May-Treanor, who led Long Beach State to the 1998 NCAA women’s volleyball title, and Walsh, the former Stanford standout. The win in Brooklyn was their 12th of the season, nine of them coming in AVP events played in eight different states and three in international FIVB tournaments in Norway, Paris and Berlin. They’re an international sandstorm.

They’ve now won a record 17 straight tournaments and 96 consecutive matches, breaking all-time marks they first set in 2003-2004 when they won 15 tournaments and 89 matches culminating in the Olympics in Athens.

May-Treanor has now won 101 tournaments to become the first woman to eclipse triple-digits and fifth person all-time in the sport, joining legends Karch Kiraly (148), Sinjin Smith (139), Randy Stoklos (122) and Kent Steffes (110).

Walsh needs four more wins to join the list.

They were happy to win in Brooklyn even though most everything they’ve done the past two seasons has been focused on repeating in the Olympics.

“The last few tournaments are all about maintaining and staying healthy,” May-Treanor told reporters after winning in the shadow of Manhattan. “We want to do something that’s never been done before.”