MAY & WALSH CONTINUE WINNING STREAK BLANTON & NYGAARD SECURE BEST 2004 FINISH

Dain Blanton Photo: Ken Delgado Jeff Nygaard Photo: Ken Delgado Misty May-Treanor Photo: Ken Delgado Kerri Walsh Photo: Ken Delgado AUSTIN, TEX. – The “beat goes on” for Misty May and Kerri Walsh, the world’s top-ranked women’s beach volleyball team, but the “good” news for the United States’ Olympic hopes was a pair of wins here Saturday (May 1) by Dain Blanton and Jeff Nygaard during the first of two days of championship play in the Association of Volleyball Professionals’ $125,000 Austin Open. While May and Walsh are the United States’ main hope a medal at the 2004 Olympics, Blanton and Nygaard showed why they are America’s top-ranked team heading into the Athens Games by advancing to Sunday’s final rounds with a 2-0 mark to guarantee them a least a fifth-place finish this weekend after placing 17th, 17th, ninth and ninth in their first four events this season. May and Walsh won their only two matches Saturday to extend their overall victory string to 71, including 51-straight wins on the domestic tour. Winners of 12-straight event titles, the top-seeded May (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Walsh (Saratoga, Calif.) defeated the teams of 17th-seeded Tanya Fuamatu/Heide Ilustre (21-9 and 21-10) and eighth-seeded Barbra Fontana/Jennifer Kessy (21-13 and 21-10). The top-seeded May and Walsh will play fifth-seeded Lisa Arce and Leanne McSorley Sunday at 9 a.m. for a spot in the semi-finals. Second-seeded Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs, who have finished second to May and Walsh in the first two AVP events this season in Florida and Arizona, face third-seeded Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan in the other semi-final qualifying match to open play Sunday. Davis (Tarzana, Calif.) and Johnson Jordan (Tarzana, Calif.), the fifth-place finishers at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, are competing with McPeak and Youngs for the United States’ second spot in the women’s beach volleyball competition at the Athens 2004 Games. McPeak (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Youngs (Durango, Colo.) currently lead Davis and Johnson Jordan for the second USA Olympic berth by 26 points entering the next month’s SWATCH-FIVB World Tour event in Greece. McPeak is seeking to become the first American to play in all three Olympic beach volleyball competitions while Youngs was a 1996 U.S. Indoor Olympian. May and Walsh scored a 21-11 and 21-11 win over McPeak and Youngs to capture the $14,500 first-place prize April 4 in Fort Lauderdale. In the Tempe finale last Sunday, May and Walsh won their 11-straight domestic event by defeating McPeak and Youngs for the 13th-time in 15 career meetings 21-12 and 21-19. With a domestic pro beach volleyball tour returning to Austin for the first-time since 1997, McPeak was a part of the last three winning teams (1995-97) in Austin when competing on the Women’s Pro Volleyball Association Tour. She won the 1995 and 1996 titles with Nancy Reno and the 1997 championship with Arce. The seventh-seeded Blanton (Laguna Beach, Calif.) and Nygaard (Madison, Wis.) defeated 10th-seeded Brian Lewis and Jose Loiola 21-14 and 21-12 to open play Saturday before advancing to Sunday’s second of two men’s semi-final-qualifying matches by defeating second-seeded Karch Kiraly and Mike Lambert 21-19 and 21-19. Blanton and Nygaard, who were eliminated from the Tempe competition last Saturday by Kiraly and Lambert (21-13, 20-22 and 23-21 in 75 minutes), play sixth-seeded Matt Fuerbringer and Casey Jennings in an opening winner’s bracket match Sunday. Top-seeded Todd Rogers and Sean Scott, who defeated Kiraly and Lambert for the Tempe title, play 12th-seeded Adam Jewell and Jake Gibb in another winner’s bracket match Sunday. Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Scott (Kaliua, Hi.) advanced to Sunday’s play with two wins Saturday, including a 21-14 and 21-7 win over ninth-seeded Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger in a match featuring two of the other four teams competing for the second United States men’s berth in Athens. Holdren and Metzger handed Rogers and Scott their only setback in Tempe with a 13-21, 21-19 and 15-12 win last Saturday. Holdren (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Metzger (Honolulu, Hi.), who trail Rogers and Scott by 136 points on the United States Olympic qualification list, play 21st-seeded Philip Dalhausser and Nick Lucena in an opening elimination match Sunday. Holdren and Rogers are seeking to advance to their first “final four” this season after concluding the 2003 season placing second in the FIVB World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The teams of Eric Fonoimoana/Kevin Wong and Fuerbringer/Jennings are still in contention for a spot in Athens as they rank fourth and fifth, respectively, on the American qualifying list. Blanton and Fonoimoana won the gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and split their partnership near the end of the 2001 season. While Fuerbringer (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and Jennings (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) were winning both of their matches Saturday, Fonoimoana (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and Wong (Pearl City, Hi.) had to win three elimination contests after losing their opening match. For the second-straight week, Fonoimoana and Wong play Kiraly and Lambert in a Sunday elimination match. Kiraly and Lambert scored a 16-21, 21-17 and 15-13 win over the 2004 Olympic hopefuls. Fuerbringer and Jennings are seeking to reach their second final this season after placing second in the Fort Lauderdale opener where they dropped the title match to Sean Rosenthal and Larry Witt, who face 15th-seeded Brent Doble and Ryan Mariano in fourth of four elimination matches to open play Sunday. Fuerbringer and Jennings dropped Rosenthal and Witt into the elimination bracket with a 21-19 and 21-19 win Saturday. The other elimination opener has fourth-seeded Jason Ring and George Roumain being challenged by 24th-seeded Anthony Medel and John Moran, who had to qualify Friday for the championship rounds. Ring and Roumain, who finished third last week in Tempe, fell into the elimination bracket with a 21-19 and 21-17 setback to Jewell and Gibb. Kiraly, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, is seeking his third Austin title. A member of the United States’ Olympic indoor volleyball champions in 1984 and 1998, Kiraly won the 1992 and 1993 Austin events with Kent Steffes before the pair won the beach title at the 1996 Atlanta Games. SWATCH-FIVB WORLD TOUR – The qualifying process for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games resumes May 19-23 with international pro beach volleyball events in Rhodes, Greece and Lianyungang, China. Six women’s teams from the United States will have entered the Rhodes event while four American men’s teams will be in Lianyungang. Misty May and Kerri Walsh will lead the United States contingent into Rhodes Greece event along with the tandems of Holly McPeak/Elaine Youngs, Annett Davis/Jenny Johnson Jordan, Carrie Busch/Nancy Mason, Barbra Fontana/Jennifer Kessy and Paula Roca/Garcia Santana. United States men’s entries for China include Dain Blanton/Jeff Nygaard, Todd Rogers/Sean Scott, Dax Holdren/Stein Metzger and Eric Fonoimoana/Kevin Wong. The Asian event will be the third this season for the men as Rogers/Scott and Metzger/Holdren posted the best American finishes in Brazil and South Africa, respectively, in March. Combined with two domestic titles and a gold medal finish in Brazil in the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour season opener for women in Fortaleza last month, May and Walsh have now won their last 71 matches together while capturing their 12th-straight title. The last time May and Walsh dropped a match was last season on July 5 when Ana Paula Connolly and Sandra Pires of Brazil scored a 21-19 and 21-15 win over the Americans in the finals of the Norwegian Open in Stavanger. ~ Tim Simmons

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