Walsh, partner queens of the beach

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Sep 26, 2006 | by Rick Chandler, CORRESPONDENT

STATELINE, Nev. -- Never in her wildest dreams did Kerri Walsh think her future in volleyball would involve sand and suntan lotion.

"My whole life I had consciously avoided beach volleyball," said the former Stanford All-American, who led the Cardinal to two national championships in the indoor version of the sport. "I was just terrible at it. But when one of the top players in the world asks you to be her teammate, you put all of that aside."

That would be Misty May-Treanor, Walsh's current Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) teammate, and the wife of Florida Marlins catcher Matt Treanor. So Walsh dedicated herself to learning the beach game -- which wasn't easy at first -- and now the two are hailed as possibly the best women's beach volleyball team in the world.

And that's no small deal these days.

Walsh and May-Treanor won the gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games, and the pair has parlayed that notoriety to stardom on the AVP circuit, which has become a symbiotic relationship to be sure. Walsh has earned more than $1 million at beach volleyball in her career, while in turn, the AVP has greatly benefited by being able to promote a pair of Olympic gold-medal winners in its ranks.

"The Tour has grown every single way possible," Walsh said. "We're starting to see a lot of new faces, as kids from college are starting to move straight to the beach, instead of pursuing other avenues."

Walsh, 28, grew up in Santa Clara, played her college volleyball at Stanford and now resides in Redondo Beach. But she considers the Lake Tahoe area her home away from home, an edge in familiarity that her AVP Tour opponents were not all that thrilled to see.

"I have family in Incline Village, and a lot of my husband's family lives in Reno," Walsh said. "Being able to play here in the mountains on the Tour is a dream come true. It's good for my game and good for the soul."

Indeed, Walsh is living the dream on the professional beach volleyball circuit. The two-time member of NCAA championship teams at Stanford traded hardwood and gymnasiums for sun and sand five years ago, and it took only three years for her to reach the heights as an Olympic gold medal winner.

"What Misty and I accomplished in 2004 was great timing," Walsh said of the gold medal. "AVP is working so hard to grow the brand, and they were able to put us in the forefront. We were honored to be put out there as sort of ambassadors of the sport."

No one is forgetting that AVP beach volleyball is a sport that went bankrupt in 1997, and has clawed its way back. The Tour had six events in 1998, and is now up to 15 -- the last of the season being the Best of the Beach tournament in Lake Tahoe last week, which Walsh and May-Treanor won. And while only an elite group of men and women can claim to be making a good living at it, earnings for the lower-tier players are increasing every year.

The Tahoe championship was worth $30,000 to Walsh and May- Treanor, out of a total purse of $200,000. On the men's side, in which the same amount of prize money was at stake, the team of Todd Rogers and Phil Delhausser defeated Dax Holdren and Sean Scott 20- 22, 21-19, 15-9.

Former Stanford All-American Mike Lambert, who was teaming with Stein Metzger (from UCLA), was beaten in the semifinals by Dax Holdren and Sean Scott 19-21, 21-19, 15-10.

Walsh, only the second player in NCAA history to receive first- team All-American honors all four seasons (1996-1999), was also the first player in Pacific-10 Conference history to record 1,500 kills (1,553), 1,200 digs (1,285) and 500 blocks (502). After graduation she began training for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney -- but on the indoor U.S. National team, where as a right-side hitter she helped the U.S. to the medal round, where it finished fourth. May-Treanor, meanwhile, teamed with Holly McPeak in beach volleyball, where the pair finished fifth in Sydney.

"After Syndey, I was looking for a change of pace," Walsh said. "I heard that Misty was looking for a partner in beach volleyball, so I decided to give that a try."

Not that Walsh had any high expectations.

"There's so much more responsibility in beach volleyball," Walsh said. "Any weaknesses you might have in the indoor game, you can hide them. But you can't hide your weaknesses outdoors. It's you and your partner against the world."

Walsh adapted to the point where some are calling her the best beach volleyball player in the history of the sport. She is a two- time AVP MVP, and was named Best Offensive Player in 2003. Walsh and May-Treanor teamed in 2001 and have been nearly unbeatable since. From July 2003 to June of 2004 they won 15 consecutive tournament titles, including 90 consecutive matches. And Sunday's championship marked the 36th consecutive match victory for the world's top- ranked duo. They won 14 of the Tour's 16 events this season.

"It's never anticlimactic," said Walsh, whose team prevailed 21- 14, 21-15 over Rachel Wacholder and Jen Boss in the Tahoe championship. "You never know what's going to happen, and you enjoy every single win. It never gets old."