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Kessy/Ross breakthrough at worlds
In 2008, Americans Jen Kessy and April Ross battled Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs up to the end of Olympic qualifying for the second U.S. women's spot in Beijing. Kessy and Ross ultimately lost, but it turns out that could've been for the better. Missing the Games, they immediately declared their next goal to be winning the 2009 FIVB world title -- and they accomplished just that in July. The duo lost only two sets the entire tournament, and took the gold medal match in straight sets over Brazil's Larissa Franca and Juliana Silva, who went on to win the FIVB season title. Kessy and Ross ended the year with three FIVB titles (and five AVP crowns), but the most-cherished was the world title. Related content: Story | Photos | Video |
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Brink/Reckermann breakthrough at worlds and beyond
Germany's Julius Brink and Christoph Dieckmann ended the '08 season second in the FIVB world rankings, but the duo split when Dieckmann's lingering knee problems made him question his future. So the 6-foot-1 Brink picked up the tallest player in Germany, 6-7 Jonas Reckermann. The new tandem thrived immediately, winning bronze and gold in its first two events and taking fourth place in its third. Brink and Reckermann then won the world title in just their fourth tournament together. It may have looked like a fluke at the time, as it marked the first beach volleyball world title ever won by Europeans, but the Germans immediately proved worthy by winning the following two Grand Slam events. Their four FIVB wins propelled them to the overall season title -- the first time that honor has gone to a German duo, and only the second time it was awarded to Europe in the 21-year history of the FIVB. Related content: Story | Photos | Video |
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Larissa/Juliana become elite with eight
German men broke out on the men's side and a new U.S. duo took the women's world title, but don't let that imply the Brazilians weren't a factor this season. Three men's teams won four events, and two women's duos won 12 events. Eight of those 12 were captured by Juliana and Larissa, the 2009 Worlds silver medalists, who became the first team -- men's or women's -- to win eight FIVB events in a season. They easily secured their fourth season title as a team, as they appeared in the final at 10 of 13 events. Three times in a final Juliana and Larissa defeated compatriots Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes, a duo that won four events and made seven finals in its first season. And twice in a final Juliana and Larissa dispatched Kessy and Ross, who played in the final at seven of the 12 FIVB events they entered. Related content: Story | Photos | Video |
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Walsh gets back on beach with a baby
When Kerri Walsh announced four months after the 2008 Olympics that she was pregnant with her first child, few were surprised. She talked openly in Beijing about wanting to start a family with husband Casey Jennings once the season was over. It turned out she actually finished the season after having conceived in Beijing, and she gave birth to Joseph Michael on May 22. Many figured she'd continue to sit the season out, especially because longtime partner Misty May-Treanor was taking the year off to recover from an Achilles injury. But barely two and a half months later -- or 77 days to be exact -- Walsh was back on the beach playing in the AVP Hermosa Beach Open. She partnered with Rachel Wacholder, who gave birth to a son on April 3. Walsh appeared in the final six stops on the AVP Tour -- four with Wacholder, one with Holly McPeak, and the season finale with May-Treanor, who made her return for the inaugural AVP World Challenge, which pitted the U.S. vs. Brazil. Despite not playing together all season, Walsh and May-Treanor won four of their five matches at the event, losing only in the women's final to Brazil's Larissa and Juliana, the top-ranked team in the world. Related content: Story | Video |
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Rogers/Dalhausser lead U.S. at AVP World Challenge
As the only countries in the world able to sustain a domestic beach volleyball tour, Brazil and the U.S. have long staked claim to being the sport's supreme nation. In the short history of Olympic beach volleyball, Brazil owns nine medals to the United States' seven, but the U.S. boasts five gold medals to Brazil's two. So in a gesture to settle the friendly debate -- at least for a year -- new AVP CEO Jason Hodell introduced the AVP World Challenge: USA vs. Brazil. It put four of the best men's and women's teams from Brazil up against four of the best men's and women's teams from the U.S. The event may have featured May-Treanor and Walsh rejoining forces, but the tournament was won by Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, whose win over Alison Cerutti and Harley Marques in the men's final sealed the crown for the Americans. It capped another stellar season for Rogers and Dalhausser, the 2008 Olympic champs who won nine AVP events and two FIVB events in 2009. Related content: Story | Photos |
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Branagh/Youngs bring in the money
When it was learned that May-Treanor and Walsh would sit out the 2009 season -- or at least a majority of it -- suffice it to say a few women envisioned more prosperous seasons for themselves. Kessy and Ross benefitted, as they won their first-ever AVP title in Houston this year, then captured their first-ever world title, a crown May-Treanor and Walsh took at the three previous world championships. But arguably gaining the most was Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs, the dynamic duo's closest rival. In their first two full seasons together ('06 and '07), Branagh and Youngs won five AVP tournaments. In 2009, they matched that total in the first six events, then won nine AVP events overall. Of the 13 regular stops on tour (not including the events in Las Vegas, an individual tourney, or Glendale, a U.S.-Brazil challenge), Branagh and Youngs appeared in every final. Should May-Treanor and Walsh return together, they may take back some of those titles, but they can't touch the career-high earnings both Branagh and Youngs brought in this year. Related content: Story | Video |
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Dutch duo ends with a trio
Almost nearly as surprising as the early-season surge of Germany's Brink and Reckermann this year was the late-season charge by the Netherlands' Richard Schuil and Reinder Nummerdor. The Dutchmen were thought to be the strongest European tandem entering the season, but got off to a relatively slow start because Schuil's wedding in June limited their training time. They picked up their first FIVB medal of the year -- a bronze -- in early August, then finished the month with gold in Finland and at home in the Netherlands. The tour took nearly two months off before staging its final men's event in China, but Schuil and Nummerdor won there as well, defeating hosts Wu Penggen and Xu Linyin in the final. The 36-year-old Schuil was named Most Outstanding Player at each of the tourneys they won, which tied him for the most MOP honors on the season with Brazil's Harley. Related content: Story | Photos | Video |
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Gibb/Rosenthal get on Manhattan pier
In 2008, Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal established themselves as the clear No. 2 U.S. men's team. They won three AVP events in '08, one FIVB tournament, and placed a solid fifth in the Beijing Games. The year 2009 didn't go as well ... or did it? The tandem won only one tournament all season, but it was arguably the biggest one: the AVP Manhattan Beach Open. It marked the second time Gibb got his name on the beach's famed pier, but it was the first for Rosenthal, who grew up just down the strand in Redondo Beach. Rosenthal, who has the rowdiest fan club on tour and is hailed by many as the most athletic player on tour, was the star of the final, racking up 24 kills and 17 digs, both match highs. "I love this guy to death," Gibb said of Rosenthal after the win. "To have my name with his on that pier, there's nothing like it." Related content: Story | Photos |
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Swiss interupt Brazilian-American dominance
While there's decent parity in the men's international game -- seven teams from five countries took titles this year -- there's not so much on the women's side, where four teams from three countries won gold medals in 2009. And of the 16 women's tournaments this year, exactly half were won by one team (Juliana/Larissa) and 75 percent were won by one country (Brazil). Three other events were won by the American world champions, Kessy and Ross, leaving only one event that produced a surprise women's winner. At the season's penultimate event in China, land-locked Switzerland broke through for its first-ever women's top-level FIVB gold medal. Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr became the first Swiss women to even compete in an FIVB World Tour gold medal match, then upset Kessy and Ross to win the gold. The field didn't feature any Brazilians, but the Swiss defeated the reigning world champions for a gold medal that will forever remain in the record books. Related content: Story | Photos |
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Jennings/Fuerbringer close but no semifinal
The U.S. men are formidable, no doubt, but other than Rogers and Dalhausser, no American men have ever really won consistently internationally. And only once before -- at the first FIVB Worlds in 1997 -- had the U.S. put two men's teams in the worlds semifinals. They were incredibly close to doing that this year in Stavanger, though. With Rogers and Dalhausser already in, 17th-seeded Casey Jennings and Matt Fuerbringer advanced to the quarterfinals, where they lost their first game against top-seeded Harley and Alison of Brazil. In what would be the highest-scoring set of the season -- and tied for the third highest-scoring men's set in FIVB history -- Jennings and Fuerbringer took the second game 37-35. (Remember: First and second sets are played to 21, the third to 15, and a team has to win by two.) The teams played long in the third set too, but the Brazilians prevailed, 17-15. The close-but-not-enough performance was reminiscent of 2008, when Jennings and Fuerbringer were narrowly edged out for the second U.S. men's Olympic berth. It also somewhat epitomized how American men's teams (minus Rogers and Dalhausser) fare against the rest of the world -- they hang but struggle to get over the edge. |
