The Olympics has got me all geared up for more beach volleyball, especially on the female side. I'm excited that the McDonald's Chicago Open September 2-5 at North Avenue Beach will have the finals broadcast live on NBC. We don't see enough live beach volleyball events, as most of them are tape delayed on FSN.

I'm hoping for another stellar May/Walsh and McPeak/Youngs final.

And for the female fans, I think we'll see the absense of those stupid and ugly men's tank tops.

Are May-Walsh confirmed to play in the Chicago Open? I could see them taking a well-deserved R&R after the Olympics. That would sure suck for NBC.

I checked out avp.com, the official volleyball tour website. They're scheduled to compete, plus they're the defending champions, so I'm sure they'll be there.

I saw a rerun of the Manhattan Beach open on FSN this afternoon. This was a tourney back in June where May injured her abdomen again and had to pull out. So Walsh played in the final with a girl named Rachel Wacholder against McPeak and Youngs. Interesting to note that I didn't detect any butt slapping at all!

ETA: I just spoke with someone who was actually at that Manhattan Beach tourney. May did get injured and had to pull out. But they still had to play the championship match because of the tv contract. So the AVP organizers picked the hottest female (and the only player with significant boobage) to play with Walsh. Hee. I'm not complaining.

So what time is NBC broadcasting this event again? Do we know if it's the women's first or the men's?

2:00 PM EST


I assume that the women's match will be taped and shown before the men's match.
http://www.avp.com/event/gameday.jsp?id=76

I wish they'd broadcast a few European pro circuit games along with beach volleyball. Indoor is more interesting to me.

Dear NBC,

I think we've seen enough features and interviews about Misty May spreading her mom's ashes in Athens.

More shots of MM's booty (or Kerri Walsh slapping it), however, are perfectly acceptable. Thanks.

It never gets old, does it?

I'm glad that beach volleyball is finally getting some national attention, albeit just a small part. How fortunate for the AVP that their top team is made up of two attractive women. I find Holly McPeak attractive also, but not so much once she takes off those sunglasses. Not sure why.

I remember this being on a lot not that long ago...and I'm not talking Olympics. Was this once a big sport?

During the early to mid-90s, I seem to recall that NBC had fairly regular telecasts during the summer. This was back when Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes were the most dominant team in the world, and had pretty much taken over as the icons of beach volleyball from Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos. But yeah, we've seen much less of the sport in recent years.

Also, at this point, the only coverage the women got was on ESPN and their matches were 4-on-4 for some reason. Gabrielle Reece was still competing and not doing terribly well, IIRC. Of course, Misty May and Kerri Walsh were still in high school.

Man oh man, did I feel sorry today for McPeak and Youngs. So close to winning that important first game. Youngs just cracked under the pressure. Serving a ball out when the game is on the line - no excuse. And I hate that stupid hitting on two thing they do. Half the time, Youngs is just trying to lob the ball in there. It'd be a great play if she was more accurate, but she's simply not. When she threw her cap in frustration, she had no one to blame but herself. One day they'll get this monkey off of their backs.

Is it just me, or did the men's final seem a lot slower than the women's? Everything about it was slower - the serves were just easy lobs, the spikes weren't that fast. I dunno, maybe I'm just used to watching the women's game more and find it more exciting since the Olympics. Glad to hear the announcers mention that Kevin Wong isn't very well liked. Confirms my long assumption that the guy is a complete arrogant dickwad.

I know it's Vegas, but a -2500 bet seems ridiculous. Who would bet $1 to win 4 cents?

I remember beach volleyball was cult status like World's Strongest Men. It had hot ladies jumping around and actually recognizable players. I believe there was a video game that had all the popular names and was a best seller. Then all of a sudden, it was gone for no reason (probably monetary reasons, but I'm not sure). I think it was that the game was slow and it was a niche sport. I think it had a revival today not because of the Olympics, but I think it has now more crossover appeal, and a niche sport would actually bring a huge audience this day in age. Also, the sport founded a couple of attractive people to carry the sport in Walsh and May. Now, this is an OT question, but I remember swimmers not being all attractive. Cute, yes, but not bombshells. Do you think swimming have a potential niche with actual bombshells, like beach volleyball?

Kings of the Beach. It rocked. One of the better PC sports games in the early 90s.

I think that you may have been blinking at inopportune moments... like all of those times that Foniomoana cranked out bombs. When most of the men hit their hard spikes, they're going much harder than any women (even Walsh) and they generally use that hard spike (as opposed to the soft placement shots) more frequently than the women. But, you're probably remembering all of Karch's hits, which were very uncharacteristically light because his shoulder is being held together by rubberbands. And, since Karch was served so mercilously, he had more "spikes" than anyone, which did make the match seem a little slower than normal.

However, you're right that the men's serves were really "easy". When they shortened the court a while ago it became really hard to hit aces; so, it seems like most of the players dumped their low percentage top-spin serves for very high percentage "floaters" (which have a kind of nasty knuckleball effect). Compared to those floaters the men were tossing up, Elaine's serves were really fast. She gets a lot of grief for all of her service errors, but you have to give her credit for having bigger "balls" than most of the men.

Does anyone remember back when Sinjin Smith used to whip out the "sky ball" serve on windy days? I loved watching the recievers wander all around the court trying to figure out where it was going to come down. They're hard to hit into the court, but devilishly effective; I wish players used them more often.


Nope. First of all, diving in sand is much sexier than diving into water. Second, swimming isn't anywhere near as exciting as volleyball. Every race is almost exactly the same, only the times really change. It is a bit monotonous.

IIRC, he also did it back when the AVP tour had that ridiculous rally clock (this was back when there were still sideouts and matches tended to go much longer) to run off a few extra seconds.

The change to rally-scoring has definitely made volleyball a lot more TV-friendly, IMO.

Today's "Best of the Beach" malarkey on NBC... check out the post-match congratulations. Kerri Walsh never misses a chance to bring the Ho!Yay, does she? :)

Do you know if they are airing the final matches of the season in two weeks (from Santa Barbara)? It's not on the tv schedule on the AVP website. That would suck if they don't air it.

For those of us who missed it, what happened?

I guess I coul danswer this, huh? Misty and kerri were on opposite teams for this made-for-TV malarkey. Instead of just shaking Misty's hand, Kerri wrapped her leg around Misty and pulled her in for a hug.

Either she did it ten more times in a row or my TiVo acted up; not sure which. :)

Anyway, it's going to be rerun soon on Fox Sports Net. Check ye listings which be local.

This might be the greatest sentence in the history of the English language, ever.

Ahhh!!! McPeak and Youngs fail to beat May and Walsh yet again! And this time they actually tease us by winning the first game, only to lose the next two. I think after all these beatings, McPeak and Youngs don't believe they can ever beat May and Walsh.

Has Kerri Walsh's bikini bottom always been THAT low-cut? Seriously, if she didn't shave, we'd be seeing some pubes. And I swear that I could see some butt crack when she was bending over to receive serve. Looks like she also has some tatoo on her right cheek that was partially hidden.

You sound like that's a bad thing.

Was this the AVP Nissan Series from Honolulu? It's the only broadcast I see listed on FSN in the next two weeks.

Double-posting since it's been 9 months.

NBC is airing the Hermosa Beach tournament this weekend, which should be good because May/Walsh finally lost in a final two weeks ago (to Youngs/Wacholder) but got their revenge this past weekend. The FSN coverage is awful. Sinjin Smith is one of the dullest commentators I've ever heard.

Maybe it's just me, but I find the domination of May-Treanors/Walsh a bit boring for the sport. I would have loved to see the hot Rachel Wacholder (woohoo!) and EY take them down this past weekend. But alas.

I found the NBC coverage very boring. The commentators basically have the same observations over and over and they keep repeating them. How many times do we need to hear that they are trying to serve Kerri Walsh?

Is that sideline woman a former player? Because she doesn't seem to have the volleyball player build. I'd love to see some ex-player take over the reporting duties so we actually could get some insightful questions.

Can't stand that Skeeter dude in the beginning who announces the players as if they're in the WWF.

I have seen this a couple of times in the past month and yeah, talk about losing credibility right out of the gate.

Not being an expert on this sport or its coverage, I have to say that post-intro I am impressed by the production values. Honestly, I am pretty much in it for the T&A (and there's not much "T" but the "A" is splendid), so anything else is a bonus.

It appears NBC flip-flopped the men's and women's coverage over the weekend. Not sure of the logic behind it, but the viewing audience has got to be larger for the women so maybe that was a factor.

Also, they better hope the Wacholder-Youngs team starts to make a rivalry out of it. Right now it's like Globetrotters-Nationals. I honestly hope they do because I find both of those two far more attractive than Walsh or May.

Is there any drama regarding McPeak leaving Youngs (or the other way around)? I don't feel that NBC or the AVP website would admit to any controversy when they are trying to grow the brand.

Heather Cox played volleyball for four years at Pacific and was in the Olympic development program.

I was bummed out seeing "May-Traynor/Walsh." That just doesn't flow nearly as well as "May/Walsh." Also, good luck getting all of that into snappy newspaper headlines, especially if Walsh adds yet another name onto it.

It's actually "Geeter." His name's Chris McGee so the Geeter thing is a play on his last name. And yeah, he's annoying. He was truly awful during the Olympics. I was embarrassed FOR him.

I can't stand Elaine Youngs. I hate when she shows up the other team by running and skipping and waving her arms at the audience after she scores a point. There's nothing wrong with yelling out "Yes!!" or pumping your fists; everyone does that, but EY takes it ten steps further. And waving at the audience? Save it for after you win the match. She reminds me of those arrogant NFL players who insist on celebrating every five seconds. Some people call her actions "fiery." I call it "having no class." Also? She needs to take a sedative. I remember one match where she missed what was supposed to be an easy shot. She screamed in anger and kicked some metal thing near the net. The match had to be delayed for 10 minutes while her toe was treated and wrapped. I laughed my ass off at her. Even the normally polite Karch noted on the air that she needs to work on calming down.

Yeah, I thought the name change was lame, specifically using it professionally. Especially when it is paired with her teammate in a box score and ends up looking like a math problem: "May minus Treanor divided by Walsh"...which is coincidentally pretty hot now that I think about it.

ETA I think it would have to be "(May-Treanor)/Walsh" to be hot, and sadly parenthesis aren't likely to show up in any box scores.

And if Kerri decides to hyphenate her name after she and Casey get married, it'll be:
"May minus Treanor divided by Walsh minus Jennings".

Kerri's engaged? Wow, congratulations. The NBC/FSN graphics people are probably having nightmares right now.

Oh yeah.

Random question for anyone in the NYC/NJ area - did the local NBC affiliate show the Huntington Beach men's final on Saturday? I tried to record it (old-fashioned VCR-style, no Tivo) and ended up with a tape of auto racing instead. I'm curious if I programmed in the wrong time or if something messed up the schedule. And I'm a big Lambo fan, so I'm bummed that I missed it.

More on topic, Rachel and EY dominated Misty and Kerri in the women's final, so it looks like we have the long-awaited rivalry! Hopefully it will get Misty and Kerri back on the practice court, since it looks to me like their level has slipped a little while Rachel and EY are just getting better. They played a phenomenal, near flawless match today.

The NASCAR Busch Series race ran long, so the volleyball was switched over to live coverage on CNBC. It was a national thing, not just NYC/NJ area.

The NBC commentators don't say "May-Treanor" during the action, which is certainly a good thing. Looks like the food poisoning definitely affected her play today, because they got pummeled. Oh well.

Addressing the posts just above this, the tournament that was aired out here yesterday had May and Walsh winning easily. Maybe we got a repeat - it did come on fairly late - and also there was no obnoxious hyphenation regarding Misty's name.

Is that what was wrong with Misty? I tuned in late so I didn't hear. I knew just from looking at her that something was wrong. Well, I hope she recovers quickly so she and Kerri can get back to kicking Youngs' and Wacholder's asses.

bump?

I'm glad with this new season, the guys competition is a lot more exciting to follow. It's not all about the four dominant females...

For anyone who hasn't heard, the team of Elaine Youngs and Rachel Wacholder has broken up. Elaine yelled at Rachel during a match in Paris, and Rachel's feelings were hurt. Elaine is trying to spin the breakup by saying she wanted a more "athletic" partner. Yeah, because as we all know, Rachel Wacholder is an overweight, out of shape sloth.

Youngs has always been a trainwreck with her screaming fits and I-Am-the-Alpha-Female attitude, but this takes the cake. My team is May-Treanor/Walsh, so I find this breakup extra funny. Besides, Rachel deserves better.

I have never been a fan of Elaine Youngs. Rachel and Elaine broke up right before the 2006 Manhattan Beach Open, the biggest event of the year. Was glad to hear later that Rachel teamed up with Jen Boss and beat Elaine and her new partner the first time they met after the break up. Take that, Elaine! I can't believe that Elaine said Rachel wasn't athletic enough.