USA's May/Walsh end Brazil win streak in France

by Paul Soriano USA Volleyball Manager, Public Relations & Publications

America's Misty May and Kerri Walsh won their second gold medal of the 2003 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour on Sunday when they destroyed Brazil's Ana Paula Connelly and Sandra Pires Tavares in the final of the $300,000 Marseille Grand Slam.

In a surprisingly one-sided final, the Americans produced a near-flawless performance to secure the $40,000 winners' cheque with a 21-10, 21-13 victory that ended the Brazilians' domination of women's Beach so far this season.

The bronze medal went to Brazilian duo Adrian Brandao Behar and Shelda Kelly Bruno after they downed Aussie Olympic champion Natalie Cook and Nicole Sanderson 21-18, 21-14 earlier in the day.

With three victories under their belts already this season, many observers had Ana Paula and Sandra Pires down as favorites on the windy shores of Marseille, but the Americans started strongly in both sets and after opening a commanding lead never let their opponents back into the game.

"Our goal when it's windy is just to keep the ball in play and let them mess up," said Walsh, World Tour champion last season with May and winner of the Gstaad Open last month.

"The wind was a big factor today - their serve was not as strong as usual and I think the wind was also blowing their sets too tight to the net.

"It was evident that we did not do anything too spectacular, we were just very focused and talked to each other a lot. Today we also started strong. In the past three or four events we've been starting down and got ourselves into a hole, but today our plan was to side out as quickly as possible," added Walsh, who was also voted the Speedo Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

"I'm very proud with the way we played. We shared the blocking duties, which I enjoy because it gives me a break. Because I'm big I usually do the net, but Misty (May) blocked great today."

The Americans' victory enabled them to close the gap on their Brazilian rivals at the top of the World Tour rankings and also allowed them to steal more ground on the other American teams vying for Olympic qualification to Athens next season.

Walsh, who was voted the Speedo Most Valuable Player of the tournament, had said after their semifinal victory over Cook and Sanderson on Saturday that if they managed to click as a team then they would be very hard to beat in today's final -- and so it proved.

"In the bigger picture, this was a huge win for us," added the 24-year-old Walsh after collecting what was their ninth gold medal on the World Tour. "In points and places on the Tour they (Ana Paula and Sandra Pires) were pulling away from us. I knew that we were good enough to beat them, but we had to prove it. This victory helps us catch them and also helps us for Athens next year."

Despite taking the silver medal, Ana Paula and Sandra Pires retain their lead at the top of the World Tour rankings.

"There's not really a lot we can say," said a resigned Ana Paula, winner of the SWATCH Fastest Service Award after being timed at 80 km/h. "Just tell them that we did not play very well today."

After a weeks break the women's SWATCH-FIVB World Tour resumes in Austria for the Klagenfurt Grand Slam, the third grand slam of the season.

For more information, go to the USA Volleyball web site.