Olympics: May helps Walsh celebrate 26th birthday with USA beach volleyball win

Misty May presented Kerri Walsh with an "ideal" birthday gift here Sunday as the United States tandem opened play in the Athens 2004 Olympic Games by defeating Chiaki Kusuhara and Ryo Tokuno of Japan in a Pool A Beach Volleyball match.

The "ideal" gift for Walsh as she celebrated her 26th birthday Sunday was a healthy May as the pair looked like they had not missed a beat in playing their first match together in three weeks by defeating the Japanese 21-9 and 21-16 in 35 minutes at the Olympic Beach Volleyball Centre.

"I am so glad that the Olympics have started good for us," said a relieved Walsh, who won an international event two weeks ago in Austria with Rachel Wacholder as May was treated for her continuing abdominal strain problems. "The first set tonight was wonderful and in the second set, I made a couple mistakes. We still can do better."

A 2003 FIVB World Champion with Walsh, May felt that her team "was able to push the ball around since the Japanese. The are a very good defensive team and we were able to catch them out-of-position a lot of times. It was fun playing our first game here in Athens. The crowd was fantastic and this venue is awesome."

May and Walsh's second pool play match is Tuesday at 9 p.m. against Rebekka Kadijk and Marrit Leenstra of the Netherlands. "Although everyone is listing us as one of the medal favourites, we need to take every match serious," said Walsh. "The Dutch have defeated us before and are a very competitive team."

The win by May and Walsh was the second Sunday by a team from the United States as Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger scored a Pool A men's win over Australia's Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack 22-24, 24-22 and 15-13 in 80 minutes. The USA has now won three of four pool play matches as Holly McPeak/Elaine Youngs won and Dain Blanton/Jeff Nygaard was defeated Saturday.

Both of Saturday's USA participants will play teams from Canada Monday. Blanton and Nygaard still have a chance to advance from Pool E to the 16-team elimination round with two more preliminary matches remaining starting with Monday at 4:30 p.m. meeting with John Child and Mark Heese. McPeak and Youngs face Guylaine Dumont and Annie Martin at 11 p.m.

For more information on Olympic Beach Volleyball, go to the USA Volleyball web site or the FIVB web site.