USA's May/Walsh earn top seed for Olympic Beach Volleyball competition

by Paul Soriano USA Volleyball Manager, Media Relations & Publications

As expected, Americans Misty May and Kerri Walsh were awarded the No. 1 seed in the 24-team field for the women's beach volleyball competition at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

May and Walsh, the defending world champions, finished No. 1 on the world Olympic qualifying list with 3,960 points and earned the top seed ahead of Brazilians Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede (No. 2) and Ana Paula Connolly/Sandra Pires (No. 3).

May and Walsh will compete in Pool A along with Eva Celbova/Sona Novakova of the Czech Republic (12), Rebekka Kadijk/Marrit Leenstra of the Netherlands (13) and Chiaki Kusuhara/Ryoko Tokuno of Japan.

Americans Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs, the No. 4 seeds in the tournament, are the featured team in Pool D along with Nicole Schnyder-Benoit/Simone Kuhn of Switzerland (9), Guylaine Dumont/Annie Martin of Canada (16) and Kathrine Maaseide/Susanne Glesnes of Norway (21).

The women's preliminary rounds will be held in conjunction with the men Aug. 14-19. The first rounds of the elimination brackets will be played Aug. 20-21. The quarterfinals will be Aug. 22, followed by the semi-finals on Aug. 23. The women's medal matches will be on Aug. 24.

With each team playing three preliminary matches, the top two tandems from each pool advance to the 16-team elimination bracket along with the best four ranked No. 3 teams based on match records, set ratios and point ratios.

Teams from the 17 countries competing in Athens learned who they will be competing against during the preliminary rounds of the Olympics as the FIVB, the international sanctioning body for volleyball, held the "drawing of lots" ceremony on July 31 to divide the field into six pools of four teams each. The Klagenfurter Wappensaal, a 300-year-old hall in the middle of Klagenfurt, Austria, was the site for the draw.

2004 Athens Olympic Games Women's Pools and Seeds

Women's Pool A May/Walsh, USA (1) Celbova/Novakova, CZE (12) Kadijk/Leenstra, NED (13) Kusuhara/Tokuno, JPN (24)

Women's Pool B Adriana/Shelda, BRA (2) Grasset/Peraza, CUB (11) Gattelli/Perrotta, ITA (14) Naidoo/Willand, RSA (23)

Women's Pool C Ana Paula/Pires, BRA (3) Lahme/Musch, GER (10) Arvaniti/Koutroumanidou, GRE (15) Hakedal/Torlen, NOR (22)

Women's Pool D McPeak/Youngs, USA (4) Schnyder-Benoit/Kuhn, SUI (9) Dumont/Martin, CAN (16) Glesnes/Maaseide, NOR (21)

Women's Pool E Cook/Sanderson, AUS (5) Pohl/Rau, GER (8) Wang/You, CHN (17) Yanchulovas, BUL (20)

Women's Pool F Karadassiou/Efi Sfyr, GRE (6) Tian Jia/Wang Fei, CHN (7) Lochowicz/Pottharst, AUS (18) Garcia/Gaxiola, MEX (19)

For more information and complete rankings, go to the USA Volleyball web site or the FIVB web site.