American beach volleyball women reign in Brazil

The United States tandem of Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs ended the 2002 season with a gold medal win Sunday, September 22, 2002, over American rivals Misty May and Kerri Walsh in the $150,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event in Vitoria, Brazil.

After eliminating a pair of Brazilian teams from gold medal contention with wins in Saturday's semifinals, the two American teams met for the fifth time this season on international sand.

The second-seeded McPeak (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Youngs (Durango, Colo.) then scored a 21-13, 19-21 and 15-10 win in 51 minutes over the top-seeded May (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Walsh (Saratoga, Calif.) to take the title.

Earlier in the tournament, May and Walsh had accumulated enough points to capture the season title on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and ending the six year hold on the title by Brazil.

For McPeak and Youngs, the gold medal win snapped a two-match losing streak against May and Walsh, as the two teams played for the third-time this season for a FIVB gold medal. McPeak and Youngs won two of the three title meetings, including a win in July's France Grand Slam event, while May and Walsh won last month in China.

With Sunday's win, McPeak and Youngs shared the $22,500 first-place prize, while May and Walsh split $15,000 for the silver medal. McPeak has now won 17 FIVB gold medals among her 65 pro beach titles, which ranks second behind Karolyn Kirby's 67 pro beach crowns. McPeak has now won a title in nine of her last 10 seasons pro beach seasons.

Youngs, who was playing in her 13th FIVB finale since 1997, has now won nine FIVB Gold Medals, including the first five with Masakayan and the last four with McPeak. Youngs now has 23 pro beach titles as she captured nine crowns this season with McPeak, including five titles on the 2002 Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Tour.

May was making her 17th gold medal match appearance Sunday as she has teamed to win eight medals with both McPeak (three) and Walsh (five). An indoor Olympian for the United States in Sydney, Walsh was playing in her 10th FIVB title match, including her ninth with May. When May was sidelined with a knee injury last fall, Walsh teamed with McPeak to earn the silver medal at the 2001 season finale in Fortaleza, Brazil.

Sunday's final was the 10th All-USA gold medal match in the 11-season history of the women's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. May and Walsh lead the season series with McPeak and Youngs at 3-2. In addition to the three gold medal meetings, May and Walsh won in Canada and Austria.

May and Walsh advanced to their eighth gold medal match this season by defeating fifth-seeded Ana Paula Connelly and Tatiana Minello of Brazil 23-21 and 21-13 in 45 minutes in Saturday's first semifinal match. It was the third win in five meetings for May and Walsh against Ana Paula and Minello, who are completing their first season together.

McPeak and Youngs earned their fifth gold medal appearance together this season by defeating third-seeded Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede of Brazil 21-11 and 21-19 in 44 minutes. McPeak and Youngs are now 3-0 this season against the two-time FIVB World Champions as the Americans also defeated Behar and Bede in semifinal matches in Norway and France.

In Sunday's bronze medal match, Ana Paula and Minello scored a 21-17 and 21-18 win over Behar and Bede in 42 minutes. Ana Paula and Minello shared $11,940 for third-place while Behar and Bede split $9,300 for fourth-place. While the May/Walsh (five golds) and McPeak/Youngs (four) netted nine FIVB titles for the United States this season, Behar and Bede won the other two international titles this season in Japan and Mallorca, Spain.

Despite dropping their final match, May and Walsh finished the 2002 season as the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour top-ranked team with 3,070 points and $195,140 in shared earnings. May and Walsh, who dropped their first match of the 2002 campaign to Ana Paula and Minello in June's event at Madrid, Spain, finished the season by winning have now won 66 of 74 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour matches.

By clinching the FIVB points title Friday, May and Walsh ended the Brazilian dominance on the international tour. The United States captured the first four season titles (1992-93 through 1995-96, 15 gold medals for 21 events), before the Brazilian women took control of the top spot for the next six seasons (1996 through 2001, 42 gold medals in 61 events).

Behar and Bede, the winningest team in FIVB history for either men or women with 29 international Gold Medals, has been the leading women's tandem the past five years. In addition to the World titles in 1999 (France) and 2001 (Austria), Behar and Bede were the Gold Medallists at the 1999 Pan American Games in Canada and the Silver Medallists at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

The Bronze Medallists at the 1997 FIVB World Championships in Los Angeles, Behar and Bede will place second behind May and Walsh on the season's points list as the Brazilians have 2,740 points with $148,215 in earnings. Behar and Bede, who defeated May and Walsh for the Mallorca gold medal in the last FIVB event, have shared $1,430,815 for 71 FIVB starts.

Nancy Reno and McPeak captured the 1995-96 FIVB women's points title for the United States after winning six gold medals in eight starts. Sandra Pires and Jackie Silva, the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games Gold Medallists, started the Brazilian title run by capturing the 1996 season points title with Behar and Bede starting their string in 1997.

Completing their first season together on the beach, McPeak and Youngs have now moved into fourth-place on the FIVB points list (2,310 with $146,015) behind Australia's Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst (2,370 with $110,495) despite missing three international events. Cook and Pottharst captured the Sydney 2000 Olympic Gold Medal by defeating Behar and Bede in the finals.

McPeak and Youngs also captured the Norway and Greece stops this season where they defeated Cook and Pottharst for the gold medals. Combined with Friday's 21-12 and 21-13 victory over the seventh-seeded Cook and Pottharst, McPeak and Youngs have won their last five matches with the Aussies since losing the first meeting this season to the two-time Olympic medallists in the Switzerland quarterfinals. Cook and Pottharst also captured the bronze medal at the Atlanta Games.

Overall, McPeak and Youngs finished the 2002 season as the winningest pro beach volleyball team for both men and women this season with $73,615 for 15 events. McPeak and Youngs ended the season with a 82-6 match mark. Only three teams have defeated McPeak and Youngs this season, including May/Walsh (three times), Annett Davis/Jenny Johnson Jordan (twice on the domestic Association of Volleyball Professionals Tour) and Cook/Pottharst (once).

McPeak and Youngs missed the Madrid, Japan and Mallorca event for AVP events. The McPeak/Youngs partnership ended the 2002 AVP Tour season with five titles, a 32-2 match mark and $126,600 in shared winnings. McPeak and Youngs won four of six meetings with Davis and Johnson Jordan, who placed fifth at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games along with May and McPeak. Davis celebrated her 29th birthday Sunday as she and Johnson Jordan missed the 2001 season due to giving births to their first children.

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Notes

* This week's event was the 18th women's FIVB World Tour stop for this South American country, Brazil has now organized the most women's international events since the start of the World Tour in 1992. Vitoria was hosting the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour for the sixth time with four of the previous five events featuring men's play.

* Youngs captured the inaugural women's event on Camburi Beach with Liz Masakayan as the Americans won the first pro beach event of the millennium in February 2000 by defeating Brazil's Sandra Pires and Adriana Samuel in the gold medal match.

* With McPeak and Youngs' gold medal finish, the United States has won six of its 40 women's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour titles in Brazil. After winning three gold medals in the first five Brazilian events, the USA women failed to capture a title in the next nine South American tournaments. Staring with Youngs' gold medal with Masakayan in 2000, the United States has now won three of the last four Brazilian events. May and McPeak captured the 2000 season finale in Fortaleza.

* Sunday's All-USA title match marked the third time this season and the 10th time in 93 FIVB events for women since 1992 where two American teams have played for the gold medal. Saturday's "final four" also marked the fifth-time on the FIVB Tour that the semifinal matches featured a pair of United States against Brazil meetings. The United States won both head-to-head meetings in 1992 (Spain) and Korea (1995) with Brazilians capturing both semifinals in 1994 (Australia) and 1998 (Canada).

* The United States has now posted podium finishes in 14-straight women's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour events (nine gold, five silver and five bronze medal placements). The record for consecutive USA finishes on the podium was 20-straight at the start of the FIVB women's circuit in August 1992 through November 1995.

* The 2002 men's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour concludes October 1-6 in Fortaleza, Brazil. The qualifying period for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games begins with the 2003 season as a team's top eight finishes will be used to determine the participates.

* The May/Walsh and McPeak/Youngs tandems rank among the top 16 teams in terms of women's pro beach earnings together (both domestically and internationally). Behar and Bede lead the list ($1,430,815 with 30 pro beach titles in 71 tournaments) while May and Walsh are 12th ($306,890 with seven titles in 21 events) and McPeak and Youngs are 14th ($273,615 with nine titles in 15 tournaments). The McPeak/Lisa Arce partnership ranks second ($628,650 with 15 titles in 49 events) behind the Brazilians followed by Cook/Pottharst ($598,220 with three titles in 65 events), Sandra Pires/Jackie Silva of Brazil ($554,754 with 15 titles in 44 tournaments), Davis/Johnson Jordan ($502,365 with eight titles in 48 events) and Masakayan/Youngs ($406,570 with nine titles in 40 tournaments).