Olympic beach volleyball

SYDNEY, Australia - Bondi Beach had been having unseasonably warm

weather for this early in Australia’s spring and the crowd loved it.

Basking in shorts and shirts, or bathing suit tops and bare chested men

was the majority’s choice of dress.

With the quarterfinals the reward, Italy’s Lucilla Perrotta and

Daniela Gattelli were facing the USA team of Holly McPeak and Misty May

to see who would make the top eight teams for Saturday’s play.

Misty scored the first point by hitting cross court, then followed

with a huge block to start the USA team, 2-0. A couple of hitting errors

by both teams brought the score to 3-1. Misty repeated the hit and block

for 5-1. Mistakes brought the score to 5-3. Perrotta served an ace, which

Misty countered with another cross-court spike for a side change at 6-4.

Mistakes and an ace by Perrotta take the score to 8-6. Aces and hits by

both teams bring the score to 12-8. Perrotta and Gattelli’s hitting and

mistakes brought the score to 13-11. The 14th point comes with Misty’s

famous cross-court hammer. Perrotta counters with an ace and then nails

the line for a 14-13. Holly’s defensive digs have kept the ball in play,

this time the dig sets up for Misty to hit on two which wins the game

with a 15-13 score. It lasted 46 minutes.

Then came Saturday morning and the best eight women’s beach volleyball

players played for a shot at the semifinals.

The final two teams to play Saturday morning were Brazil’s

Adriana/Sandra and USA’s McPeak and May. Both of Brazil’s players had

played in the ’96 Olympics, but each had a different partner. Adriana had

taken the silver and Sandra the gold.

McPeak was fifth with Nancy Reno in ’96. May, a graduate of Newport

Harbor High, was being tutored by setting specialist and former Olympian

Debbie Green at Long Beach State.

During the eight months Holly and Misty had been teamed together on

the FIVA Tour, they had amassed two firsts, four seconds and a fifth

place among their top eight scores to take an Olympic berth. All the

other USA teams had had 24 months to accomplish what McPeak and May had

eight months to do.

With very recent first- and second-place efforts, they stepped on the

court to go up against Olympic medalists and see if they had a medal in

their future.

The match started with Misty’s famous hammer going cross court for the

first point. Adriana made a hitting error, but followed it up with two

powerful serves to tie the score, 2-2. It became 3-3, then Sandra got a

line hit while Adriana aces, so McPeak and May dig and spike to tie it

again, 5-5.

Powerful serves, great digs by all four and an assortment of hits and

shots, including hitting over on two, ties it again, 10-10.

Adriana has two successful blocks and an ace serve. Misty’s high serve

and great cross-court hit brings the score to 13-12, USA. Misty uses a

chest-high beach dig to stop a hard driving spike by Shelda, which she

then hits line. Adriana, then Misty, use the cross-court cut to tie it

again, 14-14.

Sandra’s jump serve gets the score to 15-14, Brazil. Sandra picks up a

hit and scores with a line shot to take the game, 16-14. The game lasted

just shy of 49. Brazil went on to the semifinals. Holly McPeak and Misty

May are fifth.

It must have seemed like deja vu for Holly, watching the final four

teams continue on without her. Misty gave plenty of smiles to the crowd

before the television crew surrounded her.

Butch May and his wife, Barbara, arrived Sept. 19. After watching the

women’s and men’s games on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday, he was

asked what he thought of these Olympics. “They have been great games to

watch, the teams are all playing very well,” he said. Asked about Holly

and Misty’s last match, he added: “A 10% increase in getting the ball

down and they would have won the game.” The answer to how they could have

accomplished this was a multiple answer. The gist was changing their

attack or defense whenever it wasn’t working, and doing it early in the

points. Butch felt sure that changes would be made to help them

effectively play against the top FIVB teams.

As for Misty, she heads out early from the Olympics. Her final credits

needed to graduate from Long Beach State had been put on hold during her

time with the USA indoor national team, then later with Holly in their

Olympic challenge.

She will finish up her final classes, then more beach volleyball.

She has another 20 years of beach volleyball career and opportunities

to medal at the Olympics, and whose to say Misty won’t beat Karch

Kiraly’s three gold medals before she’s through.

Daphne Sanderson is co-author of “Winning Doubles Volleyball.”