HUNTINGTON BEACH OPEN:

For a video of the women’s final, click here.

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh still own the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Huntington Beach Open, even if the last point of this year’s sweep was briefly and hotly contested.

May-Treanor and Walsh defeated Tyra Turner and Rachel Wacholder, 21-17, 22-20 Saturday afternoon at the tournament where their partnership began five years ago. They’ve won it together five times, the most of any single location for the duo.

Wacholder tried to dispute a lift call that ended a rally and the match as she and Turner fought to force a Game 3. With the score 21-20, Wacholder had a low dig on the right side, and Turner bumped the ball over the net. May-Treanor answered, but the play was blown dead when the official called the lift on Wacholder’s dig.

“You’re not really allowed to open-hand and kind of scoop [the ball],” said May-Treanor, the former Newport Harbor High star. “I think had it come off a little faster, it would have been OK, but it kind of stuck.”

There was a few seconds of protesting before the “game over” signal came. May-Treanor and Walsh, who have now won 16 of their past 17 AVP events, split the $20,000 first prize. Turner and Wacholder, who split $15,000 in second place, have never beaten May-Treanor and Walsh.

“I think the hardest part was that it was a late call,” Walsh said. “[The official] waited a beat and then called it, but it was the right call.”

The call capped a sluggish Game 2 for May-Treanor and Walsh, who struggled initially as Turner and Wacholder took a 7-1 lead.

The first two points for May-Treanor and Walsh were both unforced errors from Turner, who hit into the net to make it 4-1, and served wide to make it 7-2.

May-Treanor and Walsh got their first kill of the second game when Walsh spiked a ball down the left side line, but the pair didn’t catch Turner and Wacholder until May-Treanor hit one down the middle for a 17-17 tie.

Walsh was struggling with her passing. She’s been rehabilitating a sore right shoulder and found Saturday that her range still hasn’t completely returned. Walsh had surgery in the fall to remove the bone chips, bone spurs and scar tissue that had been accumulating in her shoulder.

“It was all me, basically,” said Walsh, who missed playing on the AVP’s inaugural season of the Hot Winter Nights tour because of her shoulder. “That’s why we got down. And so it was just a matter of passing and keeping [the ball] in front and Misty stepped up and we did it. We had a couple of opportunities that we missed that would have brought us a little bit closer, but you’ve got to pass and side out.”

With three top finishes in three opens, the pair is in prime position in the points race for the Cuervo Gold Crown $25,000 bonus. The top four men’s and women’s teams will compete in a single-elimination tournament today for the prizes. Last year’s winners on the women’s side were Elaine Youngs and Nicole Branaugh.

May-Treanor and Walsh will play Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan in the Cuervo Gold Crown semifinal, with Turner and Wacholder and Branaugh and Youngs taking the other match.

TOP TEAM DOMINATES

One local team bowed out in the men’s semifinals as Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers advanced to win the Huntington Beach open.

The top men’s squad, which also swept first place in the Cuervo Gold Crown series events — Miami, Dallas, and Huntington Beach — defeated Brad Keenan and John Hyden, 21-14, 22-20.

Matt Fuerbringer, an Estancia High graduate, and Casey Jennings lost, 23-21, 14-21, 15-12, to Keenan and Hyden in the semifinals. Stein Metzger and Mark Williams fell to Dalhausser and Rogers, 21-16, 21-17, in the other semifinal.

Keenan, a Fountain Valley native, put up two blocks early in Game 1 that resembled the sort of defense usually seen from the 6-foot-9 Dalhausser. But the champions pulled away in part because of Dalhausser’s match-high four aces. Rogers and Dalhausser also out-dug Keenan and Hyden, 10-3.

With the threat Dalhausser posed at the net, Keenan and Hyden tried to get balls past Rogers instead.

“He’s probably the biggest blocker in the world, or one of a handful anyway,” Rogers said. “It makes my job easier if they’re going to dink it all around and shoot it all around. I’ve just got to get on my horse and dig everything I can.”

Dalhausser and Rogers will face Hyden and Keenan again today in the semifinal for the Cuervo Gold Crown bonus, while Costa Mesa resident Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal, who finished fifth, will play Fuerbringer and Jennings.

LAMBERT REMAINS OUT

Costa Mesa resident Mike Lambert, Metzger’s usual partner, missed the Huntington Beach Open and will likely miss the next four weeks of play as he tries to recover from a torn meniscus, Metzger said.

Lambert, who had two surgeries to repair his right knee in the offseason, tried to play during the free weekend last week, but was too weak from sitting out so long to be effective at the Huntington Beach Open.

“He just didn’t have the strength yet,” Metzger said. “He’s got to go back and do more rehab and strengthening of his [quadriceps] that’s been atrophying while he’s been resting. He just wasn’t quite ready to make it through a whole tournament. He can go through practice, but that’s about it.”

When the season began, Lambert was hoping to make his season debut with Metzger here. Huntington Beach holds historical significance for the duo, who won last year after playing a league-high nine matches in the losers’ bracket after losing in the first round.

Until Lambert recovers fully, Metzger will play with Williams on the AVP tour. Williams and Metzger finished in third place here in their first tournament together.

A spot on the U.S. Olympic team is also at stake for the pair. Dalhausser and Rogers have one spot unofficially sewn up, while Gibb and Rosenthal are second in the qualifying points race. Metzger and Lambert plan to start playing in overseas Federation Internationale de Volleyball tournaments once Lambert is well as they try to get at least eight qualifying events under their belts. Only the top two beach volleyball teams are allowed to represent the United States in Beijing.

That means even if he does find his old form, Lambert will be pretty scarce on the AVP tour.

“Hopefully, he just continues to get better and better and we’ll be able to make our run for the Olympics,” Metzger said.

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at soraya.mcdonald@latimes.com.