August 12, 2008 - Even the volunteers go for the gold at the Olympic beach volleyball venue.When American beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh’s wedding ring flew off during her opening match of the Olympics, venue workers combed the sand with metal detectors to find it.

 Walsh, who is married to fellow beach volleyball pro and former NCAA champion Casey Jennings, lost the ring when she went up for a block in Sunday morning’s match against Japan’s Mika Saiki and Chiaki Kusuhara.

Some 17,000 tons of sand were brought into Chaoyang Park to create the beach volleyball venue, so if finding the ring wasn’t exactly a needle in a haystack, it was close. A video replay of the play helped narrow the search but volunteers rake the sand during the match, so that ring could have literally gone anywhere.

Despite the loss of gold, Walsh maintained her composure (one of the many differences between us) allowing her and teammate Misty May-Treanor go on and beat Japan.  Hopefully, there is more gold to come for the pair.

Filed under: Beach Volleyball by jane
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August 9, 2008 - Here are some highlights of the opening day of the Summer Games:

Beach Volleyball:
Branagh, Youngs Win Opening Olympic Match - The U.S. beach volleyball team of Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) and Elaine Youngs (El Toro, Calif.), ranked fifth, won their opening match of the Olympic Games on Saturday, defeating Netherland’s 20th-seeded Rebekka Kadijk and Merel Mooren, 21-19, 27-25, at the beach volleyball venue in Chaoyang Park.

Fencing:
Zagunis Wins Gold, U.S. Women Sweep Sabre - Mariel Zagunis reclaimed the gold medal in a repeat of her 2004 performance in Athens. Zagunis defeated teammate Sada Jacobson 15-8 to claim the gold. The U.S. women completed an historic sweep of the medals as teammate Rebecca Ward earlier won a closely contested bronze medal match.

Soccer:
U.S. women sneak past Japan 1-0 Midfielder Carli Lloyd scored on a first-half volley to lead the U.S. women’s soccer team to a 1-0 win over Japan and put the Americans’ Olympic title defense back on track at the Beijing Games.

Filed under: Beach Volleyball, Beijing Summer Games 2008, Fencing by jane
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 July 21, 2008 - The FIVB has released the preliminary round schedule for the Olympic Games Beach Volleyball Tournament beginning Aug. 9 in Beijing.The U.S team of Misty May-Treanor (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh (Santa Clara, Calif.) will begin the defense of their 2004 Olympic title with a match against Mika Teru Saiki and Chiaki Kusuhara of Japan on Aug. 10 at 9 a.m. in Beijing.

May-Treanor and Walsh finished with the most Olympic qualifying points among the women’s beach teams, but are seeded second behind China’s Jia Tian and Jie Wang, who receive the top seed thanks to an FIVB rule that says a home-country team will receive the top seed if it is ranked in the top six. Tian Jia and Wang were second in points behind May-Treanor and Walsh.

The U.S. beach team of Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.) and Elaine Youngs (El Toro, Calif.) will open play on Aug. 9 against Kadijk and Mooren of the Netherlands. 

The 12,000-seat Chaoyang Park in Beijing will be the venue for the fourth Olympic Beach Volleyball Tournament, with two “Lucky Loser” matches to be played on a court adjacent to Centre Court. The top two teams of each pool advance to the knockout round of 16, along with the two best third-placed teams. The remaining four third-placed teams play two playoff matches to determine the final two places (Lucky Losers) in the Round of 16.

To view the NBC schedule for volleyball, go to www.usavolleyball.org/national/08NBC_Oly_Sched.pdf.

Filed under: Beach Volleyball, Beijing Summer Games 2008 by jane
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March 08, 2008 - USA Volleyball has announced the schedule for the 2008 edition of the popular USA Beach Junior Tour. Online registration begins March 1. The tour is produced and operated by the Elevation Group of Companies and is sponsored by Spalding and Hilton.

The 2008 tour will include 10 exciting open events from coast-to-coast for all boys and girls two-person teams with players ages 10 to 20. There will also be an open championship, a tour championship, an international selection camp and a performance camp.

(more…)

Filed under: Beach Volleyball, Events, Volleyball by admin
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LAUSANNE, Dec. 19, 2007 - With the release of the 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour calendar, a record number of Opens and Grand Slams are scheduled on the road to Beijing.

The Beach Volleyball world season will start in Adelaide in March and will be closed by the city of Sanya, in China, with a double gender Open in November. For the first time ever, the FIVB has scheduled a record number of Grand Slams, the top Women’s and Men’s tournament which sets its prize money and bonus pool to 600,000 US dollars each.

Six different countries (Austria, France, Germany, Norway, Russia and Switzerland) will host the FIVB Beach Volleyball main events. Open and Grand Slam have been assigned to 24 cities overall, covering North and South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania. After a long bidding process, many venues are new entries in the Beach Volleyball season: cities like Osaka, Adelaide, Prague, Barcelona, Dubai and Sanya will host for the first time the Beach Volleyball world stars.

(more…)

Filed under: Beach Volleyball, Beijing Summer Games 2008, News Bytes, Volleyball by jane
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Nov. 12, 2007) – U.S. beach volleyball players Misty May-Treanor (Costa Mesa, Calif.), Kerri Walsh (Santa Clara, Calif.) and April Ross (Newport Beach, Calif.) were honored with postseason awards from the FIVB.

The awards were based on the results of the voting by SWATCH representatives, players, coaches, referees and officials associated with the international Beach Volleyball circuit. (more…)

Filed under: Beach Volleyball, News Bytes, Volleyball by admin
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HOLYOKE, Mass. (October 12, 2006) - Six international greats of volleyball from Brazil, Hungary, Japan, Poland, Russia and the United States were inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in an afternoon ceremony at the birthplace of the sport.

Jackie Silva of Brazil, Endre Holvay of Hungary, Shigeo Yamada of Japan, Edward Skorek of Poland, Nina Smoleeva of the USSR/Russia and Bernie Holtzman of the United States were also honored at a dinner at the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House.

(more…)

Filed under: Beach Volleyball, News Bytes, Volleyball by jane
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July 25, 2006: In a span of just two months the AVP has seen three of its athletes reach the million dollar plateau in prize money earned. The 2006 AVP Crocs Tour began with just one American women in Beach Volleyball history who had earned over $1,000,000 in her career. Holly McPeak, the winningest player in history with 72 titles has won over $1,400,000 in her career.

Misty May-Treanor became the second member of the million dollar club at the Cuervo Gold Crown Huntington Beach Open over Memorial Day Weekend. On the Fourth of July weekend on the Jersey Shore, Elaine Youngs became the third member.

To become the fourth member in front of a packed house and LIVE on NBC, Kerri  Walsh would have to win the AVP McDonald’s Chicago Open presented by Nautica. Walsh stood up to the challenge as she and partner May-Treanor swept every opponent they faced in the windy city and won at least one game in each match by seven or more points.

“She helped me get to the million-dollar mark, so I had to help her get to the million-dollar mark,” May-Treanor told NBC, which broadcast the finals for the first time this season.

Walsh is the fastest person to reach $1 million in the world; 18 people worldwide hav done it, but none in so few tournaments. She is also one of four who made it there before turning 28.

 ”I think it’s fabulous because by her being the fastest, you can see how the sport has changed…how the money has changed,” May-Treanor said. “It’s a great stride for women’s sports,” May-Treanor added.

Filed under: Beach Volleyball, News Bytes, Profiles, Volleyball by jane
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Surprisingly, one of the most well loved sports in the world is also relatively young. Despite the game’s youth, it has gone through a wide variety of changes and evolution as a part of its rich history.

To fully understand and appreciate how much the game has changed and how much work was put into to make it successful, you need to search back to the very origin of Volleyball, and study when and why changes were made.

Just over 100 years ago, in 1895, William G. Morgan developed the first game of Volleyball. At the time, Morgan dubbed the game “Mintonette”.

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Filed under: 101-Basics, Beach Volleyball, Volleyball by jane
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