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August 24, 2004 10:13 pm

Amidst the glitz and sand, U.S. stars shine brightest

By DAVID LEON MOORE

USA TODAY

ATHENS, Greece - As in Atlanta and Sydney, beach volleyball finally became the place to be at the Olympics on Tuesday night, with a packed house, celebrities and a party atmosphere.

For those who cared about the volleyball, it was truly a special night.

It was the night that probably the greatest team in the history of the sport - Misty May and Kerri Walsh, probably the greatest female beach volleyball player in the world - put an exclamation point on their total domination.

Best on the U.S. tour. Best on the international tour. Best last year. Best this year.

``The best ever,'' said an admiring Karch Kiraly, the three-time men's volleyball gold medalist.

Walsh, 26, of Saratoga, Calif., and May, 27, of Costa Mesa, Calif., won the gold medal by defeating 2000 silver medalists Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar of Brazil 21-17, 21-11 with the same combination of size, skill, grace and teamwork that has made them virtually unbeatable since last summer.

``Misty and I, we just fit,'' Walsh said succinctly, inarguably.

Two more Californians, three-time Olympian Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs, won the bronze medal, defeating Australians Nicole Sanderson and Natalie Cook.

They were the first medals in the sport for American women, who were shut out in Atlanta in 1996 and in Sydney in 2000.

They didn't figure to be shut out in Athens. During a stretch from July 2003 to June of this year, May and Walsh won a record 15 consecutive tournaments and 90 consecutive matches. At the Olympics, they won seven matches in a row and 14 consecutive sets.

As she had the night before in the semifinals, May spread ashes of her late mother, Barbara, who died in 2002 of cancer, on the court.

``She wanted her mother to be here,'' said May's father, Butch, a 1968 U.S. indoor volleyball Olympian. ``Barbara had a big part in this.''

During the matches Tuesday inside a 10,000-seat temporary stadium made raucous by deejays, rock music and dancing girls in silver hot pants, NBA Commissioner David Stern sat next to McPeak's husband, Leonard Armato, the commissioner of the AVP pro beach tour and the former agent of Shaquille O'Neal.

So it was fitting that Kiraly, here as an NBC analyst, put into basketball terms the impact the 6-3, 155-pound Walsh has had on beach volleyball.

``Imagine Kevin Garnett, at 6-11, being able to do what Allen Iverson, at 6 feet, can do,'' Kiraly said. ``If you ever had that in the NBA, it's over. I mean, game over.

``Kerri combines the skills of a really small player with a player who's a lot taller. We've never seen that in the NBA. Well, they have it out here in beach volleyball and that's why she's so good and that's why they're the best women's team ever.''

May is no slouch, either. In fact, she might be the second-best player in the world.

They are two of the greatest players in college volleyball history. May was a two-time college player of the year and the setter for a Long Beach State team that went undefeated in winning the 1998 NCAA title.

Walsh, at Stanford, became just the second player in NCAA history to earn first-team All-America honors all four years and won NCAA titles in 1996 and `97.

They were both Sydney Olympians. May, who had a brief stint with the U.S. indoor team, played beach with McPeak and finished fifth. Walsh was an outside hitter on the indoor team that finished fourth.

While in Sydney, May's parents started lobbying Walsh's parents about getting Kerri on the beach, where she had never played.

``Barb and I knew that somewhere in that long, spider-like body, she had all the makings of making somebody a great partner,'' May's father said. ``I kind of liken her to what they say about Jim Furyk's golf swing. He looks like an octopus falling out of a tree. Kerri has the same gifts.''

May and Walsh teamed up after Sydney and, in a sport notorious for its steep learning curve, they rose quickly. By the summer of last year, they became dominant. Walsh learned to combine both a dominant block and defensive quickness. May kept things steady with her all-around savvy play, determination and ball skills.

At 6-3, Walsh towers over most players. But she is more than tall.

``She has God-given talent, sure,'' said Walsh's mother, Margie, a former volleyball star at Santa Clara. ``A lot of people have a lot of talent, but they don't work as hard as Kerri does to get the most of everything she's got.''

Margie and her husband, Tim, a 6-8 former minor league pitcher in the Oakland A's farm system, beamed in the stands as their daughter reigned over her sport.

The same daughter who, when she left the gym and took up the beach game, used to complain to her parents that she would never be any good in the sand.

``That's typical Kerri,'' her father said. ``She's always telling you how much she (stinks).''

If she's still saying it, she's the only one.

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