Doug Strauss works in the media department of the AVP, doing statistics and other media duties. He also has worked at the volleyball events at the Olympic Games. He is a big fan of all sports, especially volleyball. Strauss is married and lives in Colorado. The 2006 AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour gets underway this weekend, and the hottest item on South Beach Park in Ft. Lauderdale will be -- a program.
Fans, refs, and maybe the players themselves will need to frequently consult a program to keep straight all the changes that have occurred going into this season. Since last season ended almost five months ago, there have been partner changes, name changes, different sponsors, a new television network, and an additional half a million dollars in prize money.
The AVP Cuervo Gold Crown Fort Lauderdale Open marks the initial event on the schedule for the fourth straight year. If tournament entries are any indication, this year is poised to be the biggest in history. A combined total of 197 teams signed up to play, equaling the record total that played in Hermosa Beach last year. The 118 men’s teams to participate will set a new mark, but one that might not last too long.
The men’s field is littered with partner changes, as only Matt Fuerbringer and Casey Jennings stuck together from last year’s top 10 ranked teams. Jake Gibb and Stein Metzger, who won last year’s event in Florida to jump start their four-win season, the most of any men’s teams last year, have gone their separate ways.
A team from Florida, Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena, claimed its first career title in 2005, and this year decided to face each other across the net. Also splitting was the team with the most momentum, as Todd Rogers and Sean Scott had won the final three tournaments of 2005, marking the most consecutive wins by any team in three years.
Of the 188 men’s teams, 75 are playing together for the first time ever. On top of that, a pair of notable teams is reuniting; Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana will try to revive the magic that helped the win the 2000 Olympic Gold Medal, while Jason Ring and George Roumain will again pair up as one of the most physically dominant teams.
This means that by Saturday, Tournament Director Matt Gage will need to put Mike Lambert and Stein Metzger in the top spot on the bracket board, and Dax Holdren and Sean Scott as the number two seeds. The referees will need to correctly fill out the scoresheet with Jake Gibb / Sean Rosenthal on one side and Phil Dalhausser / Todd Rogers on the other side. Karch Kiraly and Larry Witt will have to roll off the tongue of Chris "Geeter" McGee, the AVP Tour announcer, as will the pairing of John Hyden and Jeff Nygaard. The P.R. people will have to remember that Nick Lucena is playing with Mark Williams, while for the first time ever , the Wong brothers, Scott and Kevin, will team together.
The women had fewer shakeups from last season, but perhaps kept pace with the men in terms of confusion with a number of name changes and players returning from absences. Plus, in terms of percentages, even more women’s teams are playing for the first time in their current partnerships, as 52 of the 79 tandems are making their debut on the court.
The biggest news was that Jennifer Kessy and Holly McPeak, the third-ranked team in 2005, went their separate ways. McPeak, the all-time wins leader with 72 titles, chose last year’s Rookie of the Year, Nicole Branagh, as her partner for this season. Kessy, who married fellow pro beach volleyball player Aaron Boss in the offseason and is now Jennifer Boss, elected to play with veteran Nancy Mason.
Three top players are back on the circuit after having babies last year. The duo of Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan will try to repeat, if not improve on, their performance in 2002 when they also returned from pregnancies. That season they showed no repercussions of taking a year off, advancing to the semifinals in each of the seven events while winning twice. Barbra Fontana is also returning from having her second child, and will be playing for the first time with Carrie (Busch) Dodd.
The top-seeded team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh can consider this a bit of a homecoming given that May-Treanor lives part of the year in Coral Springs, Florida. Rachel Wacholder and Elaine Youngs, seeded second, have already gotten the chance to experience tough competition this year. Last month the two players traveled to Rio de Janeiro for an exhibition match pitting the USA against Brazil, and the Americans won in three games. Those two teams hope those intangibles will be enough to preserve the streak of 41 consecutive team tournaments on the AVP Tour that have been won by either the first or second seeds. One has to go all the way back to August 2001 for the last time that a team seeded lower than that won an AVP event.
People who have been fans of the AVP for more than 10 years will also recognize the title sponsor of this event, as Cuervo makes its return to the beach scene. One of beach volleyball’s first corporate sponsors, this is the first of three tournaments that comprise the Cuervo Gold Crown. With the highest first-place prize money this season, these tournaments offer even more incentive for players to take the title. That new money is included in the $500,000 bump in the total purse the AVP is offering this season, which represents a 17% increase. Helping fuel the rising earnings is the fact that Fox Network has joined in to broadcast AVP events this year, although the Ft. Lauderdale tournament will be shown on Fox Sports Net.
In this season-opening tournament, history has shown that on the women’s side, beginning the year with a win bodes well for a team. Since 2001, the team that won the opener went on to win the most events of any team during the year, and all but once finished as the top-ranked team. Here is a look at how teams who have won the previous season openers fared that year:
2001 – Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak, finished season ranked first (tied), only win (tied for most on the tour) but were in three finals (most of any team)
2002 – McPeak and Elaine Youngs, finished season ranked first, won five events (most)
2003 – Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, finished season ranked first, won eight events (most)
2004 – May-Treanor and Walsh, finished season ranked second, won seven events (most)
2005 – May-Treanor and Walsh, finished season ranked first, won 10 events (most)
The results of the men’s teams who win the first event of the year are more sporadic. Only twice in the last five years has the team who won to start the year ended the season with the most victories on the Tour. Twice in that span the top-seeded team won, but they ended up finishing the year ranked seventh and eighth. Fuerbringer and Jennings, the sixth seeds in this year’s tournament, should not despair if they should lose a match before the semifinals. The last two years in Ft. Lauderdale the men’s winner has been not only seeded sixth, but has come through the contender’s bracket to take the title. Here’s a look at how the past five men’s teams who have won season openers did the rest of that year:
2001 – Dax Holdren and Todd Rogers, finished season ranked seventh, only win (in three events as they played mostly FIVB)
2002 – Eric Fonoimoana and Holdren, finished season ranked first, won four events (most of anyone on the Tour and the only one to win multiple times)
2003 – Fonoimoana and Holdren, finished season ranked eighth, was their only win as they split after six events
2004 – Sean Rosenthal and Larry Witt – finished season ranked third, was their only win
2005 – Jake Gibb and Stein Metzger – finished season ranked first, won four events (most)
For the fourth straight year, a different men’s team will win in Ft. Lauderdale to start the season, while Gold Medalists May-Treanor and Walsh will try to win their fourth consecutive season opener. Walsh will be playing her first tournament since marrying Jennings, and the newlyweds will vie to join Mike and Patty Dodd as married couples who won pro beach titles on the same weekend.
Regardless of whether you are attending the tournament in person or following along via the web or television, you’ll want to have a bracket and entry list handy to keep all the teams straight. Gage, Geeter and the refs will be doing it!
AVP Annals
Ft. Lauderdale was the site of some significant wins for some prominent players. In 1990, Karch Kiraly won with Kent Steffes in what was their second tournament playing together. The win was the first ever for this team, which would go on to produce 75 wins. The 1991 event was won by Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos, who notched his 100th career victory. In 2003, the tandem of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh made their AVP debut, winning the Ft. Lauderdale Open en route to completing a perfect season with a 39-0 match record.
For more live tournament results and other information on the AVP, go to www.avp.com .