The desert usually makes people thirsty, not hungry. But at the AVP Tempe Open presented by Bud Light, the desert setting apparently made Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh hungry. Those two were not satisfied just to win the event, they wanted to make a statement while doing it. The three-time AVP Team of the Year set a record for the largest point differential in a championship game, doing so just a few hours after the men had set the same record. And the men’s finale, while featuring two newly formed teams, is already showing signs of a rivalry, one that is getting personal.

May-Treanor and Walsh were playing the successful new tandem of Jennifer Boss and Nancy Mason, who were making their second finals appearance in as many AVP events. The first game was tight; Boss and Mason scored the first two points and held that margin until the score was 6-4. May-Treanor and Walsh went on a 4-1 run to take a lead they would not relinquish. While there were 11 ties in the game, the last coming at 17-17, May-Treanor and Walsh were the better team down the stretch, ending the game on a 4-2 run to make it 21-19.

The second game was where the gold medalists made their point; they’re not here to win, they’re here to dominate. May-Treanor and Walsh jumped out to leads of 5-1 and 14-4, making this a game that was never in doubt. The final score of 21-8 marked the fewest points scored in a final ever. The previous low was 10 points, in game one of the final in Chicago in 2004, when May-Treanor / Walsh beat Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan.

Boss and Mason played four international events together last year, getting three fifths and fourth-place finish while never losing to any team seeded lower than sixth. This new duo apparently likes pressure matches – an early round loss in most of their tournaments has meant that of their 45 matches together, 31 were potential tournament-ending matches. In both of their AVP tournaments this season they lost the second match of their event, and had to come back through the contender’s bracket to play for the title.

Like Boss and Mason, Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers first played together overseas, and experiencing success on the international tour was the impetus to play together on the AVP. Dalhausser and Rogers rebounded from a ninth place showing in the season opener to go undefeated in Tempe.

Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal, who formed a partnership before the season opener in Ft. Lauderdale, swept their first 10 opponents. However, their 11th foe was Dalhausser and Rogers, who were happy to play the spoiler role. While both teams were unbeaten in Tempe, Gibb and Rosenthal had not lost a single game, Dalhausser and Rogers went three games with each of the first two opponents.

In the first game of the championship match, Gibb and Rosenthal played the way they had been all year, with a pair of early blocks by Gibb and rally-extending digs by Rosenthal giving them an 11-5 lead. They increased their lead by another point in taking a 17-11 lead and needed just four points to win their 21st straight game. Dalhausser and Rogers scored eight of the next 11 points to knot the game at 20-20, including saving two game points. In all, Dalhausser and Rogers denied the Ft. Lauderdale champs on six straight game point tries, and then won the game 28-26 on their third attempt for game point.

In a very similar match to the women’s final, after a two-point first game, the second game was a record-setting game for fewest points allowed. Just like the women’s final, the winner of the first men’s game jumped out to a 5-1 lead. The teams played even until the score was 11-7 in favor of Dalhausser and Rogers, and was still anybody’s game. But Dalhausser and Rogers outscored Gibb and Rosenthal 10-2 to eclipse the previous finals low output of 10 points in the final in Manhattan Beach last year. In that game, Dalhausser, with partner Nick Lucena, mustered only 10 points against Gibb, who was playing with Stein Metzger.

Replacing his own name in the record book for fewest points scored with Gibb’s, Dalhausser took another step in what is becoming an intriguing rivalry between these two big men. One of the tallest players on the AVP CROCS Tour at 6’9", Dalhausser has battled the 6-7 Gibb in many facets.

The 2005 AVP Team of the Year, Gibb and Metzger began last year by winning the first two tournaments and were bidding for a third straight win until being defeated by Dalhausser and Lucena. In Gibb’s first 21 matches of the 2005 season, Dalhausser was on the only team to beat him, and he did it twice. Coming into Tempe, the two big men had split their all-time meetings against each other, with each having won four times. Included in that was a split in the two finals they had been pitted against each other, so Tempe served as the most recent tiebreaker.

Gibb might actually be happy that Rogers and Dalhausser have paired up this season; last year in open events Gibb had a 58-15 match record, with four losses coming to Dalhausser and four coming to Rogers.

Gibb and Dalhausser also battled each other last season for bragging rights as the Tour’s best blocker. At the end of the season, Dalhausser had recorded a mere seven more blocks than Gibb, who had 64 more blocks than the third place player. In the Tempe finals this year, Dalhausser registered six blocks compared to Gibb’s three which completely evened the two players’ totals in matches against each other, as both players have 38 blocks in those nine matches.

Five men’s players recorded their best finish ever, with three of them playing on a Sunday for the first time in their careers. The team of Hans Stolfus and Aaron Wachtfogel was seeded 15th, and lost a first round match. But the duo came back to win four straight contender’s matches, three of which were upsets, before barely falling to the tournament’s top-seeded team of Mike Lambert and Stein Metzger in placing fifth. Ty Loomis also placed fifth for a personal best, but he and partner Ed Ratledge, seeded 19th, pulled off their three upsets right out of the gate, including a win over third-seeded Dax Holdren and Sean Scott.

Ben Koski and Jeff Minc got the most from their entry fee; they played (and won) three matches in the qualifier on Friday. On Saturday they played five more matches, with their second loss coming to 10th-seeded Chad Mowrey and Larry Witt in a 16-14 tiebreaker game in the ninth place match.

On the women’s side, the only two players with their best career main draw finishes were the two players who were in the main draw for the first time. Two-time indoor Olympian Logan Tom was making her pro beach volleyball debut, with partner Brittany Hochevar. They were swept by their first opponents, and lost game one of the next match. But on the verge of being sent home with an 0-4 game record, the duo battled back to win their next three games before falling to the sixth-ranked tandem of Semirames Marins and Tatiana Minello in taking 13th place. Chrissie Zartman made it to her first main draw, taking a 17th with partner Sarah White.

Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana were coming off a third-place finish in Ft. Lauderdale, but finished a disappointing 13th place. The 2000 gold medalists did, however, manage to put their names in the record book. Their 90-minute match against Canyon Ceman and Matt Olson went down as the ninth-longest match in AVP history. Ceman and Olson won 36-34, 16-21, 19-17 en route to a ninth place finish.

For the fourth straight year, there were four unique men’s teams in the Final Four in Tempe. And while no team has been able to have repeat appearances in the semifinals in Tempe, Rogers became the first men’s player to win twice here, after also doing so in 2004 with Sean Scott. On the women’s side, May-Treanor and Walsh won for the fourth consecutive year in Tempe, with the four victories coming against four different teams.

1. Phil Dalhausser / Todd Rogers, $19,000
2. Jake Gibb / Sean Rosenthal, $13,400
3. Mike Lambert / Stein Metzger, $8,500
3. Matt Fuerbringer / Casey Jennings, $8,500
5. Hans Stolfus / Aaron Wachtfogel, $5,500
5. Ty Loomis / Ed Ratledge, $5,500
7. Dax Holdren / Sean Scott, $4,250
7. Chad Mowrey / Larry Witt, $4,250
9. Paul Baxter / Fred Souza, $2,600
9. Jason Ring / George Roumain, $2,600
9. Canyon Ceman / Matt Olson, $2,600
9. Ben Koski / Jeff Minc, $2,600

1. Misty May-Treanor / Kerri Walsh, $19,000
2. Jennifer Boss / Nancy Mason, $13,400
3. Rachel Wacholder / Elaine Youngs, $8,500
3. Annett Davis / Jenny Johnson Jordan, $8,500
5. Tyra Turner / Makare Wilson, $5,500
5. Semirames Marins / Tatiana Minello, $5,500
7. Carrie Dodd / Barbra Fontana, $4,250
7. Brooke Hanson / Sarah Straton, $4,250
9. Dianne DeNecochea / Tammy Leibl, $2,600
9. Nicole Branagh / Holly McPeak, $2,600
9. Tanya Fuamatu-Anderson / Heidi Ilustre, $2,600
9. Michelle More / Suzanne Stonebarger, $2,600