Karch Kiraly apparently felt that it was better to be seen then heard, so instead of fulfilling his work obligation to be in the broadcast booth during the men’s final on Saturday, he chose to be on the court – playing. While the national television audience did not get to listen to his insight on beach volleyball, his play spoke volumes as he and Mike Lambert won the AVP Huntington Open presented by Bud light.

On Sunday, Rachel Wacholder and Elaine Youngs made a loud statement to the volleyball world themselves, with their win against Misty May-Treanor / Kerri Walsh declaring that they are not a flash in the pan but rather a valid competitor to the Gold Medalists. Their win was their second in the three Nissan Championship Series events so far, tournaments offering increased prize money and points.

Kiraly / Lambert were the AVP’s Team of the Year in 2004, winning three titles, but got off to a rough start this season. How rough? Their number of wins during the two days of this tournament equaled the total amount of wins they had in the first three events combined. After those three events, they parted ways for five tournaments. Lambert won the first event on NBC, in Cincinnati with John Hyden, marking the only podium finish by either Kiraly or Lambert during their time apart from each other.

In another testament to how much the two struggled both with each other at the beginning of the year as well as apart, Kiraly, who is the all-time prize money leader, earned more money in Huntington Beach than he had in the first eight tournaments combined. In the season opener in Ft. Lauderdale, Kiraly / Lambert were eliminated with consecutive sweeps by Sean Rosenthal / Larry Witt and Jake Gibb / Stein Metzger. Emphasizing that things have changed since April, in Huntington Beach not only did Kiraly / Lambert defeat those two teams, they beat each team twice.

The finals matched Kiraly / Lambert against Rosenthal / Witt, the first finals for both teams which meant a guaranteed sixth different winner in the nine AVP Nissan Series events. Kiraly / Lambert entered the championship having played its last three matches that all went three games and a total of over three hours of playing time. In all three of those matches, Kiraly / Lambert lost the first game, and then rallied to win the match.

In the first game of the championship, Rosenthal / Witt never trailed in getting a 21-15 win, clinching it with Witt’s second ace. In the second game, neither team could get a lead bigger than two points. Rosenthal / Witt led 19-18, and appeared to be in position to win their third career title. Lambert had other ideas, however, as he stepped up his block helping to turn the game 20-19 in his favor. Rosenthal / Witt had a match point try at 21-20, but after a series of incredible rallies, blocks and thundering kills, Kiraly / Lambert emerged from the dust with a 26-24 win.

The third game was controlled by Rosenthal / Witt for most of the way, but Kiraly / Lambert came up strong when it mattered most. The championship point at 14-13 marked only their third lead of the game, but the match ended appropriately enough with the Tour’s leading blocker (in terms of blocks per game), Mike Lambert, getting his eighth stuff of the match, as Kiraly / Lambert won 17-15.

The third game had parallels to the career of the Kiraly / Lambert partnership. Just as in that game they trailed early but fought back to win, so too do they accomplish that in matches. Twelve times in their career together they have lost the first game of a match but come back to win, while on the flip side only three times have they let a team come from a game behind to win the match.

Kiraly gave most of the credit to his partner, but Lambert did the same thing. "Lambo was a force at the net," Kiraly said. "At some point Lambo will start making those blocks and then it gets in their head and as you saw they hit two or three out. Each one of his blocks is worth two or three points after that. He was the MVP of the AVP last year and he’s playing again like it this year. There’s only one guy like Mike and when you have a guy like him, you’re going to have a chance every time."

Kiraly won his 148th career title, moving him to 93 more than the next highest active player (Jose Loiola). He has now won at least one title in 24 of the 27 seasons he has played pro beach volleyball. And the combined ages of Kiraly (44 years, nine months) and Lambert (31 years, 3 months) meant that they were the second oldest team to win a professional beach volleyball tournament, just four months behind the total ages of Kiraly and Brent Doble when they won in Huntington Beach two years ago.

May-Treanor / Walsh came into this tournament having won 22 of the 25 AVP tournaments they have played in. But for the second time in four events, they were upended by a first-year tandem, Rachel Wacholder / Elaine Youngs. Both teams advanced into the championship with undefeated records, just as they had for the three previous events.

May-Treanor / Walsh took an early 6-3 lead in the first game, but uncharacteristically yielded six straight points, giving Wacholder / Youngs a lead they would not relinquish. The lead was cut down to one at 11-10, but Wacholder / Youngs proved too strong in getting a decisive 21-15 win, and perhaps equally importantly, allowing Walsh no blocks in that first game.

In the second game, the only lead by May-Treanor / Walsh happened on the first point. They trailed 10-9 when Wacholder / Youngs went on an 8-3 scoring run to take control of the match. The 21-16 win meant that May-Treanor / Walsh suffered their second worst career loss in terms of fewest points scored in a match.

"We played well and they didn't play their best," Youngs said. "We both played really well as a team the whole match.  We had the complete package, they didn't, thank God; they're mortal.

"Besides me hitting the second to last one out, I'd say it was perfect," Youngs summarized. We're still progressing, we're still getting better as a team.  We have a great coach.  She really understands us both and gives us each the right thing to think about. We're so much more confident."

Their coach is the former player with the same number of career victories as May-Treanor (147), Liz Masakayan.

Wacholder / Youngs became just the second team to sweep the Gold Medalists on U.S. soil, and the only team to do so in a championship here.

"A lot of players tend to do the same thing," Wacholder said of teams that play against May-Treanor / Walsh. "With them they do everything well, so we just have to be unpredictable.  So we just have to get a feel on how they're playing and what they're doing well each game. I felt like we just had a good positive energy, just going out and being aggressive.  I don't want to get passive on my hitting, it's important for me to be aggressive."

That was not lost on May-Treanor, who observed "they've made the adjustments and are throwing different things at us where other teams haven't."

With the AVP Huntington Beach Open the only event in Orange County, it was a win for four players who call Orange County their home in one sense or another. Kiraly lives in San Clemente while Lambert resides in Costa Mesa. Wacholder and Youngs both hail from the area, as Wacholder grew up in Laguna Beach and Youngs in El Toro.

Now the AVP Nissan Series moves up North to Los Angeles County for the AVP Manhattan Beach Open presented by Bud Light, August 18-21, marking the last tournament to be held in California this season.