Walsh May-Treanor Sports Team of the Decade

Volleyball greats Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor picked off the U.S. women’s soccer team, U.S. women’s basketball team, U.S. men’s basketball team, the 2005 Discovery Channel Cycle team led by Lance Armstrong and the 2006-2008 German National luge team to claim Universal Sports’ “Olympic Team of the Decade” title. Universal Sports (www.universalsports.com) is a partnership between NBC Sports and InterMedia Partners that focuses on and provides year round coverage of Olympic and lifestyle sports. In 2009, Universal Sports gave families in approximately 60 million American homes the unprecedented opportunity to view 7,000 hours of television and more than 100,000 hours of online Olympic and lifestyle sports programming. Its coverage included 50 World Championships, 180 World Cup and 50 Grand Prix events.

Folks outside the volleyball world most likely first heard of May and Walsh during the 2000 Sydney Summer Games. May and Holly McPeak placed fifth that year in women’s beach volleyball. Walsh and the United States Women’s Indoor Volleyball Team finished fourth. Four years later, Olympic viewers saw Kerri Walsh and May capture gold medals for the United States in the 2004 Athens Summer Games. May-Treanor (she married baseball catcher Matt Treanor in 2004) and Walsh repeated this feat in 2008 at the Beijing Summer Games when record numbers of viewers again saw them bring home gold medals.

May-Treanor and Walsh, however, were winning volleyball matches much earlier than 2000. May-Treanor won First-Team All-American honors 1996-1998 while playing volleyball for Long Beach State. In 1998, Long Beach State went undefeated with the school being named NCAA Champion and May-Treanor being awarded NCAA Championship Co-MVP and the Honda Broderick NCAA Athlete-of-the-Year. May-Treanor played in AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour (“AVP”) and Federation Internationale de Volleyball (“FIVB”) volleyball events in 1999.

Kerri Walsh became only the second person in NCAA history to win First-Team All-American honors all four years (1996-1999) of college. While at Stanford, Walsh won 1996 Final Four Most Valuable Player honors while leading the Cardinal to its third NCAA National Championship. Walsh also helped the team win its fourth National Championship in 1997. Interestingly, Stanford had to defeat Long Beach State with Misty May to advance to the 1997 championship game against Penn State.

Hesitantly, in 2001, Walsh accepted an invitation by May-Treanor to take to the beach. This combination was the start of one of the most winning teams in sports history. The team won a combined 89 straight matches in 2003 and 2004 on the AVP and FIVB tours. They won AVP Team of the Year honors for 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. Around those same years, May-Treanor was named AVP MVP 2005-2008, AVP Best Offensive Player 2004-2008, AVP Best Defensive Player 2006 and 2007, and AVP Best Defensive Player (Defender) 2008. Walsh won AVP MVP 2003-2004, AVP Best Offensive Player 2003, and AVP Best Defensive Player (Blocker) 2008. The team of May-Treanor and Walsh won the AVP Crocs Championship in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

On the FIVB World Tour, the team of May-Treanor and Walsh were Tour Champion in 2002 and they captured the SWATCH FIVB World Championships in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Walsh individually won the following FIVB honors: FIVB Best Blocker 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008; FIVB Best Hitter 2005, 2006, 2007; FIVB Best Offensive Player 2007; FIVB Most Outstanding 2007; and FIVB Sportsperson 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. May-Treanor was awarded the following FIVB honors: FIVB Best Defensive Player 2007, 2008; FIVB Best Offensive Player 2005, 2007, 2008; FIVB Best Setter 2005; FIVB Most Outstanding 2005, 2008; and FIVB Sportsperson 2007, 2008.

By any measure, Walsh and May-Treanor fully deserve team of the decade honors. Whether facing the best in the United States or the world, they consistently (the Gold Medal victory in China marked their 108th straight match victory) finish on top. Walsh and May-Treanor carry this same drive, devotion and dedication off the sand. Both women have set up foundations to help worthy causes, and you will find each of them providing a helping hand or word of encouragement to fans at volleyball events.

During 2010, May-Treanor will partner with Nicole Branagh while Walsh and volleyball star husband Casey Jennings have their second child. Although Branagh is fairly new on the circuit, her play has continually improved and she has accumulated numerous victories and awards in her own right. Walsh, although not playing, continues with her off court passions and she has been an outspoken advocate of NCAA Sand Volleyball. In the final word though, both Walsh and May-Treanor look forward to again playing together and winning Olympic Gold in 2012.