May-Treanor, Walsh win two straight overseas

BERLIN — Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball’s Smart Grand Slam, capturing their second straight gold medal since Jennifer Boss and April Ross won the title in Stavanger, Norway.

Top-seeded May-Treanor and Walsh, who won here in 2005, defeated second-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil, 18-21, 21-15, 15-7, in 45 minutes Saturday in the title match, to take home the $43,500 first prize. The victory increased the pairs FIVB winnings $1,242,540 with 42 podium placements and 44 final four finishes. May-Treanor and Walsh have now claimed 27 FIVB titles in 51 events since the start of the 2001 season.

“We have not played Juliana and Larissa in almost a year,” May-Treanor said in a FIVB release. “They did some different things in the first set that we had not seen from them before. We played a lot better in the second two sets and regained the momentum from a very good team.”

May-Treanor, 29, was named the most outstanding player for the event. The alumnus of Newport Harbor High and Long Beach State will be back to soak up some Southern California sun next weekend. The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour comes back west from Seaside Heights, N.J. to Long Beach, May-Treanor’s old college town.

“Misty and Kerri are a very difficult team to play,” said Silva. “We had a good start to the match and did some things to confuse the Americans. However, they caught fire in the second set and we could not overcome a bad start in the third set.”

No. 3 Tian Jia and Wang Jie of China increased their winning streak to five straight when they defeated Brazilians Leila Barros and Ana Paula Connelly 21-19 and 23-21 in 54 minutes. The Chinese shared $23,000 for third-place. Barros and Connelly, who have now finished fourth in eight FIVB events this season, shared $18,400.

Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers advanced to the men’s semifinals in Berlin today, where they will play reigning FIVB World champions Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes of Brazil. Araujo and Fabio, who captured their world title in Berlin in 2005, hold a 4-1 edge in the series with Dalhausser and Rogers.

— From staff reports