MANHATTAN BEACH “”mdash; Legendary wrestling champion Ric Flair
used to say, “If you want to be the man, you’ve got to
beat the man.” Last weekend, the world of women’s
volleyball was shocked when two former Bruins did exactly that
““ to two other former Bruins.
At last weekend’s Manhattan Beach Open, the Wimbledon of
beach volleyball, UCLA alumni Jenny Johnson-Jordan and Annette
Davis snapped the 25-match winning streak of the Association of
Volleyball Professionals’ women’s 800-pound guerrilla
team of Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs, to win the tournament
13-21, 23-21, 15-9.
For Johnson-Jordan and Davis, their first Manhattan Beach Open
title is also the duo’s first tournament title since they
each took a one-year hiatus during which each gave birth to their
first child.
“It’s nice to get this win, especially since it has
been two years since we won a tournament,” Jordan-Johnson
said.
She added that it wasn’t the act of giving birth that made
their comeback difficult, so much as finding available time to
practice. Their babies were in tow with their husbands at the
beach.
“The first month it was really tough coming back,”
Johnson-Jordan said. “We’re just beginning to regain
our intangibles, like our non-verbal communication.”
McPeak and Youngs, who also played for UCLA, had been undefeated
since forming their union this year. They had won the first four
tournaments of the 2002 season.
While the women’s final four was an all-Bruin spectacular,
UCLA had a slightly less stellar result in the men’s half of
the tournament.
Canyon Ceman, who will be an entering freshman at the Anderson
Business School, and partner Mike Whitmarsh dispensed of former
Bruin and beach volleyball legend Karch Kiraly and partner Brent
Doble in a thrilling three-set semi-final 21-14, 17-21, 15-13.
This was the third time these two teams faced each other this
year, with all three matches extending to three games. The troika
have all been hard-fought contests that have been decided by two
points, with Ceman-Whitmarsh now leading this season’s
series, two games to one. Kiraly couldn’t help but notice a
pattern emerging in this seaside rivalry.
“In all our matches this year, they have won the first
game and we have won the second,” Kiraly said. “We had
a 9-8 lead in the final game, but we couldn’t hold the lead,
and we have to be able to do that.”
Kiraly wished for a hard fought three-game final that would
enthrall the nation, as this is the AVP’s comeback on the NBC
Sports schedule.
However, Kiraly did not have his wish granted, as the
Ceman-Whitmarsh team was so exhausted from their three-game
semifinal match, that they were hardly an obstacle for the
top-seeded duo of Olympic Gold Medalist Eric Fonoimoana and Dax
Holdren. The top-ranked duo dominated the final from beginning to
end winning the final 21-15, 21-18, to take home the $20,000 cash
prize.
Whitmarsh, at 6-foot-7, was unable to capitalize on his size
advantage at the net, attaining only three blocks, and the
Ceman-Whitmarsh duo was repeatedly foiled by the high-velocity
kills of the southpaw Holdren.
“We’re not going to win if I don’t block some
balls, and I couldn’t do it,” said Whitmarsh.
“They are both great side-out players, and they played better
than we did.”
The first set wasn’t even close. After Ceman scored a
back-line ace to bring the team to within three at 10-7, the
top-seeded duo went on an 8-3 run, and the team never looked
back.
“Winning the gold medal was great, but to win in front of
my home crowd is unbelievable,” said the Manhattan Beach
native Fonoimoana.
In other UCLA alumni matches, defending men’s champions
Stein Metzger and Kevin Wong were upset in the second round. Recent
graduate Ashley Bowles and her partner, former Bruin All-American
Liz Masakayan, forfeited their second-round match after Masakayan
injured her knee.