“We’re up there with the greats,” May-Treanor said in a release, referring to another Manhattan Beach title. “I don’t know if there’s another team who can do four in a row.”
This championship featured a bit of redemption. They had to go through the contenders’ bracket for just the fourth time in their six years as a team on the AVP Crocs Tour.
They actually loss to Ross and Boss in the quarterfinals, 24-22, 25-21, 15-11, before playing their way back into the final with wins over 10th-seeded Lauren Fendrick and Paula Roca, 21-14, 21-14, and third-seeded Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan, 21-11, 21-18.
Before the final, it seemed as if Ross and Boss were the favorites.
May-Treanor and Walsh had failed to win a title in two straight tournaments following the Beijing Olympics. They had won 19 straight tournaments prior to the skid and had also won 112 straight matches before losing in Mason, Ohio, the first tournament after Beijing. A week later they lost in Santa Barbara in the semifinals and were forced to settle for third.
All of this inspired talk of a post-Olympic letdown.
“Were we hungry?” May-Treanor said. “Yeah, we were very hungry for a win here.”
This is the 17th of 18 events on the AVP schedule this year and the last of the team events, as next week’s tournament in Glendale, Ariz., is a format in which partners are mixed up known as “Best of the Beach.”
This season as a team, May-Treanor and Walsh won 12 AVP Crocs Tour titles, three international titles, an Olympic gold medal and had an overall AVP match record of 70-3, all three losses coming in the last four weeks.
