Beach Volleyball

Misty starts strong Misty May-Treanor has won in Huntington Beach five times during her illustrious career. Based on how she kicked off the AVP Tour Huntington Beach Open on Friday, she could be on her way to a sixth. On Friday, the Newport Harbor High alumna and partner Nicole Branagh swept their first two matches of the tournament, beating 32nd-seeded Kim Whitney and Carrie Wright, 21-13, 21-13 and toppling 17th-seeded Jennifer Snyder and Christal Morrison, 21-11, 22-20. The Huntington Beach Open continues today starting at 9 a.m. and runs through Sunday on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier.

Jeff Carlson, a recent Corona del Mar High graduate, has been selected to compete at the Federation Internationale de Volleyball 2008 Youth World Championships for beach volleyball July 30-Aug. 3 in Hague, Netherlands, USA Volleyball recently announced. Carlson, who will play for USC next year, will be teamed up with Tony Ciarelli of Huntington Beach. Carlson led the Sea Kings with 289 kills, and had 171 digs, 50 aces and 22 blocks in his senior season as an outside hitter for the Sea Kings, earning first-team All-CIF Southern Section Division II honors.

SEAL BEACH - Beach volleyball players ages 18 and under may compete in the final tournament of the Sunkist AVP/AVA Youth Tour, scheduled Aug. 27 at Seal Beach. The event, a follow-up to the AVP tour stop at the same venue, Friday-Sunday, features competition in 10-and-under, 14-and-under, 16-and-under and 18-and-under divisions. Winners from each division will have the opportunity to appear on Fox Sports Net. Interested competitors may register by phoning the AVP at (310)

castle? Richard Dunn UPPER NEWPORT BAY - With groundbreaking scheduled a week from today, a new sand volleyball facility will be constructed at the Newport Dunes Resort, a venture headed by local men's pro beach volleyball star Brian Lewis. Lewis, the architect of the project, has played on the Association of Volleyball Professionals Tour for over a decade and is poised to turn the corner on his career, beginning with his initial capital campaign at the Newport Dunes.

Tony Altobelli Over the past year, Misty May has traveled to and competed in Brazil, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Switzerland, China, Germany and even Chicago. Now she can add Sydney, Australia to her travel log. The former Newport Harbor High and Long Beach State girls volleyball standout, along with Holly McPeak, will compete at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games in 2-on-2 beach volleyball. "She's logged some miles and turned some heads in a very short time," May's dad, Butch, said.

As memorable a day as Friday was for local athletes in the Sydney Olympics, Saturday, was not as special. Newport Harbor High grad Misty May, along with her playing partner Holly McPeak were upset in the quarterfinals of the beach volleyball competition, 16-14, before a stunned sellout crowd at Bondi Beach. In fact the other U.S. team, Jenny Johnson Jordan and Annett Davis were also ousted, 15-9, eliminating both American teams. May and McPeak were defeated by Brazil's Adriana Samuel and Sandra Pires, both of whom won medals with different partners at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

Former UC Irvine standout Ty Loomis and partner Casey Patterson won their fourth Corona Light Wide Open men's beach volleyball title Sunday, defeating Colin Kaslow and Tim Wooliver, 15-7, in the final of the event at Jenkinson's Inlet in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. Loomis and Patterson are undefeated on the Corona Light Wide Open Tour. Former Newport Harbor High star Jeannette Hecker, a Newport Beach resident, teamed with Niles Dauber of Chicago to win the Coed Open division in the same event.

Traci Weamer doesn't even own a TV, but she'll be on it Sunday. Airing all day Sunday on the CBS Sports Network will be The Alt Games: College Action Sports Championships, and Weamer — a 2009 graduate of Concordia University in Irvine — will be among those featured for winning the beach volleyball competition with partner Jane Chafeh. The Alt Games include competition in sports such as skateboarding, wakeboarding, flowboarding, beach volleyball and surfing. More than 1,300 competitors from more than 100 colleges across the nation competed in recent months in different locations leading up to this weekend's broadcast on CBS Sports.

UC Irvine women?s volleyball player Kari Pestolesi and Anteater alumna Keegan Featherstone will represent the United States in beach volleyball at the 2008 World University Championships, July 2-7 in Hamburg, Germany. Pestolesi, the 2007 West Region AVCA Division I West Region Freshman of the Year, will partner with UC Santa Barbara?s Olivia Waldowski as one of beach volleyball duos with Featherstone and partner Lauren Fendrick forming the second pair. Featherstone played for UCI from 2002 to 2005.

Newport Beach resident Donald Sun has bought the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals beach tour and vowed to restore it to a schedule that included as many as 31 events in 2008, the Los Angeles Times has reported. Sun, 37, a graduate of University High in Irvine and UCLA, said he paid $2 million to buy the AVP from its former owner, and plans to shift its headquarters to Newport Beach. "I'm not a volleyball guru, but I understand the enthusiasm people have for volleyball," said Sun, a former executive at the Fountain Valley-based Kingston Technology Co., whose new title is managing partner and owner of the AOS Group.

Traci Weamer doesn't even own a TV, but she'll be on it Sunday. Airing all day Sunday on the CBS Sports Network will be The Alt Games: College Action Sports Championships, and Weamer — a 2009 graduate of Concordia University in Irvine — will be among those featured for winning the beach volleyball competition with partner Jane Chafeh. The Alt Games include competition in sports such as skateboarding, wakeboarding, flowboarding, beach volleyball and surfing. More than 1,300 competitors from more than 100 colleges across the nation competed in recent months in different locations leading up to this weekend's broadcast on CBS Sports.

Former UC Irvine standout Ty Loomis and partner Casey Patterson won their fourth Corona Light Wide Open men's beach volleyball title Sunday, defeating Colin Kaslow and Tim Wooliver, 15-7, in the final of the event at Jenkinson's Inlet in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. Loomis and Patterson are undefeated on the Corona Light Wide Open Tour. Former Newport Harbor High star Jeannette Hecker, a Newport Beach resident, teamed with Niles Dauber of Chicago to win the Coed Open division in the same event.

Connor Curry's Team Top Gun wore jean shorts and "aviator" style sunglasses. Jackson Carmack's Team Gold-diggers wore, in Curry's words, "just a bunch of gold. " Zack Martin had Team Avatar all decked out in glittery blue paint. College volleyball this was not, but rather a last hurrah for several Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar high school graduates before they go their separate ways and enter that collegiate realm. And, in the end, Curry helped lead Team Top Gun to a victory over Team Gold-Diggers Monday afternoon at the Dover Shores beach volleyball court in Newport Beach.

Raquel Caulkins and her partner Saralyn Smith moved thousands of miles away from home to be closer to the beach for the same reason. They wanted to play beach volleyball and earn some money while performing on the sand. Caulkins came from Brazil and Smith from Connecticut. Their dreams to turn pro started at different times, Smith eight years ago and Caulkins last year. The careers of Smith and Caulkins on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Tour ended on the same day. Of all days, the duo learned on Friday the 13th that the AVP killed the tour due to financial troubles and its inability to find new investors.

Ed Ratledge rides a beach cruiser to work and shows up in flip-flops. He slips out of them when he reaches his so-called outdoor office. The beach is where Ratledge works. On the sand is where he earns a living. Ratledge now has to find other ways to support his family. Ratledge plans to teach youngsters at the YMCA in Newport Beach the beach volleyball game next month. He is going to do a lot more clinics now that his career on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Nivea Tour is stuck in the sand.

June has been a great month for April Ross, the Costa Mesa resident and former Newport Harbor High standout. Ross and Jennifer Kessy won their third consecutive Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tournament this month with a 21-16, 21-13 win over Rachel Scott and Elaine Youngs in Sunday's final of the AVP Nivea Tour Belmar Open in New Jersey. This tournament was the first time Ross and Kessy were the No. 1-seeded team. But that didn't mean things came easy for the duo. Unlike their previous title wins in Huntington Beach and Virginia Beach, Kessy and Ross needed to advance through the contenders' bracket after losing to Scott and Youngs, 21-14, 21-17, in the semifinals.

HUNTINGTON BEACH — April Ross didn’t want to leave the winners’ podium. The former Newport Harbor High standout wanted to relish the moment, her moment, the one that, finally, belonged to her and teammate Jennifer Kessy. "I’m tearing up," Ross, a Costa Mesa resident, told a crowd of approximately 3,000 at center court Sunday, site of the Assn. Volleyball Professionals Nivea Tour Huntington Beach Open presented by Bud Light Lime. "I don’t want to get down.