USA Volleyball sets teams, coaches for Beijing
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USA Volleyball has named eight athletes and four coaches who will be heading to Beijing to play in the beach volleyball compeition.
The women’s teams are Misty May-Treanor (Costa Mesa) and Kerri Walsh (Saratoga) and Nicole Branagh (Orinda) and Elaine Youngs (El Toro).
The men’s teams are Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara) and Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach).
Troy Tanner, a 1988 Olympic gold medalist from California will coach May-Treanor and Walsh. Branagh and Youngs’ coach will be 1988 women’s indoor volleyball Olympian Liz Masakayan of Santa Monica.
Dalhausser and Rogers will be coached by Bob Alejo, UC Santa Barbara’s strength and conditioning director since 2005. Gibb and Rosenthal are being coached by 1996 Olympic beach volleyball silver medalist Mike Dodd of Manhattan Beach.
Beijing will be the third Olympic Games for May-Treanor, Walsh and Youngs.
Youngs played with the women’s indoor volleyball team that finished seventh in 1996, and won a bronze medal in beach volleyball with Holly McPeak (Manhattan Beach) at the 2004 Athens Games.
Walsh played on the women’s indoor volleyball team that finished fourth in the 2000 Sydney Games, and won a gold medal with May-Treanor in Athens. May-Treanor and McPeak finished fifth at the 2000 Games. Branagh is a first-time Olympian in Beijing.
None of the U.S. men’s players has prior Olympic experience.
Although the May-Treanor/Walsh and Dalhausser/Rogers teams each finished their seasons with the most Olympic qualifying points, both teams could end up as second seeds in Beijing. Why? An FIVB rule states that host country teams that finish in the top six will be the top Olympics seed.
China has two women’s teams among the top six. Jia Tian and Jie Wang are second overall, behind May-Treanor and Walsh, and could get the top seed. The Chinese men’s team of Linyin Xu and Penggen Wu is sixth among all the men’s teams and also could get a top seed.
-- Greg Johnson