A Line In The Sand

Anyone who saw Misty May play volleyball during her championship days at Long Beach State--with those dark brown pigtails and skin so fair you could tell she spent plenty of time in the gym-- might not recognize her now.

That’s May with the long blond hair and the killer tan calling the beach her office these days after leaving the U.S. national team last year to try to reach the Olympics playing beach volleyball instead.

It was a bold move.

The indoor team has since qualified for the Olympics, though its medal prospects are dim.

On the beach, May and partner Holly McPeak, a 1996 Olympian, are playing a game of catch-up--starting almost a full season behind in the two-year Olympic qualifying process, with only two teams from each country eligible to go to Sydney.

Catch a glimpse of May and McPeak this weekend in Santa Monica on the women’s Beach Volleyball America tour and you’ll see why no one is counting them out. They’re already among the best on the beach.

“I know we can do it,” said May, a two-time national college player of the year who was named the nation’s top female college athlete after leading Long Beach to the 1998 NCAA title.

“It’s a matter of going out and performing.”

After a long, grinding summer last year, touring with the national team and training in Colorado Springs, Colo.--and with her role on the team under Coach Mick Haley not all she wanted--May left in August for the beach.

She traded the red, white and blue for a rainbow of Speedos--blue, pink, white, orange, green--a new suit for every match.

“At first it was hard, because everybody expected me to stay with the national team,” she said. “I felt like I had let a lot of people down. At the same time, I was kind of burned out.

“This sparked my fire.”

May’s heart was on the beach, but she had made her reputation in the gym--a player tall and athletic enough to be an outside hitter who instead became a setter, developing a flair in the middle of the Long Beach offense so skilled and creative that Coach Brian Gimmillaro isn’t the only one who thinks she does a little bit for her game what Wayne Gretzky did for his.

Combine May’s ability with the skill and savvy of McPeak, a three-time most valuable player on the domestic beach circuit, and they are a formidable pair, the rookie and the veteran.

“In another month, they’re going to be great,” said Gene Selznick, a beach volleyball legend now in his 70s who coaches them.

After five tournaments together, May and McPeak have reached the finals of their last two--winning at Deerfield Beach, Fla., last month as May, 22, became the youngest woman to win a domestic beach event. They finished second Sunday in Oceanside to Lisa Arce and Barbra Fontana after blowing a 5-0 lead in the final.

But it is going to take a lot more than success on the domestic tour to get to Sydney.

“We can win every domestic tournament, but internationally is where you qualify for the Olympics,” McPeak said.

Olympic qualifying is determined by the FIVB beach volleyball world tour, based on a team’s top eight finishes from the beginning of 1999 through August.

May and McPeak, after two FIVB tournaments in Brazil, are far behind the U.S. leaders. Liz Masakayan and Elaine Youngs have 2,078 points after eight events, and Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan--the daughter of Olympic decathlete Rafer Johnson--are in the other U.S. Olympic spot with 2,036.

Arce and Fontana are close behind, followed by Linda Hanley and Nancy Reno.

May and McPeak are fifth, with only 340 points.

Because May and McPeak don’t have a high enough ranking, they’ll also have to play through qualifying rounds at many of the 10 remaining FIVB tournaments in locales as diverse as Italy, Switzerland, France, Japan and China.

“Talent-wise, I think we could definitely compete with and pass the majority,” McPeak said. “I think we can compete for the top two. Our disadvantage is, we have to play qualifiers. . . . Not only are we trying to finish higher, we’re playing twice as many games.”

When May abandoned the national team for the beach, many heads turned.

You don’t have to read far between the lines to see she might have stayed if her role had been different under Haley, who used her as the second setter and didn’t allow the same creative freedom she enjoyed at Long Beach.

“I think if Arie Selinger [the 1984 Olympic coach] was coaching, Misty would be playing there and not here,” said her father, Butch, who played on the 1968 Olympic indoor team.

But in a way, May was returning to her roots when she went back to the beach.

When she was a baby, her parents, Butch and Barbara, ran a pizza stand called Victoria’s near the Santa Monica Pier.

“I was, like, in my crib, and my dad would leave Mom behind the counter while he went out and played volleyball on the beach,” said May, who grew up playing on the beach in Orange County after the family moved to Costa Mesa.

She had a head start, but going from the indoor game to the beach is a bigger adjustment than it might seem. There’s a reason many of the best players are in their 30s.

“For a million different reasons, it’s a completely different game,” Gimmillaro said.

There are the sand, the sun and the wind, of course.

Instead of being part of a six-player unit indoors, two players have to cover all of their side of the net on the beach.

And instead of specializing in setting or hitting, a player has to do everything--which means May gets to show off her powerful hitting again.

“I love it,” she said. “I love the scramble plays. I love playing defense.

“Indoor, there are certain plays. Beach, it’s never the same play twice.”

May’s versatility is exactly what makes her a great beach prospect.

“She’s a great player, and she’s already got one tour victory under her belt,” Fontana said. “She had the advantage of already playing on the beach. She’s made a lot of progress over the last six months--and she’s got one of the best players ever to play the game as her partner.”

The partnership of May and McPeak might seem unlikely, but for now, it is close to perfect.

May has star potential, but she is a younger player used to having her schedule and travel mapped out by college and national coaches.

McPeak, 30, has been through her share of partners, most notably clashing with Reno before the once-dominant pair parted ways after the Atlanta Games.

She is smart, organized, competitive and likes to call the shots--which might be a problem for some. May couldn’t be happier.

“I tell everybody she’s like my mother away from home. I let her make all the decisions,” May said.

“Holly has to be a big sister,” May’s father said. “If an application has to be turned in in five days, Holly gets it in with five days to spare.”

It works for McPeak too.

“Some days, some people don’t want to be there. Misty’s fired up and ready to learn every day. Her youth and excitement for the game, the energy she gives off, definitely help. Last year I played with partners I felt sucked my energy.”

That’s more or less how May felt with the national team.

“You’re indoors so much through the college season, and after winning the championship, I wanted to see more than the gym and the hotel,” she said.

The beach is easier on her chronically sore knees, and she can’t help but notice there is more focus on beach volleyball than on the U.S. team, which just returned from a Russian tour.

“I think I can do a lot more for the sport on the beach,” she said.

Her father nods.

“Look at what she can do here. It’s a lot more lucrative,” he said, pointing to six-figure incomes, including winnings and sponsorships. “There’s more longevity. And look at the atmosphere. There’s more support.”

May might yet return to the indoor game, but not this time around.

“I want to go to this Olympics on the beach,” she said, calculating she might have a chance to compete in three.

When she gets there, she doesn’t want to come home empty-handed.

“I don’t want to have kids and say, ‘Hey, I participated in the Olympics,’ ” May said. “I want to say, ‘Here’s my medal.’ I don’t want to be, ‘I have nothing to show you except my sweatsuit.’ ”

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BVA Santa Monica Open

* What: 24-team women’s pro beach volleyball tournament.

* When: Saturday and Sunday.

* Where: South of Santa Monica Pier between Pico and Bicknell.

* Time: Play begins at 9 a.m.; final at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

* Top players: Liz Masakayan, Elaine Youngs, Nancy Reno, Linda Hanley, Holly McPeak, Misty May, Annett Davis, Jenny Jordan, Lisa Arce, Barbra Fontana.

* Purse: $75,000.

*

Santa Monica Open

Saturday and Sunday South of Santa Monica Pier between Pico and Bicknell

Play begins at 9 a.m.; final at 2:30 p.m. Sunday