Back to the Beach

Kerri Walsh didn’t quite know what to expect when she practiced with Misty May for the first time in almost a month, so she thought they should take it easy.

A few passing drills here, some setting drills there and then call it a day, was about all she had in mind.

The top-ranked women’s beach volleyball team in the world had been separated since June 23 because of an abdominal strain that had sidelined May.

So when May showed up for practice Tuesday in Hermosa Beach with a gung-ho attitude, Walsh was a bit taken aback.

“I was a little nervous about how she was going to play, but she was excellent,” Walsh said. “She looked great and she played aggressive, just like the same old Misty.”

May has spent the last month in physical therapy sessions, rehabilitating a muscle that has bothered her since the end of May and getting fit for the Olympics, which begin Aug. 13 in Athens.

May and Walsh are the favorites for the gold medal and May said she was pretty close to full strength.

“I’m definitely excited,” May said. “Athens is the most important thing, so it was good to have a little break to get healed up. But I missed playing. I missed competing. I’m ready to go.”

That might be bad news for the rest of the teams playing in the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Nissan Series Hermosa Beach Open beginning Friday at the Hermosa Beach Pier.

Walsh and “the same old Misty” have won 12 of the 13 AVP tournaments they have entered since 2003. They set a record with 15 consecutive worldwide victories this year and won 90 consecutive matches before losing last month at Manhattan Beach.

Since then, May’s abdominal strain has caused quite a disturbance in what was supposed to be a fine-tuning period for the Olympics.

May first felt the injury about two months ago, during an AVP stop in Huntington Beach.

May and Walsh won that tournament, but a week later, with May playing through the pain, they lost a semifinal match at Manhattan Beach, ending their match winning streak. The following week, they withdrew from an AVP tournament in San Diego.

May said she felt OK after the week off, and the team played an international event in Switzerland June 17-19. During their third match, the pain resurfaced. May played through it, and they won.

“I really didn’t realize how much it was hurting her,” Walsh said. “Looking back, we probably shouldn’t have played that tournament.”

The next week was a Grand Slam event in Germany. Grand Slams pay more prize money -- $43,000 to the winning team -- than a regular event ($27,000). So May tried to gut it out, but it turned out to be a mistake.

They won their first match, 21-15, 21-19, but May couldn’t continue. They withdrew from the tournament so that May could rest. The money, they decided, was not nearly as important as the gold medal.

“We finally put our foot down,” Walsh said. “We were kind of like, ‘What are we thinking? We need to be healthy going into Athens. We can’t take chances like this.’ ”

But while May rested, Walsh couldn’t sit still. She sat and watched from the sidelines during the tournament in San Diego but decided that wasn’t for her.

She teamed with Rachel Wacholder for an international event in Norway from July 1-4, and they finished third. The next week, Walsh paired up with Jennifer Meredith for an AVP event in New Jersey, and they finished second.

At an international tournament in France from July 15-18, Walsh and Wacholder teamed up again and this time they won.

“It was unbelievable,” Walsh said. “It was Rachel’s first win, so that was so much fun. But it was also very different winning without Misty. I didn’t realize how attached to her I was.”

Walsh and May have played together for more than three years, so the invisible bond was tough to break even though May remained in the U.S. while Walsh played with Wacholder in Europe.

“I must have called her ‘Misty’ a million times,” Walsh said of Wacholder. “She probably got sick of it.”

May and Walsh saw each other only once during their time off, during the AVP stop in New Jersey. They spoke on the phone a couple of times, but other than that went their own ways.

May said that she didn’t pay much attention to how Walsh was doing.

“It’s so funny,” she said. “If you want to know something about what’s going on in volleyball, I’m the worst person to ask.”

She had plenty to keep her occupied. Strengthening exercises and stretching were only part of her focus. She’s also planning a November wedding to Florida Marlin backup catcher Matt Treanor.

“I had some things to take care of,” she said.

Those things apparently didn’t include much time at the beach. May says that as she prepares for her on-court reunion with Walsh on Friday, she’s not nervous about the crowds or being rusty from her layoff. Her biggest concern, she said, is the sun.

“I haven’t been in the sun all that much,” she said. “I’ve never been the type to just go lay out at the beach, so I’ll be using lots of sunblock.”

Walsh is fine with that. She doesn’t care whether May is as white as a ghost or as red as a lobster come Sunday afternoon. There’s only one thing she’s concerned with.

“My partner is back,” Walsh said. “I’m just looking forward to getting back in a groove.”