Roumain, Ring Take Huntington Beach Title

Putting a hurt on the volleyball is the easy part for George Roumain and Jason Ring. It’s the control part of the game that has held them back.

Roumain is 6 feet 7 and 260 pounds and Ring has a 47-inch vertical leap, so hitting the ball hard is second nature. And never mind that both have bodies sculpted like Roman statues.

But the two hulking partners, who are in their first year playing the AVP Nissan Series, quickly realized that to win, they needed to add finesse to their game.

To that end, they hired a coach and that move paid off Sunday with the pair’s first career victory. Ring and Roumain capped an emotionally and physically draining day with a resounding 21-12, 21-16 victory over Sean Rosenthal and Larry Witt in the men’s final of the Huntington Beach Open near the Huntington Beach Pier.

“We tightened up our ball control,” Ring said. “We’re a physical team, but if we can add in a little finesse, then we’re going to win tournaments. We just kept telling each other to tighten up the passing, tighten up the setting and then go unload on the hits.”

Ring and Roumain overpowered Rosenthal and Witt in the final, but had some intense matches earlier in the day. They defeated Karch Kiraly and Mike Lambert, 21-17, 17-21, 21-19, in a 78-minute, fourth-round match and then outlasted Dain Blanton and Jeff Nygaard, 21-19, 16-21, 15-12, in the semifinals.

“We had so many battles out there,” Roumain said. “Teams had match point on us several times and we just came back and stuck together. There were times that I was doubting myself, thinking, ‘I don’t even know if we’re going to win this game.’ It was very emotional.”

The turning point came in the victory over Kiraly and Lambert. Kiraly is an idol of both players, who acknowledged that they have been intimidated playing him in the past. When they beat him, they realized that they could win the tournament.

“Just to be able to beat Karch, I was ready to call it quits right there,” Roumain said. “That gave us a lot of confidence.”

Ring and Roumain split $14,500 for the victory, which they added to an already impressive start to the season. They have finished third, third and seventh in the three previous tournaments, but the victory Saturday established them as a team to beat in the future.

“They’re going to be a force to be reckoned with for years to come,” Rosenthal said. “They’re a very good team, an exciting team, a real physical team. They play a tough game and if they don’t make mistakes and you don’t play on top of your game, they’re going to beat you.”

Most of the time, Ring and Roumain do it with power. They are among the strongest, most muscular players on tour, but couldn’t get over the hump until they hired coach Jack Koberly to work on finesse skills.

Still, in the final, they applied plenty of crowd-pleasing hits and monster stuff-blocks against a smaller, ball-control team.

“We had a good matchup with this team,” Roumain said. “I think you have to go with your strengths. That really worked today.”

In the women’s final, Kerri Walsh and Misty May defeated Barb Fontana and Jennifer Kessy, 21-12, 21-13, for their record 15th consecutive beach volleyball victory and 12th consecutive AVP victory.

May and Walsh, who split $14,500, had an easier road this week because their chief rivals on the AVP were playing an Olympic qualifying tournament in China. Elaine Youngs and Holly McPeak won that tournament.

“It’s never easy,” May said. “We’re the team to catch and everyone wants a piece of us so when they come out, we expect them to come out fired up.”

May and Walsh have won 86 consecutive matches and 58 consecutive games. They have swept their last 28 matches in two games. In 12 games this week, they allowed more than 15 points only twice and held their opponents to single digits twice.

But colors mean more than streaks and numbers to May and Walsh, specifically the color gold. They are the top-ranked team in the world and are favored to win the gold medal at the Athens Olympics in August.

“We don’t expect this to end until we’re standing hearing our national anthem,” May said. “We just hope people stop asking us about the numbers.”

Ending the streak before then might be nearly impossible, according to those who have to play them every week.

“They are by far the best women’s beach volleyball team that’s ever played the game,” said Fontana, a 15-year veteran. “They take teams out of their rhythm.”

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Best on the Beach

The 86-match winning streak of Misty May and Kerri Walsh, including 15 tournament championships:

*--* 2003 July 15-20 France Grand Slam 7-0 July 25-27 Belmar Open 5-0 July 30-Aug. 2 Austria Grand Slam 7-0 Aug. 7-9 Manhattan Beach Open 6-0 Aug. 14-16 Huntington Beach Open 5-0 Aug. 28-30 Chicago Open 5-0 Sept. 4-6 Las Vegas AVP Shootout 3-0 Sept. 18-21 U.S. Grand Slam 7-0 Oct. 7-12 World Championship 7-0 2004 March 9-14 Brazil Open 6-0 April 2-4 Fort Lauderdale Open 5-0 April 23-25 Tempe Open 6-0 April 30-May 2 Austin Open 5-0 May 19-23 Greece Open 6-0 May 28-30 Huntington Beach Open 6-0

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