May-Treanor, Walsh Own Title

For Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, winning on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour has become as common as sand on a beach.

The top-ranked women’s duo did nothing to harm its reputation Sunday when it won the AVP’s Cincinnati Open and with it the Crocs Cup for winning the season points title in beach volleyball -- although that title was already wrapped up before this tournament.

May-Treanor and Walsh earned their 12th title of the season -- and their 37th in the last 43 tournaments they have entered since 2003 -- after a harder-than-expected 16-21, 21-13, 15-12 victory over the fifth-seeded team of Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan in a match that lasted 1 hour 18 minutes.

It was the second time in the tournament that May-Treanor and Walsh defeated Davis and Johnson Jordan, having won 21-16, 21-15 a day earlier in the winner’s bracket against the former UCLA teammates.

May-Treanor and Walsh, who made the finals of every AVP event this season and lost only twice, finished with 4,920 points in the standings, well ahead of Davis and Johnson Jordan, who finished second with 3,510.

The victory also avenged all three losses that May-Treanor and Walsh suffered on the tour in 2005. Last year, they lost in the Cincinnati final to Rachel Wacholder and Elaine Youngs to break a 50-match winning streak. Earlier this season, May-Treanor and Walsh won events at Huntington Beach and Boulder, Colo., to erase the sting of those defeats of a year ago.

May-Treanor and Walsh also reached a financial milestone, becoming only the second women’s team to surpass $2 million in earnings.

-- Jim Barrero