May-Treanor, Walsh Win Silver at Worlds

Becky Murdy
Assistant, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: 719-228-6800
E-Mail: becky.murdy@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 19, 2011) – The U.S. beach team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh captured the silver medal Sunday at the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Championships being played in Rome.

May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Walsh (San Jose, Calif.) fell to the top-seeds Larissa Franca and Juliana Felisberta Da Silva of Brazil 21-17, 13-21, 16-14 in a neck-and-neck 46-minute match. 

May-Treanor and Walsh, the two-time Olympic Games gold medalists, captured their fourth medal at the FIVB World Championships adding to their three gold medals in the 2003 (Rio De Janeiro), 2005 (Berlin) and 2007 (Gstaad) edition of the tournament. They were playing in their 47th FIVB gold-medal match in 63 tournaments. With the loss, May-Treanor had its 29-match FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship win streak snapped and are now 32-2 overall in the event.

Courtesy of FIVB Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor with their silver medals and trophies on the podium of the FIVB World Championships. Juliana and Larissa defeated May-Treanor and Walsh for just the sixth time in 17 meetings. The two sides also met during the 2005 FIVB Beach World Championship gold-medal match in which the Americans won. The Brazilian victory also snapped an American string of four consecutive FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship titles on the women’s side as Jen Kessy and April Ross won the event in 2009.

May-Treanor and Walsh have a 36-11 international record in final matches with 53 podium placements. Thirteen of the 17 matches between the Americans and Brazilians have been gold medal meetings, with May-Treanor and Walsh capturing eight wins.

Of the $1 million purse at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, the gold-medal teams in each gender will split $60,000, the silver medal teams $45,000, the bronze medal teams $35,000 and the fourth place finishers will split $28,000.

May-Treanor and Walsh most recently won the Beijing Grand slam last weekend. Just over a month ago May-Treanor suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament (MCL) during the Sanya Open in China that forced her to miss time on the sand. 

The next stop on the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour will be the ConocoPhillips Grand Slam Stavanger in Norway. Five U.S. women’s teams will compete June 27-July 2 while five U.S. men’s teams play June 28-July 3.

For videos and interviews at the FIVB Swatch World Championships,click here.

For the 2011 FIVB Swatch World Championships full-color media guide, click here.

Complete information about the FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour is available on the FIVB web site.

Tags: 2011 FIVB World Tour, 2011 SWATCH World Tour, FIVB, FIVB beach, FIVB World Championship, FIVB World Tour, Kerri Walsh, Misty May-Treanor