Our own volleyball star has competed in the last match of her career in London, but the match won't be seen until NBC’s primetime coverage at 8:00 p.m. In the last match of her legendary career, Misty May-Treanor will try to cement her spot in Olympic and FIVA history.
Win or lose--we're not spoiling this one--she is respected by her competitors for longevity, fierceness and her come-back in her 30s. A two-time NCAA champ for Cal State Long Beach, where she still trains, her Newport Harbor high school coach Wednesday morning told KPCC "she's the Michael Jordan of her sport."
The team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings has dominated beach volleyball for three Olympics, winning every match they’ve ever played at the Summer Games and having lost just one of 43 sets. No team has come close to that in beach volleyball, and no woman has ever won three Olympic gold medals in beach volleyball of any kind. In-fact until Michael Phelps won the 100 meter fly earlier in the games this year no one had ever won three gold medals in-a-row in any event. Misty will, tonight on NBC primetime, attempt to be the first woman to do so.
“Kerri and I, we want to go down as the best team in history,” May-Treanor told NBC. And to show the respect the team has garnished their competitor, Jen Kessy, said, before the match today, “They’re [Misty and Kerri] the best team of all time.”
The Long Beach State grad, born in Los Angeles, attended high school at Newport Harbor High School where she was named by USA Today as the best girl’s volleyball player in the nation. Misty graduated in 1995 and went onto play volleyball for Long Beach State where, in 1997 and 1998, she received the honor of back-to-back NCAA Player of the Year.
Misty May and her partner Holly McPeak earned fifth place in 2000 at the Olympic games in Sydney. Since then she hasn’t lost a match.
“It’s big time for the sport in the U.S.,” said fellow Olympian and beach volleyball player Phil Dalhausser. He went on to add that the team of May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings have helped to popularize the sport.
Tonight at Horse-Guard Parade the phenomenon hopes to finish her three year win streak tonight with a win over fellow Southern-California’s Jen Kessy and April Ross.
Here's Misty May's Facebook page, where fans lit up her wall with comments past midnight. (Check out her photo of her new gold toenail polish).
After you watch the game check NBC for the broader coverage.
