AVP: THERE'S NOTHING LIKE MANHATTAN PLAYERS SET FOR PREMIER TOURNAMENT.Byline: ROMAN VEYTSMAN Special to the Daily News Known as the home of beach volleyball For the ball used in this sport, see . Beach volleyball is an Olympic team sport played on sand. Two teams, positioned on either side of a net which divides a rectangular court, hit a volleyball, usually using the hands or arms. , Manhattan Beach Manhattan Beach, city (1990 pop. 32,063), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1912. It is a residential and beach community with an oil refinery and nearby factories that produce transportation and electrical equipment, computers, and pottery. will host the most storied tournament and the premier event on the AVP AVP arginine vasopressin. tour, the Manhattan Beach Open, which starts today. The aura of Manhattan is beach volleyball's equivalent to a baseball player finally getting his shot at Yankee Stadium • • [ , and winners are remembered in engravings on the Manhattan Beach Pier. ``When I first started beach volleyball, that's all everyone talked about,'' said Mike Lambert who was born in Hawaii and won the Open in 2004 with Karch Kiraly Charles Frederick Kiraly, better known as Karch Kiraly (born November 3, 1960 in Jackson, Michigan), is an American volleyball player who is the only person to have won Olympic gold medals in both the indoor and beach versions of the sport. . Celebrating a half-century of beach volleyball on the men's side wouldn't be complete without beach volleyball legend Kiraly, who has missed the past four AVP tournaments with a knee injury. The winningest player at Manhattan Beach, the 45-year-old Kiraly will be back on the sand in an attempt to win his 11th Manhattan Beach crown, playing this time alongside partner Larry Witt. ``He's a living legend Living Legend may refer to:
Entering his 18th tournament in Manhattan, Kiraly's career is coming to a close, but despite his injuries, Kiraly's passion for Manhattan Beach wouldn't let him sit this one out. ``You could win every other tournament and they would call you champion, but if you don't win at Manhattan, it's a big hole in your resume,'' he said recently, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Lambert. ``Everyone knows the end is near with Karch here, and people can come out and see the God of our sport come out and play once again,'' Lambert said. Lambert and his partner, Stein Metzger Stein Metzger (born November 17, 1972 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is a top beach volleyball player from the United States, playing in the AVP. In 2006 he played with his high school teammate, Mike Lambert, and they advanced to the Final Four in fourteen of the fifteen team events, winning , are the No.1-seeded team and are coming off three wins in the past five Tour tournaments. The duo hasn't fallen short of the semifinals in any AVP tournament this season. Their biggest competition will come from No. 2 seed Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, who lead the tour with five tournament victories. On the women's side, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh have had just one obstacle in their path since 2004. That obstacle, the tandem of Rachel Wacholder and Elaine Youngs, has broken up, as the two decided to part ways and switch partners due to personality and on-court differences. Wacholder and Youngs were the only team to win an AVP tournament aside from Treanor and Walsh since July 2004. While the change was shocking because it came before the biggest tournament of the year, maybe the importance of Manhattan Beach is enough to cause a stir. After all, ``the heart of volleyball is Manhattan,'' Lambert said. roman.veytsman@dailynews.com (818) 713-3607 |
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