Los Angeles, USA, September 21, 2003 - America's Misty May and Kerri Walsh won their third consecutive SWATCH-FIVB World Tour final against Brazil's Ana Paula Connelly and Sandra Pires Tavares on Sunday when they produced a stunning comeback to defeat their archrivals in the gold-medal decider at the $300,000 Nissan Grand Slam.
The reigning World Tour champions, who lost a nail-biting opening set 22-24, secured their fourth FIVB title of the season by claiming the second 22-20 before rallying from 1-4 and 7-10 down in the tiebreak to close out the match 15-12 on center court at the Home Depot sports complex in Carson.
Australia's Olympic champion Natalie Cooke and Nicole Sanderson won the bronze earlier in the day when they ended the medal-winning run of China's Tian Jia and Wang Fei with a 23-21, 21-18 triumph.
"That was an unbelievable match, my heart was racing all the way through," said Walsh, who was voted the Speedo Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
"Although we were 1-4 down in the third (set), which was a big lead for them to have, that made us even more focused. They came out aggressively as they always do, but we changed a few calls in the second set. I was jumping too early on my block and showing them too much of the court. Misty also made some huge defensive plays in the tiebreak."
May and Walsh now hold a 4-3 playing record against the Brazilians, a new partnership this season, and have now won their last three encounters after defeating them convincingly in the finals of Marseille and Klagenfurt Grand Slams in France and Austria respectively.
"That was by far our most satisfying victory of the season - because it was such a an exciting and tight match in front of our home crowd," added the 25-year-old from nearby Manhattan Beach.
May and Walsh's other victory on the 2003 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour came at the Gstaad Open in Switzerland.
The Brazilians will no doubt look back on the result as a missed opportunity to ended their run of losses against May and Walsh, especially as they gave up eight of the last 10 points in the tiebreak, although Ana Paula was gracious in defeat in as ever.
"These things happen sometimes, I don't know what happened," said a philosophical Anna Paula. "The game was tight all the way through and it was going to be decided in the last five points. Even at 5-1 up, or 10-7, it means nothing until the game is won.
"I think the crowd, the cheering and the general mood in the tiebreak gave them the confidence to comeback," added Ana Paula, who have also won four FIVB events this season - in Rhodes, Switzerland, Germany and Japan.
The women's SWATCH-FIVB World Tour takes a three-week break before the season-ending World Champions in Rio de Janeiro starting on October 7. |
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