Former Bruins land on Sydney beaches with volleyball berth

By Pauline Vu

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Everyone knew that Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan would
earn one of the country’s two Olympic berths for
women’s beach volleyball.

But when it finally happened on July 23 after their victory over
Brazilians Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede earned them the French
Open title, the two weren’t even aware they had snagged a
ticket to Sydney.

“To be honest, we didn’t know we had clinched
it,” Johnson Jordan said in a phone interview from Espinho,
Portugal, where the duo competed in the latest Fédération
Internationale de Vollyball World Tour event from July 25-29.

“We were happy about winning the tournament. We had never
beaten (Behar and Bede) before,” she added.

Since they began playing full-time in 1998, former Bruins Davis
(’94) and Johnson Jordan (’95), the No. 3 team in the
world, had lost all seven of their matches against the Brazilian
tandem, currently the world’s top-ranked team.

After their French Open victory they found out that winning the
tournament raised their FIVB Olympic qualification point total to
2,676, enough to guarantee that they would end the season as one of
the top two teams in the U.S.

To fill the 24-team Olympic field, each country can send at most
two teams, except for Australia, which can send three teams as a
right of being the host country.

Beach volleyball teams receive Olympic qualifying points based
upon their finishes in the FIVB World Tour events that take place
from Jan. 1, 1999-Aug. 15, 2000.

“We were excited,” Johnson Jordan said about hearing
that she and Davis had made it. “It’s been a long
qualifying process. To finally get in was satisfying.”

Not that they’ve celebrated yet.

“We haven’t had a time to really enjoy it,”
Davis said. “We had to go from France to Portugal. It was
like, “˜Yay, it’s great,’ and now refocus and try
to get ready for games.”

At the Portugal Open, Johnson Jordan and Davis made it to the
semifinals before losing to eventually place fourth in the
tournament.

Currently in second place for the U.S. are former Bruins Elaine
Youngs (’92) and Liz Masakayan (’85) with 2,420 points.
Before the Portugal Open they were third, but the two won the event
to give them the points necessary to move to second. They are now
ahead of the U.S.’s No. 3 team of Misty May and Holly McPeak,
another former Bruin (’90), who have 2,402 qualifying
points

Masakayan and Youngs are at a crucial point. Even if they win
the two remaining tournaments in Japan and China, they can’t
pass Davis and Johnson Jordan’s total, but winning the last
events mean they can still stave off May and McPeak for the other
Olympic berth.

Though it’s coming down to crunch time for them, Youngs
and Masakayan don’t feel any added pressure.

“Obviously, it’s an important year, but
there’s nothing different now than there was a few months
ago,” Masakayan said in a phone interview from Portugal.

May and McPeak did not compete in Portugal because May recently
pulled a stomach muscle while playing. They will still compete in
Japan and China, however, and if they win the final two events they
could even pass Johnson Jordan and Davis for the country’s
No. 1 berth.

But it doesn’t matter to the latter who goes to Sydney as
No. 1 and who goes as No. 2.

“What matters to us is that we’re going,”
Johnson Jordan said.

The Sydney Olympics will have a new format compared to the one
at the Atlanta Games and regular beach volleyball tournaments.
Instead of double-elimination matches, Sydney will use
single-elimination matches. That means there are no second chances,
and every match matters.

“That puts more pressure on everyone, but it’s also
fewer games to get to the finals,” Davis said.
“You’ll have a tougher match your first
game.”

They figure their toughest competition will be the two Brazilian
teams, the Australian teams, and whoever the other U.S. team
is.

But Davis and Johnson Jordan, who were roommates while at UCLA,
figure their own personal chemistry should give them an edge.

“Our friendship and the fact that we have been together
for so long helps, because we’ve grown together learning how
to play this game,” Davis said.

Johnson Jordan added, “I think we have just as good a
chance as anyone else to bring home a gold medal.”