Memorable moments of 2011: Beach volleyball
FIVB
Hide captionBrazil's Juliana Silva (right) and Larissa Franca were down four points in the third set of the gold-medal match against Americans Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh at the 2011 World Championships in Rome, but came back to win their first career world title.
FIVB
Hide captionAlready owning two world titles with two different partners, Brazil's Emanuel Rego (left) won a third with a third partner, Alison Cerutti, in Rome. The duo went on to win the overall season title as well.
FIVB
Hide captionAfter two years apart, Misty May-Treanor (left) and Kerri Walsh of the U.S. made their return to international play at the 2011 season opener in Brasilia, and impressively claimed the silver medal. They celebrated with Walsh's reasons for sitting out two years: Joey (left) and Sundance.
FIVB
Hide captionIt didn't take long for May-Treanor and Walsh to find themselves back on top of a podium. They won the Beijing Grand Slam, their third tournament of the season, and site of their last prior title: the 2008 Olympics.
FIVB
Hide captionEmanuel and Alison won their first event of the season in Prague by defeating Phil Dalhausser (right) and Todd Rogers in the final, snapping the Americans' streak of 40 consecutive match wins.
FIVB
Hide captionTwo weeks after their win streak ended, Dalhausser severely sprained his ankle, which noticeably bothered him the next week at Worlds, and wouldn't completely heal until the season ended. Despite a subpar June because of the bum ankle, Dalhausser and Rogers still ended the year No. 2 overall.
FIVB
Hide captionBrazil's Marcio Araujo (right) and Ricardo Santos celebrated their first title together in Stavanger in July, but by the end of the month the duo, which also won silver at Worlds, separated, thus shaking up Brazilian partnerships a year before the Olympics.
FIVB
Hide captionApril Ross (left) and Jen Kessy of the U.S. won only one event in 2011, but it was in Stavanger, where they'd won two previous times, and the points earned went a long way in likely securing their first Olympic berth.
FIVB
Hide captionAt the final men's event of the season in Agadir, Nick Lucena (left) and Matt Fuerbringer of the U.S. defeated compatriots Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal in the third round and went on to place fourth, which gave them a slight 60-point edge in the teams' battle for the second U.S. Olympic berth.
FIVB
Hide captionThe Myslowice Open featured the first all-European FIVB final since 2003 as Sanne Keizer and Marleen Van Iersel of the Netherlands (left) defeated Italy's Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti. Those duos finished the year 7th and 6th, respectively, in the rankings, highlighting a strong year for Europeans.
FIVB
Hide captionRight when Brazil's Ricardo announced mid-season that he wanted to play with Pedro Salgado (pictured), the FIVB announced that one of Pedro's drug tests came up positive and suspended him. Pedro was eventually cleared, but Ricardo moved on to Pedro Cunha and appears set to take the latter Pedro to London.
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