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.”