Avp

The Los Angeles Loyola junior is the No. 1 college prospect in Southern California, if not the nation. As fast as the blink of an eye, 6-foot-8 Robert Feathers of Los Angeles Loyola raised his long arms above the net and sent the ball crashing to the court in a startling display of precision and power. The ability to block in volleyball is one of the most treasured skills in the sport, and Feathers' giant frame, combined with his athleticism and agility, make him the No. 1 college prospect in Southern California, if not the nation, among juniors.

Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs have been queens of the sand this season, with victories in six AVP Crocs Tour beach volleyball tournaments, but the only team that's disrupted their reign is back -- and they're the newly crowned world champions. Jen Kessy and April Ross, who won the FIVB World Championships in July in Stavanger, Norway, return to the States for the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals' Hermosa Beach Open, which begins today.

Youthful ambition left John Hyden and Sean Scott without partners, so the 36-year-old veterans banded together. Turns out, experience has its benefits: Since teaming up, they have won two Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tournaments this season, in Atlanta and Ocean City, Md., and are the top-seeded team at the Manhattan Beach Open this weekend.

The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour returns to its birthplace for the Crocs Slam Manhattan Beach Open, sporting a new format and new look that includes some older faces. With 64 teams, the main tournament will be double the size of the next-largest AVP event. There are 48 automatic entries, with the other 16 spots decided today during qualifying rounds.

Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal undoubtedly compose the best beach volleyball team not to have won a tournament this year. They consistently battle into the finals but have not been able to clear a major hurdle that is the first-place tandem of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers. The trend continued Sunday when Dalhausser-Rogers defeated second-seeded Gibb-Rosenthal, 22-20, 21-17, in the final of the AVP Crocs Tour Huntington Beach Open.

Despite an impressive career and a recent resurgence on the pro beach volleyball circuit, Jeff Nygaard will never become a poster child for the AVP Crocs Tour. For one thing, the tour has its marquee male players in Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers, who are Olympic gold medalists and, on most days, unbeatable. For another, Nygaard does not like the sun.

Leonard Armato, head of the professional beach volleyball tour, resigned Wednesday for unspecified reasons. He will be replaced by Jason Hodell, who had been the tour's chief operating officer. "Having built the tour from six events in 2002 to 31 events this past year, and quadrupling our prize money, I am thrilled with the progress we have made," Armato said in a statement.

With its stock trading over the counter at 8 cents a share, the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals announced Friday it was pulling the plug on being a publicly traded company. The AVP, which is anchored by its AVP Crocs Beach Volleyball Tour, is not going out of business; on the contrary, the company is faring reasonably well given the gloomy economic climate.

Much of Manhattan Beach was still having breakfast Saturday when top-ranked Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh succumbed to the unusual: They lost a match. But you get a second chance in AVP Pro Beach Volleyball, and the Olympic gold medalists stormed back to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive Manhattan Beach Open and their third consecutive AVP Crocs Cup Championship.

AVP Pro Beach Volleyball returns to one of its marquee events this weekend, in Manhattan Beach, amid fresh optimism about the struggling sport's future. The series hopes this year's Manhattan Beach Open, part of the AVP Crocs Tour, will capitalize on the excitement of having two of its top teams win gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. Tour operator AVP Inc. also received a $3.