Beach Volleyball

Last August, the Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series debuted a three-event tournament in an effort to revive pro beach volleyball's foothold on domestic sand, a foothold that had started to sink when the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals shut down in the same month in 2010. Well, Jose Cuervo's 2011 series was a hit, so much so that its 2012 schedule, set to be announced Thursday, offers more than twice as many events. There will be seven all told: the first kicks off Memorial Day weekend in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and three will take place in Southern California.

The financially beleaguered Assn. of Volleyball Professionals has been sold to a 37-year-old Irvine native and former executive at a multinational computer technology company, the league announced Monday. Donald Sun, a former executive at the Fountain Valley, Calif.-based Kingston Technology Co., said recently in an interview that he paid $2 million for the pro beach volleyball league, which was previously owned by Nick Lewin, a managing member of DFA PVA II Partners, LLC. Lewin gained control of the AVP in December 2010 when his firm used $3.8 million of debt to buy the tour that in August of that year had shut down and canceled its five remaining events when it had run out of money.

It's been an unbelievable season for Sean Scott and John Hyden, give or take one bad chicken sandwich, but Saturday was a rough time for one of the top U.S. beach volleyball teams. Scott and Hyden were bounced into the losers bracket of the Hermosa Beach Open after Matt Prosser and John Mayer beat them in the double-elimination tournament of the Jose Cuervo series, 16-21, 22-20, 15-13. The only thing preventing Scott and Hyden from winning every U.S. tournament they've entered this season is Scott's bout with food poisoning two weeks ago in a National Volleyball League event in Miami.

The thick screen of clouds created an obvious deterrent on the final day of the Hermosa Beach Open. Or maybe the sparse crowd could have been blamed on the third Sunday of the NFL season. Then the sun came out and beach volleyball fans seemingly followed it to the Hermosa Beach Pier to see Casey Jennings and Pedro Salgado beat Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal, 21-18, 21-17, to win the third and final event of the Jose Cuervo series. Jennings hadn't done much on the beach this season other than a fifth-place finish in a tournament in the Netherlands.

Sean Scott loves this year's reincarnated version of the Manhattan Beach Open. But the pro beach volleyball player wanted to prove he's not alone in that opinion, so he asked a random nearby player for his two cents. Eyal Zimet, who has played in 58 pro tournaments, happily shared them. "This is the first real tournament this year," he said. John Hyden, Scott's partner on the open's top-seeded men's team, said when players first saw the stadium seating, sponsor village and fans start pouring in, the reaction was simple: "All right, we're back.

Kurt Rambis isn't a very good beach volleyball player. "I'm awful," he says, laughing. But the former Lakers forward and NBA coach's son, Jesse, is pretty good — a professional, even. On Friday at the Manhattan Beach Open, Jesse Rambis and his partner, Kevin Wong, the second-seeded team in the tournament, beat Travis Schoonover and Nils Nielson, 21-19, 19-21, 15-8, to advance to the third round. Wong is a Lakers fan, especially of the Showtime teams the elder Rambis played for, but Wong was pretty impressed with the junior Rambis after playing alongside him for the first time Friday.

Former UCLA Bruins star and current Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star forward Kevin Love made his pro beach volleyball debut Thursday at the Manhattan Beach Open, but it didn't last too long. Love and his partner, Hans Stolfus, were knocked out in straight sets, 21-16, 21-15, by the top-seeded team in the tournament, Sean Scott and John Hyden. "It was a very, very good experience," Love said. "I look forward to keep playing. " Scott and Hyden are Olympic hopefuls and took it easy on Love and Stolfus, the lowest-seeded team in the tournament.

Manhattan Beach Open officials just want a second chance, that's all. Sure, they know fans, sponsors and players were burned by pro beach volleyball a year ago when the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals shut down its tour and took the sport's credibility with it. But they hope the reincarnation of the sport's crown jewel tournament, which begins Thursday with qualifying rounds and holds its finals Sunday, will be such a smash hit for the Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series that the scorned fall back in love.

Deron Williams has signed with a team in Turkey, Leandro Barbosa has agreed to play in Brazil, and Kobe Bryant is rumored to be playing everywhere but Easter Island. In a summer of NBA lockout uncertainty, Kevin Love is choosing to play somewhere different as well — a few steps south of the Manhattan Beach pier. The Minnesota Timberwolves forward will be there later this week, trying to break ground in a sunnier, sandier corner of the sports world at the Manhattan Beach Open.

A year after the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Tour shut down after 23 years, a new, three-event tour is expected to be unveiled Wednesday. The tour will open with the Manhattan Beach Open on Aug. 26 and carry a total purse of $500,000. "For us there was a different void in the market with AVP ceasing operations," said Dave Williams, the managing director of Beach USA Volleyball. "So it is very important for us to get these events up and running first. " The Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series will move from Manhattan Beach to Miami Beach on Sept.