I Guess Sometimes Success isn't Enough

Bugger. My favorite AVP team has split this week. No let's restate that a bit, my favorite player has split from a very successful partnership not entirely by her choice I suspect. For those of you who do not follow volleyball, Rachel Wacholder and Elaine Youngs have been the only reason to watch women's beach volleyball, outside of its biochemical appeal, for the last three years. rachel and EY have defeated the Juggernaut (KW and MMT) 5 times since 2004 and have been the only keeping them from a virtual walkover every weekend. While the domination of Walsh and Traynor has been almost eastern in its beauty power and simplicity, it has also been quite frankly boring. Well along comes the news that EY getting itchy because they have not fared well in Internationals this year has decided to dissolve the partnership with three events left in the year and while the team is in second with an outside shot at catching the Juggernaut. EY did offer to finish the season, but Rachel citing personality conflicts (according to an LA paper) has decided to start looking right now. So my girl, Rachel, is forced to start over. Jen Kessy Boss is a mighty nice pick up for her and they should be fun to watch. But come on, wait until the season's over to bring it up EY. They have been fighting publicly, but leave it outside the tape and get the season finished.
So why is Rachel, my girl. I'll not try to play holier than thou. She is a raven haired beauty who wears the tiniest bikini on the tour, but this is a tour filled with beautiful ladies. The connection goes deeper she is a Buffalo who I had the distinct pleasure to watch for her career at Colorado. Further still she was a classmate and friendly acquaintance of my Lady. I'm flipping through the channels last year one Sunday and come across some beautiful and athletic women in bikinis running around in the sand playing one of my favorite games. Sweet, then the pan in "Holy crap, that looks like Rachel Wacholder!" Flash the score , "Holy crap it is Rachel Wacholder!" "Honey (to the other room) weren't you friends with Rachel Wacholder in college?" "We were friendly, talked went out to lunch that kind of thing. Why?" "Come in her she's on NBC!" 2 degrees of separation I suppose. But I also have had a few chances to deal with her directly and know her to be pleasant, unassuming and accomodating. All this while she was (at CU) and is a superstar volleyball player. She even took a minute out of her preparation for a match at last years Boulder tournament to sign an autograph for me. The kind of person that is easy to root for and the partisan Boulder crowd loved her.
As an aside, if you get a chance to go to a tournament, run don't walk. I was often standing 6' away from a volleyball match including Olympic gold medalists and millionaires, throwing the ball back to them. When the sun would suddenly disappear (not unwelcome since it was about 100 degrees in Boulder that weekend). I would find myself in the middle of a group, and conversation involving Karch Kiraly, Kerri Walsh and Mike Lambert. I don't often feel small but these folks are really tall! They were real, kind and approachable. An amazing experience.
So fast forward. Ey now thinks she needs another partner to win gold in Beijing so adios Rachel. It is not hard to see how there might conflict. Rachel is a self described introvert. Ey on the other hand is a marvelous, uncompromising, driven athlete who is coincidentally not long on making nice. I watched her almost throw a game because she was too busy fighting with a guy in another match. Yes while they are both playing! Rachel has earned a reputation as a great player and will partner well (Has already with Boss) but the game has lost one of it's great rivalries (perhaps to spawn another) and my girl has lost one of the best players of all time as her partner. I'm guessing the Juggernaut is sleeping a little easier tonight.



What would make me most happy this Sunday is to watch Rachel and Jen thump EY on their way to defeating the Juggernaut and winning the coveted Manhattan Beach title.