Sportskool
Volleyball

Chris Marlowe

A versatile, elite athlete in college and into the amateur and professional ranks, Chris Marlowe has somehow one-upped himself as a broadcaster.

Marlowe, the play-by-play voice of the Denver Nuggets since 2004, has broadcast almost every imaginable sport - baseball, basketball, football, fencing, poker, water polo. He's called more than 20 sports in all, including four prestigious Olympic gigs. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Marlowe called beach volleyball. And viewers should've listened intently. He knows a thing or two about the sport.

Marlowe captained San Diego State University's 1973 NCAA Championship as the starting setter. U.S.A. Volleyball named him its MVP in 1976 and 1978. A standout beach player, Marlowe won eight tournaments, including the 1977 World Championship and two Manhattan Beach Opens. In 1984, he captained the United States to a gold medal at the Olympics in Los Angeles.

Marlowe was also a force in basketball, lettering all four seasons with the Aztecs and earning Pacific Coast Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Year in 1970 and all-conference honors in 1974.

Misty May-Treanor

Few athletes are identified with their sport more closely than the face of women's beach volleyball, Misty May-Treanor.

May-Treanor and her partner, Kerri Walsh, have dominated the sport unlike any other duo. There's the gold-medal win at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, the record-breaking 89-match winning streak in 2003-04 and the 50 straight match wins from the Olympics until July 2005. The list of accomplishments seems endless.

The Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) named May-Treanor and Walsh its Team of the Year three years in a row (2003, 2004, 2005). And May-Treanor earned the league's MVP in 2005 and Best Offensive Player in 2004 and 2005.

May-Treanor started, of course, with "regular" volleyball. And, of course, she dominated. At Long Beach State she won the 1998 Honda Broderick NCAA Athlete-of-the-Year Award, the same year the undefeated 49ers won the NCAA Championship and May-Treanor earned Co-MVP honors. She was also a first-team All-American three times (1996-1998).

• Born July 30, 1977 in Santa Monica, California
• 1998 Long Beach State team is one of three college teams to go undefeated in a season
• 17 wins (domestic and international) in 2005 is the most ever among women
• Finished fifth in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney with her former partner, Holly McPeak
• Works as an assistant women's volleyball coach at Irvine Valley Junior College
• Married to Florida Marlins catcher Matt Treanor