What happened?

What happened?

You want shocking, I’ll give you shocking.

Nope has nothing to do with Joe Leiberman, Mel Gibson or even Britney.

One of the greatest sports franchises has split up. The winning combination of Elaine Youngs and Rachel Wacholder have gone splitsville.

There was no reason given for the split. They have done well beating the seemingly unstoppable Kerri Walsh and Misty May twice this year. Elaine Youngs will be matching herself up with Nancy Mason and Rachel will be teaming up with Jen Boss.

The pairings make sense. They are all fierce players. However there is one weird unwritten rule about women’s beach volleyball

See a pattern? One Blonde, One Brunette. I am not aware of any redheads in the sports.
I think it has something to do with skin cancer. There are only three teams I can think of that break this rule.

Even odder is the timing of this split. EY and Rachel vs. Kerri and Misty have been the Yankees and the Red Sox of women’s sports. 9 out of 10 times it is a fantastic matchup. With the Grandaddy of them all, the Manhattan Beach Open this weekend and the next tourney being Boulder (both EY and RW get a lot of support from their hometown crowds) the timing seems weird. There is something suspicious going on here.

There is something going on here. Something more than “we need to do something different”.

And what becomes of their coach Liz Masakayan , perhaps the most talented coach in women’s sports? The three of them together are the most awesome, tenatious Chinese Fighting fish combination I could think of.

No disrespect to Boss and Mason, but these new teams are not gonna click. EY and Rachel I would not sit next to each other at a dinner party. Rachel has speed. EY is is a fierce dominator. As the years have gone one it's obvious they have taken on a lot of each others qualities. On paper they don’t make sense. On the beach, they do.

None of it makes sense. What could have happened?