Three-time Olympic champion Kerri Walsh Jennings is enjoying early success with new partner April Ross, but she still gets nostalgic about her previous teammate, Misty May-Treanor.
“The hardest part about transitioning from Misty to April is just the bittersweetness of it. I miss Misty every day,” Walsh Jennings said, according to The Associated Press. “Sometimes I get a tear in my eye, and sometimes it makes me giggle.”
May-Treanor retired after she and Walsh Jennings won their third straight Olympic beach volleyball title in London in 2012. No other beach pair, men or women, has won two golds since the sport was introduced in Atlanta in 1996.
Walsh Jennings, 35, had her third child in April 2013 and then began playing with Ross. Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor beat Ross and Jennifer Kessy in the 2012 Olympic gold-medal game.
Walsh Jennings and Ross won two of three FIVB tournaments together last year and captured the 2014 season-opening event in China, a female record 47th career title for Walsh Jennings.
They’ll next play in the AVP season opener in St. Petersburg, Fla., this weekend.