It's wasn't easy being No. 1.

Everyone was after them. The proverbial bullseye was glued to their backs once the seeding for the Belmar Open came out. And the high-flying combo of Kevin Wong and Matt Olson were clearly up to the challenge.

The newly-formed duo won their first AVP tournament together and it took three long days of hard work to do so.

Shortly before the finals, Olson spoke of his dream of winning his first tournament.

"I'd love to do it with Kevin and I'd love to do it this weekend," he said. "We'll get out there and play ball one point at a time and if it happens this weekend it happens and I'll be the happiest person in Belmar."

It's fair to say that no one in the stadium could match the size of Matt Olson's smile after the match.

Wong and Olson know what pressure is like. They're both seasoned veterans when it comes to the tour and both have had a fair amount of success. Wong represented the United States in the 2000 Olympics and Olson has been in the main draw for years.

However, this year's stop in New Jersey supplied the tandem with a trio of firsts. Their first time together as a top seed; Olson's first career tournament victory and their first win together as team. It's been a season full of progressive improvement for them. The two hope to build upon their Belmar success heading into the second half of the 2008 season.

"Over the course of the year we've improved a lot and we're still getting better," said Wong, 35 and a native of Hawaii. "There hasn't been a week that's gone by where we've taken a step backwards. And that's the key thing -- we're getting towards the middle of the season and there's still a lot of ball to be played."

Yet the road to such a feat wasn't smooth at all. Wong and Olson lost in the semifinals of the winner's bracket and were sent into the consolations with a responsibility to win two more matches in order to gain a spot into the finals. And they did.

The stress on them was apparent all weekend long. Even their fellow tour players gagged on them every chance they got.

"All of our boys in the tent have been giving us a hard time with the No. 1 seed, telling us not to look them in the eyes and all that stuff," Olson, 27, remarked. "I knew it would be like this coming into the tournament, but I tried not to think about it."

So, that's exactly what they did. They put the No. 1 seed out of their minds and thought of themselves as just another team trying to fight off the rest of the bunch for the open title.

"We tried to stay with the underdog mentality, always," Olson said.

Olson was on the top of his game in the 1 vs. 2 semifinal matchup. He put Wong on his back and they rolled the No. 2 seed of Brad Keenan and John Hyden. In one sequence during the first game that Wong and Olson eventually won 21-19, Olson scored five out of six points to take the team from down 13-10 to up 16-14. They didn't just snatch the lead from Keenan and Hyden, they seized every ounce of momentum.

And they carried that energy into and through the finals. No. 3 seeded Nick Lucena and Sean Scott gave them all they could handle, but in the end it wasn't enough. After the final point, a hitting error by Lucena, Wong and Olson screamed into the air and grabbed each other symbolizing not only triumph, but perseverance. After five years on the tour, Matt Olson finally got to hold the big check on the stage and take a champagne bath with his teammate.

He said it was well worth that wait.

"I wouldn't want to wait any longer, but I'm so stoked right now. All the time we put it was completely worth it. I'm so stoked."