LOS ANGELES (Oct. 22, 2008) - The AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour hosted its players banquet on Wednesday night, honoring the sport's top athletes of the 2008 AVP Crocs Tour season. Once again, three-time AVP Crocs Cup Champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist Misty May-Treanor swept the major honors at the tour's postseason awards ceremony, winning the Best Offensive Player, Best Defensive Player (defender) and Most Valuable Player honors while also earning the title of Team of the Year with partner Kerri Walsh.

The Team of the Year honor was the sixth straight for May-Treanor and Walsh. May-Treanor was named the Best Offensive Player for the fifth straight year, earned her fourth consecutive MVP award and captured the Best Defensive Player title for the third time.

On the Men's side the "Thin Beast," Phil Dalhausser, and the "Professor," Todd Rogers, took home Team of the Year honors for their second consecutive season. Dalhausser once again captured all the key individual awards; he continues his reign as the AVP Men's MVP and Best Offensive Player, both titles he was rewarded with in 2007. He also added to his resume Best Defensive Player (blocker). Rogers shared Best Defensive Player (defender) honors with Nick Lucena. The top offensive award was Dalhausser's third straight and for Rogers the defensive player of the year award was his fifth in a row.

All the postseason awards were voted on by the players and announced Wednesday during a ceremony at the Manhattan Beach Marriott hotel in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

May-Treanor and Walsh won 12 of the 15 AVP Crocs Tour events they entered this season, never finishing lower than third. Regarded as the most dominant team in the history of the sport, May-Treanor and Walsh set an unprecedented winning streak with 112 match wins in a row and 19 consecutive titles. The golden duo's record setting streak lasted more than a year (Aug. 19, 2007- Aug. 31, 2008) and shattered their own previous record marks of 89 straight match wins and 15 straight tournaments, set before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Dalhausser and Rogers continued to improve as both a team and as individuals by winning 11 of the 15 tournaments, one more than the year before. The Santa Barbara-based team dominated on the sand throughout the summer, capturing the AVP Crocs Cup title for a second year in a row, and also dominated on the world's stage, winning the gold medal in Beijing and completing the sweep of beach volleyball gold medals for the United States.

Most Improved Player awards went to the co-defensive player of the year Nick Lucena and Olympic team member Nicole Branagh.

Lucena, in his seventh year on tour turned in by far his best performance to date, finishing the season ranked third with partner Sean Scott. For the first time in his career, he played in all 18 tour stops, making it to the finals in six of the events and finishing no lower than 9th, a solid campaign for the veteran. Lucena also collected career best $121,262.50 in this season in winnings in 2008.

Branagh, in her fifth professional season, took her game up a level, earning two AVP Crocs Tour titles, two international titles and a position on the 2008 beach volleyball Olympic team with partner Elaine Youngs. In a dramatic match in Mason, Ohio, Branagh and Youngs took down the seemingly unbeatable team of May-Treanor and Walsh, ending the duo's record-setting win streak.

The 2008 Rookie of the Year award on the men's side went to the 28 year old Brazilian Pedro Brazao. In his first campaign on the AVP Crocs Tour, Brazao played in 17 events, finishing the season ranked 19th overall while earning a noteworthy third place finish in San Diego.

Another AVP star in the making, Whitney Pavlik, was named the women's Rookie of the Year. The 24-year old Orange County native broke into the Top 10 in 10 of the 15 tournaments she participated in, finishing a career best fifth in the Boulder, Colo. tournament.

The regular season of the 2008 AVP Crocs Tour concluded at the storied AVP Crocs Cup Shootout Presented By Bud Light Manhattan Beach Open, which featured the presentation of the Crocs Cup to the top men's and women's teams: May-Treanor/Walsh and Dalhausser/Rogers. Based on the new winner take all format of the tournament, a lot was on the line, but the top seeds again prevailed retaining their titles as AVP Crocs Cup Champions and their number one rankings. The Crocs Cup trophy was designed exclusively and crafted for the AVP Crocs Tour by Tiffany & Co.