By Jimmy Golen

Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS >> At 6-foot-9, Phil Dalhausser has emerged as the top player on the domestic beach volleyball circuit and, along with partner Todd Rogers, form the No. 1 U.S. men’s team in Beijing.

NEAR a strip of sand known more for auto racing, far from the California coastline where the best beach volleyball players are usually bred, Phil Dalhausser would sit on the couch watching baseball on TV, sound-lessly practicing his setting until his shoulders ached or his mother told him to stop chipping the popcorn paint up above.

Over and over the teenager would flick the ball straight into the air, aiming toward the peak of the cathedral ceiling that gave him room to stretch despite his basketball player’s body. When the ball came down, he would cradle it ever-so-gently in the spread of his fingertips, striving for perfect silence, and send it back up, repeating as often as he could, then taking a break, then starting again.

At 6-foot-9, the blocking and spiking that earned Dalhausser the nickname “The Thin Beast”

came naturally; with his background in tennis, the toss and swing that makes up the volleyball serve was also an easy adjustment.

But what’s helped Dalhausser dominate beach volleyball is his ability to learn to set and pass, the mundane skills that separate the crowd-pleasers from the champions.

“He’s a monster blocker at the net. He can serve the snot out of the ball. He’s the point scorer,” teammate Todd Rogers said this summer as they wrapped up the international Grand Slam season and turned their attention to the Olympics. “But what sets him apart from other big guys is his ability to control the ball. His setting, for a guy 6-9, is off the charts.”

With a point guard’s skills and a power forward’s body, Dalhausser has emerged as the top player on the domestic beach volleyball tour and one-half, with Rogers, of the No. 1 team in the world. The two are the best American hopes for a men’s medal in Beijing, and with defending women’s champions Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor they give the United States a chance at a gold-medal sweep.

On the women’s side, defending champions Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor, above, give the United States a chance at a gold sweep.

“They are very capable of winning gold,” said Walsh, who with May-Treanor cruised through Olympic qualifying on the international women’s tour. “I feel like they have destiny in their hands, which is an unbelievable feeling. It’s so exciting, but it’s scary at the same time because you don’t want to screw up.”

The sand has been trucked into the Chaoyang Park venue in Beijing, and the atmosphere is being imported from places such as California and other beach party spots that established the sport as the sexiest in the Olympics. An American master of ceremonies is ready to stoke up the crowd, the music will be cranking, and dance teams in bikinis will be kicking up sand to keep the festivities going.

The bodies will be splashing around on the sand as well, with two U.S. medal contenders and a pair of dark horses competing for spring break’s biggest prize.

Walsh and May-Treanor coasted into the Olympics by winning the first eight qualifying tournaments to earn a spot with a year to spare, and offseason shoulder surgery could be the only hurdle on their path to the medal stand; Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs are the other U.S. women’s team. Their path might have gotten easier when Brazil’s Juliana injured her knee in June, but both Brazil and the host Chinese have deep benches and potential medalists to spare.

Dalhausser and Rogers were almost as dominating on the men’s side, winning three Grand Slam events this summer and finishing second in the other to Brazilians Emanuel and Ricardo. China could also ride the excitement of its first Olympics to a medal if the crowd gets behind Xu Linyi and Wu Penggen.

“I think we’re playing really well right now,” Rogers said. “With a lot of confidence.”

A 34-year-old Californian who was an All-America selection playing indoor in college at Santa Barbara, Rogers has a traditional background that has served him well on the beach. But Dalhausser never played the game - indoors or outdoors - until he was a senior in high school, cramming a lifetime of practice into a few years to become an Olympian.

Born in Switzerland - his mother spoke only German - Dalhausser moved to the United States when he was 1 and learned English when he entered kindergarten. He had the height of a basketball player as a teenager, but he was more thin than beast and had little of the affinity for banging around the low post to play at perennial state champion Mainland High School in Daytona, which sent Vince Carter to the NBA.