TALKING WITH Pro Volleyball Player MISTY MAY And her husband, Marlins Catcher MATT TREANOR

MATT ON MEETING MISTY

We met in November 2003 at a sports therapy center in Orange, Calif. I was rehabbing my knee, and she was there training. I had no idea who she was. I went home and told my little brother, Markell, I was planning to ask out some volleyball player. I called her Missy May. He's like, 'What's with you, man? You've got problems. She's one of the most famous players in the world.' We eventually went out in January, and we were engaged in March.

MISTY ON MEETING MATT

We had a mutual friend, this guy Brian. He was trying to set me up with another guy. I'm like, I'm not in interested, but if Matt would ask me out, I would be. So Brian would go talk to Matt and feed me information. When we finally went out, I brought him to a UCLA volleyball match with my dad.

MATT ON BEING TEASED ABOUT HER

She plays in a bathing suit, so of course teammates say stuff. It's just to get a rise out of me. During spring training [outfielder Jeff Conine] scribbled my name on the board as Matt May. So now that's the running joke. Everyone calls me Mr. May.

MISTY ON BEING TEASED ABOUT HIM

At the Toyota Grand Prix in Long Beach last year, organizers gave me a blow-up doll with a Marlins hat and said I was a baseball widow. I was like, "Don't say that! He's not dead!" I brought the doll back to my hotel, but in the middle of the night I saw it propped against the wall and it totally freaked me out. I deflated it, stuffed it in the corner and left it there.

MATT ON HER CELEBRITY

In California it's ridiculous. She gets stopped all the time. Even on our honeymoon in Tahiti, we were trying to rent Jet Skis and you could hear people on the dock saying in broken English, "Olympic volleyball" and pointing to her. Then they started chanting her name. It's wild.

MISTY ON SAMPLING EACH OTHER'S SPORTS

I hit slow-pitch at the batting cages, nothing over 40 miles an hour. Matt's not bad on the volleyball court. He likes me to crush him--to spike balls as hard as I can at him. I think it's a catcher's mentality. He's used to blocking.

MATT ON MISTY'S WINNING GOLD IN ATHENS

It was tough not to be there. A guy I know was there for the gold medal match. He called me and gave me a play-by-play. He'd hold up the phone so I could hear the crowd cheering for her.

MISTY ON MATT'S MAKING THE MARLINS AFTER A DECADE IN THE MINORS

I get so excited when he suits up. He loves baseball so much. When he thought maybe he should quit to go back to school, I told him that your body only lasts so long but school will be there. I know athletes who quit and regretted it. I didn't want him to have any regrets.

--As told to Lisa Altobelli

MAY, 27, AND HER PARTNER, KERRI WALSH, WON A SECOND WORLD TITLE ON JUNE 25. TREANOR, 29, IS HITTING .244 AS PAUL LO DUCA'S BACKUP

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photograph by jennifer pottheiser