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| Born | November 17, 1972 | ||||||||||||
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Stein Metzger (born November 17, 1972 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is a beach volleyball player from the United States, playing in the AVP. In 2006 he played with his high school teammate, Mike Lambert, and they advanced to the Final Four in fourteen of the fifteen team events, winning five times. They formed the only team to not have a losing record against any other team that season.
Metzger made his Olympic beach volleyball debut at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, where he and partner Dax Holdren finished fifth, after having won the silver medal the previous year at the 2003 Beach Volleyball World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In 2005, Metzger teamed up with the 2004 Most Improved Player, Jake Gibb. The duo won both of their first two events together, becoming the third team since 1990 to accomplish that. They won in Belmar, then placed second in an FIVB Grand Slam event in Paris, logging the highest finish by an American team in 2005. The win in Manhattan Beach in 2005 made Gibb and Metzger the second team to win four domestic tournaments in a season since the turn of the century, and also marked the first time since the 2003 season opener that a number one-seeded team won an AVP open event.
Metzger led the 2005 Tour with four wins, as well as in points. He also led the Tour in digs in 2005 (950), ranked second in hitting percentage (.452) and third in kills (1,314). In 2006, he was third in kills (7.17 per game) and 10th in digs (4.12 per game). In 2001, with Kevin Wong, Metzger won his first two AVP events, in Santa Barbara and Manhattan Beach on consecutive weekends.
Prior to qualifying for the 2004 Summer Olympics, Metzger spent time competing internationally with former long-time partner Kevin Wong. The pair won the 2001 FIVB event in Switzerland and the Bronze Medal at the Goodwill Games in Australia. Metzger and Wong also won in Portugal in 2002. Metzger won a silver medal in Rio at the World Championships in 2003 with Holdren.
Originally from Honolulu, Metzger grew up surfing and playing beach volleyball at the Outrigger Canoe Club in Honolulu. He played indoor volleyball at Punahou High School. He was a three-time National Champion at UCLA where, as a setter, he earned AVCA All-American for three consecutive seasons, winning the 1996 NCAA MVP and William G. Morgan Award for most outstanding player. He graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies.
On October 9, 2009, Metzger was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame.
Recently, Stein has been involved in an instructional volleyball website known as Volleyball 1on1 involving the creation of instructional volleyball videos featuring coaching form himself and other well known players.