Beach Volleyball

Karch Kiraly of San Clemente and Kent Steffes of Pacific Palisades will try to win their seventh consecutive pro beach volleyball tournament this weekend in the $150,000 Miller Lite Open at Seal Beach. Kiraly and Steffes have won 14 of 18 tournaments this season, including 10 of the past 11, and lead the tour in prize money with $226,937 each. They are top-seeded in the double-elimination event, which begins at 9 a.m. today at the north side of the Seal Beach Pier.

The top-seeded team of Holly McPeak and Nancy Reno advanced to the quarterfinals of a women's pro beach volleyball event Friday at Hermosa Beach. McPeak and Reno defeated Kristine Middeler and Maggie Philgence, 15-4, and Jenny Griffith and Pat Keller, 14-7, in a match called because of time. The second-seeded team of Linda Hanley and Angela Rock beat Erin Deiters and Shannon Vessup-Millen, 15-3, and Krista Blomquist and Gayle Stammer, 15-9. Minda Rich and Teri Schroeder, seeded No.

Top-ranked Karolyn Kirby and Liz Masakayan breezed through their first match on Saturday in the $40,000 World Championships at Manhattan Beach, but the defending champions struggled in their second match before finally winning. Kirby and Masakayan scored a 15-3 quarterfinal victory over eighth-seeded Jackie Campbell and Charlotte Roach in the morning.

The Long Beach Invitational begins today at 10 a.m., featuring two elements that are somewhat rare on the Women's Professional Beach Volleyball Tour: concrete and single-elimination play. Sand has been brought in to make a court over the concrete on the Promenade, which is less than a mile from the beach. The single-elimination format will be used for the first time in the WPVA's nine-year history.

Craig Buck wasn't a sand rat, so he never got into two-man beach volleyball. As the middle blocker on the U.S. national volleyball team for most of the 1980s, he didn't have time to play the traditional beach game. "I've been an indoor player my whole career, so I typically was busy all summer," Buck said. "My position is physically demanding. I have to jump every single play, so I would jump three or four times as much as any other player in practice.

There might be a bittersweet mood surrounding the Evian Women's Pro Beach Volleyball tournament at Long Beach, beginning today, because three teams will be conspicuously absent. The teams of Nancy Reno and Holly McPeak, Barbra Fontana Harris and Linda Hanley, and Gail Castro and Deb Richardson are in Atlanta preparing to represent the United States in the Olympic beach volleyball tournament, which begins July 23.

Sinjin Smith has won a record 134 pro beach volleyball tournaments, so his 13th-place finish at the Manhattan Beach Open on Saturday was surprising to many. Fifth-seeded Smith and partner Dan Vrebalovich were upset by 29th-seeded Marcelo Duarte and Rob Holdger, 15-12, in a morning consolation bracket match. Smith-Vrebalovich fell into the losers' bracket after losing, 15-6, to 11th-seeded Troy Tanner and Eric Wurts on Friday.

Professional beach volleyball will make its first stop of the season in Southern California this weekend when the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Tour comes to Venice Beach. The $75,000 Venice Beach Open, a double-elimination tournament, begins today at 9 a.m. The finals are scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m. Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos, together for the last nine years, have been the most successful duo in the history of the sport and make up the top-seeded team.

The biggest story at the $250,000 Miller Lite Championships at Hermosa Beach on Saturday was Randy Stoklos' early exit. Stoklos, the second-winningest player in pro beach volleyball history, has won the season-ending tournament three times. Last year, he and partner Ricci Luyties lost in the final. This time, Stoklos and partner Adam Johnson placed fifth after losing twice on Saturday.

The U.S. Olympic beach volleyball team selection process became a lot more interesting after the Chicago Grand Slam FIVB tournament. The men finished their tournament Sundaywith disappointing ninth-place finishes for San Clemente's Karch Kiraly and Adam Johnson and Eric Fonoimoana and Dain Blanton, formerly of Laguna Beach High. But both teams continued to close in on the top-ranked U.S. team of Rob Heidger and Kevin Wong.