VIRGINIA BEACH NEXT STOP FOR "NEW"
AVP PRO BEACH VOLLEYBALL TOUR
Courtesy Of Tim Simmons
MANHATTAN BEACH, CALIF. - The next round on the eight-stop Association of
Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Tour is set for this weekend (July 27-29) at
Virginia Beach, Va., with the United States' top men pro beach volleyball
players vying for $62,500 in prize money.The Paul Mitchell Open at Virginia Beach starts Friday (July 27) at 9 a.m.(EDT) on six sand courts at the Fourth Street Beach site with Round 5 of themen's competition.  Friday's Qualification Tournament will determine the final four berths in the 32-team Main Draws.  The first 48 Main Draw matches will be
played Saturday starting at 9 a.m.Sunday's competition starts at 7:30 a.m. with the final 14 matches being played.  The final matches will begin approximately at 1 p.m. Sunday.  Brighton Entertainment of New York, N. Y., will be taping The Paul Mitchell Open at
Virginia Beach action for replay August 6 on FOX Sports Net.
The 2001 AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour season opened with a pair of events in
Southern California last month with a combined men's and women's event in
Hermosa Beach (June 8-10) and a men's tournament in Huntington Beach (June
15-17).  "Official" entries for The Paul Mitchell Open at Virginia Beach will
be announced Wednesday.The men's competition will feature Brent Doble and LeGrande, who teamed the last two Sundays(July 15 in Muskegon, Mich. and July 22 in Belmar, N. J.) to win AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour titles.  The two crowns give the Doble/LeGrande partnership three AVP titles the past two seasons.  Doble and LeGrande will also be seeking to become the first AVP team since August 1998 to win three straight titles when Karch Kiraly and Adam Johnson won events in Milwaukee, Atlanta and Hermosa Beach, Calif.Doble and LeGrande scored a 21-16 and 23-21 upset win over Canyon Ceman and
Mike Whitmarsh to win the 49-minute finale in Muskegon.  Doble and LeGrande
defeated Ceman and Whitmarsh in the Belmar semi-finals before scoring a 21-16,
20-22 and 15-9 win over Albert Hannemann and Scott in the 64-minute New Jersey
title match.Scott Ayakatubby and Eduardo Bacil, who won the Huntington Beach event when they defeated Ceman and Whitmarsh in the finals, are also expected to battle
for The Paul Mitchell at Virginia Beach title.  Ayakatubby and Bacil placed
fourth in Belmar after dropping their final match to Ceman and Whitmarsh.
Ayakatubby is returning to the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour after being
sidelined much of the past four seasons with injuries.Whitmarsh, who captured the Silver Medal with Mike Dodd at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, is the AVP's reigning "King of the Beach" after winning the crown last October in Las Vegas.  With his third-place Belmar finish, Whitmarsh became the seventh pro beach volleyball player to surpass the $1.5-million mark in earnings.  With 27 titles and an Olympic Silver Medal finish in 1996 at Atlanta with Mike Dodd, Whitmarsh has now totalled $1,501,716 in his career.
EASTERN SWING - The AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour ends its eastern swing July
27-29 in Virginia for the Paul Mitchell Open at Virginia Beach.  After opening
the season with two events in Southern California, the AVP traveled east for
events in Muskegon, Mich. (July 13-15) and Belmar, N. J. (July 20-22).  The AVP
Pro Beach Volleyball Tour returns to California for combined men's and women's
events in Santa Barbara (August 17-19) and Manhattan Beach (August 24-26).
THE PAUL MITCHELL OPEN AT VIRGINIA BEACH - The AVP returns to Virginia Beach for the second-straight season.  Adam Johnson and Karch Kiraly won the
inaugural Virginia Beach event by defeating Brent Frohoff and Larry Witt in the
finals.  Ceman and Whitmarsh were third after defeating Lee LeGrande and Franco
Neto.  Kiraly has been sidelined this season with a calf injury as he was attempting a comeback after finishing his 2000 season in Belgium with a dislocated right shoulder.
56 TEAMS ENTER THE PAUL MITCHELL OPEN AT VIRGINIA BEACH;
AVP PRO BEACH VOLLEYBALL TOUR EVENTS STARTS FRIDAY
VIRGINIA BEACH, VA. - A total of 56 teams have entered The Paul Mitchell Open
at Virginia Beach as the fifth of eight stops on the Association of Volleyball
Professionals (AVP) Pro Beach Volleyball Tour starts Friday (July 27) with a
28-team Qualification Tournament.With the United States' top men pro beach volleyball players vying for $62,500 in prize money, The Paul Mitchell Open at Virginia Beach will be played on six sand courts at the Sixth Street Beach site behind the Ramada Inn on Atlantic Avenue.  Friday's Qualification Tournament starts at 9 a.m. (EDT) and will
determine the final four berths in the 32-team Main Draws.The first 48 Main Draw matches will be played Saturday starting at 9 a.m. Sunday's competition starts at 7:30 a.m. with the final 14 matches being played.  The final matches will begin approximately at 1 p.m. Sunday.  Brighton Entertainment of New York, N. Y., will be taping The Paul Mitchell Open at Virginia Beach action for replay August 6 on FOX Sports Net.
The 2001 AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour season opened with a pair of events in
Southern California last month with a combined men's and women's event in
Hermosa Beach (June 8-10) and a men's tournament in Huntington Beach (June
15-17).The men's competition will feature Brent Doble and LeGrande, who teamed the
last two Sundays (July 15 in Muskegon, Mich. and July 22 in Belmar, N. J.) to
win AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour titles.  The two crowns give the
Doble/LeGrande partnership three AVP titles the past two seasons.  Doble and
LeGrande will also be seeking to become the first AVP team since August 1998 to
win three straight titles when Karch Kiraly and Adam Johnson won events in
Milwaukee, Atlanta and Hermosa Beach.Doble and LeGrande scored a 21-16 and 23-21 upset win over Canyon Ceman and Mike Whitmarsh to win the 49-minute finale in Muskegon.  Doble and LeGrande defeated Ceman and Whitmarsh in the Belmar semi-finals before scoring a 21-16,20-22 and 15-9 win over Albert Hannemann and Scott in the 64-minute New Jersey title match.Scott Ayakatubby and Eduardo Bacil, who won the Huntington Beach event when they defeated Ceman and Whitmarsh in the finals, are also expected to battle for The Paul Mitchell at Virginia Beach title.  Ayakatubby and Bacil placed fourth in Belmar after dropping their final match to Ceman and Whitmarsh.
Ayakatubby is returning to the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour after being sidelined much of the past four seasons with injuries.Whitmarsh, who captured the Silver Medal with Mike Dodd at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, is the AVP's reigning "King of the Beach" after winning the crown last October in Las Vegas.  With his third-place Belmar finish, Whitmarsh became the seventh pro beach volleyball player to surpass the $1.5-million mark in earnings.  With 27 titles and an Olympic Silver Medal finish in 1996 at
Atlanta with Mike Dodd, Whitmarsh has now totalled $1,501,716 in his career.