MANHATTAN BEACH, CALIF. - A 49-team men's and 28-team women's Qualification
Tournament launches The Michelob Light Open at Manhattan Beach here Friday
(August 24) at The Pier as the remaining four spots in each Main Draw for
$150,000 Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) event will be
determined.

The Michelob Light Open at Manhattan Beach, presented by Paul Mitchell, starts
at 9 a.m. (PDT) Friday on 12 sand courts at The Pier.  Friday's Qualification
Tournaments will determine the final four berths in the 32-team men's and
24-team women's Main Draws.

The first 88 Main Draw matches (52 for men and 36 for women) will be played
Saturday starting at 9 a.m.  Sunday's competition starts at 7:30 a.m. with the
final 20 matches being played (10 for men and 10 for women).  The final matches
will begin approximately at 1 p.m. August 26 with the final two teams in each
gender battling for the first-place prize.  Echo Entertainment of Studio City,
Calif., will be taping the Michelob Light Open at Manhattan action for
broadcast September 3 on FOX Sports Net.

The men's Manhattan Beach competition will feature Eric Fonoimoana, a Gold
Medallist at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with Dain Blanton.  Fonoimoana, who
will play with fellow Olympian Rob Heidger this weekend, and Blanton will
represent the AVP in the Goodwill Games August 29-September 4 in Brisbane,
Australia along with Stein Metzger and Kevin Wong.  Blanton is currently
sidelined with a muscle injury.

The teams of Lisa Arce/Holly McPeak, Barbra Fontana/Elaine Youngs, Linda
Hanley/Sarah Straton and Dianne DeNecochea/Liz Masakayan are expected to be the
top tandems in the women's Manhattan Beach competition.  The Manhattan Beach
event will be a send off for the Arce/McPeak and Fontana/Youngs tandems, as
both teams will compete for the United States in the Goodwill Games.

The 2001 AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour season opened with a pair of June events
in Southern California 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 AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour staged a combined men's and women's event in
Muskegon, Mich. (July 13-15) followed by men's stops in Belmar, N. J. (July
20-22) and Virginia Beach, Va. (July 27-29).  America's premiere pro beach
volleyball tour returned to California last week (August 17-19) for The
Michelob Light Open at Santa Barbara.

Metzger and Wong captured their first AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour titles in
Santa Barbara where they defeated Dax Holdren and Todd Rogers in the finals.
Holdren and Rogers won the AVP's 2001 opener in June at Hermosa Beach.  Other
top men players expected to compete in The Michelob Light Open at Manhattan
Beach include Canyon Ceman, Mike Whitmarsh, Scott Ayakatubby, Brent Doble, Lee
LeGrande, Aaron Boss and Collin Smith.

Ayakatubby and Eduardo Bacil won the Huntington Beach title after upsetting
Ceman and Whitmarsh in the finals.  Ayakatubby will play with beach legend
Karch Kiraly this weekend after placing ninth in Santa Barbara.  Kiraly, a
winner of a record 142 pro beach titles, has won eight Manhattan Beach crowns.

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 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.  Doble and LeGrande won
the Muskegon and Belmar events before finishing fifth in Virginia Beach.  Boss
and Smith "surprised" the Virginia Beach field to net their first pro beach
volleyball titles by defeating Ian Clark and Adam Jewell in the title match.

Arce and McPeak, who rank as the second-winningest women's team in terms of
earnings in pro beach history ($516,850), defeated Fontana and Youngs in the
Hermosa Beach finale.  Hanley and Straton captured the Muskegon title by
upsetting Arce and McPeak in the finals.  DeNecochea and Masakayan won the
crown in Santa Barbara

Fontana and Youngs have won three beach titles this season, including
international wins in Italy (June 17 at Cagliari) and France (July 22 in
Marseille).  McPeak has won more money ($775,230) than any American woman in
pro beach history.  McPeak ranks second in career wins (56) among United States
women as she has teamed with Arce to win 15 pro beach titles together.