MANHATTAN BEACH, CALIF. - The final four berths for each gender's Main
Draws
were determined here Friday (August 24) as the "money" rounds for the
$150,000
Michelob Light Open at Manhattan Beach begin Saturday at 9 a.m.(PDT)
on 12 sand
courts at The Pier.
Earning the final four spots in the men's Main Draw were Tom Black/Andrew
Vazquez (fifth-seeded qualifying team), Dan Fisher/Matt Riley (eighth),
Jason
Pursley/Dancer Styles (14) and Eli Fairfield/Gabe Gardner (26).
Qualifying
Friday for the women's Main Draw were Arcadia Berjonneau/Ronda Kottke
(top-seeded qualifying team), Anne McArthur/Jeanette Simenson (2),
Valinda
Hilleary/Missy Ross (6) and Sonia Alonso/Cherry Simkins (12).
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. Sunday 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 Beach 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. Fonoimoana, who will
play with
fellow Olympian Rob Heidger this weekend, and Dain Blanton won the
Sydney Gold
and 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.
In addition to the teams battling for the $17,400 first-place prizes
in each
competition, Sunday's final round will feature the battle for the "Michelob
Light California Swing" Awards. Sunday's play will also determine
the berths
in the season-ending Paul Mitchell King and Queen of the Beach event
in Las
Vegas (September 6-9) at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
The "Michelob Light California Swing" title will be awarded to the individual
male and female players who earn the most total ranking points during
2001
California AVP Tour events. The top male player will receive
$10,000 (for four
California events) and the top female player will receive $7,500 (for
three
California events). Winners will be announced immediately following
the
Michelob Light Open at Manhattan Beach championship matches Sunday
Canyon Ceman and Mike Whitmarsh have earned 678 "Michelob Light California
Swing" points for the first three men's events at Hermosa Beach, Huntington
Beach and Santa Barbara. Ceman and Whitmarsh have placed ninth
in Hermosa,
second in Huntington and third in Santa Barbara in their three "Michelob
Light
California Swing" events.
Fontana and Youngs used a victory over Arce and McPeak in last Sunday's
third-place match at Santa Barbara to gain the lead in the women's
competition.
Fontana and Youngs have 506 points each while Arce and McPeak
have 502 points.
Arce and McPeak defeated Fontana and Youngs for the first women's
event title
at June's AVP's Hermosa Beach stop.
The 10th annual King and fifth annual Queen of the Beach competitions
will
feature the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tours' top players. The
top 14 men and
top 14 women players will be determined based on their top three finishes
on
this year's AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour.
The points earned from these finishes will be totaled to determine a
player's
King and Queen of the Beach ranking. A player must compete in
three AVP events
to be eligible for King and Queen of the Beach competition. The
domestic event
in Clearwater will also be used in determining the women's Queen of
the Beach
rankings.