Huntington Beach next stop
by Tim Simmons - Jun 10,2001
EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. - The second event on the eight-stop Association
of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Tour is set for this weekend (June 15-17)
at The Pier in Huntington Beach, Calif., with the United States' top men
pro beach volleyball players vying for the second-straight week in Southern
California. Sixty-five (65) men's teams competed in the 2001 AVP Pro Beach
Volleyball Tour season opener this past weekend in Hermosa Beach. Dax Holdren
and Todd Rogers staged one of the sport's "most impressive" comebacks in
defeating Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana 21-18, 16-21 and 17-15 in the
62-minute Gold Medal match.The $62,500 Paul Mitchell AVP Huntington Beach
Open, presented by Michelob Light, starts Friday (June 15) at 9 a.m. (PDT)
on six sand courts south of
The Pier in Huntington Beach. Friday's Qualification Tournament will
determine the final four berths in the 32-team Main Draw. A total of 48
Main Draw matches will be played Saturday starting at 9 a.m. Sunday's competition
starts at 8 a.m. The medal matches will begin approximately at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Echo Entertainment of Encino, Calif., will
be taping the Paul Mitchell AVP Huntington Beach Open action for replay
July 16 on FOX Sports Net.Beach legend Karch Kiraly is expected to compete
in Huntington after missing
the Hermosa AVP opener due to a left calf injury. Kiraly, the winningest
player in pro beach history (142 wins and $2,953,568 in earnings), had
entered the Hermosa event with Brent Doble, but withdrew last Thursday.Kiraly
will be seeing his first competitive action Saturday as his 2000 season
ended last August on a beach in Belgium where he dislocated his right
shoulder. The Belgium event was the last Sydney 2000 Olympic-qualifying
event where Blanton and Fonoimoana leaped ahead of Kiraly and Adam
Johnson
for the second USA berth in last September's Bondi Beach competition.Without
Kiraly, Doble picked up Matt Lyles for Hermosa Beach where the pair placed
fourth after being defeated 21-18 and 21-13 by the top-seeded Holdren and
Rogers in a 35-minute semi-final. Seeded eighth in the men's Main Draw,
Doble and Lyles dropped the Bronze Medal match to sixth-seeded Stein Metzger
and Kevin Wong 22-20 and 21-17 in 46 minutes.Entries for the Paul Mitchell
AVP Huntington Beach Open will be announced
Wednesday with Canyon Ceman and Mike Whitmarsh expected to be the top-seeded
team. Ceman, who captured the 2000 AVP Huntington Beach Open with Brian
Lewis, and Whitmarsh placed ninth in Hermosa after being eliminated
by
fifth-seeded Carl Henkel and Sinjin Smith 21-16, 18-21 and 15-12 in
57 minutes.
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. Kiraly, who teamed with Kent Steffes
to win
the Atlanta Gold, is a three-time KOB winner. Kiraly and Johnson also
won
the USA Volleyball-sponsored event in 1999 at Huntington Beach.
Led by Leonard Armato, Management Plus of El Sequndo, Calif., acquired
the
AVP last month (May 31, 2001) to unite the world's best men's and women's
professional beach volleyball players under one umbrella organization.
The
unification has attracted the large domestic field for the first of
eight stops on the "new" AVP Tour.Armato actually founded the AVP and served
as its executive director in the
1980's. Under his initial leadership, the AVP developed into a national
professional league, attracting major sponsors and national television
exposure along with increases in player prize money. His involvement is
expected to give the sport a much-needed boost following a number of lackluster
seasons.
Huntington Beach Volleyball - Past Champions (three events)
1975 Greg Lee/Jim Menges
1999 Adam Johnson/Karch Kiraly
2000 Canyon Ceman/Brian Lewis
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