Brisbane, Australia - After being eliminated from Gold Medal contention
Monday,
seven players from the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP)
have
turned their attention to this weekend's King and Queen of the Beach
competition in Las Vegas, Nev.
The 10th annual Paul Mitchell King & Queen of the Beach, being hosted
for the
fifth consecutive year by the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas,
concludes
the eight-stop 2001 AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour.
Prior to the Hard Rock finale, the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour held
events in
California (Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Barbara and Manhattan
Beach), Michigan (Muskegon), New Jersey (Belmar) and Virginia (Virginia
Beach).
Pro beach volleyball teams of Kevin Wong and Stein Metzger along with
Elaine
Youngs and Barbra Fontana top the final qualifiers list for this week's
(September 6-9) $150,000 Paul Mitchell King & Queen of the Beach.
But before the players get to Las Vegas for the special four-day tournament,
all four players are currently representing the United States and the
AVP in
the Beach Volleyball competition at the 2001 Goodwill Games.
Goodwill Games
play started August 29 and concludes Tuesday (September 4) at the South
Bank
Piazza.
The other King of the Beach participant competing in the Goodwill Games
is Eric
Fonoimoana, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Gold Medallist. Fonoimoana
and Rob
Heidger play Wong and Metzger for the Goodwill Games men's Bronze Medal
at 5:30
p.m. Fonoimoana captured the 1998 King of the Beach title.
Metzger and Wong were eliminated from Goodwill Gold contention Monday
afternoon
by FIVB World Champions Mariano Baracetti and Martin Conde of Argentina
(21-19
and 22-20). Fonoimoana and Heidger fell Monday evening to second-seeded
Jose
Loiola and Ricardo Santos of Brazil (17-21, 21-19 and 15-13).
Fontana and Youngs play for the Goodwill Games Bronze Medal at 6:30
p.m.
against Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst of Australia, the women's
Gold
Medallists at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Both teams lost
to Brazilians
Monday. Fontana and Youngs lost to two-time World Champions Adriana
Behar and
Shelda Bede of Brazil (21-18, 18-21 and 15-8). Cook and Pottharst
were upset
by fourth-seeded Tatiana Minello and Sandra Pires (21-17 and 21-18).
Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak, who qualified behind Fontana and Youngs
in the
Queen of the Beach competition, play the Chinese tandem of Zi Xiong
and Rong
Chi for fifth-place at 2 p.m. Tuesday. Arce and McPeak fell from
medal
contention by losing Saturday to Minello and Pires (23-21 and 21-16).
Arce
(1998), McPeak (1999) and Fontana (1994 and 2000) have won Queen of
the Beach
titles.
Canyon Ceman, another King of the Beach participant, also competed Labor
Day
weekend in the 29th annual Motherlode Volleyball Tournament in Aspen,
Colo.
Ceman and Adam Jewell defeated Denver's Ryan Post and Dane Hansen 15
-14 for
the men's open title.
Mike Whitmarsh, the reigning King of the Beach champion, and Ceman ranked
among
the 2001 AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour's top teams with Metzger/Wong,
Dax
Holdren/Todd Rogers and Brent Doble/Lee LeGrande. Whitmarsh also
won the
Silver Medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games with Mike Dodd.
The event will start with a final Paul Mitchell qualifier at Sunset
Park
Thursday (September 6) with the lowest-ranked eight players in each
gender
playing for the final two spots to complete the eight-player Hard Rock
entry
fields for both men and women. The special tournament, with players
switching
partners for each match, will be played Friday through Sunday (September
7-9)
in the purpose-built AVP Beach Stadium at the Hard Rock Hotel &
Casino.
While admission is free to the Sunset Park portion of the event, tickets
are on
sale daily for the final three Hard Rock days at the Hard Rock Hotel
& Casino
Box Office (800-693-ROCK) or through any TicketMaster outlet.
The official entries for The Paul Mitchell King & Queen of the Beach
were
identified with a player's top three finishes during the 2001 domestic
season
determining the top 14 players in each gender for Las Vegas.