Fonoimoana Can Rest a Spell
Volleyball: He starts season right by winning Huntington Beach Open with Holdren.
By MIKE BRESNAHAN, LA TIMES STAFF WRITER
Eric Fonoimoana, one of the bigger typographical terrors in beach volleyball history, could have made his surname much simpler by changing it to what he felt last year: Frustration.Fonoimoana won the gold medal at the 2000 Olympics but faltered last year on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour, failing to win an AVP match.The success that surrounded him at Sydney was surrendered amid a string of substandard finishes, including two seventh places and a ninth. He began this season with a new partner and, on Sunday, a new result:A championship. Fonoimoana and Dax Holdren defeated Mike Whitmarsh and Canyon Ceman, 21-18, 21-14, to win the Huntington Beach Open. "I'm only here to win," Fonoimoana said. "Whatever partnerships I need to do to get me in that position, I'll find it. This is a good start for us." Fonoimoana and Holdren never gave Whitmarsh and Ceman a chance."We put in a lot of hard work during the off-season, probably a lot more than anyone else," Holdren said.
"The only people who could hurt us [today] was us." They rarely did so, clamping down against Stein Metzger and Kevin Wong in a semifinal, 21-17, 19-21, 15-11, that ended a rough day for the top-seeded men's team. Metzger and Wong breezed through their first three matches Saturday, but lost two of three matches Sunday in the double-elimination tournament.
"We probably played our best volleyball [Saturday] and that's not good," Wong said. Karch Kiraly and Brent Doble, on the other hand, played better volleyball on Sunday, to the delight of AVP fans who didn't see a lot of Kiraly last season.
The leader in tournament titles, Kiraly, 41, was sidelined most of last season with injuries, appearing in only two tournaments and finishing ninth in both.Kiraly and Doble, however, had a strong run at Huntington, losing to Whitmarsh and Ceman in a semifinal, 21-8, 21-23, 15-13. Kiraly and Doble led the third game, 13-12, but dropped the final three points.
The women's final was packed with subplots. Elaine Youngs was supposed to play with Barbra Fontana this season, but opted out of the partnership last month because Fontana had a sore back that limited practice time. Youngs made a phone call to Holly McPeak, who had planned to play with Dianne DeNecochea this season.McPeak said yes to Youngs; DeNecochea and Fontana, left behind, formed their own team.McPeak and Youngs dominated at first, stumbled in the second game and recovered to defeat DeNecochea and Fontana, 21-18, 20-22, 15-9.Playing in a tournament together for the first time, McPeak and Youngs look like the team to beat this season ... despite practicing together less than a month. "That's a reason why I play with Holly: I want to win more," said Youngs, who had a tournament-high 21 blocks in only five matches. "We learned a lot this weekend about ourselves, about our team. We'll work on a couple things and be ready for Hermosa Beach in two weeks."
McPeak won her 57th championship, Youngs her 15th. Like the men's champions, McPeak and Youngs will split $14,500.