16 MEN'S & EIGHT WOMEN'S TEAMS QUALIFY FOR AVP MANHATTAN BEACH OPEN; MAIN DRAW COMPETITION STARTS FRIDAY WITH NBC TELEVISING FINALS SUNDAY  

MANHATTAN BEACH, CALIF. - The AVP 2002 Michelob Light Manhattan Beach Open, presented by Xbox, started here Thursday (August 8) with 16 men's and eight women's teams advancing from the Qualification Tournaments to Friday's opening Main Draw rounds.
Holly McPeak (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Elaine Youngs (Durango, Colo.), the No. 2-ranked team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour with three Gold Medal finishes this season, headline the AVP 2002 Michelob Light Manhattan Beach Open.
The $175,000 event will be televised by NBC Sunday from 4-6 p.m. (EDT).  It is the first of two national broadcasts for the 2002 AVP Tour.  The men's final Sunday will be aired "live" while the women's title match from Saturday will be taped and aired following the men's championship match.
Manhattan Beach will be site for its 46th men's and 22nd women's pro beach volleyball events to rank first as the beach to host the most domestic tournaments.  Only San Diego (48) and Santa Barbara (47) have hosted more men's events.  Once Thursday women's qualifying starts, Manhattan Beach will tie Hermosa Beach as the site to host the most female stops.
McPeak and Youngs have won all four women's AVP Tour events this season along with capturing FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Gold Medals in Norway, France and Greece.  May and Walsh have won the other four international events for women this season in Spain, Switzerland, Canada and last Saturday in Austria.
Overall, McPeak and Youngs have seven titles and $170,415 in shared earnings this season.  The pair has won 57 of 60 matches this season.  In addition to losing to May and Walsh twice, this season, McPeak and Youngs' only other defeat was to Cook and Pottharst in Switzerland.
The winningest pro beach player in history in terms of money, McPeak has now earned $943,087 in 201 pro beach starts.  With FIVB bonus money, she is the only woman to win over $1,000,000 in her career ($1,021,126).  McPeak ranks second on overall wins with 63 titles.  Karolyn Kirby holds the mark for women at 67.
McPeak and Youngs are scheduled to resume FIVB Tour play August 14-18 in China before returning to the United States for a men's and women's domestic event in Chicago, Ill. (August 23-25).  The 2002 women's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour concludes in September with events in Spain (Mallorca, 3-7) and Brazil (Vitoria, 17-22).  The men's international tour concludes with stops in Spain (August 7-11 in Cadiz and September 4-8 in Mallorca) and Brazil (October 1-6 in Fortaleza).  The AVP Tour concludes for both men and women September 5-8 in Las Vegas, Nev.
The men's 2002 AVP Tour has produced four different winners in the first four events.  Eric Fonoimoana (Hermosa Beach, Calif.), the Sydney 2000 Olympic Gold Medallists with Dain Blanton, and Dax Holdren (Santa Barbara) won the domestic season opener in Huntington Beach, Calif. (May 26) by defeating Canyon Ceman and Mike Whitmarsh in the finals.  Fonoimoana and Holdren have also placed fifth, second and second in the next three AVP events.
Albert Hanneman (Torrance, Calif.) and Jeff Nygaad (Los Angeles, Calif.) captured the second stop in Hermosa Beach, Calif. (June 9) by outlasting Stein Metzger (Honolulu, Hi.) and Kevin Wong (Pearl City, Hi.) 18-21, 29-27 and 27-25 in 100 minutes. The teams of Brent Doble (Capistrano Beach, Calif.)/Karch Kiraly (San Clemente, Calif.) and Ceman (Manhattan Beach, Calif.)/Whitmarsh (San Diego, Calif.) won the third and fourth stops on the 2002 AVP Tour by defeating Fonoimoana and Holdren for the titles at Santa Barbara, Calif. (June 16) and Belmar, N. J. (June 30), respectively.
While Fonoimoana and Holdren have been the most consistent team on the AVP Tour, Metzger and Wong have been the top performing United States tandem on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.  Metzger and Wong collected Bronze Medals for finishes in Switzerland and Norway before winning the Portugal Open (July 28) to snap a streak of 14-straight Gold Medal placements for teams from South American.