FONOIMOANA & HOLDREN SEEK THIRD AVP TITLE; MEN'S MAIN DRAW CONCLUDES SUNDAY ON NORTH AVENUE BEACH; DAVIS & JOHNSON JORDAN CAPTURE WOMEN'S CHICAGO PRO BEACH VOLLEYBALL TITLE MATCH
Courtesy Of  Tim Simmons, BFishInc
CHICAGO, ILL. - Top-seeded Eric Fonoimoana and Dax Holdren extended their
domestic pro beach volleyball winning streak to 10 here Saturday (August 24) to
lead the final six teams into Sunday's final rounds of the $150,000 AVP Nissan
US Championships of Beach Volleyball.

The AVP Nissan US Championships of Beach Volleyball also featured women's
competition on North Avenue Beach where second-seeded Annett Davis (Tarzana,
Calif.) and Jenny Johnson Jordan (Tarzana, Calif.) shared the $17,400
first-place prize.  Saturday's women's title match was taped for NBC's national
telecast Sunday from 2-4 p.m. (EDT).  The men's title match will be aired
"live" followed by the women's finale.

Competing in their 47th pro beach event together, Davis and Johnson Jordan
rallied from a first set loss (19-21) to defeat Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs
21-16 and 18-16 in the 65-minute championship match.  McPeak and Youngs led 8-4
in the deciding set.  It marked the second straight Association of Volleyball
Professionals (AVP) Tour stop where Davis and Johnson Jordan defeated McPeak
(Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Youngs (Durango, Colo.) for a domestic title.

Davis and Johnson became one of three teams to defeat McPeak and Youngs this
season by defeating the AVP Tour's top-ranked team 13-21, 23-21 and 15-9 in the
59-minute Manhattan Beach finale (August 11).  The Southern California win for
Davis and Johnson Jordan snapped McPeak and Youngs' four-event, 25-match
domestic winning streak.

With Chicago hosting the 20th men's and 11th women's pro beach volleyball
event, the men's competition features Karch Kiraly's effort to become a
$3-million career winner while Fonoimoana and Holdren seek their third AVP Tour
title this season.  While Fonoimoana (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and /Holdren
(Santa Barbara, Calif.), Kiraly and Brent Doble won one of three matches
Saturday to place seventh.  Third-seeded face Eduardo Bacil (El Segundo,
Calif.) and Fred Souza (Rio de Janerio, Brazil) eliminated Doble and Kiraly
21-19 and 21-19 Saturday afternoon.

Kiraly, who became the winningest pro beach player in history by capturing his
140th title in 1999 with Adam Johnson on North Avenue Beach, needed to place
second or higher this week to top the $3-million mark in his career.  Playing
with Doble (Capistrano Beach, Calif.) this season, Kiraly (San Clemente,
Calif.) captured his 143rd title at June's Santa Barbara stop.  Sinjin Smith,
who retired last season, held the mark for career titles (139) before Kiraly's
Chicago win with Johnson.

Fonoimoana (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and Holdren (Santa Barbara, Calif.) entered
the AVP Chicago Open as the top-ranked men's team with two titles, two seconds
and a fifth to their domestic credit this season.  The pair has now won 30 of
34 AVP Tour matches this season with $68,200 in earnings.  Combined with their
six FIVB starts, Fonoimoana and Holdren have a 48-11 match mark this season
with $91,800 in winnings.

While Fonoimoana and Holdren have been the standout domestically, Stein Metzger
(Honolulu, Hi.) and Kevin Wong (Pearl City, Hi.) have paced the United States
men on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.  Metzger and Wong, who have posted
an AVP second and two thirds this season, have three podium placements
international with a Gold Medal finish July 28 in Portugal.

Metzger and Wong, who won two of three matches Saturday to place ninth, have
posted a 47-19 match mark this season with $91,770 in shared earnings.  On the
AVP Tour, Metzger and Wong have won 21 of 33 domestic matches with $29,370 in
winnings.  The pair placed 17th in the Manhattan Beach Open for their lowest
AVP Tour the past two season.

Canyon Ceman (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Mike Whitmarsh (San Diego, Calif.),
who have played in three AVP Tour finals this season against Fonoimoana and
Holdren, split a pair of matches Saturday after losing 18-21, 21-16 and 15-13
to Fonoimoana and Holdren in a semifinal qualifying match.

Ceman and Whitmarsh, winners of 24 of 32 domestic matches this season with
$42,670 in winnings, dropped the Huntington and Manhattan finales and won the
Belmar title match.  Ceman and Whitmarsh face Bacil and Sunday morning with the
winner playing sixth-seeded Mike Lambert (Honolulu, Hi.) and Lee LeGrande
(Hermosa Beach, Calif.) in the semifinals.

Lambert and LeGrande, who have reached the semifinals for the second-time this
season after placing third at June's Santa Barbara stop, upset Bacil and Souza
21-13 and 22-20.  Lambert and LeGrande advanced to the "final four" by
defeating seventh-seeded Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Sean Scott
(San Diego, Calif.) 21-15 and 24-22.  Lambert and LeGrande have posted a 20-10
record this season.

Joining the list of men's winners on the 2002 AVP Tour are Albert Hannemann
(Torrance, Calif.) and Jeff Nygaard (Los Angeles, Calif.).  Hanneman and Nygaad
captured the second stop in Hermosa Beach (June 9) by outlasting Metzger and
Wong (Pearl City, Hi.) 18-21, 29-27 and 27-25 in 100 minutes.

Since winning in Hermosa, Hannemann and Nygaard have placed ninth, ninth and
13th while winning only eight of 14 matches.  The pair had won nine of their
first 11 matches this season.  Hannemann and Nygaard won only one of three
matches Saturday to place seventh after being eliminated by 15th-seeded Carl
Henkel (Redondo Beach, Calif.) and Casey Jennings (Huntington Beach, Calif.)
21-18 and 21-19.

Henkel and Jennings won three-straight elimination matches Saturday in their
first pro beach event.  Henkel and Jennings play Rogers and Scott with the
winner challenging Fonoimoana and Holdren in Sunday's first semifinal.  Henkel
started the 2002 season playing with Dain Blanton, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Gold
Medallists with Fonoimoana.

The last pro beach event in Chicago was prior to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games
where Brazil's Jose Loiola and Emanuel Rego won the men's FIVB Beach Volleyball
World Tour event on Montrose Beach.  Two days later on July 4th, McPeak and May
captured the women's international title by defeating the top-ranked Adriana
Behar and Shelda Bede in the Gold Medal match.

The Chicago event also determines the top eight men's and women's teams for the
AVP Tour's season finale at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nev.
(September 5-7).  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 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour concludes with stops in Spain
(September 4-8 in Mallorca) and Brazil (October 1-6 in Fortaleza).