Aussies Advance to Gold Medal Match with Win Over Arce/McPeak - Czech Republic Team Nets 7th in Women's Beach Volleyball

NEW YORK, N. Y. - Pauline Manser and Kerri Pottharst of Australia advanced to the Gold medal game of the women's beach volleyball competition by upsetting Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak of the United States here Saturday (August 1) at Wollman Rink in Central Park.

Seeded fourth in the competition, the Aussies scored a 12-11, 11-12 and 12-6 win over the second-seeded Arce/McPeak tandem in a 97-minute medal round semi-final match.  Manser and Pottharst will play either top-seeded Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar of Brazil or seventh-seeded Laura Bruschini and Annamarie Solazzi of Italy Sunday in the 2 p.m. (EDT) Gold Medal match.  The Brazilians, the top- ranked team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, face Bruschini and Solazzi at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the second semi-final match.

Manser and Pottharst trailed 11-9 in the 45-minute first set before scoring the last three points to win 12-11.  The Aussies had a 10-3 edge in the 39-minute second set before being tied at 10s and 11s. Arce's kill earned the USA a 12-11 win.  In the rally scoring 14-minute third set, Manser and Pottharst broke from a 3-2 defict to take a 5-3 lead.  The Aussies scored the last five points of the set to win the match.

In Saturday's first match at Wollman Rink, Eva Celbova and Sona Dosoudilova of the Czech Republic netted seventh-place in the 1998 Goodwill Games by rallying to defeat Canadians Kristine Drakich and Guylaine Dumont 16-14.  Celbova and Dosoudilova shared $5,000 for finishing seventh while the Canadians split $4,000.

Saturday's final match is a playoff match for fifth-place between fifth-seeded Karolyn Kirby (Brookline, Mass./San Diego) and Liz Masakayan (San Diego), who won the inaugural women's Goodwill Games beach volleyball title in 1994 at St. Petersburg, and third-seeded Maike Friedrichsen and Danja Musch of Germany for fifth-place.  Both teams finished with 1-2 mark in pool play.

The 1998 Goodwill Games women's beach volleyball competition ends Sunday at Wollman Rink with the Bronze and Gold medal matches starting at 12 p.m. in the $100,000 FIVB- sanctioned event. Sunday's Gold medal team will share the $30,000 first-place prize.  All medal matches feature the FIVB's Format B with two out of three sets to 12 points.  The first two sets must be won with a minimum lead of two points with a point limit at 12-point cap.  The deciding set will feature the rally scoring system to 12 points with a minimum lead of two points.  There is no point cap for the deciding set.

All eight Goodwill Games teams head to Japan for next week's (August 5-9) FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event in Osaka.  The FIVB tour remains in Asia for a China stop August 12-16 in Dalian. The United States women return home for the $100,000 Del Mar Open near San Diego, Calif., August 28-30.  The domestic event will be the inaugural event staged by the newly- created American Volleyball League.