Brazil & Australia Battle to Retain Perfect Record Thursday Noon

NEW YORK, N. Y. - The featured match on Thursday's (July 30) 1998 Goodwill Games women's beach volleyball schedule at Wollman Rink in Central Park has the Australian tandem of Pauline Manser/Kerri Pottharst facing top-seeded Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar of Brazil at 12 p.m. (EDT).

Both teams enter the the Group A match with 1-0 records after scoring wins here Wednesday during the first of five days of competition in the FIVB-sanctioned event.  The Aussies scored a 15-10 win over the United States' Karolyn Kirby and Liz Masakayan, the defending Goodwill Games women's beach volleyball champions.

Manser and Pottharst earned the 40-minute win over Kirby (Brookline, Mass./San Diego) and Masakayan (San Diego), who won the 1994 Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia.  The United States tandem trailed 6-0 and 10-2 in the match before scoring six-straight points to cut the deficit to 10- 8.  The Americans trailed 12-10 before three Manser kills netted the Group A win.

Bede and Behar, the top-ranked team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, took 22 minutes to score a 15-1 Group A win over Kristine Drakich and Guylaine Dumont of Canada Wednesday.  The Brazilians scored 12-straight points to close out the match.

The Brazil women are seeking to add another Gold Medal to their country's 1998 Goodwill Games medal count.  In the men's beach play last week, Guilherme and Para netted Brazil's first Gold medal of the 1998 Goodwill Games Sunday (July 26) by downing the United States' Adam Johnson and Karch Kiraly 12-11 and 12-4 in the finals.

Second-seeded Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak of the United States downed Italians Laura Bruschini and Annamarie Solazzi 15-4 in a 34-minute Group B match to conclude Wednesday's play.  Both Arce and McPeak, winners of 14 career pro beach events together, are from Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Maike Friedrichsen and Danja Musch of Germany posted a 15-4 win over Eva Celbova and Sona Dosoudilova of the Czech Republic in a 22-minute Group B game that opened Wednesday's play. Goodwill Games competition ends Sunday with the Bronze and Gold medal matches in the $100,000 event.  Sunday's play starts at 12 p.m.