Defending Goodwill Champs Open With Win

NEW YORK, N. Y. - Jan Kvalheim and Bjorn Maaseide of Norway, the defending Goodwill Games men's beach volleyball champions, scored a 15-13 win over Julien Prosser and Leo
Zahner of Australia here Wednesday (July 22) in the opening match for both teams in the 1998 Goodwill Games.

The United States' Ricci Luyties (San Diego) and Sinjin Smith (Pacific Palisades, Calif.), who earned a Bronze medal at the 1994 Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia, challenge
Guilherme Marques and Para Ferreira of Brazil in Wednesday's fourth and final match at approximately 6:45 p.m. (EDT).  Guilherme and Para are the top-rated team on the 1998 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour circuit.

Kvalheim and Maaseide, the third-ranked team on the FIVB Tour, rallied from a 10-8 deficit to tie the match at 10-all.  The two teams were still tied at 13-all as the 1994 Goodwill winners scored the last two points of the match.

During Wednesday's opening men's beach volleyball session, the tandems of Martin Conde/Esteban Martinez of Argentina and Adam Johnson/Karch Kiraly of the United States scored round-robin pool play wins.

In Wednesday's opening match, Conde and Martinez, who ran off seven-straight points in the match against Martin and Paul Laciga of Switzerland to take a commanding 13-5 lead in the opening match of Group B action played in hazy, hot and humid 94 degree weather.  The Argentina tandem posted a 15-6 win.

Kiraly (San Clemente, Calif.), who won a Gold Medal in the inaugural beach volleyball competition at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, and Johnson (Laguna Beach, Calif.) scored
a 15-8 win over John Child and Mark Heese of Canada in a Group A match.

The Goodwill Games men's beach volleyball competition is a sanctioned event on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and features $100,000 in prize money.  The Goodwill Games'
men's Gold and Bronze medal matches will be Sunday.

Eight women's beach tandems begin competing July 29 with the Gold and Bronze medal matches set for August 2.  The women will also compete for $100,000 in prize money.  The women compete in an FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event this week in Marseille, France before invading Wollman Rink.