Final Push for Medal Rounds

NEW YORK, N. Y. - Today is the final sessions of round-robin competition for the 1998 Goodwill Games men's volleyball competition at Wollman Rink with only two teams unbeaten after the first two days of play.

South American tandems of Guilherme Marques/Para Ferreira (Brazil, the top-rated team on the 1998 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour), and Martin Conde/Esteban Martinez (Argentina) have each posted 2-0 records in Group A and Group B, respectively.

Wins here Friday (July 24) by either South American teams will clinch their spots in the medal round's semi-finals Saturday.  With losses, Guilherme and Para need only to score four points to advance to the medal round and Conde and Martinez need to score at least 13 points.

The Brazilians face John Child and Mark Heese of Canada at approximately 1:15 p.m. (EDT) in Friday's first Group A match in the FIVB-sanctioned event with a pair of United States tandems concluding the group's schedule as Adam Johnson/Karch Kiraly play face fellow Americans Ricci Luyties and Sinjin Smith at approximately 6:45 p.m.

With Thursday's 15-3 loss to the Brazilians, Johnson and Kiraly fell into third-place in Group A despite being tied with Child and Heese.  Both teams are 1-1 in pool play, but Child and Heese have a plus-3 point differential (points scored minus points allowed) with Kiraly and Johnson at minus-5.  Point differential is used as the first tie-breaker in case of two or more teams tying with the same record.

Conde and Martinez play Julien Prosser and Leo Zahner of Australia in Friday's opening match at 12 p.m. with the final Group B game featuring Martin and Paul Laciga of Switzerland against Jan Kvalheim and Bjorn Maaseide of Norway at 5:30 p.m.

Kvalheim and Maaseide, the defending Goodwill Games beach volleyball champions, and the Aussies both have 1-1 records in pool play.  Both teams have an even point ratio.  Therefore, the Norweigians and Aussies must win Friday and have a bigger point differental than the other to advance.  The Swiss team still has a chance to advance to the medal round, but must hope that both the Norweigians and Aussies lose by a large margin.