Saturday's Beach Medal Rounds Features USA vs. Australia & Brazil vs. Italy

NEW YORK, N. Y. - It's the United States versus Australia and Brazil versus Italy here Saturday (August 1) as the final four women's beach volleyball teams battle for a berth in Sunday's 1998 Goodwill Games Gold medal match.

The first of two medal semi-final matches will be play at approximately 1:15 p.m. on nearly 1,000,000 pounds of Wollman Rink san Saturday when second-seeded Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak of the United States (both from Manhattan Beach, Calif.) play fifth-seeded Pauline Manser and Kerri Pottharst of Australia.

Top-seeded Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar, the No.1-ranked team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour are challenged at 4:30 p.m. Saturday by seventh-seeded Laura Bruschini and Annamarie Solazzi of Italy, who earned their first final four berth ever in a FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event.

Both the tandems of Bede/Behar (Group A) and Arce/McPeak (Group B) advanced to the medal round by posting 3-0 match records in round-robin pool play.  The Aussies (Group A) and the Italians (Group A) posted 2-1 pool play marks.

In addition to the two semi-final contests, two playoff matches will be held Saturday at Wollman Rink in Central Park starting at 12 p.m. (EDT) when Eva Celbova and Sona Dosoudilova of the Czech Republic play Canadians Kristine Drakich and Guylaine Dumont in the battle for seventh-place.  Both teams posted 0-3 pool play records.

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, play 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 four 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.

Following the Goodwill Games, all eight teams head to Japan for next weeks (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 formed by the Trident Media Group of Carlsbad, Calif.