Women's Beach Action Starts Today - Middle Seeds Battle Feature Match

NEW YORK, N. Y. - The women's portion of the 1998 Goodwill Games beach volleyball competition opens here Wednesday (July 29) with the four-match schedule at Wollman Rink in Central Park featuring an Australia-United States confrontation.

1994 Goodwill Games champions Karolyn Kirby (Brookline, Mass./San Diego) and Liz Masakayan (San Diego) face Pauline Manser and Kerri Pottharst in a 1:15 p.m. (EDT) Group A match featuring the two middle seeded tandems in the eight-team field of the FIVB-sanctioned event.  Kirby and Masakayan, who have won 29 pro beach event titles together, are one of two United States tandems in the field.

Wednesday's action opens at 12 p.m. when Maike Friedrichsen and Danja Musch of Germany play Eva Celbova and Sona Dosoudilova of the Czech Republic in a Group B round- robin pool play match.

The top two-seeded teams in the field play Wednesday evening.   Top-seeded Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar of Brazil are challenged by Kristine Drakich and Guylaine Dumont of Canada at 5:30 p.m. Second-seeded Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak of the United States play Laura Bruschini and Annamarie Solazzi of Italy at approximately 6:45 p.m.  A pair of life-long residents of Manhattan Beach, Calif., Arce and McPeak are the top-rated USA team with 14 career pro beach titles together.

Arce, who played high school (Manhattan Beach's Mira Costa) and college (Cal- Berkeley) volleyball with McPeak, is the reigning Best of the Beach champion after winning the individual title July 19 in Huntington Beach, Calif., to claim the $30,000 first-place price.  Arce posted a two-day point differential of plus-27 to win the title as the "best" women's beach volleyball player in the United States. Arce posted a 5-1 match mark, including a 3-0 record on the final day with three different partners. McPeak, who has been selected as the WPVA's most valuable player the past three seasons, tied for third in the Best of the Beach competition that featured 14 of the United States' top women players.

Brazil will be seeking another Gold Medal in the women's competition as Bede and Behar enter the 1998 Goodwill Games as the No. 1-ranked team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.  In the men's beach play, Guilherme and Para netted Brazil's first Gold medal of the 1998 Goodwill Games.

Bede and Behar, who have won two of the four FIVB women's events on the 1998 schedule, have been the dominate team on the international tour the past two seasons.  The Brazilians have shared $110,000 in earnings this season and finished the 1997 season by sharing $139,000 for nine events with two titles. Bede and Behar also won two FIVB events in 1996.

Pottharst, who won a Bronze Medal for Australia at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, and Manser join the tandems of Bede/Behar, Kirby/Masakayan and Drakich/Dumont in Group A of the round- robin competition.  Arce and McPeak headline Group B with the teams of Friedrichsen/Musch, Celbova/Dosoudilova and Bruschini/Solazzi. Each team will play three pool play matches.  The top two tandems from each group advancing to Saturday's medal semi-finals.