Brazil, Australia Advance to Saturday's Medal Rounds with Teams From the USA & Italy

NEW YORK, N. Y. - Teams from Brazil, Australia, Italy and the United States have advanced to the medal round of the 1998 Goodwill Games women's beach volleyball competition following completion of round-robin pool play here Friday (July 31).

Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar, the top-ranked team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, face Italians Laura Bruschini and Annamarie Solazzi in Saturday's second semi-final match at 4:30 p.m. (EDT) after Pauline Manser and Kerri Pottharst of Australia challenge the United States' Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak at approximately 1:15 p.m.

Group B's top two teams were settled Friday at Wollman Rink in Central Park as Arce and McPeak scored a 15-11 win over Maike Friedrichsen and Danja Musch of Germany.  Arce and McPeak won Group B with a 3-0 mark.

Arce/McPeak's Friday win propelled Bruschini and Solazzi to their first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour final four appearance ever.  The Italy tandem posted a 2-1 Group B record while the Germans were 1-2 and the Czech Republic pair of Eva Celbova/Sona Dosoudilova at 0-3 in the FIVB-sanctioned event.

Bruschini and Solazzi's best finish ever in a "major" FIVB event were fifths in 1996 in Belgium and Portugal.  The fifths were posted in their first two events together.  Solazzi had a fourth in a FIVB challenger event in 1996 at Vasto, Italy.

Manser and Pottharst earned their spot earlier Friday evening with a 15-8 win over Kristine Drakich and Guylaine Dumont of Canada.  The Aussies finished with a 2-1 Group A match mark with the Brazil's Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar posting a 3-0 record, including a 15-9 win Thursday over Manser and Pottharst.

Earlier Friday, Bede and Behar scored a 15-9 win over Karolyn Kirby (Brookline, Mass./San Diego) and Liz Masakayan (San Diego) to finish round-robin Group A play with a 3-0 record.  Kirby and Masakayan, the defending Goodwill Games champions after winning the title in 1994 at St. Petersburg, finish with a 1-2 mark in Group A while Drakich and Dumont were 0-3.

The medal and playoff rounds for the 1998 Goodwill Games start Saturday at 12 p.m.  The competition ends Sunday with the Bronze and Gold medal matches starting at 12 p.m. in the $100,000 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.