Aussies & Brazilians Battle for Goodwill Gold - Italy & United States Seek Women's Beach Volleyball Bronze

NEW YORK, N. Y. - Pauline Manser and Kerri Pottharst of Australia and Brazilians Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar will battle for the Gold medal in the women's beach volleyball competition at the 1998 Goodwill Games here Sunday (August 2) at Wollman Rink in Central Park.

The Brazilians will be seeking their country's second Gold medal of the 1998 Goodwill Games in Sunday's 2 p.m. (EDT) match for the $30,000 first-place prize in the FIVB-sanctioned event.

The Australians will be looking for their first win ever over Bede and Behar as the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour's top-ranked tandem has beaten Manser and Pottharst in their last five meetings.  Sunday's match will also be the second title-match confrontation of the 1998 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour season between the two teams.  Bede and Behar scored a 12-3 and 12-8 FIVB championship match win over the Aussies March 1 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Manser and Pottharst advanced to the finals with a 12-11, 11-12 and 12-6 win Saturday on the Wollman Rink sand over third-seeded Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak of the United States in the first semi-final match that lasted 97 minutes.  Bede and Behar, the top-ranked team on the FIVB tour, downed seventh-seeded Laura Bruschini and Annamarie Solazzi of Italy 12-5 and 12-7 in 67 minutes in Saturday's second semi-final match.  The Brazilians had total control in both sets with Bruschini and Solazzi, who were competing in their first ever FIVB semi-final together.

The 1998 Goodwill Games women's beach volleyball competition ends Sunday at Wollman Rink starting with the 12 p.m. Bronze medal match between the tandems of Arce/McPeak and Bruschini/Solazzi.

All 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.

In Saturday's playoff matches at Wollman Rink, Eva Celbova and Sona Dosoudilova of the Czech Republic netted seventh-place in the 1998 Goodwill Games by rallying to defeat Canadians Kristine Drakich and Guylaine Dumont 16-14.  Celbova and Dosoudilova shared $5,000 for finishing seventh while the Canadians split $4,000.

In Saturday's final match was a playoff match for fifth-place, Germany's Maike Friedrichsen and Danja Musch rallied for a 16-14 win over fifth-seeded Karolyn Kirby (Brookline, Mass./San Diego) and Liz Masakayan (San Diego).  The USA pair had won the inaugural women's Goodwill Games beach volleyball title in 1994 at St. Petersburg, Russia.  The third-seeded Friedrichsen and Musch split $8,000 for fifth while Kirby and Masakayan split $7,000.

All eight Goodwill Games teams head to Japan for next week's (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.