Women's Beach Action Starts Wednesday - Brazil Seeks Second Volleyball Gold

NEW YORK, N. Y. - One day after concluding the men's 1998 Goodwill Games beach volleyball competition with Brazilians Guilherme Marques and Para Ferreira winning the Gold Medal, the staff at Wollman Rink in Central Park started preparations here Monday (July 27) for five days of women's play.

Eight of the world's top women's beach volleyball teams will practice Tuesday on the Wollman Rink sand with round-robin pool play beginning Wednesday with two sessions (two matches each) starting at 12 and 5:30 p.m. (EDT).  Brazil will be seeking another Gold Medal in the women's competition as Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar enter the 1998 Goodwill Games as the No. 1-ranked team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.

Guilherme and Para netted Brazil's first medal of the 1998 Goodwill Games by scoring a 12-11 and 12-4 win Sunday over Adam Johnson and Karch Kiraly of the United States to share the $30,000 first-place prize at Wollman Rink.  The Americans were left to split the $20,000 second-place prize in the $100,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event.

In the Goodwill Games' men's Bronze medal match, Martin Conde and Esteban Martinez downed Julien Prosser and Leo Zahner of Australia 12-11 and 12-9 to share the $15,000 third-place prize.  The Aussies shared $11,000 for fourth.

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.

The United States will field two teams in the competition, including 1994 Goodwill Games champions Karolyn Kirby (Brookline, Mass./San Diego) and Liz Masakayan (San Diego).  Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak are the top-rated United States tandem on the FIVB circuit.

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