Women's Beach Action Starts Wednesday - Manhattan Beach Comes To Manhattan's New Beach

NEW YORK, N. Y. - A pair of Manhattan Beach natives seek Gold on Manhattan's new beach when the women's 1998 Goodwill Games beach volleyball competition starts here Wednesday (July 29) at Wollman Rink in Central Park.

Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak, a pair of life-long residents of Manhattan Beach, Calif., will be seeking their second women's pro beach volleyball title this week as the tandem enters the Goodwill Games as the United States' top-rated team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.  The other United States tandem is 1994 Goodwill Games champions Karolyn Kirby (Brookline, Mass./San Diego) and Liz Masakayan (San Diego).

A winner of 14 pro beach titles, including 11 on domestic tours and three internationally, Arce and McPeak won their second title ever in Central Park at Summer Stage in August, 1996 when they captured a Women's Professional Volleyball Association (WPVA) event title.

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.

Eight of the world's top women's beach volleyball teams will begin play 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.  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.

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.