EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. - After a weekend off, the Evian Women's Pro Beach Volleyball Tour resumes competition Friday (May 30) for the $50,000 Mercedes-Benz Open in San Diego.

The Women's Professional Volleyball Association returns to San Diego for the eighth-straight season as competition opens Friday with qualifying action at Mariner's Point on Mission Bay.

Five volleyball courts will be formed by the WPVA's Operations staff at Mariner's Point that has housed Evian Tour events since 1993 after playing the first three seasons at the Pacific Beach Pier.

Friday's qualifying is set to start at 11 a.m., but could change due to the number of entries. Seeding's for the Mercedes-Benz Open in San Diego will be announced Wednesday at 3 p.m. as the qualifying teams will be competing for the final four berths in the 32-team main draw. Main draw competition begins at 9 a.m. Saturday at Mariner's Point with six rounds of competition.

Twelve (12) teams advance to Sunday's final rounds at 8 a.m. The Olympic Crossing semi-finals are scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Sunday with the final two teams battling for the $11,000 first- place prize at approximately 3 p.m.

Echo Entertainment of Encino, Calif., will be taping the Mercedes-Benz Open In San Diego for distribution via FOX Sports. Drew Goodman of Denver, Colo., and Maria Barnes of Irvine, Calif., will provide the commentary. The event will be aired the week of June 1.

Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak are the Evian Tour top-ranked tandem after winning three of the first four events this season in Miami Beach, Fla. (April 6), Deerfield Beach, Fla. (April 20) and Austin, Tex. (May 18).

Ranked third internationally on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, the Arce/McPeak tandem have defeated three different teams for Evian Tour titles. Arce and McPeak rallied from 7-3 and 12-8 deficits to down Karolyn Kirby and Nancy Reno 15-12 for the Miami Beach title.

Arce and McPeak, who have teamed to win six of the last eight Evian Tour events, scored a 15-9 win over Gail Castro and Gayle Stammer to capture the Deerfield Beach stop. After finishing fifth in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., May 11, Arce and McPeak scored an 18-16 win over Olympians Barbra Fontana and Linda Hanley in the Austin finale.

With the three wins, Arce and McPeak are ranked ahead of the Evian Tour tandems of Kirby/Reno and Fontana/Hanley, who held the top ranking entering the 1997 season. Karrie Poppinga and Angela Rock are currently ranked fourth on the WPVA list after posting third-place finishes in the last two events at Lake Buena Vista and Austin.

Poppinga and Rock join Arce and McPeak as the WPVA's top-two teams on the FIVB circuit. Arce and McPeak have finished second and third in the first two international events in 1997 at Brazil and Australia. Poppinga and Rock were fourth in Australia.

The WPVA's most valuable player and top defender the past two seasons, McPeak earned $150,625 in 23 domestic and international events in 1996. McPeak's $88,025 in WPVA 1996 earnings set a single-season mark.

McPeak, who finished fifth in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games with Reno, won nine (five with current partner Arce) overall events in 1996 with one second, seven thirds and three fourths. A winner of 19 Evian Tour events since the start of the 1995 season, McPeak has earned $333,175 in her past 52 professional events, including $165,325 domestically.

Hanley, who was the Evian Tour's top hitter last season, teamed with Fontana to finish fourth in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games after dropping the bronze medal match to Natalie Cook and Keri Pottharst of Australia. The Fontana/Hanley tandem finished the 1996 season as the top-ranked Evian Tour team as the pair won four of 14 domestic events together with five seconds.

Other award winners from last season returning in 1997 are Krista Blomquist (most improved), Lynda Johnson (rookie-of-the- year), Kirby (best setter), Reno (top blocker), Angela Rock (top server), Elaine Roque (sportwomanship) and Dennie Shupryt- Knoop (most inspirational).

Kirby, the WPVA's winningest player ever ($432,884.13 in earnings, 58 event titles and 582 match wins) and Reno both had off-season shoulder surgeries. Reno, the top-ranked player on the 1995-96 international tour, has combined with Kirby to win eight pro beach titles, including a championship at the Cybergenics Open May 11 at Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Kirby will be seeking her sixth Evian Tour win in San Diego after capturing the 1991 and 1992 titles with Rock, the 1993 and 1994 crowns with Liz Masakayan, and the 1996 championship with Reno.

Combined with her third-place finishes with Patty Dodd (1990) and Masakayan (1995), Kirby has won 38 of 42 matches in San Diego, including 26-straight from 1991 through three matches in 1995. McPeak and Reno won the 1995 San Diego crown by defeating Hanley and Rock 15-10 in the finals. Kirby and Reno defeated Fontana and Hanley 15-9 in the 1996 title match.