EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. - For the third-straight week, the tandem of Linda Chisholm/Deb Richardson have moved up the Women's Professional Volleyball Association's ranking ladder.

The tallest women's beach volleyball team in the world, Chisholm (6-2) and Richardson (6-1) have posted a seventh, a fourth and a third at the last three Evian Women's Pro Beach Volleyball Tour stops in Irving, Tex. (June 13-15), Atlantic City, N. J. (June 21- 22) and Huntington Beach, Calif. (June 27-29).

Top-ranked Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak won the Huntington Beach stop as the pair won their fourth-straight grand slam event by downing Barbra Fontana and Linda Hanley 15-9 in the title match in the semis.

The Ocean Pacific U. S. Open finish was Chisholm and Richardson's 1997 best as they defeated Marla O'Hara and Ali Wood 15-10 in the third-place match after losing 15-7 to Fontana and Hanley.

Enroute to their Huntington Beach finish in the first of four "major" events on the 1997 Evian Tour, Chisholm and Richardson scored a 15-13 elimination win over Australians Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst, who won the bronze medal in beach volleyball at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

Chisholm and Richardson have now posted wins this season over two Atlanta Olympic medal teams as the pair had previously defeated gold medalists Sandra Pires and Jackie Silva of Brazil 15-12 April 5 in Miami Beach, Fla. At the same Miami Beach stop April 6, Chisholm and Richardson scored a 17-15 win over Brazilians Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar, the No. 2-ranked team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.

The fourth at Huntington Beach for O'Hara and Wood was their best of the season as the beach tandem scored upset wins over fifth- seeded Elaine Roque and Dennie Shupryt-Knoop (15-6) and second- seeded Karolyn Kirby and Nancy Reno (15-11).

Arce and McPeak, who had their three-event, 22-match winning streak broken June 22 when Kirby and Reno downed the top-seeded team 15-11 in the Atlantic City championship match, have now won six of the first eight Evian Tour events this season.

The Huntington win was the 10th Evian Tour title for the Arce/McPeak tandem in 15 domestic starts together. The pair has now won nine of the last 12 Evian Tour events with only the Kirby/Reno (two titles in 1997 at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. and Atlantic City) and the Fontana/Hanley (one title at Portland, Ore. in 1996) tandems breaking the streak.