MARSEILLE, FRANCE - Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak, the top-ranked team from the Women's Professional Volleyball Association, advanced to the women's semi-finals following play here Friday (July 25) in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event.

The France stop, which also includes men's competition, features the same format as September's World Championships in Los Angeles. The $600,000 event at UCLA's Tennis Center is set for September 10- 13.

The FIVB event, the fourth international women's stop of 1997, is a 32-team single-elimination tournament. Each match is the best two out of three games with rallying score to 21 (win by two with no cap).

Seeded second in the international event, Arce (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and McPeak (Manhattan Beach) downed 10th-seeded and WPVA rivals Danalee Bragado (Honolulu, Hi./Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and Marla O'Hara (Agoura Hills, Calif.) 21-10 and 21-19 Friday to advance. Winners of their last 11 FIVB matches, Arce and McPeak face third-seeded Monica Rodrigues and Adriana Samuel of Brazil in the second of two semi-final matches Saturday.

The silver medalists at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Rodrigues and Samuel have won three of four career matches against Arce and McPeak. The Brazilians won 1997's season-opening FIVB event in Rio de Janeiro by defeating Arce and McPeak 12-5, 4-12 and 12-7 in the 73-minute final.

Top-seeded Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar, who have finished second in the last two FIVB events in Melbourne, Australia and Pescara, Italy, play fourth-seeded Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst in the first semi-final match with the winners playing later Saturday for the $25,000 first-place prize.

Cook and Pottharst advanced to the semi-finals with a 22-20 and 21- 17 win over fifth-seeded Barbra Fontana (Manhattan Beach) and Linda Hanley (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) of the WPVA. The Aussies, who won the bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games by defeating Fontana and Hanley 12-11 and 12-7.

Bede and Behar posted a 21-11 and 21-14 win over Australia's Liane Fenwick and Pauline Manser to advance while Rodrigues and Samuel did not have to play when the sixth-seeded German tandem of Maike Friedrichsen/Danja Musch could not play due to injuries.

Both the Fontana/Hanley and Bragado/O'Hara tandems tied for fifth in the competition as each player earned $2,300. Fifteen-seeded Liz Masakayan and Elaine Youngs of the WPVA, who were eliminated 23-21 and 21-18 by Arce and McPeak, finished ninth to share $2,500.

Arce and McPeak will be trying for their second-straight FIVB title after defeating Bede and Behar 12-10 and 12-4 in Pescara, Italy July 6. After losing the first two matches in the series with Bede and Behar, Arce and McPeak have won the last three meetings between the two teams.

Brazilians Sandra Pires and Jackie Silva, who defeated Rodrigues and Samuel to win the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, withdrew from the event earlier this week due to injuries. Pires and Silva won FIVB Australian stop in March.

Winners $310,650 in their 23 pro beach volleyball events together, Arce and McPeak will be seeking their 13th career title together. The pair has combined to win 10 Evian Women's Pro Beach Volleyball Tour titles along with two international crowns.

In their 23 tournaments together, Arce and McPeak have never finished lower than fifth with a 123-19 match mark together. Prep teammates at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, Calif., Arce and McPeak have won nine of the last 13 domestic titles, including six of nine this season.