MARSEILLE, FRANCE - Top-seeded Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar became the fourth different team to win a FIVB Women's Beach Volleyball Tour event this season as the Brazilians downed Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak of the Women's Professional Volleyball Association 25-23 and 21-15 in the championship match on Prado Beach.

In competition delayed a day due to extremely high winds on Prado Beach for both the women and men in the $270,000 event, Bede and Behar shared the $25,000 first-place prize while Arce and McPeak split $16,000.

The fourth international stop for the women this season and the fifth for the men, the FIVB event was a 32-team single-elimination main draw. Each match was the best two out of three games with rallying score to 21 (win by two with no cap).

The Marseille format will be the same system for September's $600,000 World Championships. To be held at UCLA's Tennis Center in Los Angeles, Calif., the World Championships are September 10-13 and will feature the top eight women's and men's teams from the United States.

Bede and Behar avenged an earlier loss to Arce and McPeak in the finals of the last FIVB Women's event in Pescara, Italy July 6 when the WPVA team scored a 12-10 and 12-4 in the championship match. Sunday's win was Bede and Behar's third FIVB title as the pair had won in Puerto Rico and Indonesia last season.

The championship loss also snapped a 12-match international winning streak for Arce and McPeak, who had won their the last three matches against Bede and Behar. The series is tied 3-3 as the Brazilians had won the first two matches in the series as November in Brazil and last March in Australia.

Bede and Behar, who were playing in their third-straight international final, advanced with a 21-19, 18-21 and 21-18 win over fourth-seeded Australians Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst, the bronze medalists at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

Seeded second in the competition, Arce and McPeak defeated third-seeded Brazilians Monica Rodrigues and Adriana Samuel 21-16, 19-21 and 21-18 to advance to the finals. Rodrigues and Samuel, the silver medalists at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, placed third with a 19-21, 21-15 and 22-20 win over Cook and Pottharst.

The semi-final win for Arce and McPeak also avenged a 12-5, 4-12 and 12-7 loss to Rodrigues and Samuel in the finals of the FIVB's first women's event in 1997 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (February 16).

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 due to injuries. Pires and Silva won the FIVB Australian stop March 16 when they defeated Bede and Behar 12-9 and 12-5 in the finals.

WPVA tandems of Barbra Fontana/Linda Hanley (seeded fifth) and Danalee Bragado/Marla O'Hara (No. 10) 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 also ousted Bragado and O'Hara 21-10 and 21-19. Fontana and Hanley were eliminated 22-20 and 21-17 by Cook and Pottharst.