Eight WPVA Teams Set For FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships
EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. (April 9, 1997) - The Women's Professional Volleyball Association (WPVA) will field eight teams in the 1997 FIVB World Championships of Beach Volleyball September 10-13 at the LA Tennis Center on the campus of UCLA in Westwood, Calif. The $600,000 prize fund, the largest ever for a single beach volleyball tournament, will be divided equally between the men's and women's competition. The event, which is sanctioned by the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) and co-promoted by NIKE Sports Entertainment and Management Plus Enterprises, will feature the top U.S. and international teams.
A total of eight WPVA teams will compete in the 32-team, two-woman tournament. Eight U.S. men's teams will also compete in the 32-team men's draw. A single elimination format will be used for both the men's and women's competition.
The championship finals will be aired by NBC Sports September 14 from 4-6 p.m. (EDT). The broadcast will follow an National Football League game and organizers anticipate the largest non-Olympic television audience in beach volleyball history. "Nike's commitment to women's athletics is unwavering," said Lori Smith, Nike Sports Marketing Manager for Volleyball. "We are delighted that the WPVA will join us in this very important event, the first ever of this magnitude with equal prize money for men and women." WPVA players expected to compete include the tour's top-ranked teams of Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak, a two-time Evian Women's Pro Beach Volleyball Tour most valuable player, and 1996 Olympians Barbra Fontana and Linda Hanley.
Arce and McPeak have won four of the last five Evian Tour events, including a 15-12 come-from-behind win over Karolyn Kirby and Nancy Reno this past Sunday (April 6) at the WPVA Miami Beach Open.
By capturing their fifth Evian Tour together, Arce and McPeak became the WPVA's top-ranked team over Fontana and Hanley. The Kirby/Reno tandem is currently the third-ranked domestic team followed by Karrie Poppinga/Angela Rock, Elaine Roque/Dennie Shupryt-Knoop, Danalee Bragado/Christine Schaefer, Gail Castro/Gayle Stammer and Krista Blomquist/Cammy Ciarelli.
WPVA teams will qualify for the championships based on a combination of points earned from domestic and international events. Arce and McPeak, which won an FIVB event together last August in Korea, have placed second (February in Brazil) and third (March in Australia) in the first two FIVB events in 1997.
"This will be a great showcase for our sport and an opportunity for WPVA athletes to continue showing that they are some of the best players in the world," said WPVA Executive Director Nancy Lengel. The WPVA hosted the tandems of Sandra Pires/Jackie Silva and Shelda Bede/Adriana Behar, the top two ranked FIVB tandems, this past weekend in Miami Beach.
Pires and Silva, the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games' gold medalists, posted a Miami Beach ninth after dropping matches to Linda Chisholm and Deb Richardson (15-12) and Bragado and Schaefer (15-11). Bede and Behar finished fifth after losing 17-15 to Chisholm and Richardson (currently the No. 9-ranked WPVA team) and 15-4 to Arce and McPeak.
DEERFIELD BEACH NEXT
The WPVA continues its 1997 Evian Tour with events in Deerfield Beach, Fla. (April 19-20), Orlando, Fla. (May 9-11) and Austin, Tex. (May 17-18). Following the 1997 FIVB World Championships of Beach Volleyball, the WPVA concludes its 11th-season of play with the Best of the Beach IV September 26-28 in Kaua'i, Hawaii.