EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. - There has been a change at the top of Women's Professional Volleyball Association's team rankings as the tandems of Gail Castro/Gayle Stammer and Elaine Roque/Dennie Shupryt-Knoop used final four finishes last Sunday (April 20) to improve their ranking on the 1997 Evian Women's Pro Beach Volleyball Tour.

Despite losing their final matches at the WPVA Deerfield Beach Open, the tandems of Castro/Stammer (seventh to sixth) and Elaine Roque/Dennie Shupryt-Knoop (fifth to fourth) and Karolyn Kirby/Nancy Reno (third to second) improved their WPVA rankings.

Dropping a notch in the team rankings after the WPVA Deerfield Beach Open, were the tandems of Barbra Fontana/Linda Hanley (second to third), Karrie Poppinga/Angela Rock (fourth to fifth) and Danalee Bragado/Christine Schaefer (sixth to seventh).

The WPVA Deerfield Beach Open, which had 17 upsets in 60 matches, also marked only the third-time in recorded Evian Tour history that three of the top four-seeded teams in an event dropped into the contender's bracket prior to the final 14 matches in a double-elimination tournament format.

Top-ranked Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak were the only team among the top seven teams on the Evian Tour to maintain their rating as the WPVA takes two weekends off before resuming competition May 8-11 in Orlando, Fla.

Arce and McPeak, who have won six Evian Tour titles in nine domestic starts together, won all six of their matches at last weekend's $50,000 WPVA Deerfield Beach Open to capture their third- straight Evian Tour title by downing seventh-seeded Castro and Stammer 15-9 in the championship match. The Evian Tour's top team has now won five of the last six domestic titles as Arce and McPeak rallied from 7-3 and 12-8 deficits to down Kirby and Reno 15-12 to win the WPVA Miami Beach Open April 6.

In Deerfield, second-seeded Fontana and Hanley, third-seeded Kirby and Reno, and fourth-seeded Poppinga and Rock dropped Saturday (April 19) to fall into the contender's bracket earlier than expected. Kirby and Reno lost in the championship bracket's first-round while the tandems of Fontana/Hanley and Poppinga/Rock dropped matches in the championship bracket quarter-finals.

Erin Borske and Christine Federico, seeded 30th in the main draw and 34th overall, scored the second "biggest" seed break-through in the 11-season history of the Evian Women's Pro Beach Volleyball Tour as the Chicago-area residents upset Kirby and Reno 15-13.

In a pair of 15-11 championship bracket quarter-final matches, fifth-seeded Roque and Shupryt-Knoop upset Poppinga and Rock before Castro and Stammer broke-through with a win over Fontana and Hanley.

Castro, who was playing in her first championship match at Deerfield Beach since the final 1994 event at Las Vegas (28 tournaments), and Stammer also upset the tandems of Bragado/Schaefer (15-12) and Roque/Shupryt-Knoop (15-11). Bragado and Schaefer finished third in Deerfield by upsetting Roque and Shupryt-Knoop (15-3).