SAN DIEGO, CALIF. - A shoulder injury to Nancy Reno has caused a shake-up at the top of the seedings for the $50,000 Mercedes-Benz Open Presented by Cybergenics as 41 teams have entered this weekend's (May 30-June 1) event at Mariner's Point on Misson Bay.

The Evian Women's Pro Beach Volleyball Tour returns to San Diego for the eighth-straight season as Reno's right shoulder injury created the renewal of the winningest women's pro beach volleyball partnership in history with Karolyn Kirby reuniting with Liz Masakayan.

The Evian Tour will be playing for the fifth-straight year on five volleyball courts formed by the WPVA's Operations staff at Mariner's Point on Mission Bay. Prior to the current site, the Evian Tour staged its first three San Diego events at the Pacific Beach Pier.

Qualifying competition for 15 teams opens Friday at 11 a.m. (PDT) to determine the final four seeded tandems in the 32-team main draw. Main draw competition for the Mercedes-Benz Open Presented by Cybergenics begins at 9 a.m. Saturday at Mariner's Point with six rounds of competition.

Twelve (12) teams advance to Sunday's final rounds at 8 a.m. The Olympic Crossing semi-finals are scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Sunday with the final two teams battling for the $11,000 first-place prize at approximately 3 p.m.

Echo Entertainment of Encino, Calif., will be taping the Mercedes- Benz Open Presented by Cybergenics in San Diego for distribution via FOX Sports. Drew Goodman of Denver, Colo., and Maria Barnes of Irvine, Calif., will provide the commentary. The event will be aired the week of June 1.

Reno, who had off-season shoulder surgery, reinjured her right shoulder May 18 at the WPVA Austin Open in Texas after falling on it during a match with Kirby against Olympians Barbra Fontana and Linda Hanley. Seeded second in Austin, Kirby and Reno dropped a 15-7 decision to the Fontana/Hanley tandem before being eliminated 15-12 by Karrie Poppinga and Angela Rock.

Prior to Austin, Kirby and Reno won the Cybergenics Open in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., as the pair downed Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson 15-11 in the championship match televised nationally by ABC Sports. Earlier in the Disney event, the Kirby/Reno tandem had eliminated top-seeded Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak 16-14.

Kirby and Masakayan, the world's top-ranked team on the 1993-94 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, will be playing in their 45th pro beach event together, including their 34th Evian Tour stop. The pair won 26 titles in 33 Evian Tour starts from April, 1993 through July, 1995 enroute to an 180-18 match mark together while sharing $323,290 in domestic earnings.

Combined with 11 international events (three event titles), the Kirby/Masakayan tandem has posted a 220-33 match mark together with 29 championships in 44 starts. Kirby and Masakayan, who won three Evian Tour titles in 1995 when Masakayan was coming back from her fifth knee operation, have split $391,540 in pro earnings together. The partnership dissolved August 26, 1995 when Masakayan, who has had three operations on each of her knees, broke her right kneecap in Portugal.

Arce and McPeak are the Evian Tour top-ranked tandem after winning three of the first four events this season in Miami Beach, Fla. (April 6), Deerfield Beach, Fla. (April 20) and Austin, Tex. (May 18). Ranked third internationally on the FIVB Tour, the Arce/McPeak tandem have defeated three different teams for Evian Tour titles. Arce and McPeak rallied from 7-3 and 12-8 deficits to down Kirby and Reno 15-12 for the Miami Beach title.

Arce and McPeak, who have teamed to win six of the last eight Evian Tour events, scored a 15-9 win over Gail Castro and Gayle Stammer to capture the Deerfield Beach stop. Arce and McPeak scored an 18- 16 win over Fontana and Hanley in the Austin finale.

With the three wins, Arce and McPeak are ranked ahead of the Evian Tour tandem of Fontana/Hanley, who held the top ranking entering the 1997 season. Karrie Poppinga and Angela Rock are currently seeded fourth this weekend after posting third-place finishes in the last two events at Lake Buena Vista and Austin.