June 7, 2007

Zartman rises above her height
Four women's teams move on to Friday

By Bill Sanders / Special to AVP.com

ATLANTA — You don't even have to ask Chrissie Zartman how tall — or short —
she is. Just stand there for a few seconds, and she'll spit out the answer
to the most-often asked question she gets.

"Five-three," Zartman said.

Yep, that's short in the world of professional volleyball — even among those
struggling week to week to qualify.

Zartman and her partner Leilani Kamahoahoa won three times Thursday in
Atlanta to advance to Friday's main draw of the Atlanta Open.

"We get to play a few more days," she said. "That's the best part. We're
happy, but not satisfied just to make it."

Zartman, 23, from Hermosa Beach, Calif., starred for UCLA before turning pro
last year, so she's used to being the little one.

"I don't know if I'm the shortest (of the pros)," she said. "Probably.
Leilani played so great that it made it kind of easy for me to scoop up what
was left."

Thursday was a rough day for a couple of the hometown favorites and a couple
of the top seeds as well.

Beth Van Fleet, who played college volleyball at Georgia State in Atlanta
had circled this event on her calendar as one she really wanted to excel in.
And the seedings seemed to be on her side. Four teams would advance to
Friday's main draw and Van Fleet and partner Angie Hall were the No. 4 seed.

Even better, those top four earned byes, and with the temperatures in the
upper 80s before noon, the fewer matches, the better.

At least that's how it was supposed to go.

Van Fleet and Hall lost, 21-17, 21-19, to the No. 13 seeded team of Kealani
Kimball and Rosalinda Masler.

"I don't know, maybe they had gotten accustomed to the heat by their second
match," Van Fleet said. "We're used to playing in sweats in California."

Van Fleet knew her logic about playing more games in these conditions being
a good thing was faulty.

"They just played great," she said of Kimball and Masler. "They deserved
it."

There seemed to be a fair amount of that going on here — lower seeds, the
ones who didn't earn an early-round bye — advancing.

Before noon here, the top-seeded team of Lauren Dickson and Jamie Lee was
sent home by 16th seed Wendy Lockhart and Amber Ramga.

Ramga, who also played her college ball here at Georgia State, and Lockhart
lost to Zartman's team later in the day, 21-19, 21-12.

And by the end of the day, the No. 2-seeded team of Erin Byrd and Paige
Davis had been eliminated.

Other than Zartman's team, those advancing to Friday are the team of Kimball
and Masler, No. 7 seeded Whitney Pavlik and Kelly Wing; and No. 6 seed
Angela Knopf and Catie Mintz. Pavlik and Wing played a total of two hours
and 15 minutes, the most of any team.

No seed higher than No. 6 advanced.

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