Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP)
Men's & Women's Pro Beach
Santa Barbara, CA
August 17-19, 2001

*** ON TV - August 27 on FOX Sports Net (check local listings) ***

Complete list of teams at - http://Volleyball.ORG/avp

SANTA BARBARA AVP PRO BEACH VOLLEYBALL TOUR STOP ATTRACTS 108 TEAMS;
QUALIFICATION TOURNAMENTS LAUNCHES MICHELOB LIGHT OPEN FRIDAY

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. - With 108 teams forming the largest field in the
history of the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP), The
Michelob Light Open at Santa Barbara starts here Friday (August 17) with the
United States' top men and women pro beach volleyball players vying for
$125,000 in prize money.

The Michelob Light Open at Santa Barbara, presented by Paul Mitchell,
begins Friday at 9 a.m. (PDT) on eight sand courts at East Beach.
Friday's competition will feature two Qualification Tournaments with 40
men's and 20 women's teams battling for the final four berths in the 32-team
men's and 24-team women's Main Draws.

The first 88 Main Draw matches (52 for men and 36 for women) will be
played Saturday starting at 9 a.m. Sunday's competition starts at 8
a.m. with the final 20 matches being played (10 for men and 10 for
women). The final matches will begin approximately at 1 p.m. Sunday
with the final two teams in each gender battling for the $14,000
first-place prize. Echo Entertainment of Studio City, Calif., will be
taping the Michelob Light Open at Santa Barbara action for broadcast
August 27 on FOX Sports Net.

With only one "major" partnership change in the women's competition, the
men's lineup features several "new" competitions for The Michelob Light Open
at Santa Barbara. Dianne DeNecochea, who teamed with Wendy Stammer to place
fourth in the last AVP women's event in Muskegon, Mich. (July 15), will be
playing with Liz Masakayan this weekend.

Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana, who teamed to win the Gold Medal for
the United States at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, will be playing with
different partners this weekend. Blanton will play for the first time with
Carl Henkel this weekend on East Beach. Fonoimoana and Rob
Heidger, a pair of UC-Santa Barbara graduates, join forces for the first
time since competing in 14 events together during the 1995 and 1996 seasons.

With Henkel teaming with Blanton, Sinjin Smith will play George Romaine, who
is competing in his first-ever-pro beach event after competing the last four
years with the USA National Team. Chip McCaw, who placed fourth with
Heidger at the recently completed FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships,
is now paired with Colin Wellman. Like Romaine, McCaw competed in the
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with Team USA.

Saturday's play will also mark the return to pro beach competition for
Karch Kiraly, who will be competing with former 1995 partner Scott
Ayakatubby. Kiraly dislocated his right shoulder last year in an August
international event in Belgium where he and Adam Johnson were trying for a
spot in the Sydney Olympics that was captured by Blanton and Fonoimoana.

Kiraly, who has won a record 142 titles and earned over $2.953-million
on the beach, was expected to return to the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball
Tour in June. He withdrew from the first two events this season due to a
calf injury. A Santa Barbara prep product, Kiraly was recognized last
December by the FIVB as the beach volleyball player of the century. Kiraly
and Ayakatubby played in 14 events in 1995 with eight titles and 13 "final
four" finishes on the AVP Tour.

Santa Barbara's Dax Holdren and Todd Rogers will be the top-seeded team in
the 68-team men's field. The pair has won two domestic titles this season
in Clearwater Beach, Fla., and Hermosa Beach, Calif., where they defeated
Blanton and Fonoimoana in the finals. Holdren and Rogers placed fifth in
the FIVB World Championships early this month were they were eliminated by
eventual champions Mariano Baracetti and Martin Conde of Argentina.

Other top men's teams entered in The Michelob Light Open at Santa
Barbara include Canyon Ceman/Mike Whitmarsh, Brent Doble/Lee LeGrande
and Aaron Boss/Collin Smith. Doble and LeGrande won the Muskegon and
Belmar (N. J.) events. Boss and Smith "surprised" the Virginia Beach
(Va.) field to net their first pro beach volleyball title in the last
AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour event.

The teams of Lisa Arce/Holly McPeak, Barbra Fontana/Elaine Youngs, Nancy
Mason/Leanne Schuster and Linda Hanley/Sarah Straton are the top tandems in
the women's Santa Barbara competition. Arce and McPeak defeated Fontana and
Youngs in the Hermosa Beach finale. Hanley and Straton captured the
Muskegon title by upsetting Arce and McPeak in the finals. Mason and
Schuster placed third in the first two domestic events this season.



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