Holly McPeak Photo: Holly Stein/AVP

Elaine Youngs Photo: Ken Delgado

Vasso Karadassiou Photo: FIVB

Efi Sfyri Photo: FIVB

Seeded second in the 32-team Main Draw, Holly McPeak (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Elaine Youngs (Durango, Colo.) lead the "final four" teams into Sunday final rounds. Saturday's action saw the first- and third-seeded teams being eliminated by teams from the Netherlands and Greece, respectively.

Winners of 49 pro beach volleyball matches in 51 outings on the sand this season ($141,315 in shared earnings), McPeak and Youngs defeated a pair of United States rivals to advance to Sunday's "final four. McPeak and Youngs face 11th-seeded Vassiliki Karadassiou and Efrosyni Sfyri of Greece in the second of two semifinal matches. It will be the first meeting between the two teams.

With Greece hosting its first "open" FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event along with preparing for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, the advancement by Karadassiou and Sfyri "delighted" the crowd. The "final four" appearance by Karadassiou and Sfyri is the first ever international "final four" appearance for men's and women's team from Greece.

McPeak and Youngs eliminated USA rivals Carrie Busch and Leanne Schuster (21-13, 17-21 and 15-12) and Dianne DeNecochea and Barbra Fontana (21-17 and 21-13) to advance to Sunday's play. Karadassiou and Sfyri scored the "biggest" upset in Greek beach volleyball history by ousting third-seeded Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede of Brazil (16-21, 21-16 and 15-11).

The Brazilians list two FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship Gold Medals (1999 and 2001) and a Silver Medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games on their resume. Behar and Bede are the winningest team ever on the FIVB Tour with 26 Gold Medals.

It was not Brazil's day Saturday on the Greek sand as the country failed to advance a team to a women's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour for only the fifth-time in 88 international events. While Behar and Bede were losing to the Greek tandem, fourth-seeded Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst were defeating sixth-seeded Leila Barros of Sandra Pires of Brazil (21-18 and 21-19) to earn a "final four" berth. The last time a women's team from Brazil failed to advance to a semifinal was in August 2000 at Dalian, China.

Cook and Pottharst, who defeated Behar and Bede for the Sydney Gold Medal, will face 18th-seeded Rebekka Kadijk and Marritt Leenstra of the Netherlands in Sunday's first semifinal. Kadijk and Leenstra, who lost to McPeak and Youngs in pool play Friday morning, advanced to their second FIVB semifinals by eliminating top-ranked teams from the United States and Brazil.

Kadijk and Leenstra, who will be competing in their second FIVB semifinal after placing fourth in the 2001 FIVB season finale in Brazil, scored a 21-17 and 21-18 win over top-seeded Misty May and Kerri Walsh of the United States in their first elimination match Saturday. The Netherland pair advanced to the semifinals by downing eighth-seeded Alexandra Fonseca and Mônica Rodrigues of Brazil 21-18, 16-21 and 15-11. Kadijk and Leenstra's only setback this week was in their opening pool play match Friday to McPeak and Youngs (21-19 and 21-15).

May (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Walsh (Saratoga, Calif.), who lost to Kadijk and Leenstra for the first time in three matches this season between the two teams, posted their lowest pro beach finish in their last nine starts. The Americans failed to advance to the "final four" for the first-time since last August's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Austria.

Saturday's defeat was only the fifth in 39 matches this season for May and Walsh, who will continue to lead the FIVB rankings with $100,700 in earnings and 1,590 points. May and Walsh won the Spain, Switzerland and Canada stops this season and placed second last week to McPeak and Youngs in France. May and Walsh also posted a fourth in Norway earlier this month.

DeNecochea (San Diego, Calif.) and Fontana (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) shared $6,675 for finishing fifth. The pair has now lost four times to McPeak and Youngs this season, including three Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Tour title matches earlier this season in California.

Busch (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and Schuster (Manhattan Beach, Calif.), who are also 0-4 against McPeak and Youngs, split $3,900 for placing ninth. Busch and Schuster won five of seven matches this weekend with both losses being to American rivals, including a 21-15 and 21-16 setback Friday to May and Walsh in pool play.

The top American women remain in Europe next week for the second FIVB Grand Slam event of the season in Klagenfurt, Austria (July 31- August 3). While May and Walsh remain on the international tour for events in Asia (Japan, August 7-11) and China, August 14-18), the other USA teams return to the United States for an AVP event in Manhattan Beach, Calif. (August 8-11).

The 2002 women's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour concludes in September with events in Spain (Mallorca, 3-7) and Brazil (Vitoria, 17-22). The two-year qualifying process for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games starts at the beginning of the 2003.

Individual Match Results and Schedule
Pool Play Results
Tournament Results

~ Tim Simmons