Women’s Pro Volleyball Returns This Weekend

The women’s professional beach volleyball tour will return to Southern California this weekend for the $15,000 Huntington Beach Open.

About 32 two-woman teams will play in the tournament all day Saturday and Sunday on the sand courts south of Huntington Beach Pier. The winning team will divide $3,700.

The tour’s top team, Jackie Silva and Patty Dodd, will vie for a fourth tournament victory in five events this season. Silva and Dodd are well ahead on the tour with $6,000 in winnings apiece.

The money is nowhere near the six-figure incomes of the top players in the men’s game, but things are looking up, according to Craig Elledge, promoter of the women’s tour.

“They didn’t even have a tour until a few years ago,” said Elledge, who started in volleyball promotion when he worked for Group Dynamics Inc., the firm that promoted the men’s professional tour until two years ago. “I worked on the first big women’s event for Group Dynamics in 1987. When it started, it wasn’t even worth it for the girls to come out.

“Back then, we had $5,000 events. Then, last year, it was $10,000 and this year it went from $10,000 to $15,000. So it’s been going up in blocks of five.”

And Elledge says you can see the difference.

“The girls are taking the sport more seriously. A lot of them came out this year in a whole lot better shape. They were thinner and they had grown some big muscles, so they’ve been spending some time in the weight room.”

There has also been changing of partnerships. The most significant involved two of the most dominating players on the beach, Silva and her partner from last year, Linda Chisholm. This year, Silva--the former Olympian from Brazil who is considered by some the best player on the women’s tour--opted for Dodd, a Colombia native who is married to Mike Dodd, one of the stars of the men’s tour.

This left the 6-foot-2 Chisholm, an Olympic silver medalist in 1984, to team up with Janice Opalinski. And, according to Elledge, the result could be devastating to the rest of the tour.

“I think you’re going to see them improve a lot,” he said of the pair that won a tournament in Cleveland two weekends ago--the only event that didn’t go to Silva-Dodd. “Opalinski is a fiery back-court player who played for three years with Kathy Gregory (the long-time beach star who retired after last season). She’s not a big blocker and hitter, but she keeps the ball in play.

“Paired with Chisholm, who’s a big hitter and big blocker, they could be a lot like (Sinjin) Smith and (Randy) Stoklos on the men’s side. Chisholm can dominate the net while Opalinski roams the back court.”

Another new duo that has found success this season is Nina Matthies and Elaine Roque, veterans who join Silva-Dodd and Chisholm-Opalinski as the top three teams on the tour, Elledge said. Also challenging for top spots are Lori Kotas and Gail Castro, Dale Hall and Karolyn Kirby and the imposing pair of Lisa Strand (6-foot) and Judy Bellomo (5-foot-10).

The next stop on the women’s tour is the John Shaw Open at Manhattan Beach Pier on June 24-25.