Beach Volleyball Professionals Play in Venice Beach

Professional beach volleyball will make its first stop of the season in Southern California this weekend when the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Tour comes to Venice Beach.

The $75,000 Venice Beach Open, a double-elimination tournament, begins today at 9 a.m. The finals are scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m.

Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos, together for the last nine years, have been the most successful duo in the history of the sport and make up the top-seeded team.

“The fact that we’ve been together and the fact that we’ve been playing so long are big pluses in our favor,” Smith, 33, said.

So is his consistency and the blocking ability of the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Stoklos.

The two have five victories this season and lead in earnings with $75,850 apiece.

Still, parity has been making slow inroads on the tour, especially since Olympic gold medalist Karch Kiraly rejoined the beach circuit in 1988. Kiraly’s partner has been 21-year-old Kent Steffes, and the two are ranked second with two victories and $42,600 apiece in earnings.

However, on Thursday, Kiraly dropped Steffes in favor of Brent Frohoff for the Venice Open, an event they won last year.

“They’re an established team, they’ve won before,” Stoklos said of Kiraly-Frohoff. “But the timing was very unusual. Kent Steffes and Karch--they weren’t playing that badly.”

Steffes will team with Sinjin Smith’s younger brother, Andrew.

Tim Hovland and Mike Dodd, last season’s leading money-winners with eight victories and $164,000 apiece, have struggled this season but are coming off a victory over Smith-Stoklos and are presently ranked third.