Silva Establishes South Bay Beachhead : Women’s volleyball: Last year’s leading money winner on the professional tour has a new home, attitude and partner.

With two feet planted firmly in the sand, Jackie Silva finally is finding some roots in Redondo Beach.

For the past four years, Silva has been the top player on the Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. beach tour.

But the cosmopolitan lifestyle of a touring pro has gotten to be too much for Silva.

She has spent summers playing beach tournaments on the fledgling women’s tour in locales as varied as Cleveland; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Shonan Beach, Japan.

Silva has wintered either in Brazil--where she is a national hero--or in Italy, where she played indoor volleyball in the women’s Italian Professional League.

This year, Silva said enough is enough.

“For the last four years, I have never really had a place,” Silva said. “But now I know I want to be here.”

When the semifinals of the Hermosa Beach Open begin Sunday morning at 9, Silva, 28, practically can walk along The Strand from her north Redondo apartment to take her place on the court.

The final of the $25,000 event will be played at approximately 2:30 p.m. next to Hermosa Beach Pier.

At the Hermosa event--one of the most heavily attended stops on the WPVA tour--volleyball fans will see a fresh type of game from Silva and Janice Opalinski, Silva’s new partner.

Spectators are used to the power game that Silva and former partner Patty Dodd--the wife of men’s beach volleyball champion Mike Dodd--took to unexpected heights in 1989.

Silva and Dodd won 10 of the first 11 tournaments last year--including eight in a row--but had striking personality differences.

“We had different ways,” Silva said. “At the end of the season, we couldn’t even talk anymore, even on the court. We couldn’t keep a friendship at all, outside or inside volleyball.”

As a result, the team split up in August after finishing second to Opalinski and Linda Chisholm-Carrillo in the USA Championships at Manhattan Beach.

“Patty is a nice person, but you’ve got to really work to be her friend,” Silva said. “Otherwise she just stays to herself.”

Silva spent the rest of the tour playing with Rita Crockett-Royster, winning once and coming in second in the tour finale in Cincinnati. Still, Silva ended the season as the tour’s leading points and money winner ($32,000).

Opalinski, 29, is a schoolteacher from San Juan Capistrano.

She and the kinetic Silva might have differing personalities, but they have shared success, winning the tour’s first three events--the Arizona Open in Phoenix, the Jag Santa Barbara Open, and the PCH Open in San Diego--and are the seeded first at Hermosa.

They are probably the shortest pair on the tour. Silva is 5-foot-6 and Opalinski is 5-7.

So the frenetic days of Silva-Dodd--Silva racing all over the court and Dodd putting away thunderous kills--are over. Opalinski is not a tremendous hitter or blocker, so she and Silva play a structured game that relies on ball control.

“We wait for the right time to make points,” Silva said. “And we don’t make many mistakes. You cannot expect the ball to go straight down to the ground all the time, but Janice is a smart player.”

Silva probably works harder than before, scampering for digs, setting for Opalinski and rising up for blocks.

But it makes for an electric game, one that Silva said rivals the excitement of men’s beach volleyball.

“A lot of people enjoy our game better because you get to see more plays,” Silva said. “It’s not like the men, who just pass, set, hit. People can watch and get an idea of how it is possible to play volleyball.”

It is also growing in popularity. Although the tournament prize money does not approach the lucrative purses of the men’s tour, the women are finding it possible to make a living playing volleyball.

Tournament promoters expect a crowd of 15,000 for a June 23-24 event in Fresno--similar attendance to a men’s tournament held this year at the same site.

“It’s a wonderful sport,” Silva said. “People get to go to the beach, they don’t pay anything to get in, they’re close to the players, they watch a great game and watch each other.”

South Bay fans will see more of Silva now that she has established a year-round base here. She practices on the beach about three hours a day, runs on the sand for an hour and works out at a local gym as part of her training regimen.

She is also gaining proficiency at a new language. Silva speaks limited English, preferring her native Portuguese, but she is learning.

“It’s very difficult,” Silva said. “I don’t like to study too much.”

Silva plans to spend the winter away from volleyball, promoting and marketing her line of beach clothing.

And after seven years with the Brazilian national volleyball team--including the 1980 and ’84 Olympic teams--Silva finally is getting some much-needed rest.

“Brazil is beautiful, but it is nice here too,” Silva said. “It’s a nice, quiet place.”