WOMEN’S PRO VOLLEYBALL / HUNTINGTON BEACH OPEN : Partners Change, Results Don’t

As they have done all season, Jackie Silva and Janice Opalinski were thrilling the crowd with their line-drive serves in the Huntington Beach Open women’s pro volleyball tournament Saturday.

A few feet away, Rita Crockett-Royster and her partner, Dennie Knoop, were struggling with their second-round match.

It would be easy for Crockett-Royster to be a bit upset with Silva, a friend and former partner who has won the first five stops on the tour with Opalinski of San Juan Capistrano.

Crockett-Royster of Costa Mesa was the odd-player-out in May, when she returned from playing indoor pro volleyball in Italy.

Silva, who has won 16 of the past 18 beach tournaments the past two years with four different partners, had agreed to team with Crockett-Royster. But after Silva and Opalinski won the first three tournaments, they decided to extend their partnership through at least mid-season.

“I knew before I came back from Italy that Jackie and I wouldn’t be playing together,” said Crockett-Royster, who is in her second season on the pro beach tour. “Italy is my commitment. Beach volleyball just keeps me in shape. Jackie makes her living at this. She needs a serious partner who’s ready to play.

“Jackie and I figured that since they were winning, why change partners? I needed someone to play with who could keep me in the top five, too.”

Crockett-Royster and Knoop lost to Lori Zeno-Biller and Kathy Hanley, 15-9, in their second-round match, but rallied with two victories to advance to today’s losers’ bracket of the double-elimination tournament.

Top-seeded Silva and Opalinski, meanwhile, cruised into the winners’ bracket semifinal against fourth-seeded Gail Castro and Lori Kotas, who defeated fifth-seeded Angela Rock and Julie Schaar-Thornton in the quarterfinals.

Linda Chisholm-Carrillo and Linda Robertson, seeded sixth, upset second-seeded Elaine Roque and Nina Matthies, 15-12, in the quarterfinals. Chisholm-Carrillo and Robertson will meet Patty Dodd and Karolyn Kirby in the other winners’ bracket semifinal.

The losers’ bracket semifinals begin at 8:30 today and the winners’ bracket semifinals at 9:30. The championship game is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Crockett-Royster and Knoop, seeded seventh, have advanced through the losers’ bracket before. They finished fifth in last week’s tournament at Santa Cruz after an early-round loss. They finished fourth in their first tournament at Hermosa Beach.

Crockett-Royster and Knopp need at least a ninth-place finish at Huntington Beach to secure eighth place in the overall standings. The top eight teams on the tour are invited to a July 7-8 tournament in Hawaii.

“Our goal when we started playing was to make the top eight,” Crockett-Royster said. “Our other goal is to win at Japan (July 28-29) and finish the season in the top three.”

Crockett-Royster hopes her play on the beach tour will parallel her success indoors. A member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, she signed a two-year, six-figure contract last year to play in the Italian indoor league, which runs from October to May.

“The (Italian league) offered enough money to make me leave America,” Crockett-Royster said. “I can see (that much money) on the beach tour in a couple of years.”

Silva led the money winners on the beach tour last season with $32,000.

Crockett-Royster apparently was worth every penny of her contract, earning most valuable player honors and leading her team, Matera, to the championship game.

And if Crockett-Royster wins a beach championship this summer, it probably won’t be with Silva.

Silva is known for changing teammates often, but Crockett-Royster has ruled out any possibility of reuniting their partnership this season.

“I’ve made a commitment to Dennie,” she said. “Dennie is helping me make money and I’m helping her make money. It wouldn’t be fair to her or I if one of us left later in the season.”