No. 1 Pushed but Goes 4-0 on First Day : Beach volleyball: Stoklos and Smith edge Kiraly and Frohoff, 10-8, in battle of the best.

A professional beach volleyball player can always figure out just how good he is by playing Karch Kiraly.

Even a player as good as Randy Stoklos.

“I love playing against Karch,” says Stoklos, who, with partner Sinjin Smith, has owned the top-seeding on the beach for the past decade. “He’s a guy that I have seen in my career that I look up to. When I grew up, I kind of just saw that Karch was the front-runner, and that was the guy I was running after. He is an awesome player, but I’ll tell you one thing. I really enjoy playing against him, because he is so good that it makes my level increase to that level, too--and a lot of times surpass it.”

He and Smith surpassed it Friday, defeating Kiraly and partner Brent Frohoff, 10-8, in the $150,000 Cuervo Gold Crown at Mariner’s Point. That left Stoklos and Smith with a 4-0 finish, the first time they have ever been undefeated after the first day of a Gold Crown tournament. And that’s kind of funny when you consider they have won more beach tournaments than any other team.

Kiraly, the two-time Olympic gold medalist who jumps so high you’d swear he was springing off a trampoline, teamed with Frohoff to win this tournament last year. The pair finished second Friday with a record of 3-1. Play continues today at 9 a.m., with the championship match at 3 p.m.

Smith and Stoklos not only had never finished the first day undefeated but also had never won one of these Gold Crown tournaments until this year, when they took the first two at Clearwater, Fla., and Boulder, Colo. A victory today would give them the pro volleyball triple crown.

“I think we should be worried about it,” Smith said. “Most teams that finish 4-0 are going to go into the next day thinking they don’t have to play as hard. We’re going to have to play harder (today).”

That may be difficult, because they were playing awfully well by the time they met Kiraly and Frohoff. Early in the day, they were given a scare by eighth-seeded Rudy Dvorak and Bruk Vandeweghe, who failed to capitalize on four match points and eventually lost, 10-9. After that, Team Intimidation got rolling.

Against Kiraly and Frohoff, Stoklos and Smith took a 6-0 lead and appeared on their way to a neat and simple victory. But then Kiraly served five points in a row to make it 6-5, the last of which was an ace that froze Stoklos.

Smith would say later that he wasn’t thrilled with his partner on that particular point. It seems he had moved to his left and expected Stoklos to shift with him. Stoklos didn’t, the ball skipped off the sand, and Smith let him know what was on his mind.

“I don’t remember what I said, but I was a little bit angry,” Smith said. “He’s going to yell at me sometimes to raise my level of play, and it’s the same from me to him. He knows what I’m capable of doing, and I know what he’s capable of doing.”

So on the next point, Stoklos moved, and they managed a side-out. A block by Stoklos, a spike by Stoklos and a spike by Smith made it 9-5, and Kiraly and Frohoff appeared to be on their way out.

Once again, Kiraly brought them back. After a point-winning dink by Frohoff, Kiraly clubbed a thunderous spike and blocked Stoklos to make it 9-8. A few side-outs were exchanged before Smith spiked for the victory.

As usual, Stoklos was duly impressed with the play of his opponent.

“They made some outstanding plays,” he said. “I mean, gosh, Karch set a couple of balls that were just world class today.”

Tournament Notes

Scott Ayakatubby withdrew from the tournament late Thursday because of a foot injury and was replaced by Bob Ctvrtlik. Ctvrtlik, a member of the U.S. national team, teamed with Mike Dodd to lose all four matches, and the pair was in seventh at the end of the day. . . . The rest of the teams, in order of place: 3. Tim Hovland and Kent Steffes (3-1); 4. Steve Timmons and Adam Johnson (3-1); 5. Andrew Smith and Dan Vrebalovich (2-2); 6. Rudy Dvorak and Bruk Vandeweghe (1-3); 8. John Hanley and Ricci Luyties (0-4). . . . Vandeweghe, who graduated from San Diego State in 1988, came within one point of winning the biggest beach match of his career against Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos. Vandeweghe’s highest finish was fifth at Seal Beach, and he has never defeated either Smith/Stoklos or Karch Kiraly/Brent Frohoff. “That would have been a great win,” he said. “That could have been the game that launched us into the higher bracket.” Said Stoklos: “I knew they were going to be tough when they came on the court. I saw that in their faces. They had nothing to lose.”