Hovland and Frohoff Are Ready to Draw Their Line in the Sand

Tim Hovland and Brent Frohoff, who united to play pro beach volleyball after losing their partners, will make their third appearance as a team in this weekend’s Manhattan Beach Open.

A series of events brought Hovland, who grew up in Playa del Rey, and Frohoff, who grew up in Manhattan Beach, together.

Kent Steffes, Hovland’s partner since the start of the season, decided to play with Karch Kiraly after the June 16 Philadelphia Open.

Kiraly was supposed to play with Frohoff after returning from Italy, where he played in a professional indoor league. But Kiraly and Steffes secretly teamed up at the last minute, leaving Frohoff and Hovland searching for new partners.

Frohoff has competed with five different players this season and the last one, Scott Ayakatubby, recently suffered a back injury.

Frohoff, 28, and Kiraly won five tournaments as a team in 1990. Kiraly is a two-time gold medalist on the U.S. Olympic volleyball team and a three-time pro beach world champion.

“I was set to play with Karch, but he didn’t tell anybody till a week before that he was playing with Kent,” Frohoff said. “I was very disappointed because I knew how good Karch and I play together.”

Kiraly, who won last week’s Belmar Beach, N.J., Open with Steffes, says it was a difficult decision.

“I was looking to see who, from looking at video and from what people had to say, looked like the most improved player from last summer to this summer,” Kiraly said. “And that was Kent.

“Brent has better ball control, but Kent is stronger at the net. He’s a better blocker and he’s taller. You need that because the beach game is a power game at the net.”

Steffes, 23, says the partnership was well planned. He trained hard during the off-season and felt he deserved to play with Kiraly.

“We talked through third parties for a long time while he was in Italy,” Steffes said. “It wasn’t surprising at all that he chose to play with me because I’ve been playing real well since the beginning of the season. Karch knew that.”

Hovland had played with Steffes since breaking a lengthy partnership with Mike Dodd in July, 1990. Hovland played one tournament with Ayakatubby but completed the 1990 season with Steffes, whom he won three titles with.

This year Hovland and Steffes won two tournaments (San Diego and Clearwater, Fla.) and lost to top-ranked Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos in the final of six others.

But Hovland, 32, says he welcomed the partner change after a disappointing seventh-place finish at the Philadelphia Open with Steffes. Placing that low didn’t sit well with Hovland, a three-time world champion who won more than 50 tournaments and more than $1 million while teamed up with Dodd.

“It was time to change dance partners,” he said, smiling. “I wasn’t surprised at all. You just gotta go with the flow. (Teaming up with Kiraly) might help Kent in the short run and it might hurt him in the long run. Who knows? I just gotta worry about Hovland-Frohoff now.”

Hovland and Frohoff placed third (Cape Cod, Mass., and Belmar Beach) in their first two tournaments together. Both are good passers and solid offensive players. Hovland is the blocker and Frohoff has solid defensive skills as well as a consistent jump serve.

They are seeded second in the $75,000 Manhattan Beach Open, which starts today at 9 a.m. Both men claim a hometown crowd will pump them up.

Hovland, a three-sport standout at Westchester High and an All-American volleyball player at USC, has teamed with Dodd to win five Manhattan Beach titles.

Frohoff, an All-CIF volleyball player at Mira Costa and an All-American at Loyola Marymount, teamed with Kiraly to win last year’s Open.

“They definitely could win. They could win every tournament they enter because they’re a very good team,” said Steve Obradovich, who won the 1976 Manhattan Beach Open. “You have a five-time winner and a defending champ plus you have the hometown crowd behind them.”

Frohoff says the highlight of his six-year pro beach volleyball career was winning the 1990 Open. Hovland says it’s a special event.

“I remember riding my bike on The Strand when I was 10 and seeing all those guys out there and this massive crowd at the Manhattan Open,” Hovland said. “I said to myself ‘I’m going to win that one day.’ Wow that was a long time ago.

“This is the Wimbledon of beach volleyball. You win Manhattan Beach, you won the best. Plus you got all your family here.”

Frohoff says it’s a relief to play at home.

“God, it’s going to be so nice!” he said. “I can’t tell you how great. We’ve been flying back East for months. It will be a break to stay home and play in front of the best crowd in the world.”

Hovland says the team’s best performance is ahead. On Sunday, Frohoff and Hovland made an impressive comeback in the losers’ bracket, battling in hot and humid conditions for more than six hours to finish third.

“It was so hot people were passing out in the stands,” Hovland said. “It was a good tester. A lot of teams would have bowed out and got seventh or ninth. We really showed some character. We still haven’t played to the best of our ability.”