U.S. VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : Local Team Credits Crowd for Lending a Helping Hand

The biggest question on Saturday--which team would win the Miller Lite Assn. of Volleyball Professionals U.S. National Championship and the $100,000 winner’s check--was answered when the team of Adam Johnson and Ricci Luyties beat Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos. But a different one was left unanswered.

Can you imagine the noise 15,000 fans would have made if Scott Ayakatubby and Brent Frohoff could have advanced into the championship?

Ayakatubby, who attended Mira Costa High and El Camino College, and Frohoff are both regarded as vanguards of Hermosa Beach volleyball. They won three matches in the loser’s bracket Saturday, including a 15-12 upset of second-seeded Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes, and reached the loser’s bracket final before the eventual champions defeated them, 13-10, in an eight-minute time-limit match.

NBC telecast the final and mandated a time limit on each match throughout the two-day tournament. The clock ran only when the ball was in play.

“The crowd kept us in it all weekend,” Frohoff said. “There were a lot of really good friends out there today. Every single person that was screaming, we knew, and it was a really great feeling to have them behind us.”

Starting with their 8 a.m. match against Kiraly and Steffes, a crowd of almost 600, dubbed the “Ak-Pack,” rooted their friends on. The crowd built throughout the day, and after defeating fourth-seeded Tim Hovland and Mike Dodd, 10-8, in a time-limit match which was not decided until the last 13 seconds, Ayakatubby and Frohoff received a standing ovation.

The team will split a third-place check of $17,812.50.

Every match Ayakatubby and Frohoff played Saturday ended because of the clock. Along with the Kiraly-Steffes match and the Hovland-Dodd victory, the clock ran out against Andrew Smith and Bruk Vandeweghe at 14-12. Considering this and the fact that the team’s eventual ouster also came in a time-limit game, Ayakatubby and Frohoff had plenty to say about the use of clock.

“I hate it. I despise it. The clock is the worst,” Frohoff said after losing to Johnson and Luyties. “Our game should not be over. None of them should have been. It helped us today, but it’s not right. Everyone hates it.”

Said Ayakatubby: “I had a comeback at Manhattan Beach where we were down, 14-8, and came back to win. The crowd loved it. But the clock makes comebacks impossible.

“I understand that it’s for NBC and also feel that anything that brings the players more exposure and more money is good for us. But I would like to see NBC open up a larger slot of time so we can play normally.”

Said Frohoff: “Maybe they should just use the clock for the televised game.”

Add hometown--Eight players in the field were from either Hermosa or Manhattan Beach. Ayakatubby, Frohoff and Jeff Rogers are from Hermosa Beach and Hovland, Dodd, Jon Stevenson and Tim Walmer are from Manhattan Beach.

Hovland and Dodd finished fourth, worth $7,031.25 to each. Walmer teamed with Owen McKibbin and they tied for ninth, worth $3046.88 to each.

Steve Timmons, a Manhattan Beach resident, sat out the tournament with a shoulder injury, but was in the players’ tent throughout the weekend.

If the team of Steffes and Kiraly had won the tournament, Steffes would have finished alone atop the tour’s money list. Instead, he finishes alone in third with $215,338.75. Smith and Stoklos tied for first with $250,457 each.

“It would have been nice to have been the tour’s top money winner,” Steffes said. “That would have been gravy. But to be the top money winner you have to be consistent all year and I wasn’t.”

After Steffes and Kiraly were eliminated during their first match Saturday.

On the other hand, there were some people with an amazing enthusiasm for the tournament. On Wednesday at 9:30 p.m., a group of 26 Hermosa residents planted their beach chairs in front row of the Northwest corner of the stadium and staked claim to good seats for the weekend.

“They used to let us camp out and stay overnight except people started stealing all the banners,” said Kathy Smith, a member of the group.

Said Tim Brown, another member of the group: “There’s a bunch of us from 8th street who play volleyball, and we’ve been coming out for six years now.”

AVP security cleared the stadium--of people but not their beach chairs--at the conclusion of play Friday.

At 3 a.m., a crowd started lining up to get a jump on seats for Saturday.

In many ways, the athletics were a sidelight to the weekend’s circus-like atmosphere. Along with a 30-foot AVP balloon, the Strand was overrun with promotional booths and floor shows.

Among them:

* The bikini contest was held about 100 yards from the stadium while Frohoff and Ayakatubby were playing in the loser’s bracket championship.

* AVP corporate sponsors set up a veritable mall of promotional booths. Giveaways included mineral water, sodas, non-alcoholic beer, posters, athletic water bottles, bumper stickers, mugs, gym membership discounts, sneaker discounts and a contest for a complimentary trip to Hawaii. There was also a booth with official AVP tour merchandise, but those items cost between $15-$35.

* And then there was Marvin Hall, the dancing referee. During a timeouts Hall, 35, would come down from an official’s chair to do an M.C. Hammer-dancing imitation.

“It started in Milwaukee about four years ago,” Hall said. “It was raining and a dull moment in the day, and people in the stands started egging me on to do it. Since then, everywhere I go, people get a big kick out of it.”

By the way, Hall is 5-foot-7 and weighs around 250 pounds.