Smith, Stoklos Not Ready to Yield Their Perch : Beach volleyball: With younger players on the rise, the sport’s best duo knows the time at the top is almost up.

Their loyalty is as legendary as their royalty.

In more than a decade playing the role of co-crown princes of professional beach volleyball, Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos have rewritten the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals record books with standards that begin with career earnings, end with 112 tandem victories and include a smorgasbord of marks in between.

Lately, the success that has been synonymous with Smith-Stoklos has taken a subtle dip. Last week’s ninth-place finish at Fort Worth, Tex., was the worst in their 11-year association.

On the verge of a first-round loss to the 34th-seeded team at the Miller Lite Open at San Diego Saturday, Smith and Stoklos appeared briefly to be shadows of their former selves.

“That was pretty hairy,” Smith said after he and Stoklos held on for the initial victory and two more after it to advance to today’s semifinals.

At 9 a.m. at Mariner’s Point, second-seeded Smith-Stoklos will meet sixth-seeded Brian Lewis and San Diego’s Pat Powers in the one semifinal. Top-seeded Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes dropped only 14 points in three games as they hammered their way to the other against 20th-seeded Brian Gatzke, a Canadian who recently moved to L.A. to train, and Jeff Rodgers, upset winners over fifth-seeded Brent Frohoff and Monte Vista and USD graduate Mike Whitmarsh.

Smith-Stoklos, who dropped out of the AVP top-seeded position for the first time since 1988 last week, came back from a 9-4 deficit to defeat Rick Arce and Ali Tazerouni, 15-14, when the rally clock ended the qualifiers’ upset bid. They had an easier time in their 15-5 and 15-9 games later in the day.

“We definitely had a rough start,” said Stoklos, 31. “With the top eight or even 16 seeds, you know what they’re going to do. We never really knew how to play this team. But our backs were against the wall. I guess that’s a sign of a true champion. We were down with 24 seconds to go and I served two aces.”

Whether these two aces can continue to pull trump cards week after week depends a lot on their health. Neither is 100%, especially Stoklos, who is nursing a shoulder injury. A muscle strain in Smith’s upper leg has moved into the forefront in the 35-year old’s ongoing battle with minor injuries.

“It’s been a hard, long road to get (my shoulder) back into playing shape,” Stoklos said. “I’m not swinging like I should, I’m not jump serving like I should. That’s the only reason we are like we are right now. I’m not 100%.

“Anyone who know anything about getting old and playing the sport as long as we have, those are the effects. Yes, the other players are getting better, but Sinjin and I aren’t playing 100%, and you can put that blame on me.”

Smith wouldn’t hear of it. Instead he echoed his partner’s sentiment that every team plays out of its mind when it meet them, and talked about what he called the inevitable changing of the guard.

“At some point we’re not going to be able to do what we’ve done for 11 years,” he said. “When that happens, we’re going get a lot of attention. When the media picks up on it, they’re telling the rest of the world what we already know.

“There are great young athletes coming up. They’re fresh and healthy and we might lose to them and they’re going to be the happiest guys on earth because they beat the No. 1 guys. We’d love to play them in our prime and set them straight. We are going to get beat by younger, stronger guys at some point. That’s just the way it is.”

Both players quickly dispelled the notion that if they don’t return to their winning ways that the search for a new partner would begin soon, if ever.

“We owe it to the fans that come out every week expecting to see Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos,” Stoklos said. “Hey, we might not win as much, but it’s like a marriage. I’m not about to divorce over something that’s a game. We’ve dropped down for what, two weeks in a 10-year career? Deep down inside, you’re knocked down from the pedestal. But we’ve been pressured every match and you either respond or you get out, and we’re pretty stubborn.”