MANHATTAN BEACH OPEN : A Path Is Cleared for Kiraly and Steffes : Volleyball: In a day of upsets, the top-seeded team steamrolls into the semifinals. They are hopeful of winning their eighth consecutive tournament today.

The top-seeded team of Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes advanced into the semifinals, but the second, third and fourth-seeded teams fell into the losers’ bracket Saturday at the $100,000 Manhattan Beach Open.

The biggest surprise came when 10th-seeded Bruk Vandeweghe and Dan Vrebalovich beat second-seeded Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos, 15-8, in a late-afternoon quarterfinal match on center court.

Stoklos and Smith trailed, 7-0, but rallied to within 8-5. After Vandeweghe and Vrebalovich took a 10-5, Smith lead another charge by serving for three points. But Vandeweghe and Vrebalovich regrouped to earn the victory.

In an earlier quarterfinal, third-seeded Adam Johnson and Ricci Luyties were upset by sixth-seeded Brian Lewis and Craig Moothart, 15-11. Lewis and Moothart will meet Vandeweghe and Vrebalovich in a semifinal this morning.

An All-South Bay quarterfinal on center court proved to be a disappointment for several fans. Fourth-seeded Mike Dodd and Tim Hovland were defeated, 15-0, by fifth-seeded Brent Frohoff and Mike Whitmarsh in the quickest match of the day.

Dodd, a Manhattan Beach native, pulled his right groin muscle early in the match and was clearly in pain. Dodd, 34, couldn’t jump or move quick enough to reach the ball on most plays.

Both teams live and train in the South Bay. Frohoff, a former Loyola Marymount standout, lives near the Strand in front of Marine Avenue, where many of the top Assn. of Volleyball Professionals players practice.

Whitmarsh also lives in Manhattan Beach and Hovland lives in nearby Playa del Rey.

“I felt sadness,” said Dodd, who has won five Manhattan Beach Open titles with Hovland. “I’ve worked so hard this year and I felt so good. . . . It was 85 degrees and I couldn’t be more warmed up. I couldn’t be in any better athletic situation not to pull a muscle then to pull it is . . . just sad.”

Dodd says he will ice the muscle through the night and if necessary take anti-inflammmatory medication. He expects to be ready for a losers’ bracket match against 11th-seeded Roger Clark and Scott Friederichsen this morning at 8.

“I’ve worked too hard and I’m in too good a shape to let this get me down,” said Dodd, who was hampered because injuries through most of 1991. “I have to keep positive.”

Frohoff and Whitmarsh will play Kiraly and Steffes in today’s other semifinal. Steffes and Kiraly defeated ninth-seeded John Hanley and Troy Tanner, 15-3, in a quarterfinal on center court.

Earlier, Kiraly and Steffes beat unseeded Canyon Ceman and Dave Swatlik, 15-9. Kiraly and Steffes, winners of last year’s Manhattan Beach Open, have won the past seven AVP tournaments and eight of 15 this year.

Already there is talk of Kiraly and Steffes breaking the 13-tournament winning streak set in 1976 by Jim Menges and Greg Lee.

“I don’t think about it when I’m playing,” said Kiraly, a two-time Olympic gold medalist. “It’s inevitable that it’s going to end. It may even end this week. It’s not a big concern, but I think when we get close to it--at 11, 12 or 13--my knees will start shaking a little.”

Steffes, 24, said breaking the record is not a priority.

“We just try to win every tournament and we try to win every game,” Steffes said. “So far we’ve been very lucky. We’ve gone weeks without a team scoring over 10 points on us. If they don’t score, they can’t win.”

Kiraly and Steffes teamed for seven tournament victories last year, although Kiraly missed the start of the season because he was competing in an Italian indoor league.

Kiraly, 31, the AVP’s best offensive player in 1990 and 1991, believes he and Steffes are playing flawlessly.

“We’re serving pretty well,” he said, “Better than most other teams. And we’re making fewer errors than anybody else. This is a very simple game and we’re just playing it the way we’re supposed to.”

Today’s final is scheduled for 5 p.m.