VOLLEYBALL SEAL BEACH OPEN : Top-Seeded Kiraly, Steffes Fall Into Losers’ Bracket

Capistrano Beach’s Adam Johnson again stole the national television spotlight Saturday at the $100,000 Seal Beach Open. Top-seeded Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes, meanwhile, were left to survive the “snake pit.”

Ninth-seeded Scott Friederichsen of Laguna Hills and Tim Walmer of Manhattan Beach upset Kiraly and Steffes, 10-8, in the winners’ bracket quarterfinals, dropping the top-seeded team into the losers’ bracket, known as the “snake pit” among the players.

Kiraly and Steffes are trying to win a record 14th consecutive tournament, but NBC’s live telecast instead focused on second-seeded Johnson and partner Tim Hovland of Playa del Rey.

Hovland and Johnson held off a comeback by third-seeded Brian Lewis of Corona del Mar and Mike Whitmarsh of Manhattan Beach, 15-12, in the winners’ bracket semifinals.

Johnson and Hovland will meet fifth-seeded Mike Dodd of Manhattan Beach and Pat Powers of San Diego in today’s winners’ bracket final of the double-elimination tournament. Dodd and Powers defeated Friederichsen and Walmer, 15-4, in the other semifinal.

“The tournament is ours for the taking,” said Johnson, a former USC and Laguna Beach High standout. “We still have some tough matches ahead of us, but I can’t complain about the way things have gone.

“I don’t know if the tournament is wide-open now, but one of the top teams is out of the winners’ bracket. It’s tough coming out of the losers’ bracket, especially because it’s so hot out there.”

Saturday’s match was Johnson’s third on national television in the past two years. He won the Milwaukee Open and the U.S. Championships at Hermosa Beach with Ricci Luyties last season.

“Everyone was calling Ricci and I the ‘NBC kids’ last year,” Johnson said. “I guess I’m still there.”

Meanwhile, Kiraly and Steffes were on an adjacent court for a losers’ bracket match. It’s the first time Kiraly and Steffes have been in the losers’ bracket since May 24 at Ft. Worth.

“It’s typical of us not to play well early in a tournament,” Kiraly said. “For 13 weeks, we’ve been sneaking through and stealing matches as the (nine-minute) time clock runs out.

“Today, the luck ran out on us. We waited too long to make our move.”

Kiraly and Steffes won both their losers’ bracket matches to advance to today’s quarterfinals against Lewis and Whitmarsh. Kiraly and Steffes haven’t lost a tournament since May 10, when Whitmarsh and Brent Frohoff beat them in the finals at New Orleans.

Both top-seeded players struggled against Friederichsen and Walmer. Several of Kiraly’s serves went out of bounds and Steffes had problems passing.

Kiraly and Steffes’ last lead was 4-3, but Friederichsen and Walmer had built a 9-6 lead by the time the rally clock reached three minutes.

Then it became a race against the clock.

A kill by Walmer pushed the lead to 10-6 with 1:33 left.

Steffes had a kill with 15 seconds left to cut it to 10-7, and he and Kiraly scored the final point of the match as the clock expired.

“Scott and Tim did a great job of siding out against us,” Kiraly said. “Walmer dug particularly well. We chose to serve Scott, and he did a good job of putting the ball away for them.”

Johnson-Hovland, playing in their first tournament together, survived a scare in their semifinal.

They built an 11-5 lead, but Lewis and Whitmarsh rallied to tie it, 12-12, on a kill by Lewis with 1:42 left.

Then Lewis, a former Orange Coast College standout, made three critical errors:

--He hit the ball out to give Johnson and Hovland a 13-12 lead with about a minute remaining.

--He hit a soft “poke” shot into the net that could have tied it with 23 seconds left.

--And he was blocked by Hovland on match point with nine seconds left.

“This is a team on the rise,” Hovland said of he and Johnson. “This was a good character-building game for us. They (Lewis-Whitmarsh) came back on us, and we got through it.”

Bummer: NBC cut away from its live telecast with Johnson and Hovland leading, 13-12, because the match ran over its one-hour time slot. Forty-eight seconds were remaining on the rally clock when the telecast ended.

Kevin Monaghan, director of new business development with NBC Sports, said the telecast started two minutes late and the network was unable to show the entire match.

“It’s embarrassing,” he said. “It was our worst nightmare. Tomorrow, we’ll make sure it starts on time.”

Monaghan said NBC was obligated to cut away from the telecast so its East Coast affiliates could show local news.

Volleybald: Kiraly, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, skipped the Olympics this year to be with his family and play on the beach.

He’s glad he did.

The U.S. team shaved their heads in a show of unity in protest of a controversial loss to Japan.

“I would have shaved my head,” Kiraly said, “but I have no interest in going down in history as the ugliest player in the game.”

Tournament Notes

Competition resumes at 8:30 a.m. today. . . . The winners’ bracket final will be at 11 a.m. . . . NBC will televise the finals live beginning at 2 p.m. today. . . . The winning team will split $20,000.

Results

Winners’ bracket

Quarterfinals

Scott Friederichsen-Tim Walmer d. Karch Kiraly-Kent Steffes, 10-8; Mike Dodd-Pat Powers d. Leif Hanson-Wes Welch, 15-11; Adam Johnson-Tim Hovland d. Craig Moothart-Al Janc, 15-5; Brian Lewis-Mike Whitmarsh d. Eric Boyles-Troy Tanner, 15-4.

Semifinals

Hovland-Johnson d. Lewis-Whitmarsh, 15-12; Dodd-Powers d. Friederichsen-Walmer, 15-4.