U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS : Kiraly and Steffes Hope They Didn’t Peak During Streak : Volleyball: After winning 13 consecutive tournaments, the top-seeded team has failed to reach the finals of the past two events.

Although Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes have dominated the 1992 pro beach volleyball tour, a late-season slump has the record-setting team worried about its chances of winning this weekend’s Miller Lite U.S. Championships in Hermosa Beach.

Kiraly and Steffes have failed to make the final of the past two events. Manhattan Beach native Mike Dodd and partner Pat Powers won the $75,000 Seal Beach Open Aug. 14 and Hermosa Beach native Brent Frohoff and Ricci Luyties won last week’s $225,000 tournament at Santa Cruz.

Kiraly and Steffes finished fifth at Seal Beach and fourth at Santa Cruz. But they are still seeded first in the 48-team, double-elimination U.S. Championships, the final stop on the 24-city Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour. It offers the tour’s biggest purse, $750,000, and the winning team will earn $100,000.

The tournament begins this morning at 9 near the Hermosa Beach Pier and continues Saturday at 10 a.m. and Sunday at 8:30 a.m. The final is scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m.

Steffes and Kiraly, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, have won 14 tournaments, including an AVP single-season record 13 in a row. Steffes, the AVP’s top-ranked player, won two other tournaments early in the season with Adam Johnson while Kiraly fulfilled an agreement with an Italian pro indoor league team.

“We’ve lost five matches in the last two weeks by a total of seven points, so I think basically it’s bad luck,” said Steffes, who suffered a wrist injury while diving for a ball at an Aug. 9 tournament in Cleveland.

“There’s no longer the streak, so that pressure is off,” he said. “People are not expecting us to dominate like we have. You got about six, seven teams that can win this event. It is definitely up for grabs.”

AVP President Jon Stevenson, who is seeded 16th with partner Bill Boullianne, agrees with Steffes. Stevenson cites the overall improvement of players on the tour.

“It’s remarkable to me that they have won so many in a row,” said Stevenson, who was ranked among the AVP’s top six players throughout the 1980s. “It’s inconceivable to me with the tremendous parity that we have out there.

“These guys are unbelievable and their chemistry is real good. But they were winning easily, very convincingly--then they were just barely winning.”

Recent developments with second-seeded Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos may open the U.S. Championship field even wider. Smith and Stoklos were suspended and fined $35,000 apiece by the AVP for missing the Aug. 14-15 Seal Beach Open to play in an exhibition tournament in Almeria, Spain.

Winners of two U.S. Championship titles (1988 and ‘90), Smith and Stoklos were also not allowed to compete in last week’s tournament at Santa Cruz. Smith and Stoklos have won two events this year--Feb. 1 in Honolulu and April 12 in Phoenix--and have reached the final of eight others.

Johnson, who is seeded third with partner Tim Hovland, believes the recent turmoil will put Smith and Stoklos at a disadvantage this weekend. Johnson and former partner Luyties upset Smith-Stoklos, 13-11, to win the 1991 U.S. Championship title.

Hovland, a Playa del Rey native and former USC All-American, is a two-time U.S. Championship winner with former partner Dodd. Hovland-Dodd won the 1987 and ’89 titles.

“I think the field is pretty open,” said Johnson, also a former USC All-American. “There’s definitely more parity this year. But even last year they said Smith-Stoklos would win, and Karch and Kent were in the running. No one ever thought Ricci and myself would win it.”

Johnson added that playing with a different partner at this year’s U.S. Championships helps alleviate pressure.

“I still don’t want to give the title up,” he said. “Now you have the wise guy (Hovland) with the young student and that’s going to help in this tournament. Tim’s been around it so much. He’ll be able to fire me up during certain points.”

Mike Whitmarsh of Manhattan Beach and Brian Lewis are seeded fourth and Luyties is seeded fifth with Frohoff. Whitmarsh’s only tournament victory was with Frohoff on May 10 in New Orleans. He has also made it to the final of two other events, the Fresno Open on April 5 with Frohoff, and Seal Beach with Lewis.

Frohoff and Luyties have teamed for only two events. They placed fourth in their first tournament at Seal Beach before winning last week at Santa Cruz.

Though the recent victory is a confidence-booster, Frohoff, who attended Loyola Marymount and lives in Hermosa Beach, says playing at home may actually work against him.

“It puts a lot of pressure on me,” he said. “It’s always easier to play away than at home because there’s more family and friends around. I’m going to have hundreds of fans out there watching me, but I’ll just try to block that out and go about my business.”

Another local favorite is Mike Dodd, who is seeded sixth with Powers. Dodd’s only victory this year was at Seal Beach, but he reached two finals, with Hovland at the June 14 Chicago Open and with Powers at the July 26 Grand Haven Open.

Dodd, who turned 35 last week, watched his wife, Patty Dodd, place third with partner Elaine Roque at the Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. World Championship in Manhattan Beach on Sunday.

The rest of the top 10-seeded teams are: No. 7 Larry Mear and Eric Wurts, No. 8 Roger Clark and Bruk Vandeweghe, No. 9 John Hanley and Dan Vrebalovich and No. 10 Tim Walmer of Manhattan Beach and Scott Friederichsen.