U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS : Kiraly, Steffes Are True to Form : Volleyball: Top-seeded team fights off upset attempt by Frohoff and Luyties for 15-13 victory.

The setting could not have been more ideal for Brent Frohoff in the semifinals of the $750,000 U.S. Championship pro beach volleyball tournament Saturday at Hermosa Beach.

Frohoff, playing in front of hometown fans, had the crowd on his side and the momentum of having won last week’s $250,000 tournament in Santa Cruz with partner Ricci Luyties.

The problem, however, was that Luyties, one of the tour’s best blockers and hitters, played with a broken left toe. Top-ranked Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes took advantage of Luyties’ injury for a 15-13 victory over the fifth-seeded team.

Kiraly and Steffes, who have teamed to win 14 Assn. of Volleyball Professional events this year, came out firing and took 3-0 lead. Luyties served for three consecutive points to tie the score only to have Steffes answer with an ace.

Although Frohoff and Luyties rallied to take a 8-4 lead, Kiraly and Steffes battled back to tie the score, 13-13. Then Kiraly rose to the occasion.

He blocked a service return at the net for a 14-13 lead, then bumped a return over the net to win the match.

“Brent Frohoff played excellent and if Ricci wasn’t hurt they probably would have killed us,” said Steffes, winner of 16 tournaments this season (including two with Adam Johnson). “At 4-8 we said, ‘We gotta serve Ricci cause Brent is killing us.’ Brent almost single-handedly did it for them.”

Kiraly said it was clear that Luyties, who won last year’s U.S. Championships with Adam Johnson, was not at full strength. He broke the toe running into a courtside banner at last week’s tournament.

“Ricci was a little injured and he looked a little tired,” Kiraly said. “That’s why we had to go to him.”

Frohoff and Luyties will meet sixth-seeded Mike Dodd of Manhattan Beach and Pat Powers in a loser’s bracket semifinal this morning. Frohoff complimented his partner for playing with the injury.

“He’s playing great with a broken toe,” said Frohoff, who played collegiately at Loyola Marymount. “This guy is just blocking out a tremendous amount of pain. Ricci was getting served and he had to hit and block and he wasn’t complaining at all. I admire that.”

Kiraly and Steffes will meet second-seeded Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos this morning at 10.

Smith and Stoklos, two-time winners of the U.S. Championship, defeated 26th-seeded Neil Riddell and Sean Smith in an uneventful morning match on center court, then beat third-seeded Tim Hovland and Adam Johnson, 12-10, in a semifinal called because of time.

“We played adequate to win,” Stoklos said. “We had five, six opportunities to win and we didn’t put those balls away. Sitting out last week and not being competitive contributed to that.”

Smith and Stoklos are competing in protest of a $70,000 fine levied against them last week by the AVP’s board of directors because they violated the players agreement. The players were fined and suspended from last week’s tournament for skipping the Seal Beach Open to play in a tournament in Almeria, Spain.

“It’s been like a big, dark cloud hanging over our heads this past week,” Stoklos said. “When you don’t know when you’re playing and you don’t know the destiny of your career that’s awfully hard.”

Smith is looking forward to playing Kiraly and Steffes.

“We really have to play well,” said Smith, 35. “We have to pass, set and hit. We can’t play at half speed and we have to make very few mistakes.”

Stoklos, 31, knows it will be difficult to beat Kiraly and Steffes.

“That team is playing head and shoulders above everybody else and if you can’t see that you don’t know volleyball . . . Kent Steffes is a physical phenom,” he said.

The other losers’ bracket semifinal will feature Hovland, a Playa del Rey native, and Johnson against fourth-seeded Mike Whitmarsh of Manhattan Beach and Brian Lewis.

The championship match is scheduled for 2 p.m.