They Play Like Champions : Volleyball: Weishoff-led team leads after the first day of play in four-woman beach event.

The Bud Light four-woman beach volleyball tour stopped in Manhattan Beach on Saturday and Team Champion led the five-team field after seven rounds of competition.

The club with the best record after 10 rounds in the round-robin format advances to the championship match, where it plays the winner of a match between the second and third-place teams. Today’s matches begin at 9 a.m. on the courts adjacent to the Manhattan Beach Pier. The final is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Champion, led by West Torrance High graduate Paula Weishoff, lost to Forster, 15-7, on Saturday morning, but came back to beat Lady Foot Locker, 15-1, and Nervous, 15-10, in the last match of the day.

“That first match in the morning we just shot ourselves in the foot,” said Weishoff, a two-time Olympian and former USC All-American. “We just need to get rhythm and jell as a team.”

Team Paul Mitchell finished Saturday in second place, Forster was third, Nervous was fourth and Lady Foot Locker was fifth.

Nervous outside hitter Christa Cook led all players with 19 kills, Paul Mitchell’s Lisa Strand-Ma’a had 22 digs and Champion’s Kelly Van Winden had five aces.

Each team has a combination of former collegiate All-Americans and Olympians. The list includes Olympians Kim Oden, Liane Sato, Weishoff and U.S. National team member Kristin Klein.

Natalie Williams, a starter for Lady Foot Locker, leads a field of former standout collegians. The 6-foot-1 hitter was the 1992 NCAA player of the year at UCLA and she led the Bruins to back-to-back national titles.

Williams, 22, also played basketball for the Bruins. Last season she led the Pacific 10 Conference in rebounding and was second in scoring.

She played in her first pro beach volleyball tournament last week at Pismo Beach, Calif., and adjusting to playing on the sand hasn’t been easy.

“The hardest part is not being able to get off the sand on my jump,” Williams said. “It’s like I have no jump. It’s kind of strange not being able to move to jump.”

Williams has been training in Manhattan Beach for about a month with former UCLA setter Holly McPeak, a standout player on the two-woman beach tour.

“After the Olympics I’d like to play overseas,” Williams said. “Then I’d like to give the two-woman tour a try.”

Team Paul Mitchell won last week’s season-opening event in Pismo Beach.

The winning team earns $8,000, second place gets $6,250, third place receives $4,500, fourth gets $3,750 and fifth earns $2,500.