Smith and Luyties Advance at Seal Beach : Pro volleyball: Sixth-seeded team defeated seventh-seeded Bacil and Loiola to advance to winners’ bracket final, where they will meet Kiraly and Steffes.

Sinjin Smith advanced to the winners’ bracket finals at the $150,000 Miller Lite Open volleyball tournament Saturday at Seal Beach, but this time without longtime partner Randy Stoklos.

Smith, dumped by Stoklos earlier this season, and new partner Ricci Luyties advanced with a 15-10 semifinal victory over Brazilian rookies Eduardo (Anjinho) Bacil and Jose Loiola.

The victory was a significant one for Smith, 36. He won more than 100 tournaments, including four Seal Beach titles, with Stoklos, but he hasn’t reached a championship match since they ended their 11-year partnership in mid-May.

“Doing well is all that matters,” Smith said. “Whether it’s Seal Beach or Hermosa Beach, the bottom line is to do well. I would just like to win anywhere right now.”

Sixth-seeded Smith and Luyties, playing their fifth tournament together, scored the match’s final eight points to beat seventh-seeded Bacil and Loiola.

Luyties and Smith will meet top-seeded Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes in the winners’ bracket final of the double-elimination tournament at 10 a.m. today. Kiraly and Steffes advanced with a 14-13 semifinal victory over fourth-seeded Scott Ayakatubby of Hermosa Beach and Adam Johnson of Capistrano Beach.

The championship match will be telecast by NBC at 2 p.m.

“Sinjin always likes to play against Karch and Kent,” Luyties said. “He likes to try to get a little revenge. Hopefully, that will fire him up.”

Loiola, 23, and Bacil, 22, rookies on the tour, appeared on their way to the finals. They built a 10-7 lead against Luyties and Smith behind three aces from Loiola’s powerful jump serve.

But Smith threw the Brazilians off-balance with his patented “skyball,” a high-arching serve. Two skyballs helped them cut it to 10-9, and Bacil let another Smith skyball fall just inside the line for an ace to tie it, 10-10.

“I think it (the ace skyball) hurt them because it was such and easy point at a critical time of the match,” Smith said.

Said Luyties: “Things like that can really get a crowd going and can be a big momentum changer. I think that’s what happened.”

A kill by Smith, two blocks by Luyties and hitting errors by Bacil and Loiola provided the final five points in the run.

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Women’s tournament: Nancy Reno of Carlsbad and Angela Rock of El Toro won three pool-play matches to advance to today’s 12:30 p.m. final.

Reno and Rock, seeded second, will play top-seeded Cammy Ciarelli of Huntington Beach and Holly McPeak of Manhattan Beach. Rock and Reno beat McPeak and Ciarelli, 15-11, in pool play Saturday.

Ciarelli and McPeak won four consecutive tournaments until losing to Linda Hanley and Jackie Silva last week in Grand Haven, Mich.

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Gotta ticket?: A handful of scalpers worked the parking lot near the Seal Beach Pier on Saturday morning, selling $50 courtside tickets for as little as $5 each. This is the first year the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals’ tour has charged for courtside seating.

Volleyball Results

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Quarterfinals

Karch Kiraly-Kent Steffes d. Tim Hovland-Eric Fonoimoana, 15-6; Adam Johnson-Scott Ayakatubby d. Brent Frohoff-Bruk Vandeweghe, 15-4; Sinjin Smith-Ricci Luyties d. Mike Dodd-Mike Whitmarsh, 10-9 (overtime); Eduardo (Anjinho) Bacil-Jose Loiola d. Brian Lewis-Randy Stoklos, 15-10.

Semifinals

Kiraly-Steffes d. Johnson-Ayakatubby, 14-13; Smith-Luyties d. Bacil-Loiola, 15-10.

Today’s winners’ bracket final

Kiraly-Steffes vs. Smith-Luyties.

WOMEN

Round-robin play

Cammy Ciarelli-Holly McPeak d. Linda Hanley-Jackie Silva, 15-9; Angela Rock-Nancy Reno d. Linda Carrillo-Rita Crockett, 13-11; Ciarelli-McPeak d. Carrillo-Crockett, 15-7; Hanley-Silva d. Carrillo-Crockett, 15-10.

Today’s championship match

Ciarelli-McPeak (2-1 in round-robin play) vs. Angela Rock-Nancy Reno (3-0).

Today’s third-place match

Crockett-Carrillo (0-3) vs. Hanley-Silva (1-2).