BEACH VOLLEYBALL : Kiraly and Steffes Block Competition to Win Title

Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes demonstrated why they are the top-rated team in pro beach volleyball Sunday by dominating the $750,000 Miller Lite U.S. Championships in Hermosa Beach.

Kiraly, a member of two U.S. Olympic teams that won gold medals, and Steffes defeated third-seeded Randy Stoklos and Ricci Luyties, 15-5, in the televised final.

Kiraly and Steffes, last year’s U.S. Championship winners, split $100,000. Stoklos and Luyties split $22,500.

In a banner 1993 season, Kiraly and Steffes won 16 of 22 events, and in the process they each passed the $1-million career earnings mark. Sunday’s play illustrated the kind of year they had.

“They came out and made excellent plays and pretty much played flawless volleyball,” said Stoklos, a two-time U.S. Championship winner when he teamed with Sinjin Smith.

Luyties, a member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic gold medal team, served an ace for the game’s first point, but his team fell behind almost immediately.

Stoklos and Luyties committed a series of errors, six of which resulted in points for Kiraly and Steffes.

The last one came when Stoklos smashed a ball into the net to give Kiraly and Steffes a 13-4 advantage.

“I didn’t expect them to make that many errors because they played so well in the match before,” Kiraly said.

Steffes served for the match point, which came when Kiraly blocked Luyties’ hit. An expected battle of excellent blockers never materialized as Kiraly and Steffes dominated play.

“We took them out of their blocking game,” Steffes said. “They’re two of the better blockers on the beach and you can’t challenge that. That’s why we hit off speed and over their block.”

In the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals women’s round-robin division, Holly McPeak and Cammy Ciarelli defeated Jackie Silva and Linda Hanley, 11-10, after time ran out on the nine-minute game clock.