BEACH VOLLEYBALL : Dodd, Whitmarsh Dominate at Seal Beach

It was a futile gesture by San Clemente’s Karch Kiraly, symbolic of the way things went Sunday afternoon.

A giant beach ball bounced out of the stands during the finals of the Seal Beach Open and the best-known player on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour attempted to serve it over the net to the team of Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh.

Top-ranked Kiraly missed the ball completely, to the jeers of the capacity crowd, which was indicative of the kind of match he and teammate Kent Steffes played against Dodd and Whitmarsh, who won in a rout, 15-2.

Kiraly was plagued by service errors all day and Steffes, coming off shoulder surgery, didn’t appear to have much snap on kill attempts.

Dodd and Whitmarsh, on the other hand, demonstrated why they have become the tour’s leading money winners. In perhaps their greatest game since they teamed up a little more than two years ago, Dodd and Whitmarsh raced to a 9-0 lead. Whitmarsh proved a nightmare at the net for Steffes, blocking nearly everything he put there. Dodd patrolled the back line, where he made several key digs.

It was the second victory of the day over Kiraly and Steffes for Dodd and Whitmarsh. They also had little trouble disposing of them, 15-7, in the morning championship bracket final.

“I didn’t think we could play any worse than we did in the morning and I didn’t think they could play any better than they did in the morning,” a frustrated Kiraly said after the last match. “They played even better in the final and we played even worse.”

Kiraly and Steffes battled back out of the losers’ bracket after the morning loss by outlasting Laguna Beach’s Adam Johnson and Jose Loiola, 13-7, when time ran out. Johnson and Loiola began the day with a 15-2 victory over Kevin Martin and Adam Swatik. Martin and Swatik upset Johnson and Loiola on Friday.

It was the second consecutive tour victory for Dodd and Whitmarsh and in recording his sixth Seal Beach title, Dodd became only the fifth player in AVP history to reach 70 victories. It was his fourth consecutive victory here and sixth overall. Dodd and Whitmarsh have beaten Kiraly and Steffes in the final each of the last three seasons.

This one was their best, by far, and it had the duo talking about a possible attempt at making the U.S. Olympic beach volleyball team in 1996.

But first they have another month on the AVP circuit.

“This was as close to a perfect game as we can play,” Whitmarsh said. “We want to keep things going as best we can.”