Masakayan-Rock Roll Into Nationals Semifinals

Liz Masakayan skipped the last two tournaments on the Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. tour so she could rest her right knee, which she had reconstructive surgery on eight months ago. The time off did her a lot of good after playing almost a full 1995 season and winning three tournaments with former partner Karolyn Kirby.

Masakayan entered this weekend’s WPVA Nationals in Huntington Beach with a new partner, Angela Rock, her teammate on the U.S. national team in the 1980s, and a new attitude.

“I’m pretty hungry to play now,” Masakayan said. “The rest was good because it fired me up.”

Masakayan and Rock, seeded third in the 32-team event, easily defeated No. 11 Janice Harrer and Chris Campbell, 15-2, in an early-morning quarterfinal. Then, in an exciting afternoon winners’ bracket semifinal on center court, Masakayan and Rock defeated seventh-seeded Patty Dodd and Lisa Arce, 16-14.

Dodd and Arce were on a roll after upsetting second-seeded Kirby and Linda Hanley, a graduate of Laguna Beach High, 15-9, in the quarterfinal. Arce and Dodd jumped to a 7-3 lead, then Rock and Masakayan tied it, 7-7, before Arce and Dodd took the lead again with a 5-1 run.

“They were serving us tough and they were really disrupting our offense,” Masakayan said.

But not enough to keep Rock and Masakayan out of the match. They fought back, scoring four consecutive points to tie it, 12-12. Rock and Masakayan took a 13-12 lead, when Arce hit a shot long over Masakayan’s block. Arce served an ace to tie the score, 13-13, and smashed a shot down the line for a 14-13 lead.

“Even though we were down it wasn’t stressful or tense, and that’s what enabled us to come back and win,” Rock said. “We weren’t playing with fear of losing and that made a difference.”

Rock and Masakayan fought off two match points, then Masakayan served for two consecutive points, one of them an ace, for a 15-14 lead. Rock served for the match and smacked the return down the middle for the victory.

“It was a slug fest, it was just brutal,” Arce said. “They are so steady.”

The same can be said about the top-seeded team of Holly McPeak and Nancy Reno, although explosive is often used to describe the duo. McPeak and Reno beat eighth-seeded Deb Richardson and Karrie Poppinga, 15-11, in the quarterfinal and fifth-seeded Elaine Roque and Dennie Knoop, 15-8, in the semifinal.

“You have to be able to mix and match your defense against them, you can’t do the same old thing because they’re too good,” Roque said.

McPeak and Reno, who have a 26-match winning streak, have won six WPVA tournaments and placed second in five others. Few teams have threatened them lately.

That’s why McPeak, a former UCLA All-American setter who is considered one of the best defensive players on the tour, welcomed the tough competition Saturday.

“It’s good to be pushed,” she said. “We haven’t been pushed in so long. I really like it.”

McPeak and Reno will meet Dodd and Arce in today’s 8 a.m. Olympic crossing semifinals. Dodd and Arce rallied to defeat Poppinga and Richardson, 15-3, in a late-afternoon consolation match.

Masakayan and Rock will meet Hanley and Kirby in the other semifinal at 9 a.m. Hanley and Kirby eliminated Roque and Knoop, 15-8, in the last match of the day.