Kiraly, Johnson Continue to Rule

The rule is a simple one: If you want to win the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals’ Miller Lite U.S. Championships, you have to go through Karch Kiraly and Adam Johnson.

That rule was enforced on Sunday.

Kiraly and Johnson, who between them had won the last seven U.S. Championships entering this year’s event at Hermosa Beach, defended their title and won their third consecutive tour final with a 15-11 victory over Brazil’s Jose Loiola and Emanuel Rego.

The victory was worth $10,416 to Kiraly and Johnson.

In a match that had only three lead changes, the championship was decided on defense more than offense, as five points were scored on blocks and nine more on errors.

A big weapon for top-seeded Kiraly-Johnson was Johnson’s jump serve.

Johnson brought the crowd to its feet with an ace for the final point. It was his fourth ace in the match.

“That may have been the greatest serving performance I’ve seen in a match,” said Kiraly, who has won six tournaments with Johnson this year. “I felt like a fan just watching out there.”

Johnson, who also had two blocks, said he used his service game to make up for poor play early in the match.

“I said, ‘I don’t want to go out like this, so I worked on scoring with my jump serve,” he said. “It was one of my best [serving] games for sure.”

Johnson’s serves came at critical moments in the match.

Down 6-3, Johnson got aces for points four and five to begin a six-point run against the No. 2-seeded Loiola-Rego.

The match was tied at six when Rego had trouble controlling Johnson’s serve and couldn’t set up an attack. That allowed Kiraly to put away the point.

“[Rego] had some problems passing and we knew that, so we went right at him,” Johnson said.

Rego had only compliments for Johnson after the match. “I’d like to thank [Johnson] for showing me how I can serve,” said Rego, who won with Loiola in the tour event at Seal Beach in July.

Rego and Loiola weren’t without their high-lights in the match. In fact, they led as late as 11-9.

Defense was the key for them as well, as Rego and Loiola each had two blocks and they took advantage of Kiraly and Johnson mistakes for three more points.

But Kiraly and Johnson scored the final six points for the victory.

Kiraly, with 136 tournament victories, is three short of the record held by Sinjin Smith.