Fontana, Arce Rally to Take Title

It was a mix of new and familiar champions that walked away with the gold medals Sunday in the $100,000 Oldsmobile Alero Beach Volleyball series event at Huntington Beach.

In only their third tournament together, Lisa Arce and Barbra Fontana won their first title, defeating former UCLA standouts, Annett Buckner-Davis and Jenny Johnson-Jordan, 15-12, in the women’s final.

In the men’s final, Karch Kiraly and Adam Johnson won their 11th title together, defeating Carl Henkel and Kevin Wong, 15-9.

“It’s always great to come home,” said Johnson, a Laguna Beach native. “You get to play in front of family and friends, you can spend the night in your own home, enjoy a home-cooked meal. . . . “

Arce, who played at California and Manhattan Beach Mira Costa High, won an event at Huntington Beach for the fourth consecutive year.

Fontana and Arce made key defensive plays and took advantage of some miscues to come back from a 12-10 deficit and win five consecutive points. For Buckner-Davis and Johnson-Jordan, it was their third second-place finish in their 12th event together.

“You can only use that inexperience excuse for so long,” said Johnson-Jordan, whose father is Olympic decathlon gold medalist Rafer Johnson.

Both winning teams qualified to play for the U.S. at the 1999 Pan American Games and won $20,000. This series works in conjunction with USA Volleyball and will help determine the U.S. teams for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

In the women’s bronze-medal game, Elaine Youngs, formerly of El Toro High, and Liz Masakayan defeated Holly McPeak and Nancy Reno, 17-16. Sinjin Smith and Rob Heidger defeated Brent Doble and Lee LeGrande in the men’s bronze-medal game, 17-15.

Henkel and Wong couldn’t find a way to beat Kiraly and Johnson this week, also losing to them in the third round of the main draw, 15-12.

“I had trouble this week hitting against Karch,” said Henkel. “But you know, he’s a pretty good player.”

Kiraly, the only player to win Olympic volleyball gold medals indoor (1988) and on the beach (1996), won his 140th title Sunday and gave a big portion of the credit to Johnson who had 15 digs.

“Adam made some great defensive plays,” said Kiraly. “And we turned them into points nearly every time.”

Said Wong: “We played four good games. . . . and two bad ones.”