New Partnerships Paying Dividends

Most of the top players advanced as expected in Saturday’s play at the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Huntington Beach Open. Some of them just proceeded with new partners.

Although Lee LeGrande and Brent Doble teamed to win the AVP’s first tournament this season at Delray Beach, Fla., the duo split up before this tournament.

Doble switched to play with former UCLA standout Stein Metzger and they advanced to the winners’ bracket semifinals at 9:30 a.m. today to face top-seeded Brian Lewis and Canyon Ceman.

LeGrande teamed with Brazilian Franco Neto, and they won three matches, their toughest a 15-9 victory over Paul Baxter and Sean Scott in the quarterfinals.

LeGrande and Neto will play second-seeded Karch Kiraly and Adam Johnson in the other winners’ bracket semifinal.

‘I was shocked when I got dumped,” LeGrande said. “But it was a wake-up call. I think I was getting too complacent, maybe playing too much golf and not training hard enough.

‘But there are no hard feelings.”

Lewis, who lives in Huntington Beach, felt great playing in front of a hometown crowd, and he and Ceman won their three matches Saturday, including a 15-5 victory over Bryan Ivie and Collin Smith to advance.

But Lewis and Ceman received a scare. Ricci Luyties, formerly of UCLA, and Matt Lyles, an Orange Coast College alumnus, took a 14-11 lead over Lewis and Ceman in the second round before the top-seeded team rallied to win, 18-16.

It was the one hiccup for Lewis and Ceman, who played well in two other victories, including a 15-5 first-round defeat of qualifiers Mike Szymanski and Shawn Garus. Ceman and Lewis are trying to win their first AVP title together.

‘It was a little bit of a roller coaster [Saturday],” Lewis said. “You always want to play well in front of all those familiar faces, even the ones who gave you a lot of crap over the years.

‘But we’re not going to get in front of ourselves. We just have to take it one point at a time and focus on the little things.”

There was nothing small about Johnson’s serve in their quarterfinal match, and his three aces helped him and Kiraly topple Mike Whitmarsh and Matt Unger, 15-9.

Whitmarsh won three AVP titles with David Swatik last season, but Swatik sat out this week with a knee injury so Unger filled in.

Unger had eight of his nine kills to help his team take a 9-8 lead. Then Kiraly and Johnson dug deep, scoring the final seven points.

Kiraly and Johnson each had a dig to prolong a rally and Kiraly capitalized by putting one away on a tip to make it 99. Another Kiraly kill and a setting error by Unger made it 11-9.

Then Johnson’s third ace of the game made it 12-9, and another tough serve by Johnson led to an easy kill for a point and a 13-9 lead.

“Adam was just ripping serves today,” Kiraly said. “He got them on their heels, then he changed it up too. That was a turning point in the match for us.”

Kiraly and Johnson are hoping to turn things around this season, Although they have won a combined 183 titles, they haven’t won this season, posting one fourth- and two fifth-place AVP finishes. The worst AVP finish they had last season was fourth.

‘But I think we’re playing better than our finishes indicate,” Johnson said.

In losers’ bracket play, Adam Jewell and Nick Hanneman (Huntington Beach High) stayed alive by defeating Luyties and Lyles, 15-8. Jewell and Hanneman will play Whitmarsh and Unger in an elimination match at 8:30 a.m. today.

Doble and Metzger beat UCLA’s four-time All-American Brandon Taliaferro (San Clemente High) and Loyola Marymount’s Reid Priddy in the first round, 15-9. After winning two losers’ bracket matches, Taliaferro and Priddy were eliminated by Eduardo Bacil and Fred Souza, 15-7, to finish 17th.

Former UCLA and Huntington Beach High standout Matt Taylor and partner John Braunstein, fifth-seeded Mark Kerins (Ocean View High) and Kevin Martin, and Leland Quinn (UC Irvine) and Pepe Delahoz were also eliminated.

Play continues today with the final scheduled at 4 p.m. Admission is free.