BEACH VOLLEYBALL : Trailing, 10-3, Kiraly and Steffes Prevail

It took Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes a while to get rolling in the final of Sunday’s $100,000 Manhattan Beach Open, but once they did, they were unstoppable.

Behind, 10-3, against the fourth-seeded team of Adam Johnson and Bruk Vandeweghe, Kiraly-Steffes scored 12 consecutive points to win the match, 15-10.

Kiraly and Steffes have teamed to win 11 of 15 events on this year’s Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour. They will split $20,000 for Sunday’s victory and Johnson-Vandeweghe will split $12,000.

“They got to 10-3 with Adam Johnson serving unbelievable,” said Kiraly, who became the first player in history to win six Manhattan Beach Open titles. “We came in flat. We said, ‘All we got to do is pass a couple of balls and side out.’ ”

Steffes, 25, hit an ace to the left corner to tie the score, 10-10. After a side out, he served for three consecutive points and a 13-10 lead.

Kiraly, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, served for the team’s last two points. The 32-year-old ranks third in the AVP with 70 victories. Sinjin Smith is first with 134 and Randy Stoklos (116) is second.

“We went out having nothing to lose and we played like that for the first 10 points,” said Johnson, a former USC All-American. “It’s not like we hit a brick wall. We hit Karch and Kent.”

In the four-team AVP women’s round-robin division, Holly McPeak and Cammy Ciarelli defeated Angela Rock and Nancy Reno, 15-11.

“There’s a lot of extra pressure here to win,” said McPeak, a Manhattan Beach native and former UCLA setter. “It was very special to win in front of my family and friends.”

Johnson-Vandeweghe upset third-seeded Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh, 15-6, in the losers’ bracket final for a chance to play Kiraly-Steffes in the championship.

Dodd, a Manhattan Beach native, and Whitmarsh split $9,500 for their third-place finish.

Johnson, 28, and Vandeweghe, 29, have teamed up for one tournament victory this season, the $75,000 Miller Lite Open in San Antonio on May 9. Sunday marked their best finish in Manhattan Beach, site of the oldest and most prestigious pro beach volleyball tournament.

“This is a great confidence builder,” Johnson said. “Finishing second here is a big thing.”

Vandeweghe, the brother of NBA standout Kiki Vandeweghe, says he was looking to Steffes to help his team win the championship.

“We were counting on Kent getting a little nervous,” he said. “Sometimes he does, but he didn’t today, as you saw.”