Masakayan Leaves Losers Feeling Ill

Liz Masakayan has every reason to feel as if she has been through the ringer lately. Besides not being fully recovered from major knee surgery, she recently suffered food poisoning and was dragging at times Saturday in the $60,000 Evian National Beach Volleyball Championships at Hermosa Beach.

“I was totally dehydrated out there and my entire body was aching,” Masakayan said. “At one point, I felt delirious.”

Which is why her performance in a 17-15 quarterfinal victory over top-seeded Holly McPeak and Lisa Arce was so impressive. Seeded ninth with partner Elaine Youngs, Masakayan was able to make it through her third match of the day because she took a nap after her team’s second-round victory.

The rest obviously helped because Masakayan had a match-high 19 kills against McPeak and Arce, whose 27-match winning streak ended.

“I felt real sick after that second match,” Masakayan said. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it.”

McPeak and Arce blasted Masakayan-Youngs at the start, jumping out to a 4-0 lead. But Masakayan and Youngs, a member of the U.S. Olympic indoor team in Atlanta, tied it at 5-5, one of five ties in the match.

McPeak and Arce, who have teamed up to win seven of 10 events on the Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. tour this year, will play a consolation match this morning and can still make the final with four victories in that bracket.

Masakayan and Youngs, who is in her first full season on the WPVA tour, will play fifth-seeded Krista Blomquist and Christine Schaefer in today’s winners’ bracket semifinal.

The other semifinal will feature third-seeded Barbra Fontana and Linda Hanley against second-seeded Karolyn Kirby and Nancy Reno.

Kirby and Reno, who have teamed up to win two titles this year, won their first two matches Saturday with relative ease, but had some problems in a 15-10 victory over No. 10 Jennifer Meredith and Leanne Schuster.