Kiraly, Steffes Battle to Win in San Diego Open

SAN DIEGO —  When the time is ripe and the magic fades, Karch Kiraly will bow out gracefully and Kent Steffes will carry on dutifully.

Now is not that time.

In what could be called one of pro beach volleyball’s more illustrious moments, Kiraly and Steffes won a tit-for-tat test against Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos that will be remembered for its grit and tenacity.

Maybe the one-hour, 45-minute championship of the Miller Lite San Diego Open dragged out because the fans willed it that way. Certainly the players can’t do this kind of thing week in and week out and not expect gray hairs to be far behind.

For the second consecutive week, San Clemente’s Kiraly and Pacific Palisades’ Steffes were forced into a double final before they secured victories on Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour stops, first in Ft. Worth, Tex., and Sunday at Mariner’s Point.

Top-seeded Kiraly-Steffes clinched the 7-6 championship from second-seeded Smith and Stoklos after they came through the losers’ bracket and defeated Kiraly-Steffes, 16-14, to force the second final in the double-elimination tournament.

Neither player gushed about the victory, possibly because they realized how close they were to losing this one--one of Kiraly’s arm lengths--and they’re already thinking about next week.

“That’s the difference between a good season and a bad season, you win the close ones,” said Steffes, who just added his sixth title to his 1992 collection and the 23rd to his career inventory.

Since Kiraly has returned from his 1992 indoor season in Italy, Kiraly and Steffes have won four of their five tournaments together and were second in the other. Their victory here was their third in a row.

With 46 beach titles to his credit, Kiraly said if you think about the past, you’re destined to dwell too much on it: “Lose five or six tournaments in a row and you’re right back down. You can’t let up.

Kiraly has set specific goals for the season.

“I just want to be a member of the team that wins the most tournaments in a season,” he said. “The second place that time was my fault for not eating. I cramped up in New Orleans because I couldn’t find where the food for the players was. Kent took care of me (the next week). He was giving me pasta, rice, baby food, bananas, grapes. We felt strong at the end, and we played two more games than in New Orleans.”

As long as Steffes keeps a watchful dietary eye on Kiraly, the possibilities seem endless. Before they met Smith-Stoklos, Kiraly-Steffes dropped only 21 points. But Kiraly, 31, said he will play only as long as he’s still effective.

“I’m going to try it as long as I can, but Kent’s eight years younger,” he said. “When I’m not holding up my end any more, I’m out of there and he’ll go on to somebody better. I want it to go a long time, but there’s a big age difference so I know this won’t last 10 years.”

Steffes had another idea: “I can carry him for a few years after he’s been carrying me.”

No one carried anyone Sunday. The lead exchanged several times in the first game, and Smith-Stoklos finally prevailed after letting Kiraly-Steffes back into the game with a 14-10 lead.

In the first-to-seven second game, Kiraly-Steffes took a 4-0 lead, but Smith-Stoklos rallied back to tie it. At 6-6, the five-minute rally clock expired and the clock was reset to 30 seconds. After exchanging side outs, Kiraly saved championship point with an incredible dig out of the sand off a Stoklos block, then Steffes eventually hit the game-winning kill on the next point that was worth $15,000.

Volleyball Notes

No news is good news: Franz Lidz of Sports Illustrated ran into something new when he came to San Diego to write a story on rising star Kent Steffes. A stone wall. AVP officials weren’t going to grant Lidz an interview with Steffes without someone sitting in on the session. Lidz said no thanks. “I asked them what other sports do this kind of thing, and they told me there were lots,” Lidz said. “I asked them to name one and they said ‘this one.’ ” The AVP finally relented, Lidz got his interview, but said he already knew what his lead would be.