This Time, Kirby and Reno Click

Karolyn Kirby is the winningest player in women’s pro beach volleyball, but she went into the final of the $60,000 Evian Nationals in Hermosa Beach on a bit of a dry spell, not having won a tournament on the Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. tour since June.

She won her 61st WPVA title Sunday.

Kirby and partner Nancy Reno defeated Barbra Fontana and Linda Hanley, 15-13, in a final that included exciting rallies and acrobatic shots by both teams.

“What can I say? It feels great,” Kirby said. “And we did it against a great team that plays incredible defense.”

Kirby and Reno, seeded second, have won three tournaments this season and seven in their on-again-off-again partnership that dates to 1992. They were the only pair to go undefeated in the 32-team field at Hermosa Beach.

“They came out more aggressively than we did,” said Fontana, who played on a sprained ankle. “Karolyn served great, and when a team serves great it puts a lot of pressure on you.”

It didn’t help that the much taller Kirby-Reno team--both are 5 feet 11; Fontana is 5-6 and Hanley 5-9--hit shot after shot through Hanley’s and Fontana’s block attempts.

The shorter team used its strength--defense--to frustrate Kirby-Reno, stay in the match and fight off five match points.

Fontana-Hanley, seeded third, struggled in the middle of the match. After tying the score at 4-4, they appeared overwhelmed when Kirby and Reno went on an 8-2 run to take a 12-6 lead.

But Fontana-Hanley rallied with a 6-0 run that included two aces by Fontana and tied the score at 12-12.

“We’ve had big leads against them before and you can never relax,” Reno said.

Kirby-Reno broke the tie with Kirby at the service line. First she hit a cross-court for a 13-12 lead, then after two side outs she nailed the ball through Hanley’s block to make it 14-12.

Reno served for the match and, after her serve was returned, she responded by hitting a spiraling shot that barely cleared the net. Hanley couldn’t get to it in time.

Hanley and Fontana had eliminated the top-seeded team of Holly McPeak and Lisa Arce, 15-5, and the ninth-seeded team of Liz Masakayan and Elaine Youngs, which was on a roll after a quarterfinal win over McPeak-Arce on Saturday.

Reno and Kirby will split $13,200 and Fontana-Hanley $9,720. The fifth-seeded team of Krista Blomquist and Christine Schaefer gets $6,840 for placing third and Masakayan-Youngs gets $4,920 for fourth.

McPeak and Arce, who have won seven of 11 events on this year’s WPVA tour, placed fifth, their second worst finish of the season. They split $3,600.