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Bede-Behar best on the beach Brazilians win volleyball gold as expected
Posted: Sunday August 02, 1998 08:16 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Even a knee injury couldn't slow top-ranked Brazil on the way to the Goodwill Games' gold medal in women's beach volleyball. Shelda Bede, her left leg in a huge wrap, and Adriana Behar beat Kerri Pottharst and Pauline Manser of Australia 12-9, 12-5 Sunday, matching Brazil's gold medal in the men's competition. The win was the third of the year and seventh of their careers for Bede and Behar, who did not lose a match in winning the U.S.$30,000 first prize. "It took a lot of concentration for her to play and to play well like she played," Behar said of her partner, who was diagnosed Saturday with an inflamed tendon behind her left knee. "She was the best and she served so well. For me, in this final, I want to thank Shelda because she gave us the victory." The U.S. team of Holly McPeak and Lisa Arce won the bronze medal with a 12-11, 12-3 victory over Laura Bruschini and Annamaria Solazzi of Italy. "I was fired up to get on that podium today," said Arce, whose team was beaten by the Australians in the semifinals. Sunday's matches drew a crowd of 2,800 to the venue built by dumping almost 1 million pounds of sand on Wollman Rink in Central Park. Among those in attendance were former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, and Goodwill Games founder and organizer Ted Turner and his wife, actress Jane Fonda. Bede is considered one of the best servers in the sport, and she backed that up Sunday with nine aces, six more than the other three players combined. "We handled their serves well in the first game but I felt they stepped it up a bit in the second," Pottharst said. "When you play a team that serves well, you have to pass the ball well, but their serves were coming like bombs." In five tournaments this year, the Brazilians have three titles and two seconds. It was their seventh win in as many matches against the Australians, including the final of a tournament in Brazil earlier this year and in pool play at the Goodwill Games. "They are definitely dominating the tour," Manser said. "We had high expectations and it didn't happen this time, but we are getting closer." McPeak and Arce, the second-seeded team in this tournament and the runners-up in last year's world championship, dominated the second set after struggling in the first. "We needed that medal," McPeak said. "We wanted that gold really bad but came up short and that is frustrating. We're trying to get our groove back and are pushing to be No. 1 in the sport. We're close." The eight teams that competed in the Goodwill Games all head for tournaments in Japan and China the next two weeks, then it's back to the United States for the debut of the American Volleyball League in Del Mar, California, August 28-30. "This year's been difficult. We thought we might have a tour. We tried," McPeak said of the demise of the Women's Professional Volleyball Association that led to the creation of the AVL. "There's been a lot of ups and downs. It's been difficult and the situation is still so volatile."
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