THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 5, 1995 TAG: 9506050125
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LEE TOLLIVER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Team Sony Autosound made Bud Light volleyball history Sunday, winning a third consecutive tour championship on the sand at Rudee Inlet.
Last year's overall points champions have been on fire this season, winning all three stops on the 12-event tour.
No team - either men's or women's - in the Bud Light Pro Beach Volleyball League has ever won three consecutive stops in the tour's five-year history.
Sony advanced to the final with the best round-robin record in the four-team field, taking a break while Team Paul Mitchell and Lady Foot Locker went at it in the semifinal. Team Nike - with model and MTV's Gabrielle Reece as captain - was eliminated earlier in the day.
Team Lady Foot Locker - with 1992 Olympic bronze medalist Janet Cobbs as captain - handily beat Paul Mitchell, 15-10, 15-10, to earn the unenviable right to play Sony.
There, Lady Foot Locker faced the powerful front line attack of Cobb's Olympic teammate and last year's tour MVP Kim Oden, and 1993 NCAA player of the year Antoinnette White.
It was a combination that no team has figured out.
When Lady Foot Locker was expecting Oden, they got White. When they set up for White, they got Oden.
The balanced attact has been the deadliest in tour history.
``It seems that way,'' Oden said. ``And we haven't even really used our secret weapon (Wendy Stammer) just yet. Things have been working so well and you don't want to change things if they aren't broken.''
Sony won the first game, 15-10, in the new ``rally-play'' scoring format where points are awarded no matter what team is serving. Instead of playing games in the old side-out format to 15 where only the serving team could score, teams now play a best-of-three match where a point is awarded in every volley.
After losing the first game, Lady Foot Locker took the champs to the wire in the second, tying the game at 14-all on a smash by Marissa Hatchett. But Sony scored the next two points to win, 16-14.
While Oden and White were the most memorable of Sony's players, they wouldn't have gotten the job done without the spectacular defensive play and setting of Stephanie Cox.
``We might get the attention, but there are four great players out there,'' White said. ``Wendy carried us the last game to get us here. Stephanie did a great job of mixing up the action - calling the sets between Kim and myself, and I think that's what has been the biggest difference so far this season.''
MIAMI TEAM TAKES MEN'S TOURNEY: Manny Agnant and John Yancey of Miami won the Bud Light Harborfest Best of the East two-man pro beach volleyball tournament in Norfolk on Sunday, taking the top prize of $2,800.
Doug Smith and Mike Carral of Charleston, S.C., finished second, taking home $2,200, while Chris Hannaman and Ronny Jenkins of Daytona Beach, Fla., came in third for $1,500. In fourth were Jerry Porr and Frank Hall of Bethany Beach, Del., for $1,000. by CNB