By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Peka Malae, above digs a ball out of the scorching sand.
Fresh legs prevail
at Riggers tourney
Li and Williams take the men's title;
By Cindy Luis
Nobriga and Malae capture
the women's crown
Star-BulletinThere's heat and then there's heat. Both take tolls on opponents.
The "heater" serves by Yuval Katz and Chastity Nobriga were too hot to handle for most of yesterday's 10th Riggers Volleyball Classic beach doubles tournament. But while the undefeated duo of Nobriga and Peka Malae rested, awaiting their finals opponent, Katz and partner Adam Lockwood had to battle through the heat on the sands of Queen's Surf Beach as well as the consolation bracket.
The fresher legs of the top-seeded teams proved the difference. Stevie Li and Alika Williams defeated Lockwood and Katz for the second time in four hours, claming the men's title with a 15-12 victory.
In the women's final, Nobriga and Malae topped the third-seeded Lisa Ma'a and Dawn McDougall, 15-9. The teams had met less than three hours earlier, with the 15-11 victory sending Nobriga-Malae into the shade and Ma'a-McDougall onto the court for the loser-out semifinal.
"It's really tough to come back (out of the consolation bracket)," said Lockwood, who has won this event four of the past five years with Jon Andersen. "It's especially tough when you don't play very much. You've got to give them credit. They're in shape, they train, they play. They should win.
"I haven't played in four months. Yuval doesn't play that much on the beach. I was surprised we even got to the finals."
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Left, Pono Ma'a blocks a kill attempt by Ryan Woody
yesterday during the Riggers Volleyball Classic
beach doubles tournament.
Despite practicing for just a few hours this week, the third-seeded team of Lockwood and Katz were unbeaten heading into the championship bracket semifinals against Li-Williams. The two former University of Hawaii standouts led the semifinal, 13-8, but gave up seven straight points to drop into the consolation bracket.Lockwood-Katz needed 40 minutes to eliminate the second-seeded team of Pono Ma'a and Keoki Shupe, 15-7. But Lockwood was beginning to cramp in both legs and Katz had his right ankle taped as they prepared for the rematch with the top seeds.
"It helped us a lot to sit out," said Williams. "Adam and Yuval are very good but the heat will take its toll, no matter who you are. Yuval's serve is just to big. It was up to us to play our game and we found it. Stevie did a really good job reading them at the end."
The momentum changed sides often. At 4-5, Lockwood-Katz went on a 5-0 run to take a 10-5 lead. Li-Williams counted with a 7-0 spurt to go ahead, 12-10.
It was 12-12 when Li dug a soft shot by Katz then slammed it back for a point. Li quickly put away the final two points to end it after 58 minutes.
In the women's final, Nobriga served three consecutive aces to give her team the lead for good. Ma'a-McDougall closed to 12-9 but Nobriga and Malae eached notched an ace and, six sideouts later, Malae put down aloha ball.
"Getting to rest was a factor; we got to rejuvenate ourselves," said Malae. "What also worked for us is our communication is real good. It's easy to play around a big block like Chas. I just try to run the ball down behind her."
"I think the key in this sport is you have got to be well-rounded," said Nobriga, who had six aces in the final. "You've got to serve and pass well. And when you get a chance to block, it's awesome."
At 6-foot-1, Nobriga is one of the taller players on the local playing scene. Yesterday, one of the smaller players -- 5-3 Gaby Artigas -- and her teammate Jamie Suehiro finished a surprising third.
The pair didn't hook up until yesterday morning. They both had come independently to watch the tournament when organizers went looking for another duo to complete the eight-team field.
"We were the surprise entry," said Artigas, a former All-American setter and coach at Hawaii Pacific. "I told Jamie if she didn't mind how out of shape I was, I didn't mind giving it a try."
