BEACH VOLLEYBALL / MEN AT MANHATTAN BEACH : Upset Win for Ayakatubby, Stoklos
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The top-seeded team was upset Saturday in the semifinals of the winners’ bracket at the $100,000 Miller Lite Manhattan Beach Open volleyball tournament.
Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh lost, 12-8, to fourth-seeded Scott Ayakatubby and Randy Stoklos, sending Dodd-Whitmarsh into this morning’s consolation bracket quarterfinal.
The teams were tied, 3-3, when Stoklos and Ayakatubby, broke away with a 4-1 run. Ayakatubby’s powerful serves and solid defense behind Stoklos’ nearly flawless blocking overwhelmed Dodd and Whitmarsh, winners of six tournaments this season.
Stoklos and Ayakatubby never trailed. They led, 10-6, with less than a minute left on the nine-minute clock and, at 11-8, Stoklos dinked a shot over the net for the last point as time expired.
“I think we served the ball really well in the middle,” said Stoklos, a four-time winner of the event, including last year’s title with former partner Adam Johnson. “Scott is serving as well as anybody on the tour.”
Ayakatubby-Stoklos will meet third-seeded Johnson and Jose Loiola in today’s 9:30 a.m. winners’ bracket final. Johnson-Loiola beat Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes, 15-9.
Kiraly and Steffes won last week in Santa Cruz, the most recent stop on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour.
