Pro Beach Volleyball : Hovland-Dodd Team Upsets Smith-Stoklos in Final, 15-11

Three-time and current Pro Beach Volleyball champions Mike Dodd and Tim Hovland upset top-seeded Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos, 15-11, Sunday to win the $25,000 Miller Lite Palisades Open at Will Rogers State Beach Sunday.

It was the third championship the pair has won this year on the 26-city pro beach volleyball circuit.

Dodd, from Manhattan Beach, and Hovland, from Playa del Rey, also defeated Smith, from Santa Monica, and Stoklos, of Pacific Palisades, in a winners’ bracket match earlier in the day in the double-elimination tournament.

Smith and Stoklos dropped to the consolation bracket and defeated Olympic and World Cup gold medalist Karch Kiraly and U.S. national team member Ricci Luyties for a spot in the final against Hovland and Dodd.

Hovland and Dodd received $3,200 each for first place; Smith and Stoklos $1,600 each for second place, and Kiraly and Luyties $1,200 each for third.

In women’s play, third-seeded Linda Chisholm and Jackie Silva defeated top-seeded Nina Matthies and Linda Robertson, 15-11. Matthies and Robertson reached the final by defeating fifth-seeded Jeanne Meltzer and Lori Kotas.

Chisholm and Silva earned $1,075 each for first place; Matthies and Robertson $525 for second, and Meltzer and Kotas $275 each for third.

The $600,000 Pro Beach Volleyball series continues next weekend at Boulder, Colo.