Opportunity Knocks for Andersson : Volleyball: Although she has experienced limited success on the pro circuit, she could reach the winner’s circle at the Manhattan Beach Open.

Marie Andersson sat under a large umbrella during the final of Sunday’s Seal Beach Open. She had placed seventh with partner Alison Johnson that morning and had the afternoon off. Her husband, father, daughter and in-laws accompanied her.

One day, Andersson insists, her family will watch her in the final of a Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. tournament. There’s a good chance that may happen this weekend at the $10,000 Manhattan Beach Open because the WPVA’s top eight teams will be competing at the $50,000 Invitational Shootout in Las Vegas.

Andersson, 28, a Hawthorne native, and partner Johnson are the 10th-rated team on the tour and are seeded second in the 34-team Manhattan Beach event. The tournament starts Saturday at 8:30 a.m. on the courts adjacent to the Manhattan Beach Pier. The final is scheduled for Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

“I only missed the Shootout by two seeds so it’s disappointing,” Andersson said. “But I still feel like I’ve come a long way. It even took Karolyn Kirby (the WPVA’s top-rated player) four years to adjust from the indoor game and I haven’t had a full three years yet. I’m still learning the game.”

Andersson was a four-sport athlete at Lawndale High School and a member of El Camino College’s 1983 state championship volleyball team.

After one season at El Camino, she followed her former boyfriend to Idaho State University. Andersson joined the volleyball team as a walk-on and eventually earned a scholarship.

As a senior in 1986, she was named the most valuable player in the Big Sky Conference. Idaho State won the conference title and advanced to the NCAA playoffs.

After earning a degree in zoology and having her relationship with her boyfriend end, she returned to Hawthorne. Living near the beach also gave Andersson an opportunity to continue playing volleyball.

She completed her first full season on the WPVA tour in 1989 with partner Rita Crockett-Royster, a silver medalist at the 1984 Olympics.

Although the team finished fifth in Miami and seventh in Hermosa Beach, Andersson says her first season was difficult in many ways.

“Competing with all those Olympic players my rookie year was real intimidating at first,” she said. “I’m not a big-name player. I wasn’t an Olympian.

“It was also very frustrating at first because I felt I had all the skills and I knew the sport. It was tough adjusting. I had never played on the beach before.”

Andersson got married in 1989 and later became pregnant. Her daughter, Maranda, was born on July 2, 1990, so Andersson missed the 1990 WPVA season.

Returning to the tour wasn’t easy, but finding a partner was even more difficult.

“It was real hard to come back,” she said. “I had to start from scratch. I was seeded 10th at the end of 1989 with Rita and I had to play qualifying games in 1991 because I started out with zero points. I couldn’t even find a partner. No one wanted to play with me.”

For most of 1991, she teamed with Wendy Fletcher, a former UCLA player in her first season on the pro-beach circuit. Later, she played with Lori Biller, Dennie Shupryt-Knoop and Patty Dodd, who was hampered for most of the season because of shoulder problems.

Andersson completed the season with a 31-30 record. Her best finish was at Manhattan Beach when she teamed with Shupryt-Knoop to finish seventh.

“I know I wasn’t at my best,” Andersson said. “I only gained 27 pounds during the pregnancy and I did a lot of aerobics so I lost the weight real quickly. I think I lost too much weight so I was weak. I definitely was not as strong as I am now.”

Andersson, who is also the girls’ volleyball coach at Torrance High, has teamed with Johnson to finish in the top nine at each event this year. They placed seventh in Puerto Rico and ninth in Ft. Myers, Phoenix, Santa Cruz and Fresno.

“She’s gotten better and better every year,” WPVA Executive Director Roxana Vargas said. “It’s significant that she took a maternity leave and she has consistently finished in the top nine. With the level of play out there, it’s quite an accomplishment.”

Johnson says her partnership with Andersson has worked out well.

“Marie and I are very opposite,” Johnson said. “She’s really intense and emotional and I’m more mellow and controlled. She’s quick and short (5-foot-8) and I’m tall (6 feet) and slow. We really complement each other.”

Andersson attributes her success to hard work and great family support. Her daughter and husband, Perry, have accompanied her on every trip. So has her father, Marvin Steilow.

“Family is very important to me and I have great family support,” Andersson said. “It really helps to have them there.

“My husband does all my travel arrangements. I don’t even know where the next tournament is. I just concentrate on playing.”

Andersson trains for a couple of hours in the morning and spends most of the day with her daughter. In the fall, she coaches the Torrance team in the afternoon while her father baby-sits.

She coached the Torrance boys’ junior varsity team for three years and varsity for two years (1989-90). The boys’ varsity team made it to the Southern Section playoffs both years. She quit coaching the boys’ team because their season conflicts with the WPVA schedule.

“It helped me a lot as a coach because boys are a lot more intense,” Andersson said. “I really liked doing it.”

Andersson has coached the Torrance girls for four years and has led them to the Southern Section playoffs three times. In 1991, the Tartars’ lost to eventual Southern Section champion Marlborough in the semifinals.

Andersson intends to keep coaching, but does not want to miss another WPVA season.

“My ultimate goal is to be a winner and you can’t sit out a full year if you’re going to do that,” she said. “My goal this year is to get to the fifth seed.”

With 12 tournaments left in the season, there is time for Andersson to move up. And this could be the weekend she makes a big leap.