March 21, 2007

Pace Bootlegger 15 Boys Volleyball Team

The boys on the Pace Bootlegger 15 Black volleyball team were true road warriors during much of their school winter break finishing first and second in two different USA Junior Olympic Volleyball national qualifier tournaments in Illinois and Pennsylvania. The team garnered second place in the Boys Great Lakes Festival held in Chicago on February 16-18 among a tough field of sixteen other teams in its age bracket. The team also swept all games throughout the following weekend in York, PA en route to claiming first place in the Nittany II tournament in a field of fourteen teams.

Beset with weather related difficulties in traveling to Chicago, the team started slowly on Saturday morning on what resulted in an up and down day, losing a three-game match to a strong defensive team from Ohio (19-25, 25-20, 13-15) before rebounding with an emphatic win over a south Chicago team (25-12, 25-16). The boys hit another wall losing a two-game match to a big-hitting team from north Chicago (21-25, 21-25), but again showed their resilience by rebounding with a solid two-game victory over a western Illinois team (25-16, 25-16). The last victory earned Pace the eighth and final seed in the championship pool played on Sunday. A bright spot in the afternoon play was the strong serving by Alex Wezelis (Churchville), Matt Sutherland (Penfield), Paul Syta (Fairport), Ryan Dangler (Penfield) and Reed DesRosiers (Fairport) which kept the opposing teams back on their heels. Paul Watrobski (Penfield) also treated the fans to an exciting and athletic “hacky-sack” hit – using his right foot to deftly pass a ball going wide back to the middle to keep one rally alive.

Following a good night’s rest, the team came out ready to play on Sunday morning. The first opponent for Pace was the number one seeded West Allis Lightning from the Milwaukee area. The West Allis team had already won two 2007 Junior Olympic national qualifier tournaments in St. Louis and in Wisconsin without losing a single game in either tournament and had not dropped a game on Saturday in this tournament. The first game was tightly played through fourteen points when Pace caught fire, outscoring West Allis eleven to three for the remainder of the game to hand the shocked Lightning their first loss of the year, 25-17. For the game, Watrobski and Syta contributed several blocks, Gabe Cartagena (Henrietta), Zack Lubberts (Penfield) and Sutherland contributed several big hits, and Tyler Reed (Henrietta) played strong defense. Game 2 saw Pace continue its strong play, with three service aces from Syta and two big hits from Rob Page (Victor) helping to build a 6-1 lead. West Allis battled back to within two points at 17-15, but strong hits by Steven Lodico (Penfield), Sutherland, and Wezelis locked down a 25-22 Pace victory. For the remainder of the day’s action, Pace defeated a hard-hitting Ultimate Gold team from Chicago in a three-game semifinal match and advanced to the Championship match against High Performance from St. Louis. The High Performance team matched up well against Pace and ended up eking out wins in two closely contested games 25-22 and 26-24 leaving Pace with a well-earned second place finish out of the seventeen teams in the tournament field.

After a couple of days rest, Pace took to the road again, this time to York, PA, to take on squads from New York, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Because of their success in past national qualifier tournaments, Pace was the top seed going into this Nittany II tournament. Pace dominated day one play defeating the Pittsburgh Elite team 25-14, 25-15, the Long Island Volleyball club 25-18, 25-16, the Eden, NY Volleyball club 25-14, 25-16, and the Damon, Ohio club 25-17, 25-12. The team was running on all cylinders throughout the day utilizing jump spin serves exclusively from all its players, including a solid service run of five straight from Watrobski, to take advantage of the other teams along with a spectacular defense highlighted with numerous digs.

Day two started with Pace facing the always powerful Lakeside team from Albany in the last game of pool play. A closely played seesaw match saw Pace win 25-22 and 25-23 reflecting excellent play on both sides of the net by both teams. Based on their undefeated pool play record, Pace earned the top seed in the championship round. The quarterfinal match pitted Pace against the Richmond Volleyball club with Pace breezing to an easy 25-18, 25-17 victory. A rematch against Eden came next in the semifinals and again Pace showed off its prowess winning 25-17, 25-14. The championship match also turned out to be a rematch, pitting Pace against Lakeside. The fans were not disappointed and watched from the edge of their seats as these two evenly matched teams battled back and forth in game one to a 22-22 tie. With Dangler serving, Sutherland and Cartagena put down big hits on assists from Syta to give Pace a 24-22 lead. Dangler then closed out game one with a winning service ace. Game 2 was again a back and forth affair until Pace found themselves on the short end of a 24-21 score. The team’s never-say-die attitude took over, however, with Page scoring on a big hit to pull Pace within two points. Syta then delivered three consecutive jump spin serves which handcuffed the Lakesiders and allowed Page, Sutherland, and Dangler to put down three straight kills to lead Pace to a 25-24 edge. A couple of exchanges evened the teams to a 26-26 tie, including great digs by Page and Reed, but Dangler and Sutherland put down back to back hits to give Pace a 28-26 win and the team’s second championship in national qualifier events.

Coach Steve England was very happy with the team’s efforts saying, “I want to congratulate everyone on two incredible weekends of volleyball. All of our hard work is paying off and we will continue to strive to get even better.”

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