Well, another tournament with the Shockers came and went, this one being arguably the largest indoor USAV tournament of the year Chicago hosts, the Windy City Invite. The Open/AA/A division had 15 teams, including a few out-of-towners such as Slamwich from Nebraska and Omega Force from Minnesota. With Lights Out, an Open level team, plus 6 of the top 15 from AA Nationals last year in attendance, anything could happen.
From the get-go, I felt better about this tournament than the first time around. My thumb had an extra week to heal, and I had taped it which really helped stabilize it. Only one block really stands out in regards to feeling it, but I shook it off and felt it didn't affect my serve receive. Speaking of serve receive, Kyle Due was ready to make his debut at libero. We snagged Chris Wright from Momentum to play opp, and I'll say right off the bat I'm bummed we can't steal him full-time. Lefty that skies, and an overall nice guy. Bob Scott wasn't there to play middle, but Kyle Masterson, a Penn State Alum, filled in quite nicely and I hope it isn't a one-time thing having him on the squad.
Our Pool consisted of Summit (2-time AA National Champs, top 5 Open team when they participated at that level), Omega Force (Minnesota team that finished 9th last year in AA for Nationals, and for the midwest sand junkies, the Bomgren brothers are on that team), Coast North (finished 6th for A last year at Nationals) and Fist It (1st year squad - didn't recognize the players but most had Lakeland/OskKosh apparel).
We started against Omega Force, and just didn't get the job done. We had a couple game points on them and didn't capitalize - probably not my best game of the day. Set 2 Tony Jachera subbed in for me and we took care of business, winning something like 21-13. As usual, Kwon distributed the ball nicely and the hitters took care of things. Having Due run the show for serve receive brought some communication we could have benefitted from last tournament.
The next game was against Summit, which in my opinion is Chicago's best team of the last decade. Jeff Sandberg ran hands, with Keith Schunzel (normally TPC's setter but a hell of a lefty outside as well) outside, Fasshauer/Desirion in the middle, and a 6-7ish opposite that supposively played at Long Beach. Their libero, Krystian Krzyzak, former standout at Loyola, is a pain in the ass to play against, simple as that.
All that being said, we went with the same lineup we finished the last match with and came out strong. I wouldn't say we were doing anything special, just controlling the ball and siding out well. On the other side of the net, Chuck (opp formerly of Marquette?) had a slow start, and was pulled within the first 10 points. Their overall flow wasn't what where it normally is for them, and we pulled out a 23-21 win. I hopped in the second set, and serve receive went well. picked up a couple digs, kept the energy up, and tooled the block to end a 22-20 victory, putting us at 3-1 and dropping Summit to 1-3 after they split with Coast North.
Flying high after the sweep, we cruised through our next 2 matches convincingly. Coast North had some guns with Andy Kownacki and Kevin Allison on the outside, but the block did a good job getting touches, we kept the ball in play, and continued to side out well. Fist It was already eliminated and didn't seem to bring much fire to our last match with them, and we went into playoffs with a 7-1 record and the top seed.
We were to play the winners of Slamwich (team from Nebraska) and the team I call Lewis Alum (I believe they're Ballsagna but I'm not sure), which features Drew Pickering, Billy Sahagian, Johnny Kessenich (fellow D-III'r/Vassar alum) running hands, as well as local beach studs Eli Masud/Tom Carioscio/Dan Buehring. Ballsagna had way more power at the net, but Slamwich dug EVERYTHING in sight, and their OH1 was terminating from all over the court. They were on fire the second half of this tournament, and had actually swept Lights Out in pool play to send them packing for the day.
So we play Slamwich in the semis, and by far played our best match. Bergles/Jachera on the outside, Due libero, Kwon running hands, Kyle M/Ollie Tan in the middle and Chris Wright banging at opp. Slamwich gets out to a 4-2 lead in set 1 and both teams begin to sideout at will. Literally, I think there was 30-40 straight sideouts before Slamwich blinked and we finally were able to re-take the lead. We closed the door with a 27-25 victory, and never looked back, winning the 2nd set somewhat convincingly to advance to the finals, which guaranteed us $500 for the day!
On the other side of the bracket, Summit had started to hit their stride. I believe they had 3 set points against them in pool play which would have eliminated them from playoffs, but they fought back, won those sets, won the play-in against Coast, then crushed Aim to Kill and McLovin to reach the finals.
The second time around we weren't so hot - coming out of the gate with shaky passing and numerous hitting errors. Although we started to pick it back up the second half of the game, Summit sided out well and they took the first set. I came in the second set, and although I didn't play terribly, I wasn't exactly a game-changer, and Summit completed the sweep to win the tournament.
Although I am able to hang at this level, it is apparent to me that if I want to improve, it's going to have to be in regards to my physical ability. Although my passing is steady and I don't hit terribly, the defense picks me up pretty easily and the block is extremely tough for me to tool. There are guys at the levels I've played before that can jump like the AA players, but it's how much they reach over on the block - in the past when the blockers got touches, I was at least getting soft blocked and our coverage was able to attempt to pick it back up. I'm not getting those opportunities as often anymore.
That being said, our team is ranked 2nd in the region for AA, and I'm excited to continue to progress as the season goes on. Our next tournament is the 14th at Prairie Stone, so if you're local, come watch the best ball Chicago has to offer!
