December 17, 2011: American Turners Club, The Bronx, NY
The title of this blog is pretty honest. EVC-Prime went 3-9 in the GEVA A/BB Division 1 tournament, held at the American Turners Club in the Bronx, New York.
The members of Empire-Prime - Lenny K, Patrick D, Mike C, Tim M, Felix V, Andy Mc, and Desmond H (aka Shadow) - walked into a tournament with teams similar to what they might see at Open Nationals in Salt Lake City, UT, Memorial Day Weekend 2012. However, when they arrived at the competition venue, there was a possibility the tournament would even start on time.
Upon arrival at the Turners Club, the seven players for Prime were told that their 9am match was changed. It turners out that the Friday night, before the tournament, another team was added to the field. This increased the participants up to eight teams. The GEVA organizers had restructured the tournament to reflect the increase. Unfortunately for the organizers, a different decided to drop out of the contest. This was told to the GEVA officials, on their way to American Turners, at 7:30am.
To recap; the seven team tournament, became an eight team tournament, which was restructured for an eight team tournament, ended as a seven team tournament, with teams in different playing slots and DIFFERENT TIME SLOTS! Because of all the confusion, many of the teams that were in the building for their 9am work assignments, didn't play in the first two to three rounds of the seven team "MEGA-POOL." Hasenet (Brooklyn, NY) ended up forfeiting their first match of the day (but that is another story).
So the matches went on and the confusion continue and as a result EVC-Prime had been moved from the third team in the pool, to the first team in pool. This made the schedule for Empire pretty much a physical gauntlet. Now Prime played the first match of their day at 9:00am, had a one match break, refereed the next match, then played back to back matches right after that. If you were to look at the schedule breakdown for the players, this is what it looked like (with time line):
Play (9am), Sit (9:45-ish), Play (10:30), Ref (11:15), Play (12pm), Play (12:45), Ref (1:30), Play (2:15), Ref (3pm), Play (3:45) DONE....woooh...Breakneck pace. The men of Prime never had a chance to eat, let alone rest between matches, however, the matches must go on, and so did Prime!
Match 1-Hazard (NJ)
This is a young team of former college club volleyball players, all of whom come from New Jersey. A great early test for EVC-Prime. The match started off pretty typical, point for point side outs and not much fan fair, then it happened.
What happened you ask? The young players from Hazard, woke up and realized they were , just that, YOUNG and ATHLETIC. One of the players on Hazard, a former New Jersey State regional Volleyball of the Year, began to jump, higher and higher. To say he was going over our block would be an understatement. Nonetheless, Prime fought back and made each game close, only dropping the first two sets of the day by a combined 6 points.
Good showing against a solid "A" Level team.
Match 2-Hasenet (NY)
To say Hasenet is an underrated team would be a lie. In fact, Hasenet is one of those teams you don't think of until they get on the court. Playing for Hasenet are two former members of the Trinidadian Nationals team, one of whom gets his sternum over the top of the net.
One of the players, was a member of the City Tech men's volleyball team, when Patrick D was the head coach. Another member was a CUNYAC Player of the Year for Medgar Evers College. So, in essence they really aren't that underrated, on paper.
The match begins and Prime is PRIMED to face a tough team, but that isn't what they get. There was total confusion on Hasenet's part and EVC took advantage. With pinpoint serving and very solid defensive play by Andy Mc, Felix V and Tim M, Empire was able to open up a 6 point lead in the early going. after a exchanges of side outs, Shadow and Mike C's timely blocking became the difference maker in the latter stages of the set. EVC -Prime Dominated the first set 25-18.
The second set was more of what Prime expected. After correcting the line-up error from the first set, Hasenet opened set two with a 5 point run. EVC the countered with a 5 point run of their own. With each play you could see each member of Prime working their tales off to keep the play going. Defense improved and comfort between setter and attacker grew. By the end of the set, which EVC dropped 25-22, Hasenet, was giving them all the respect the EVC players deserved.
Match 3 - Metropolis
Metropolis was named after the fictional city in the Superman comic book series. The founder of Metropolis is a huge Superman fan. This team is also a former USA Volleyball Nationals GOLD MEDAL TEAM at the "A" Level. Empire Volleyball Club, had their hands full, and after a tough match with Hasenet, who new what their spirits would be like. The answer came with first play.
Back story: During the break, where Prime didn't play, a few teams (Hasenet included) weren't informed of the time changes, this left one of the courts open for whatever a team wanted to do. Lenny and Tim worked on improving their connection on the outside. It worked!
Metropolis chose to serve instead of receive and this help set the tone of match for EVC-Prime. Metropolis' big middle hit a solid jump serve that was passed perfectly to Lenny, by Felix. The set that went to Tim was a slow shoot to the outside, which Tim then thundered to the ground! From that point on, EVC never looked back. The first set was a thing of beauty to watch and I had the best seat as the libero. play after play, set after set, swing after swing , the men of Prime looked flawless. Set one was a domination set for EVC, the score 25-12.
Set number two was more of a battle. Each team was relentless to start, but at some point, half way through set two, Andy Mc and Shadow caught fire!!! In the rotation where Tim, Shadow and Andy were at the net and Felix, Mike and Lenny were back row defensively, the "block party" began. Mike was serving a vicious, line drive ball to the deep corner, cause setting mistakes for Metropolis. This allowed Andy, Shadow and Tim to camp down on certain plays, resulting in "roof blocks" left and right. I had an even better view since I was cheering from the sidelines. Prime won the set, 25-20
Match 4-Big Willy's (NJ)
This team is one of the more solid and consistent teams in GEVA history. Big Willy's has had the same members for almost 12 years. To say they know each other isn't a mistake and it showed on the court. Time after time, even with good passing and well placed defense, Prime couldn't break Big Willy's confidence in the first set. Serve by serve BW's team members worked the court and EVC couldn't fight them back. The set ended with Prime losing 25-17. Then set two started.
EVC has shown already in its young stages, that it is a club, that will battle to the end; this set was one of those experience battles Prime will be known for. Set two started as the same way set one ended, with a surge from Big Willy's. Then, after a quick timeout by Lenny and speech from Patrick, the Prime-timers came out to play.
After the timeout, the Empire forged a huge comeback. With hard hitting from all parties, the points came fast and furious. The defense from all corners was stellar. The play on the EVC side of the net was some of the best any team could ask for. However, Big Willy's wasn't laying down. They also fought back and began to play at another level. EVC matched them. There were five lead changes towards the end of the set, which prompted the member of Metropolis (the ref team for this match) to scream, "SOMEONE WIN ALREADY!!!" When all was said and done EVC lost the set 29-27, but gain, yet again another level of respect from another great regional team.
Matches 5 & 6-Rage & Swagger
Both of these matches were slug fests, but EVC came out on the "not" winning end of each. Rage had a much stronger team in this tournament as compared to the previous PowerZone tournament in early December. Prime lost both sets.
Swagger is another young team made of higher flying athletic former college players from all over the New Jersey and New York area. Though EVC held their own, the toll of playing and reffing didn't help them by the time Swagger took the court. EVC dropped two straight her as well.
All in all it was a great tournament, even with the early day confusion. The players for Prime had a solid day play and learned a lot about each other. They also found some new chemistry for the team and achieved a few new benchmarks.
EVC-Prime, defeated a former US National Gold Medal team, 25-17 and 25-20. Its not a major notch in our belt, but definitely tells us just how great we can be. We played in one of the longest tournament days, this reporter can think of being in (outside of Nationals); and, the members of Prime forged a new sense of camaraderie, and closeness that will help drive them through future tournaments.
Well that is all from this weekend, see you all in the New Year!!!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS ALL
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
AND
GO EVC!!!!
The title of this blog is pretty honest. EVC-Prime went 3-9 in the GEVA A/BB Division 1 tournament, held at the American Turners Club in the Bronx, New York.
The members of Empire-Prime - Lenny K, Patrick D, Mike C, Tim M, Felix V, Andy Mc, and Desmond H (aka Shadow) - walked into a tournament with teams similar to what they might see at Open Nationals in Salt Lake City, UT, Memorial Day Weekend 2012. However, when they arrived at the competition venue, there was a possibility the tournament would even start on time.
Upon arrival at the Turners Club, the seven players for Prime were told that their 9am match was changed. It turners out that the Friday night, before the tournament, another team was added to the field. This increased the participants up to eight teams. The GEVA organizers had restructured the tournament to reflect the increase. Unfortunately for the organizers, a different decided to drop out of the contest. This was told to the GEVA officials, on their way to American Turners, at 7:30am.
To recap; the seven team tournament, became an eight team tournament, which was restructured for an eight team tournament, ended as a seven team tournament, with teams in different playing slots and DIFFERENT TIME SLOTS! Because of all the confusion, many of the teams that were in the building for their 9am work assignments, didn't play in the first two to three rounds of the seven team "MEGA-POOL." Hasenet (Brooklyn, NY) ended up forfeiting their first match of the day (but that is another story).
So the matches went on and the confusion continue and as a result EVC-Prime had been moved from the third team in the pool, to the first team in pool. This made the schedule for Empire pretty much a physical gauntlet. Now Prime played the first match of their day at 9:00am, had a one match break, refereed the next match, then played back to back matches right after that. If you were to look at the schedule breakdown for the players, this is what it looked like (with time line):
Play (9am), Sit (9:45-ish), Play (10:30), Ref (11:15), Play (12pm), Play (12:45), Ref (1:30), Play (2:15), Ref (3pm), Play (3:45) DONE....woooh...Breakneck pace. The men of Prime never had a chance to eat, let alone rest between matches, however, the matches must go on, and so did Prime!
Match 1-Hazard (NJ)
This is a young team of former college club volleyball players, all of whom come from New Jersey. A great early test for EVC-Prime. The match started off pretty typical, point for point side outs and not much fan fair, then it happened.
What happened you ask? The young players from Hazard, woke up and realized they were , just that, YOUNG and ATHLETIC. One of the players on Hazard, a former New Jersey State regional Volleyball of the Year, began to jump, higher and higher. To say he was going over our block would be an understatement. Nonetheless, Prime fought back and made each game close, only dropping the first two sets of the day by a combined 6 points.
Good showing against a solid "A" Level team.
Match 2-Hasenet (NY)
To say Hasenet is an underrated team would be a lie. In fact, Hasenet is one of those teams you don't think of until they get on the court. Playing for Hasenet are two former members of the Trinidadian Nationals team, one of whom gets his sternum over the top of the net.
One of the players, was a member of the City Tech men's volleyball team, when Patrick D was the head coach. Another member was a CUNYAC Player of the Year for Medgar Evers College. So, in essence they really aren't that underrated, on paper.
The match begins and Prime is PRIMED to face a tough team, but that isn't what they get. There was total confusion on Hasenet's part and EVC took advantage. With pinpoint serving and very solid defensive play by Andy Mc, Felix V and Tim M, Empire was able to open up a 6 point lead in the early going. after a exchanges of side outs, Shadow and Mike C's timely blocking became the difference maker in the latter stages of the set. EVC -Prime Dominated the first set 25-18.
The second set was more of what Prime expected. After correcting the line-up error from the first set, Hasenet opened set two with a 5 point run. EVC the countered with a 5 point run of their own. With each play you could see each member of Prime working their tales off to keep the play going. Defense improved and comfort between setter and attacker grew. By the end of the set, which EVC dropped 25-22, Hasenet, was giving them all the respect the EVC players deserved.
Match 3 - Metropolis
Metropolis was named after the fictional city in the Superman comic book series. The founder of Metropolis is a huge Superman fan. This team is also a former USA Volleyball Nationals GOLD MEDAL TEAM at the "A" Level. Empire Volleyball Club, had their hands full, and after a tough match with Hasenet, who new what their spirits would be like. The answer came with first play.
Back story: During the break, where Prime didn't play, a few teams (Hasenet included) weren't informed of the time changes, this left one of the courts open for whatever a team wanted to do. Lenny and Tim worked on improving their connection on the outside. It worked!
Metropolis chose to serve instead of receive and this help set the tone of match for EVC-Prime. Metropolis' big middle hit a solid jump serve that was passed perfectly to Lenny, by Felix. The set that went to Tim was a slow shoot to the outside, which Tim then thundered to the ground! From that point on, EVC never looked back. The first set was a thing of beauty to watch and I had the best seat as the libero. play after play, set after set, swing after swing , the men of Prime looked flawless. Set one was a domination set for EVC, the score 25-12.
Set number two was more of a battle. Each team was relentless to start, but at some point, half way through set two, Andy Mc and Shadow caught fire!!! In the rotation where Tim, Shadow and Andy were at the net and Felix, Mike and Lenny were back row defensively, the "block party" began. Mike was serving a vicious, line drive ball to the deep corner, cause setting mistakes for Metropolis. This allowed Andy, Shadow and Tim to camp down on certain plays, resulting in "roof blocks" left and right. I had an even better view since I was cheering from the sidelines. Prime won the set, 25-20
Match 4-Big Willy's (NJ)
This team is one of the more solid and consistent teams in GEVA history. Big Willy's has had the same members for almost 12 years. To say they know each other isn't a mistake and it showed on the court. Time after time, even with good passing and well placed defense, Prime couldn't break Big Willy's confidence in the first set. Serve by serve BW's team members worked the court and EVC couldn't fight them back. The set ended with Prime losing 25-17. Then set two started.
EVC has shown already in its young stages, that it is a club, that will battle to the end; this set was one of those experience battles Prime will be known for. Set two started as the same way set one ended, with a surge from Big Willy's. Then, after a quick timeout by Lenny and speech from Patrick, the Prime-timers came out to play.
After the timeout, the Empire forged a huge comeback. With hard hitting from all parties, the points came fast and furious. The defense from all corners was stellar. The play on the EVC side of the net was some of the best any team could ask for. However, Big Willy's wasn't laying down. They also fought back and began to play at another level. EVC matched them. There were five lead changes towards the end of the set, which prompted the member of Metropolis (the ref team for this match) to scream, "SOMEONE WIN ALREADY!!!" When all was said and done EVC lost the set 29-27, but gain, yet again another level of respect from another great regional team.
Matches 5 & 6-Rage & Swagger
Both of these matches were slug fests, but EVC came out on the "not" winning end of each. Rage had a much stronger team in this tournament as compared to the previous PowerZone tournament in early December. Prime lost both sets.
Swagger is another young team made of higher flying athletic former college players from all over the New Jersey and New York area. Though EVC held their own, the toll of playing and reffing didn't help them by the time Swagger took the court. EVC dropped two straight her as well.
All in all it was a great tournament, even with the early day confusion. The players for Prime had a solid day play and learned a lot about each other. They also found some new chemistry for the team and achieved a few new benchmarks.
EVC-Prime, defeated a former US National Gold Medal team, 25-17 and 25-20. Its not a major notch in our belt, but definitely tells us just how great we can be. We played in one of the longest tournament days, this reporter can think of being in (outside of Nationals); and, the members of Prime forged a new sense of camaraderie, and closeness that will help drive them through future tournaments.
Well that is all from this weekend, see you all in the New Year!!!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS ALL
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
AND
GO EVC!!!!
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