Darkside Update 3/21/99

For those of you who didn't make it, or those of you which have forgotten, here is the summary of the 3/20/99 Hi Neighbor Tournament.

This year's showing at the Hi Neighbor tournament did not differ much from last year's effort. We brought six players and one back row substitute. Kurt and Rob were our middles, Raik and Rick were our outside hitters/passers and Wade was our off-setter with me setting. Jason Fontana was our back row substitute. Jason Fuller and Shane Miller had their reasons for not being able to go (work, senior final project due) as did Greg Oosterbaan (honeymoon), but that didn't make it any easier to cope.

The tournament was broken down into 5 pools of men's AA with our pool being 1 of 2 pools in the main facility (UNC-Charlotte). It should have been called the pool from Hell. The other 3 teams were: ASICS-North Texas, Sets from the Carolina region and Pro Link from Atlanta.

Our first match was against North Texas. We were playing 3 games to 15 starting at 4. The ASICS guys were big, passed nails, jumped through the roof, hammered the ball and blocked like monsters. They did have a relatively short setter, but we never had a chance to exploit him. We lost 3 straight, getting into double figures only in the 3rd game. We found out later, that these guys were crushing everybody in the midwest by similar margins.

Our next match was against Sets from Carolina. We matched up very well with them, but our play was very sporadic. While against ASICS, we couldn't tell who was playing good or bad, in this match we had our lapses. Without pointing fingers, it seemed everyone caught the "Hit Out" bug. Although it wasn't by much, but with enough missed passes the out hits added up to 3 VERY close losses. 17-16 was the one that hurt the most as we led 14 - 11 with a swing at game point (an out hit!). Some friction based on frustration surfaced after the match as we sat at 0 - 6 facing a potential 0 - 9 record, for our next match was against last year's Disney Champs - Pro Link!

Knowing we could not advance out of the pool, a playoff berth would not be a motivator. Pro Link's situation was different. They had also dropped 3 straight (and ugly) to ASICS, but had beaten Sets 2 - 1, putting them at 2 - 4. Sets, having taken a game from Pro Link were 4 - 2 after their sweep of us. ASICS would beat Sets 3 - 0 with little effort in the last match of pool play, so Pro Link needed 2 wins against us to advance to the playoffs. To us, this was for the bragging rights to the Disney Classic and the South East United Staes Region. Last year's Disney Champ vs. this year's Disney Champ.

Darkside emerged from the funk and the slacking players became themselves. Hits went in, blocked balls went BACK OVER the next and ON the other team's court. We served IN. Oh, what a beautiful sight! The defense touched and brought up balls and then we didn't fold when things got close. We won the 1st 2 games and Pro Link wanted no more. They rolled over in the 3rd game just to get out of the gym. We finished with a 3 - 6 record, 1 game out of the playoffs (the 17 - 16 loss to Sets-Carolina began looking really painful at this point!).

As the tournament progressed, the 2 pools in our gym crossed over. ASICS-NT played the 2nd place team from the other pool (Shtig) while Sets-Carolina played the 1st place team, Shag Me Baby. Shag Me had an easy time winning their pool, dropping maybe 1 game. ASICS crushed Shtig 2 - 0 so quickly, that the 1st game of the Shag Me Baby vs. Sets-Carolina match was still going on. SMB won the 1st game, got spanked in the 2nd and the 3rd rally scoring game wasn't even close (15 - 7 won by Sets). As it turns out, the Sets team from Florida didn't make it into the second day either. Both teams from our pool advanced into the semifinals and ASICS made it to the finals where they lost to Ethnics (from Michiana region). Ethnics were in our pool last year; we had split with them in pool play and they went on to forfeit the finals to Shag Me Baby.

The DORKSIDE - For the 1st time since the conception of the DORKSIDE we have a winner of a "Double-Dork" award. 2 overbumps burried into his own side of the net. Never has an award been so easy to give. The winner is Rob Smith. He gracefully accepted on the spot after the 2nd one occured. He did try to lobby his was out of it after the tournament, but to no avail. The DORKSIDE was his.

Next tournament is Regional Championships next weekend in Orlando on 3/27/99.