The tourney was a 6 team POWER pool with a modified 5 team format (you play 4 of the 5 teams in your pool). We were awaiting Shane at this point. Rumors were flying that Shane wasn't going to be coming, that he was in Holiday Park at some triples tournament. At game time of the first match, we stood with six.

The first match was against Byte-Me (last year's Sheik team). We split 1-1 in a match horribly officiated where we had two points taken away from us and lost the first game 15-13. Moving on, we won the next match 2-0 against Powerhouse. We played Shag-Me next and lost two very vocal, juvenile, testosterone-laden games. Led by several of our more "vocal" players, we seemed to spend more time replying the other team's taunts than blocking them or passing the ball. Either way, these Shag-Me guys went 5-1 in pool and took first. Our last match was against Sets (last year's Club/Smartfood) and we played two good games with many sideouts and good plays, but a few more mistakes by us and we dropped both. Easily, it was the best match Sets played all tournament.

We did make the playoffs at 3-5 by virtue of scoring 99 points versus 89 points for the other team which was 3-5. It happened to be the one team we didn't play in the pool. We met Shag-me in the semifinals - one game to 15. We stayed quiet and proceeded to take a 4-0 lead. Still leading 9-8 after the switch, a few errant passes/serve receives and a few unfinished blocks and the game snuck away from us, 15-10. Sets lost to Byte-Me in the other semifinal and then Shag-me beat Byte-me two straight in the final.

As for injuries, I pulled a calf muscle in the last game of pool play. Greg has some kind of pinched upper butt muscle. Raik's injured right hand displayed impressive swelling and interesting colors during the tournament.

Dork awards: this tournament there is a co-dork award given to last tourney's winner: Rick Taylor for another net oriented DORK. He jumped to reach a set traveling over the net near the antenna and in frustration, after thinking the ball was going to go out he grabbed onto the net as he was landing and yanked on it in frustration. Of course the ball was not played by the other team and landed in for what would have been a point or sideout. DORK! The other co-dork award winner was Kurt. Passing a lolly-pop free ball in the semi-final, everyone had backed off the net and awaited the pass - watching Kurt as he positioned himself and passed the ball forward - about three feet to the ground. DORK!

The Shane situation: Neither Raik, Greg, Rick, Kurt, Chris, nor I heard from Shane before this tournament. All assumptions from our previous tournament were that Shane confirmed he was playing at Eckerd and has been getting the EMAILS and would work out travel arrangements with Wade. On Sunday, Chris said that Shane had spoken to his wife on Friday night and told her his shoulder was hurting and he wasn't going to play. Had he planned on picking Wade up if his flight wasn't delayed? Would Wade have been stranded in Orlando? Had Wade and Shane talked and each knew the other wasn't coming? Hopefully, all will be resolved/explained this week. Next tournament is the Disney Classic in Orlando, Jan. 31 - Feb. 1. All the teams from the Eckerd tournament should be there. Details will be worked out this week. Keep you eyes on the EMAILS.