Spiked Punch

Spike Punch welcomed Nathalie back this week and went with a seven player rotation.

The first game took place on court six against the color coordinated Bottom Feeders. Despite the very solid play of SP early in the first game, the Bottom Feeders got off to an early lead. Some great volleys were exchanged in the first game, but the early deficit was too much for the Punchers to overcome with the Bottom Feeders taking game one.

Games two and three were probably Spiked Punches finest games of the season. Superb overall team play with some excellent volleys gave the Spiked Punch crew two very decisive victories. I won’t point out any individual efforts in these two victories as it was truly a fine team effort. Got to admit that while watching you guys play while being rotated out was very fun to watch. You’ve all really come a long way and should be proud of your play, especially in those two games.

Our next match was against the top ranked WMA squad with the tardy smoking ref and a borderline illegal player participating. Game one was a real battle. Spiked Punch hung in there all game with the strong WMA squad, it was neck and neck most of the way. But WMA showed why they’re the top team taking the tightly contested battle.

Game two against WMA was a bit rough for Spiked Punch. WMA really played well throughout the game and took it rather handily. Not deterred by the loss, Spiked Punch came back fighting in the third game of the night. However on this night their efforts wouldn’t be enough as the mighty WMA took all three games.

WMA proved to be a very good team, good serves and very solid volleying. Despite the loss Spiked Punch did put up some solid games and proved that we can compete with the best BB has to offer. I know we went a combined 2-4 on the night, but I was very impressed with the play of Spiked Punch. Especially the first four games of the night.

Wow, week seven wasn’t Spiked Punch’s finest hour. The Teacher’s Pets swept the three games. With Nathalie out, Maribel was kind enought to fill in an help us field a full team. However, we really needed Maribel to bring some AVP players with her too on this night.

The Teacher’s Pets played solid all three games, but Spiked Punch really did most of the damage to themselves this week. Managing to come back from a big game one deficit, the Punchers didn’t have enought magic in their tank to steal the first game. Games two and three pretty much went the Teacher’s way too, with too many errors being commited by SP.

Overall team play was down after last weeks excellent performance, but the team did remain upbeat and never lost their composure throughout their subpar night. Spike Punch has a double header next week and are looking forward to getting back to the solid play they had demonstrated the previous weeks.

After much confusion all week regarding our schedule we found out we had a last minute rescheduled start at 7 PM. Thanks to all team members for being flexible enough to work around the scheduling confusion, with big thanks to team captain Eric for being relentless in his efforts to get the whole schedule straightened out. I can tell you he spent much time working the phones and email to get this straightened out.

Game one against the Wild Cats was a game of hustle by both sides. Some intense volleys were exchanged, with enormous amounts of hustle being showcased on this night. The unforced serving errors by the Spiked Punch proved to be the big difference, with the Wild Cats taking the first game.

The great team play continued over into the second game as well. Some of the best volleys to date were found in this game. A great overall team effort led to a defeat of the Wild Cats in game two.

Game three was probably the best game the Spiked Punch have played thus far this season. Admission could have been charged to watch the volleyball clinic that Spiked Punch put on in the third game. The bumps were clean, the sets solid, and the finishes strong. When one teammate found themselves in trouble, a teammate was there to bail them out. Tonight was a tremendous team effort, especially the last two games.

Here’s a side note that I’d like to share. I arrived a half hour or so early to our game tonight, so I just sat on the wall and figured I’d watch what we’d be up against tonight. I overheard someone ask, “who are we playing tonight?” The response was, “Spiked Punch, they’re actually pretty good.” So I figured I’d pass that compliment along from our peers.

Well Week 5 turned out to be quite an interesting week. Apparenly there’s a schedule mix up, that has affected at least three division BB teams. As it turns out the “new” schedule had us with a bye in week 5, not playing the Wild Cats.

Well since the Wild Cats schedule was messed up too both teams decided to scrimmage on an available court. Spiked Punch was without team captain Eric who is out of town and Natale who perhaps was the only one with a correct schedule? But filling in was Mike and newcomer Bill. Mike got off to a pretty hot start, dominating play at the net.

However, the wind was angry on this night and the serving paid dearly for it. Steady serving Alison was the only consistant server for the Spiked Punch. Bumping and setting seems to be improving by all every week, but for the most part play was very loose as this was just a scrimmage with both teams not wanting to to tip their hands too much before next weeks contest (if the schedule doesn’t magically change again).

So until the schedule is officially corrected our next game is on July 10, at 6:00 PM against the Wild Cats. Hope to see everyone at practice Thursday night around 6:30 PM, have a happy 4th of July.