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.

When the refs dig up a manhole sized chunk of concrete before you take the court, you know it’s going to be an unusual night.

One of the most memorable evenings in the Spiked Punch beach season began with a little mystery. When Geoff arrived on court one, he witnessed a few refs digging, then rolling a massive chunk of concrete off the court leaving a large hole right in the middle of the northside half of the court. Digging for treasure? No, just another example of why our league prefers torturous playing conditions instead of the soft sand of the pier-side courts.

Match 1 - Spiked Punch vs. Voodoo Daddies

Sore shoulder Joe and serving specialist, Allison joined Geoff and prepared for game one. Eric and Maribel arrived just in time for the first service and Rich joined in shortly after a few points were scored. Communication, hustle and accuracy guided the team to an easy game one victory. After the switch, Spiked Punch seemed to have game two under control before losing a close one. Game three, unfortunately, ended the same way with Spiked Punch confused and aggravated for losing two consecutive games that could have easily been won.

Perhaps the unsportsmanlike comments, gestures and annoyances of the Voodoo Daddies distracted the Punchers. A rumor started swirling that Natalie was kidnapped and forced to describe each player physically so Chief Voodoo Prick, Mr. Polymer could craft mini-dolls of each player and stick numerous pins in them forcing poor play, miscommunication and other unforced errors that would prevent a Spiked Punch sweep. If you noticed, Maribel was the best player on the court. I don’t believe Natalie ever met Maribel and thus would be unable to describe her. Interesting, isn’t it?

Authorities have been notified and instructed to follow the pungent odor of cannabis and trail of pins to Voodoo headquarters. Perhaps Natalie will turn up there?

Spiked Punch should have taken all three games and it’s obvious the entire team took the 1-2 match result hard. But, misery wouldn’t last long.

Match 2 - Spiked Punch vs. JC Leap Ins. Service

Spiked Punch redeemed itself in a BIG way with three hard fought victories over JC Leap Ins. Services. If you recall, Spiked Punch opened the season with a 2-1 match victory over JC’s other squad, The Agency. Spiked Punch owns JC Leap, even when a victory seems impossible.

What will go down as the best display of teamwork, determination and resolve, Spiked Punch recovered from being down in every game, JC’s evolutionary strategy, building from four to six players over the course of two games, the distracting service contorsions of that somewhat physically disabled woman with the knee brace and a few unfortunate “ball on court” calls to sweep the match, 3-0.

Outstanding serves by Joe D., Eric, Rich and Allison paced the Punchers. Geoff and Maribel did their part with hustle, communication and a little timely net play with the game on the line.

Game three turned out to be the best game of the year thus far.

With JC in control, 14-7, the maturity and concentration of the six fatigued punchers slowly emerged. Eric’s significantly improved serve got the rally started. Rich provided some great sets and pulled off some great kills to cut the lead. After a few sideouts, Allson took the service helm and fired off a few more well placed rockets, pulling the Punchers closer. A testament to the team’s desire was Eric’s unselfishness and sacrifice as he dove for the first time this season in the glass studded Ventnor sand.

JC Leap put the brakes on SP’s rally and ended up getting to game point, 20-18. Spiked Punch won the serve back and tied the match 20-20. Joe served out the win with positioned shots to the “the girl in the knee brace” and Geoff, after a great set by Maribel, killed the ball to seal the awesome comeback.

The three game sweep was the first of the season for Spiked Punch and sets the stage for another crucial doubleheader next week.

Practice is scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Ventnor. We’ll all meet at the glass courts and walk a few blocks down the boards to the soft sand mecca of the pier courts. Let’s keep the energy up, the communication flowing and continue to grow as a well balanced team.

Eric, Joe and Geoff met on Thursday night to scout the other volleyball courts by the Ventnor fishing pier. Despite the stormy skies, we found the courts and two other players with a half dozen volleyballs.

“Are you guys holding a clinic?” Geoff asked. “No,” said one of the guys. “We’re just practicing.”

Little did we know that a two-hour clinic was about to take place courtesy of Dave Pacevich and Walter Lloyd.

Dave and Walt were preparing for this weekend’s quandomania tournament.

While I’m sure we’ll forget some of the tips, hints, suggestions and fundamental tools that were shared last night, one thing that will be hard to forget is the graciousness and patience these two men demonstrated toward the three spiked punchers.

One of the first things we did was warm up. Call it playing gopher. Joe was probably the best at it. Basically, as Dave and Walt practiced their net play, Joe settled into his role chasing all the rocket launched kills that travelled yards down the beach. Meanwhile, Eric and I attempted to touch one of the fireballs coming over the net. That’s right, I wrote TOUCH.

We play Double-B(BB) for a reason. If there was any notion that we were capable of playing at a higher level, D&W squashed that very quickly.

Soon after the warm-up, we played a little three on two. Immediately, Dave started offering strategy/advice on how to start the game. While Joe loves picking the pebble hand, he now understands what to do once the pebble is revealed. Very simply, choose the side that has the wind in your face, if you have a choice of serving or returning and do NOT have the wind, choose to return the serve.

We played for a while and switched sides every seven points. During each switch, we learned more and more about this increasingly complex game.

Here is a recap of what we learned:

1. hand signals
2. how to approach the net
3. defensive coverage
4. serving
5. bumping
6. setting
7. spiking
8. court awareness
9. the role of each position
10. mandatory need for designated setter
11. getting in the right stance
12. how to move in the sand
13. conserving energy

Instead of going into precise detail on all the points, I believe it would be better to work on some of the newly learned skills prior to our games. That might involve arriving an hour before game time and running a few drills. Simple stuff and a good way to warm-up for gameplay. I know Eric and I will be doing some pre-game prep, hopefully, others will join in.

In addition to learning, we had a great deal of fun, mostly from our mistakes.

• Joe is still healing from his face wound. I believe Dave nailed him in the right temple. This is kind of what it looked like (except it was on the beach and Joe’s cyborg skeleton kept him from falling).
• Pretty boy Captain Eric is still sand-free because he believes his raw athletic talent doesn’t require him to dive.
• Old man Geoff is trying to find a way to jump more than an inch off the ground and not waste so much energy diving wildly at shots.

Coincidentially, Joe and Dave attended classes together at Stockton. Not really sure what the subject was but they seemed to recall attending the class with strippers.

We’ll be back in Ventnor next Thursday night for practice. Hopefully, we’ll run into a pair of new friends and learn more…

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.

Loose Ligament Joe has a theory that our game one losses may be due to our practice location in Smithville. He may have a good point since we all realize the net height and court dimensions are shorter/smaller than the glass lands of Ventnor.

Here’s an idea we’ve discussed. (Actually JOE came up with it THEN we discussed it)

Thursday night practices at the courts in Ventnor (Joe’s IDEA!!)

On Tuesday night, we’re going to inspect how the nets are hung and take note of the court boundary tape. Then, if the team is interested, we all pitch in $5 to get a net and boundary lines for our practice nights. (Joe said FIVE ($5) Dollars…that’s HIS idea)
The advantages are that we’ll have a familiar place to play that matches game conditions, we can offer other teams that location to scrimmage with us and we’ll have the supplies to practice anytime we prefer.

Plus “No Bugs,” says Joe.

Please comment on this topic when you get a chance. And make sure you give Joe credit for coming up with the idea.

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.