Spiked Punch

Latest News:

Eric will be unable to play on Tuesday night due to a fractured pinky finger. While the team is saddened, Eric will be on hand to coach from the sidelines and root on the Spike Punchers during their quest for the BB title.

Take a look at Denzel Washington’s pinky to see how Eric’s finger looked shortly after the incident.

UPDATE:

Team captain, Eric Stewart dislocated his pinky finger during practice in Ventnor, Thursday night, while attempting to return a serve by Geoff P.

“It didn’t sound good when he hit it,” said fellow spiked puncher, Rich.

“Su dedo parece realmente malo,” said 3 on 3 foe, Maribel.

According to the Spiked Punch team doctor, Eric has not been cleared to play on Tuesday. The doctor has advised Eric to seek the advice of an orthopedist due to a possible bone chip or fracture.

Joe D. knows all about injuries and is not optimistic about Eric joining the team for the playoffs.

“…When my thumb was screwed up, I didn’t want to complain about it. [Eric’s injury] is gonna make him hit the ball weird once it takes a good hit,” Joe specualted. “Maybe he should put ice on it.”

* If you would like to donate your time to help Eric use the stylus on his PDA, please contact him immediately.

Bad Break for Captain Eric

Team captain, Eric Stewart dislocated or broke his pinky finger during practice in Ventnor, Thursday night, while attempting to return a serve by Geoff P.

The net is a very important piece in the game of volleyball. Sadly court 8 was without a net for a good part of the night. Luckily one was being driven in all the way from Brigantine (a very windy city) so the final game of the regular season would be starting late on this evening.

Spiked Punch didn’t mind the wait, they used the extra time to practice. However several of the Sea Hawks were fuming over the delayed start. Perhaps their anger saved us a ref fee, not sure. But the net did eventually arrive and the game did take place.

Game one got off to a hot start by the Sea Hawks. Despite falling behind rather early the Punchers were able to tie it up and make a tightly contested game out of it. Rich, Eric, Geoff and Joe brought an aggressive net game, while Maribel and Alisson did a great job of bumping and setting the guys for some strong finishes. However with the game close the Sea Hawks did manage to make more crucial big plays at the finish to give them the first game.

The second game had Spiked Punch start with a big lead. This was a very technically solid game by the Punchers. Some of the best bumps seen yet this season were on display, and once again the guys all played the net very well to get us some big points. The girls got in on the finishing too with some very nice hits themselves. This was one of the better, if not the best game Spiked Punch has played all season. Spiked Punch took this one.

Game three started with us calling the wrong side (thanks to Joe’s pre-game suggestion, sorry Eric). The battle was close throughout, with what seemed to be much better serves from the Sea Hawks than in the previous two games. Despite another strong team effort by Spiked Punch, the Sea Hawks did take the third game.

Next week are the playoffs, and hopefully Spiked Punch will be able to carry over their play especially from the second game. I must admit that it has truly been a pleasure playing alongside everyone this season. I’ve met some very good people and really saw everyone improve week after week. I think we’ve got the pieces in place to make a big run next week.

Week 10 had us relocate our games to the Pier in Ventnor. It was pretty cool playing right on the beach. The nets were a lot lower than the tennis court nets, so it gave some of us shorter folk more opportunities for some aggressive net play.

Our opponent this week was the heavy serving crew from Lew Mar. We had previously met earlier in the season with Lew Mar taking the series 2-1. They were short a girl, but we allowed them to play all their guys and not have to play short handed with a rotation. Perhaps that wasn’t the best of decisions as the night played out.

Game one was an excellent game. Lots of hustle by everyone really made for an exciting game. It was very close throughout with some standout play by Eric really slamming down some points. Those spikes came from the hard work and solid sets and bumps with Maribel, Nathalie, and Rich really standing out. Joe even sold his soul for a spike late in the first game. In the end, Spiked Punch hung in there and closed out Lew Mar for a tough win.

The second game was a bit rough for the Punchers. Lew Mar had some outstanding well placed serves. They really painted the lines freakishly well at times during the night. Lew Mar was the more aggressive team at the net during this game, with Joe taking a rocket nearly to his face that when it was done orbiting the moon deciding to landm on the pier. Spiked Punch fell down by a pretty big margin and wasn’t able to recover with Lew Mar taking the second game.

Game three was simply a serving clinic by Lew Mar. They literally picked us apart with their serves. Their serves were simply dominant and we didn’t come up with an answer for it. They took the game rather handily. Despite the two tough losses we did play very solid in the first game and should look to carry over that performance next week to wrap up the regular season.

Caught this on the league site…

IMPORTANT CHANGE

Playoffs will be on 8/21/07 at the pier all teams on BB, A1, and A2 need to show up and be ready to start at 6pm sharp.Whatever does not finish will play the following week 8/28/07 at the tennis courts. AA will start at 6pm. BB, A1 & A2 will start at 7pm

We need to move our volleyball to Ventnor Pier (Cambridge and the beach) see schedules for updates.