New Mexico Beach Volleyball Videos

Aspen Battle, 2007 Part I Part II

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

July 25th Sand Tourney

UPDATE:
It was a fun, albeit hot tournament. There were some last minute partner changes due to injuries. Matt V had to drop out due to a turned ankle (ice hockey in the summer) and Loric's knee was giving him problems from a few weekends on the grass. I wound up teaming up with Matt's partner Ruskin and things went very well. It was unfortunate that Loric and I didn't get to play one final event before he moves to Santa Barbara. We had 7 1/2 teams, until late in the day a surprise player arrived. Jimmy had shown up without a partner and was rotating players throughout the day, when Loric was asked to go out and fill in during our second round playoff match against him. Miraculously Loric had Board Shorts in waiting and decided to give it a go. His knee held up quite well and we had a real fun match, going three games. They went on to ride through the loser bracket to a third place finish. I give props to Jimmy for stepping up his game and playing solid for the tournament. Also, great job by Ruskin who handled a lot of serves and played strong the entire day. Jeff had another amzing finish with Larry, which gives me hope that I also might be able to play for another 40 years. Good times. There is one event left to wrap up the Sneakerz sand series for the year. Here are the results:
1) Ruskin Blankenship/ Adam Rubel
2) Jeff Poole/ Larry Cornwell
3) Jimmy/ Loric Box
4) Desi Vigil/ Harris Zeyaee
5) Bryan Klein/ Cameron Vigil
5) Tyson/ Stuart
7) Aaron Box/ Paul Sanchez
7) Kevin/ Stanley
***
This Saturday is doubles sand tourney, with guys at Sneakerz (8:30 check-in, 9:00 start; $15/ player), where I understand there is a new third court and new sand on all the courts. Women are playing GAV over at Lucky's 66. Well, back to the old ways. Last tourney was canceled, unfortunately, due to poor coordination and a simultaneous grass tourney. I'll go back to listing teams entering for a tourney on this volleyblog. Please let people know to contact me if they would like to be on the list prior to sand events. Seeing who will be turning out usually helps to draw bigger attendance at tourneys.
Summer's going to wind down fast, so let's play 'em while we got 'em!

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Summertime Update

Well, it's been a long time since updating this site, sorry for those that have been following. My goal has been to keep up with Bryan's maintaining his website, and I think this post brings us to about even. But thanks, Bryan, I know how hard it can be rounding up volleyball players and running tourneys.

So, Loric and I played the Sandia. It was a fun event, and we won our first match against a good CO team, in windy conditions. Not pretty, but it earned us a spot in the feature match against the top seed. It was a night match at Sneakerz and was lots of fun. I stunk, but I think we were somewhat respectable. Next morning, lost a couple of close games to Paige & Ryan from CO, solid team that we match up with real well and always have fun battles. I had to remind myself to be patient, in that it had only been one month since picking up a ball again prior to that event, and I had only played a few local tourneys for practice.

Speaking of local tourneys, they have gone well. Loric and I have won everything we've played, and a couple of weeks ago I played with Matt V. & we won in the heat. Loric & I were supposed to go play in Vail, but Loric's got too much going on with his move to CA, so we had to drop out late.

Loric and I will get a couple of more tourneys in this month, including this weekend at Sneakerz, before he heads out to Santa Barbara. Might take a trip out there late summer/ early fall and we might get an event in. Sure would be great to be back on the beach.

Physically, my abdomen feels 100% solid and isn't a concern for me anymore. Kettlebells has made me quite strong and is getting me in crazy cardio shape, which I normally hate working on. It's actually quite addicting once you get into it. My knee, however, is a punk. Found out last week that I have a moderate tear in the medial meniscus. Crap, definitely been affecting me, but I can play through it. Going to work with Christy & Reform Spine & Muscle to treat it without surgery. She is a wizard and sounds confident that treatment will help.

OK, I'll try and post more soon, so I can pull ahead of Bryan!