AVP Quali, Injury, Heading to CA

Well, this past week Loric and I headed in different directions. He headed to the mountains to camp with his family while I headed with my wife to the east coast to see mine. I got in to the AVP qualifier in Seaside. Big accomplishment, because I now have a point that means I shouldn't be eliminated from future big draw events, meaning Loric and I should be able to get into quali's this year and next. We had to play the first game of the tourney, at 8:00 AM on Thursday. It was wet, hot and cold, seemed like the weather changed three times during the match. It's always tough getting out with someone you are not used to playing with, especially in a single elim tourney with decent competition. My partner Jeff and I played fairly well, but there were streaks of giving and getting points which showed a lack of consistency in teaming together. We dropped the first game in extra points on a net dribbler ace. We won the second game, which got close at the end, although we had a steady lead throughout. Too many mistakes in the third wound up costing us the match against a decent, but beatable team from Ohio. It was good to see a lot of players that I know and some I hadn't seen for many year. One of the big goals was to watch Karch Kiraly play one of his last tournaments. He was pretty amazing for any age, let alone a 47 year old. I talked with Loric today. He was supposed to play up in Steamboat with Matt from CO. Unfortunately, he hurt his knee in the last tournament we played together at Sneakerz and wasn't able to give it a go. He's out in CA right now and was going to practice moving around a bit to see if we will be able to play at all this weekend. We fly out tomorrow night and will spend 4 days in Hermosa Beach, the heart of Beach Volleyball. Looking forward to spending more time on a beach and getting some touches against some of the toughest competition anywhere. Next big event for us is going to be the Taos Solar Spike, which will draw strong teams from the region and is shaping to be a great event. This weekend is and event at Charlie' Sandbox. Teams looking to register should contact Chris: vaenekene@yahoo.com