7-14 Charlie's Sanbox Results

It sounds like a good last tournament at Charlie's Sandbox last weekend. Thanks to Chris for running the show while we were away. Hopefully we can continue to turn out men's and women's teams for the rest of the summer. Of course, next weekend is the Taos Solar Spike! This is really looking like a fun event. The battle of the business division is filling up fast, but we still need to get players out in the other divisions. Lots of good stuff in this one, wouldn't want to miss it! Here are the results from last weekend at Charlie's:

Women (6 Teams)

1. Maddy and Shannon; 2. Steph and Chandra

Men (8 Teams)

1. Chris and Matt; 2. Ricardo and Matt J.; 3. Jorge and Rob; 4. Jeff and Larry

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

Splittin' the Diferrence

Loric and I are heading seperate ways this week. I'm writing from the airport in Houston, en route to New Jersey where I hope to get a crack at playing in an AVP qualifier at Seaside Heights. Loric is already on his way up in Colorado, camping out until the big tournament this weekend in Steamboat Springs. Loric will be playing with Matt Akromis up there, a solid player from Denver whom I teamed with last year for a very respectable 4th place at the King of the Mountain in Vail. They should do very well. I'm playing with Jeff from NY at the quali. Jeff and I already played a couple of times this year in Florida, without much success, but I'm hopeful we can turn it around for this event. In fact, I'm hopeful we'll be able to get to play in the event at all. The last two AVP qualifiers I attempeted to play in the past two years were met with rejection before ever being allowed to step on the court. Tempe in 2005 and Huntington in 2006 were both limited draws, and not having the time or resources to follow the quali circuit around the country meant I had not accumulated enough points to gain entry. They are listing a 40 team qualifier in Seaside Heights for each men and women, I'm hoping that many west coast players will not make the expensive trip out and the Thrusday event will keep away many players with regular jobs. It looks like none of the qualifiers have filled up this year. You'd think winning the AVP next open regional championship last year would have been a boost, but the AVP doesn't use AVP finishes. Anyhow, stepping on the court would be a success in that it would allow me to get at least a few points and give Loric and I a much better chance of getting into a future event, perhaps the big one in Manhattan in August. It should be interesting, with 8 main draw slots available and a small q, and the forcast is calling for a good chance of rainy weather. Seaside Heights is not my favorite beach in NJ, but it is where I won my first open tournement way back when I was a 16 year old kid. I might also pick up a partner to play in the GAV event on Saturday, we'll see. After flying back home to NM on Monday, my wife and I will hop on a quick flight Thursday night and head out to Hermosa Beach where Loric and I will reunite and get some practice and hopefully a tourney in against the best competition in the country. I'll keep posting about how things turn up out here, and Loric should be giving me a call to let me know how it goes in Steamboat. Summertime....good stuff!

Sneakerz Series #2

Time again to hit the sands at Sneakerz. Chris will be running this 2 on 2 men's format. I'll take the registrations and post them up here, as well as the results after.

Also, our sponsor, 18 Panel Athletic, has worked out a fundraising deal to help us with our travels. We will have hats and shirts for sale at the event and future events. Proceeds will go to our travel fund to help us get out and represent NM at different tournies. It will also help to launch this startup volleyball company out of Phoenix.

Update:
It was a cooker on Saturday. Temps got into the upper 90's and the slightest breeze didn't arrive until late in the afternoon. A long day too, with the finals wrapping up around 8:00PM. We had a solid 12 team turnout. Here are the finishers, as I recall them: 1) Loric Box/ Adam Rubel 2) Matt Valencia/ Chris Roosild 3) Thierry Thelliez/ Nathan Beck 4)Rob Pierce/ Jorge Alarcon 5) Bryan Klein/ Larry Cornwell 5) Desi Vigil/ Jeff Poole

Gettin' in the groove...

Well, this weekend we finally started playing some decent volleyball and had a strong showing at the King of the Mountain tournament up in Vail, CO. Loric and I had a first tough match against Lucas and Tony. We were up for most of the first game, but somehow lost it at the end, something like 22-24. I shanked game point, and wasn't happy. Fortunately we picked it up and cruised through the next two games to win a fun match against a real athletic team. Next we faced Ryan and Paige, a real solid team that we last played in the finals up in Denver last year. I got about every serve and was lousy at siding out, and not picking up many balls. We dropped the match and were sent to the loser's bracket with something to think about through the night. I calmed my frustration and went back to fundamentals and found my shooting range on Sunday. We played a number of solid teams, but were in control, winning our first three games fairly handidly. We then faced Paige and Ryan again in the semifinals. We were off to a sow start in the first game, but steadied out by the end of it. We went on to play solid volleyball, scooping balls and siding out well. We won the second game by a good margin, and battled through the third to win the match. The long day on hard backed sand at high elevation and warm weather took its toll, we were both twinging by the third game of that match and were sucking down beers and pickles trying to dig deep for the finals. We faced Neil and Jamey, last year's winners. We gutted it out and I made a serving mistake, going to Jamey at 19-20 in the first game. He sided out and took the game. We were a little too gassed and they had fresh legs, playing only their second match of the day, and they took us out in two. They are a solid team and we needed to be at the top of our game to have a chance of victory. We both felt that our best ball of the season remains ahead of us, an upcoming trip to CA should help to boost us along. My body feels kind'a wrecked from getting all the serves and playing on such fine, hard packed sand, but an off week should be plenty of recovery. This was our best finish at one of the major mountain tournaments, and we go a little write up in the Vail Daily News. I think we're both looking forward to picking up our game the rest of this season and creating some big finishes. I'll be heading to NJ in a couple of weeks and may pick up a partner for the AVP quali or local tournament depending on if a suitable one turns up. Loric may be able to get up to Steamboat to play another mountain tourney if he can connect with the right partner. We'll re-unite in Manhattan Beach, CA to play a GAV tourney and get some practice in with the big guns, hopefully. Of course, first there is the Sneakerz tourney next week...

Back in Action

OK, back from a great trip to northern California and a tourney up in Denver. It's really hard for me to be living far from the ocean, little trips here and there help out. I'm gonna rant a bit about my lousy level of play this year. Not sure what is going on, mentally feeling focused, physically feeling healthier and stronger with each tournament, but my skills seem off, at least one important skill - siding out. Last year it was such a focus of mine to be able to side out consistently against just about anyone after being served a lot the year before, and I felt like I achieved that goal. This year, I've been giving up runs of 4-5 points in a row and had a few total meltdowns up in Denver of not being able to do anything right. Well, we did play a couple of very good teams that were playing well, hopefully it will be enough to motivate me to get my game up to par. We've got a good long stretch ahead of us, and strangely, I feel we are improving in some way every time we step on the court. Loric and I should have our rhythm down by the time we hit Vail for the King of the Mountain in a couple of weeks.

OK, sorry for boring you with that tirade. I heard the Sneakerz tourney from a couple of weeks ago went real well. Loric picked up Desi to win a double final over Chris and Matt V. Kudos to Desi who has been playing great ball all year for finally getting his name etched on the plaque at Sneakerz (ok, there really isn't a plaque, but there should be!). This weekend we return to Charlie's Sandbox, sans Charlie, to play it up again. I'm late in getting notices out, but hopefully we will see a strong turnout based on the crowd that showed up to the Sandia Mountain Classic. I almost forgot that Beach Volleyball Magazine ran an article that I rushed together before leaving town on the event. The Taos Solar Spike in late July is sounding like it is going to be a great tournament. Kameron has been doing a great job getting sponsors and building some high quality sand courts. Many guys from Denver were interested in coming down for the event; hopefully a few women's teams will turn out as well. UPDATE:
Men
1) Loric Box/ Adam Rubel; 2) Chris Roosilid/ Matt Valencia; 3) Ricardo Sanchez/ Matt Jensen; 4)Fred Ader/ Larry Cornwell; 5) Bryan Klein/ Mike; 5) Shayne Murdie/ Dave Bruhner; 7) Ed/ Dave; 7) Rich/ Adam; 9) Paul/ Nate; 9) Patrick/ Partner; 9) Harris/ Daniel


Women
1) Patty Ader/ KC Raver; 2) Chandra Weaver/ Stephanie Valencia; 3) Davina Romero/ Lveryn Aodaca 4) Sarah/ Rachelle

It has begun...

Allright, the Sandia Mountain Volleyball Classic was very cool. There were over 50 teams in 5 divisions, I don't think I've seen that many outdoor volleyballers in NM at one time. There were only 11 teams in the men's open, but it was a super solid draw, all the way to the top. I was glad to be able to play, the acupuncture and bodywork I've been getting have really helped with the back and shoulder problems that had me feeling pretty crummy to start the season. We started out slow, out of rhythm, and not feeling real comfortable against a pretty strong team from New Jersey. We actually dropped a big lead in the first game, like 19-14, to lose 24-26 or something. I don't think we've blown a late game lead since our first year at Aspen, which fired us up for our tear during all of last season. We dropped the second game to them as well in a close one. Later in the day, we started to get more comfortable and our rhythm was clicking. We tore through a Texas teams and had a pretty good run at the NM Matt's. We started to get more comfortable, siding out steadily and converting in transition. Sunday we went up against the solid team of Post/ Scott from CO. While the first game started off slow for both teams, things quickly heated up and we had a great match, with some terrific plays and exchanges. Ryan was playing phenomenal is siding out super steady, crushing our strategy of wearing him out with every serve. We could have been smarter, but his partner was good too, and we like a challenge. We had a few shakey moments of siding out, not in our best rhythm yet, but we were definitely kicked into a gear we hadn't had to touch in a year. We dropped two very close, very long extra point games. We were pretty happy with our play considering we haven't been practicing or playing much due to our work schedules and funky weather. Feels like, at least for me personally, I'm finally starting to bounce back from a prolonged playing slump. Now, however, we're into the swing of season and volleyball is about to get real busy for us. I'm heading out to California tonight (yeah, real late night road trip) and will hook up to play in Santa Cruz with a Denver transplant living out there now. Should hopefully get some touches in the real sand during the week as well. Loric will be playing in the Sneakerz touorney on Sat with a partner, as far as I know, yet to be determined. The day I get back from the Cruz, I'll be meeting up with Loric, or Matt and Chris, to head up to Denver to play in the first CPVA up there. Then its back to Charlie's for a local tourney, then off to Vail, couple weeks later its New Jersey then right back to California to play a GAV in Manhattan Beach. Guess this is what all those extra hours working through the winter were for! We're planning on getting more practice time during the week, so combined with the high level of competition, we should be humming along in no time!

Should have some pics from Paul to post when I get back in a couple weeks.

If you're here looking for info on Saturday's Sneakerz tourney, contact Chris at: Vaenekene@yahoo.com; 505-363-1262 to sign up