Boys championship game
Griffins barely beat battling Eagles
From coaches' reports
The International boys varsity volleyball team withstood a tremendous challenge from Christian Learning, which at one point was serving to win the match, to take the championship two sets to one Monday evening in their home gym.
Christian Learning started strong, taking the first set 25-22. The Griffins came back to take the second set by the same score. The third set, played in front of a standing, chanting, stomping, bottle-bonking crowd was tied five times before the Griffins finally won it 18-16.
Eagle coach Bob Friesen paid tribute to the effort his team made. The effort, he said, indicating the playing floor, "is all out there. They didn't save any for another day." He also praised International. "They kept serving hard. They kept coming."
Griffin coach Eli Vilar said that both teams had been a fascinating combination of "perfection and nervousness." They both repeatedly "did amazing things, and then made bad mistakes." As an example she noted that both teams, when they first got the chance to win a match point, made bad serves.
"They were great and bad at the same time," she said laughing. "It was wonderful."
Christian Learning is a team that has been given to having good days and bad days, either winning decisively or losing decisively. They made clear early on that this was one of their better days, jumping out to 3-0, and 6-2 leads in the early part of the first set.
International, fulfilling its reputation for resilience, fought back steadily and eventually knotted the score at 8-8.
The game proceeded like that with teams taking turns in the lead, but never by more than a point or two, all the way to 22-22. The Eagles got the next three points, one of them on an uncharacteristic error by a Griffin player who mishandled an easy ball in the backcourt.
The final point was an eventful one. It looked initially to everyone as if Jeff Stabler's serve had found an open spot just beyond the front men, and the Eagles actually started to celebrate. Almost unnoticed, an International player had popped the ball up, and it was heading back across to the momentarily distracted Eagles. Stabler, better able to see what had happened from the backcourt, alerted his teammates to the incoming return just in time. The ball made several more passes over the net before International his it out long to give Christian Learning the set.
In the second set it was International's turn to jump out to the early lead. Rallied by the steady, accurate serving of Christopher Saltzieder, the Griffins took a 7-1 lead before the Eagles started a slow process of climbing back. They would not pull even until the score was 19-19.
Both teams went increasingly to their big spikers, Stabler for the Eagles and Pablo Muñoz for the Griffins. The Eagles went to Stabler without guile or artifice, setting the big junior up again and again. International spread its attack out a little more, but the results for both teams were about the same.
Again the score was tied at 22-22, but this time it was International that pushed through the three final points, one of them on a nice piece of finesse by Griffin Martin Gonzalez, who tipped the ball just high enough to go over leaping Eagle Esteban Eguez and fall into an uncovered spot.
The third game was simply all-out war. The teams were never more than two points apart.
There was a time out with International leading 12-11, at which point the large group of Eagle fans simply stood up and screamed.
It worked. Their team responded, tying the score, then edging ahead until at 15-14 they were serving for the match.
The serve was long, however, and International then clawed itself into a match point situation -- and also came up with a bad serve.
They battled on into the night until International got another match point. A sharply hit International shot to the center of the court looked like it was going to be the game winner, but nothing in this match was that simple.
Eguez, who had been serving, dove and drove the ball back. A shout of joy went up from the Christian Learning fans as the ball whizzed across the net. But then there was sudden silence as the Christian Learning fans could see, before the International fans could (because of where the groups were sitting), that the ball was going out. The momentary sound vacuum was quickly filled by a victory ovation from the International side.
That was the kind of game it was, shifting in split seconds, the differences between the teams being measured in centimeters.
The line-up for the champions of International: Alex Roempler, Waldo Bernal, Rodrigo Bernal, Pablo Muñoz, Juan Sebastian Narvaez, Christopher Saltzieder, Martin Gonzalez, Juse Landivar, Enzo Fortuny.
For the runner-up Eages: Fabricio Encina, David Lotz, Tim Swope, Jeff Stabler, Esteban Eguez, Frankin Chou, Kyle Swope, Danny Canaviri, Mark Salinas, Jesse Hallock.
Griffins barely beat battling Eagles
From coaches' reports
The International boys varsity volleyball team withstood a tremendous challenge from Christian Learning, which at one point was serving to win the match, to take the championship two sets to one Monday evening in their home gym.
Christian Learning started strong, taking the first set 25-22. The Griffins came back to take the second set by the same score. The third set, played in front of a standing, chanting, stomping, bottle-bonking crowd was tied five times before the Griffins finally won it 18-16.
Eagle coach Bob Friesen paid tribute to the effort his team made. The effort, he said, indicating the playing floor, "is all out there. They didn't save any for another day." He also praised International. "They kept serving hard. They kept coming."
Griffin coach Eli Vilar said that both teams had been a fascinating combination of "perfection and nervousness." They both repeatedly "did amazing things, and then made bad mistakes." As an example she noted that both teams, when they first got the chance to win a match point, made bad serves.
"They were great and bad at the same time," she said laughing. "It was wonderful."
Christian Learning is a team that has been given to having good days and bad days, either winning decisively or losing decisively. They made clear early on that this was one of their better days, jumping out to 3-0, and 6-2 leads in the early part of the first set.
International, fulfilling its reputation for resilience, fought back steadily and eventually knotted the score at 8-8.
The game proceeded like that with teams taking turns in the lead, but never by more than a point or two, all the way to 22-22. The Eagles got the next three points, one of them on an uncharacteristic error by a Griffin player who mishandled an easy ball in the backcourt.
The final point was an eventful one. It looked initially to everyone as if Jeff Stabler's serve had found an open spot just beyond the front men, and the Eagles actually started to celebrate. Almost unnoticed, an International player had popped the ball up, and it was heading back across to the momentarily distracted Eagles. Stabler, better able to see what had happened from the backcourt, alerted his teammates to the incoming return just in time. The ball made several more passes over the net before International his it out long to give Christian Learning the set.
In the second set it was International's turn to jump out to the early lead. Rallied by the steady, accurate serving of Christopher Saltzieder, the Griffins took a 7-1 lead before the Eagles started a slow process of climbing back. They would not pull even until the score was 19-19.
Both teams went increasingly to their big spikers, Stabler for the Eagles and Pablo Muñoz for the Griffins. The Eagles went to Stabler without guile or artifice, setting the big junior up again and again. International spread its attack out a little more, but the results for both teams were about the same.
Again the score was tied at 22-22, but this time it was International that pushed through the three final points, one of them on a nice piece of finesse by Griffin Martin Gonzalez, who tipped the ball just high enough to go over leaping Eagle Esteban Eguez and fall into an uncovered spot.
The third game was simply all-out war. The teams were never more than two points apart.
There was a time out with International leading 12-11, at which point the large group of Eagle fans simply stood up and screamed.
It worked. Their team responded, tying the score, then edging ahead until at 15-14 they were serving for the match.
The serve was long, however, and International then clawed itself into a match point situation -- and also came up with a bad serve.
They battled on into the night until International got another match point. A sharply hit International shot to the center of the court looked like it was going to be the game winner, but nothing in this match was that simple.
Eguez, who had been serving, dove and drove the ball back. A shout of joy went up from the Christian Learning fans as the ball whizzed across the net. But then there was sudden silence as the Christian Learning fans could see, before the International fans could (because of where the groups were sitting), that the ball was going out. The momentary sound vacuum was quickly filled by a victory ovation from the International side.
That was the kind of game it was, shifting in split seconds, the differences between the teams being measured in centimeters.
The line-up for the champions of International: Alex Roempler, Waldo Bernal, Rodrigo Bernal, Pablo Muñoz, Juan Sebastian Narvaez, Christopher Saltzieder, Martin Gonzalez, Juse Landivar, Enzo Fortuny.
For the runner-up Eages: Fabricio Encina, David Lotz, Tim Swope, Jeff Stabler, Esteban Eguez, Frankin Chou, Kyle Swope, Danny Canaviri, Mark Salinas, Jesse Hallock.
VICTORY LAP -- International's triumphant boys and girls teams take a lap around the Griffins gym with their championship trophies.Cambridge College
Girls championship game
Griffins win heart-stopper over Eagles
From coaches' reports
Games don't get much closer than this match. Not even the boys championship.
But in the end the International girls varsity volleyball team preserved its perfect season, and won the league championship, in a three-set match against Christian Learning in which the Eagles showed all the courage and heart that anyone could have asked of a champion.
The Eagles came out and took the first set, 25-23, marking the first time this season that they had taken a set from International this year. However, International seemed to have regained control in the second set, grinding out a 25-16 win with relentless precision.
However, the Eagles were not ready to surrender. In a third set that was a true "barn-burner," in which the score was tied at 9-9, 11-11, 13-13, 14-14, 15-15, 16-16, and 17-17 before International finally could string together two points in a row to win the set, and match, 19-17.
The line up for International was Melissa Roca, Soraya Dajbura, Simone Ahuile (Captain), Fabiana Murillo, Laura Chavez, Adriana Ocampo, Maria Victoria Gutierrez, Beatriz Nallar.
More details to come . . . .
Boys consolation game
Knights finally win; Jaguars are victims
From coaches reports
The Cambridge boys did something Monday in the consolation game of the playoffs that they haven't done all season -- they won a match.
The result was that the 0-6 Knights end up in third place, a notch above the 4-2 Jaguars who, until a few days ago, were co-favorites to win the championship with International and Christian Learning, both of which had the same won-loss record. The two teams ended up in the consolation game after losing in the semifinals. The match was played Monday at International.
Jaguar coach Jesus Flores said there was a simple explanation for the way things turned out. "We played bad," he said.
But the Jaguars just may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Knight coach Eduardo "Presi" de la Riva said the key factor for his team had been "motivation." They simply did not want to be remembered as a team that had lost all of its games.
The Jaguars played well enough to take the first set 25-14 against an error-plagued Cambridge team that served badly, let balls fall between players because of miscommunication, unsuccessfully tried to field balls that were going out, while letting a number of other balls fall in. But then in the second set the teams seemed to switch personalities, and it was Cambridge that was playing with precision and consistency while the Jaguars started making mistakes and quarreling among themselves.
The third set was a close battle, with Cambridge finally prevailing 15-13 after a long rally in which both sides made amazing saves.
The line-up for the victorious Knights: Juan Manuel Salas, Christopher Cocianni, J. Añvarez, Andres Cirigliano, Nocolas Gamboa, Manfred Grote, Oscar Mariscal, Martin Pacor, Remi Ottaviano.
For the Jaguars: Diego Morales, Esteban Gomez, Cristobal Roda, Juan Alfredo Abuawad, Juan Casares, Wilson Salvatierra, Andre Saavedra, Mateus de Carvalho, Rafael Mansilla.
Girls consolation game
Jaguars gain narrow win over Knights
From coaches' reports
The Co-operative girls varsity volleyball team turned in a finely crafted performance to defeat Cambridge in straight sets in the consolation game played Monday at International.
The Jaguars won the first set 25-21, and fended off Cambridge in the second, 25-23. The victory in the consolation game gave the Jaguar girls third place in the league.
Both sets were marked by long rallies with many dramatic saves. The games were close, but lacked the incandescent excitement that would surround the matches later in the day. In the second and deciding set Co-operatiove early on was able to establish a two-point lead, and kept it for the remainder of the game. Cambridge occasionally came within one point -- notably at 22-21 and 23-22, but wasn't able to tie the game up and go ahead of the very consistent Jaguar team.
The Jaguar team was bolstered by the addition of several players from its championship junior varsity team, including Hailey White and Maria Velasco, who played most of the match.
Cambridge was without the services of Mariana Escaño, one of its key players, who fainted before the match, apparently from the heat and stress. She reported herself to be fully recovered later in the afternoon, but was unable to play.
The line-up for the victorious Jaguars: Cecelia Aponte, Veronica Richter, Ximena Guzman, Ana Paola Justiniano, Alexia Handal, Aldana Roda, Mariana Perez, Nicole Elias, Karla Flores, Nabilah Farah, Maria Velasco.
For Cambridge: Valeria Escaño, Ana Saavedra, Mariana Evans, Helen Yong, Lourdes Justinano, Nan Jordan, Andrea Saba, Vania Rueda.
