Jaguars defeat Knights in straight sets
The Cooperative boys volleyball team took third place in the playoff tournament by defeating Cambridge in the consolation game Tuesday at International.
The Jaguars had their hands full in the first set, but prevailed 25-18. The Jaguars had less difficulty in the second, winning 25-18.
The result was no unexpected in that Cooperative had defeated Cambridge by decisive scores twice during the regular season, while Cambridge had not had a win all year.
However, many fans remembered that last year Cooperative had faced Cambridge under roughly similar circumstance in last year's playoff, and had up set the Jaguars.
The Jaguars were a much more authoritative team this year, and never trailed after the opening phases of both sets. Jaguar Juan Alfredo Abuawad was again the key player for the Jaguars, going high above the net to spike, smash, smush, and tap the ball to undefended spaces on the Cambridge side.
He would get this reporter's vote for Most Valuable Player in the league, if there were such a designation, and hos own vote would probably go to Jaguar setter David Shin who time and again put the ball right where Abuawad wanted it. he is the only player in the league who can routinely spike the ball with both hands.
Cambridge turned in their strongest performance year, getting all star caliber play from Christopher Cocciani, and some good points by Alvaro Lopez. However, what became painfully clear during the game was that while the Knights could set the ball up well, they had no one comparable to Abuawad to set it for. Only Cocciani and Lopez could really get high enough to launch a successful spike. Others tried manfully -- but failed.
Besides Abuawad and Shin , the Jaguar line-up included Diego Morales, Jorge Rojas, Wilson Salvatierra, Jorge Melgar, Milan Markovic, and Oliver Lederman.
The Cambridge line-up included Martin Pacor, Juan Manuel Salas, Cacciani, Sergio Palazuelos, Nicolas Gamboa, Mattias Martinez, Javier de las Heras, Lopez, Fabricio Subirano, and Benjamin Ezpeleta.
