Nike Boston Volleyball Festival Continues
The second week of competition in the Nike Boston Volleyball Festival continued with three Bermuda teams taking part.
On day two, the Paradise Hitters Under 18 team won all three matches to move to 4 & 2. They defeated the Gators Green 25-10, 25-17, they then defeated Mass Premier 25-19, 25-19, before closing out with a 25-10, 25-7 win over Smash.
Head Coach Braedon Cooke said, “After a tough first day of pool play, only going 1&2 in our pool, the Under 18 Girls were ready and fired up to play our second round of pool play today. We knew that most of our struggles on the first day came from being nervous at a big tournament with lots of teams, distractions and games going on everywhere. We wanted to make sure that our second day was a lot better and an improvement from our first day so we put together a game plan that we wanted to implement.
Our second day was leagues ahead of how we played on the first day. We had very tough serves which three off our opponents offense, which allowed us to use all our offensive weapons to score points. We finished 3-0 on the day with most of our games being won by over five points.
We want to care over our winning momentum we had today and, and push to win all of our games tomorrow to hopefully place first in our playoff bracket.”
The Big Wave Riders Under 17 team went 1&2, and have an overall record of 2&4. They went down 26-24, 25-17 to UVC Black, but they would bounce back to defeat CSVC Gold 25-23, 18-25, 15-11, they closed out falling 25-17, 25-20 to South County Juniors.
Head Coach Ben Barnett said, “The Under 17 Boys started off the day against a very fundamentally sounds team in UVC Black who exhibited great reception passing. Although they had some great hits they were not able to overcome the other teams defense.
The Under 17 Boys then played in a 3 set thriller where the team came out victorious against CSVC Gold. After narrowly winning the first set the boys found trouble in the 2nd set with serve reception allowing CSVC gold to build a large lead that couldn’t be brought back. The boys bounced back amazingly in the 3rd set to win 15-11 through great serving and amazing hits from the power position. It was a real team effort and the boys showed a lot of heart.
Our last game of the day did not go in our favor as we played a SCJ Boys who were a hard hitting team with good passing.
The Boys will take all of the experience from today’s games and go into the final day with desire and energy to cap off the tournament.”
The Big Wave Riders Under 18 team came off the courts on Day Two with an overall record of 2&4 this after going 1&2 on the day. they started off with a 30-28, 21-25, 15-10 win over Maine Juniors, but they would fall 18-25, 25-23, 15-11 to the New Haven Juniors, they then closed out falling 25-23, 25-16 to CMASS Apex White.
Head Coach Kevin Manuel said, “I am extremely proud of this Under 18 team. They entered this weekend with only two players ever having played in the Under 18 Division, with the majority of our team jumping up from the Under 16 Division last year.
We haven’t had any easy games this weekend and have had to battle some very experienced teams. Including one of the top 10 teams in the northeast. Playing six games with three of the games going to the full three sets.
I could not ask for any more effort than the boys have given this weekend they should be extremely happy with their performance.”
