Pre-Season Tricks or Treats Tournament

[DougHillman]

USAV Pre-Season Tournament

USAV membership & team registration is NOT required for this one. This is an excellent opportunity to try out prospective players or see how the new additions gel with your existing team. Or just throw together a team with a bunch of your buddies and come have a good time.

October 28th
Straight Down Sports Center
200 Alder, North Aurora, IL

6 courts
All men's & women's divisions welcome

Entry fee is $150 per team

1st PLACE WINS CASH!!!

Make checks payable to Erika Benton
mail to:
Erika Benton
2232 Susanna Way
Crest Hill, IL 60403

Enclose team name, division, phone number & email address with check.
You will be notified by Thursday with tournament starting time (depends on number of entries) and any last minute details.

Any questions, please contact Erika at scrubzvb@yahoo.com or call her at (815) 260-4541


Scrubz VBC will also be hosting 2006 tournaments at the same location on November 11, 18, 25 and Dec 3. Contact for division & entry info or see the USAV Greats Lakes Region Tournament Info page

[lphamel]

Has anybody played at the Straight Down venue? Mulling the prospect of putting together a men's team together for it, but all our guys live in the city. How hard is it to get to from the Loop?

[DougHillman]

Originally Posted by lphamel

Has anybody played at the Straight Down venue? Mulling the prospect of putting together a men's team together for it, but all our guys live in the city. How hard is it to get to from the Loop?

C'mon you insular city dweller! Between a 6-man team, ONE of you guys must own a car, right? 4 inside, 2 in the trunk, strap your gear on top.

The complex has a web site, but there's really not any useful info on it. Doesn't even have the upcoming tournaments listed yet. I haven't played at this place yet, but since my club is hosting the tournament (though it's not at our typical practice venue), I imagine that someone there has. I'll ask about the place this week and let you know what I hear.

It's definately easy to get to, even for people who may be more accustomed to taking the El. Just straight outta the city West on the Ike, then follow 88 West at the Hillside Strangler to North Aurora. It's just offa the highway. Barring any unreasonable (as opposed to the typical) construction delays, figure around 45 minutes from the Loop area.

Hey, bring a women's team too. I always play better when there are women to show off for.

[DougHillman]

Being a very early pre-season tourney, there were only 6 men's teams in attendance at this event. (A 7th pulled out at the last minute.) There were no women's teams signed up. Due to the low number of entries, the tournament location was moved from the Straight Down Sports Center in North Aurora to Palos Courts in Palos Heights, IL.

The teams ran the gamut from "B" to "A" level. Teams in attendance were:

Chicago Coast (an amalgam of their North & South teams, I believe)
Bada Bing
Impulse (Scrubz VBC)
Scrubz Red (Scrubz VBC)
Scrubz Blue (Scrubz VBC)
And a team whose name is on the tip of my tounge but which I can't remember. Sorry.

Chicago Coast won the tournament after going undefeated in pool play with a record of 15 - 0 (3 games to 21 vs. each team). They defeated the team I can't remember in the first round of the playoff and Bada Bing in the finals.

My team (Impulse) took second in pool play with a record of 10 - 5, losing all 3 very tight games to Coast, and dropping 1 each against Bada Bing & our club's "BB" team (Scrubz Blue) as we messed with our lineup to give some guys a rest. Not bad for not having either of our real middles in attendance. One of my middles for most of the day is 5' 10" and the other is 5' 9". For one of the matches we had a 5' 8" guy hitting middle.

Due to time constraints (to be rectified in future tourneys) the playoffs were single games to 25. We hit a flat spot and Bada Bing played tough in our playoff match. They jumped out to a pretty sizable lead in the middle of our game. We came back strong at the end and had brought the score to 23 - 22 before a greedy mistake stopped our run. Bada Bing ended up winning 25 - 23. They went on to play pretty tough in the finals, but Coast was unstoppable all day long despite losing a player to an ankle injury in the very first game of the day. (Hell, nearly the very first PLAY of the day.)

Overall, this was a pretty fun pre-season tourney. It was nice to get on the court vs. some other teams than just the rest of our club. It'll be even nicer at the next tourney on the 11th of November when I've got at least one of my actual middle hitters back on the court.