The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Spiking in the New Year Tournament
VERONA, N.Y. » With New Years and Section III volleyball around the corner, the only thing VernonVerona-Sherrill Varsity Volleyball coach Alex Rose had on his mind was Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s annual Spiking in the New Year Tournament. Teams from outside the area that attended the tournament included Mount Markham, Sauquoit Valley, Herkimer, and Little Falls. However, these teams, along with the hosts, looked forward to getting a shot at the Chittenango Bears, the reigning Section III and Regional champs for two years running.
The tournament was done in a round robin style of five rounds, allowing each team to play every team in attendance, a quality that CoachRose finds that really helps assess his team for the long season ahead. In addition to playing teams outside of the area and section such as MountMarkham and Herkimer, Rose sees the tournament as a platform to try a variety of different line-ups as well as reinforcing the strengths his teams has and smoothing out some of the kinks.
Returning players for VVVS include senior setter Owen Rose, outside hitter Nate Brewer, setter Brennan Miller, middles Matt DeNova and Jarrod Crane, libero Cole Smith, and defensive specialist Matt Ciotti.
As for the tournament’s other local team, the Chittenango Bears have three key returning starters in Griffen Smith, Tim Ryder, and Jake Graham.
After losing the second game of round two to the Herkimer
Knights 26-28, the VVS boys went on to beat Little Falls handedly 25-14 and 25-7. A quick turn around in games then had the hosts facing the undefeated Chittenango Bears in round four
VVS took an early lead on the last year’s champs 14-9 with stellar blocking by senior center Matt Denova, forcing Chittenango to take a timeout. After the timeout, Chittenango junior Nick Callahan tipped the ball over blockers to find an open spot In the court. Following the tip, Chittenango senior Timothy Ryder had a nice serving streak cutting the deficit to one, leading to a VVS timeout. VVS senior Owen Rose tried to hold the lead with a big block and kill, however impressive defense by the Bears equalized the score at 19. With a couple VVS mistakes and big hits by Chittenango junior Keith Spurgeon, the Bears pulled away and took game one 25-21.
The second game saw a lot more scrappy play on both sides of the ball, noticeably by VVS’ junior Matthew Ciotti and senior libero Cole Smith and Chittenango senior Timothy Ryder. Backed by an energetic crowd, the teams had several lead changes throughout the match until Chittenango senior Jacob Graham put down a massive spike, giving the Bears a 2119 lead. Chittenango’s momentum was cut short by a missed serve, giving Rose andDenova room to put together key blocks and kills to tie the game at 22. After an out of rotation call on the Bears, VVS took a 24-22 lead, which was ultimately finished a solid serving run by Brennan Miller.
With one loss to VVS, the Chittenango Bears were crowned the champi- ons of the 2017 Spiking in the New Year tournament. Chittenango senior Jacob Graham was named the tournament MVP, along with Chittenango’s Timothy Ryder and Griffen Smith receiving all- star nominations. VVS’ allstar nominations were awarded to Cole Smith and Nathan Brewer.