Boys Volleyball Championship -- SCCS v. AISB

Jaguars suppress attempted AISB comeback

By Lucia Landivar

      The Jaguar boys won the Volleyball final against the AISB Phoenix team in straight  sets, but it wasn’t as easy as that sounds. The score in the . first set was 25-14, a relatively straightforward win. But the second set was much more difficult,and the Jaguars finally took it 26-24. 

       The game was played at 10:45  in the morning,and the teams were psyched. The crowd cheered for their teams until their  heads hurt.
       Game started with a lot of nervous tension on the part of both teams. There were ties at  2-2,  6-6, and 7-7  in the first minutes. Jaguars Camilo Avila and Milan Marinkovic blocked the ball many times, preventing the arrival of the ball on the Jaguar side of the court. Spikes by Josue Abuawad's and Andres Shin gained more points for the Jaguars.

      All this pumped  up the Jaguars’ confidence and soon they had a lead of 19-10.

      Josue Abuawad  managed to save a ball from hitting the ground and score a point with a sliding kick in which he threw himself on the ground.  Jaguar Camilo Avila also threw himself to the ground several times to save a point, and soon the Jaguars had the Phoenix at their mercy.

      With the score 24-14, the Jaguars had smiles on their faces, while the Phoenix team looked worried and tense. Milan Marinkovic scored the final point of the set with a smash. The first set went to the Jaguars 25-14.
       The second set started off as if it would be simply a continuatioin of the first, with a confident  Jaguar team jumping out to a  lead of 6-2. Jaguar Milan Marinkovics' serves carved their way to open spots on the Phoenix side of the court. Several times, and the Cochabamba team was becoming very frustrated.

       In the middles of the set, the referee had Jaguar Camilo Avila shake hands and talk with the Phoenix captain, just to relieve tensions and avoid inappropiate language and insults. The tenor of the game changed, and the Jaguars and Phoenix were suddenly tied at 9-9, and  then 10-10.
       The two teams provided thrill after thill for the large crowd. Jaguar Rodrigo Adriazola managed a seemingly impossible save by throwing himself backwards, and hitting a hard return in the same move. His heroics tied the score at 11-11..
      The Jaguar team suddenly seemed to feel the pressure as the Phoenix took the lead in the game 16-13.The Jaguars no longer seemed as focused as they had been, though they continued to make brilliant individual plays

       Jaguars Eduardo Ribera and Avila were constantly throwing themselves on the ground to make heroic ¨digs” for the ball, but the Phoenix held onto their three-point edge until the score was 23-20. A third set was beginning to look increasingly likely.

      Finally the Jaguars seemed to gain traction. With the help of Marinkovic's spikes and and Abuawad's serves.they evened the count at 23-23, and then 24-24. The  Jaguars were kissing the ball every time they made a point, and it seemed to work as they took the next two points to win the set and take the match. The deciding point again came on a Marinkovic smash.