Cleveland, Newark Win Titles In Plast Volleyball Tournament (12/26/76)

Cleveland, Newark Win Titles In Plast Volleyball Tournament

HOBOKEN, N.J. - The Stevens Institute of Technology here was the site of the Sixth Annual Plast Volleyball Tournament, sponsored by Plast's "Chervona Kalyna" unit.

Held at the Mott Field House at Stevens on Sunday, December 12, the tournament brought volleyball squads from Cleveland, Passaic, New York, Philadelphia, Jersey City, Bridgeport and Newark for a 10-hour competition for trophies sponsored by businessmen from the metropolitan area.

The tourney was organized by Walter Maruszczak of "Chervona Kalyna", who said that next year's event will be expanded to a two-day competition, bringing in more teams from distant cities. Chief referee for the tournament was Lubomyr Bilyk, sports coordinator of Plast's national command.

George Hnatiw, "otaman" of "Chervona Kalyna's" "starshi plastuny" opened the tourney, which soon brought excitement to over 100 participants in some heated competition.

In the women's division some of the most exciting moments came during the fight for third place where Passaic's 38th "kurin" finally came out victorious over the 2nd "kurin" team from New York.

Defending their title from last year's competition, Newark's 44th "kurin" team made a strong effort against the 1976 USCAK champions, Cleveland's 28th "kurin". Cleveland, led by captain Irka Dormochwal, (USCAK tourney MVP) was ahead of Newark 10-1 in the early part of the first game of the finals, but Newark came back to narrow the gap in the score which turned out 15-10 for Cleveland. The last game in the division was an easy 15-3 victory for the Cleveland team, which remained undefeated throughout the tournament.

Cleveland's Plast sports coordinator, Stepan Malanchuk, voiced his satisfaction over the general outcome of the tourney and promised to bring back his winning team next year.

Besides Irka Dormochwal, the victorious Cleveland team included Chrystia Sushko, Irka Haydak, Irka Zavadivska, Roma Telishevska and Lesia Tryliuk.

The men's division showed some excellent playing on the part of Newark's 47th "kurin" team, which retained its first place title.

The more colorful moments came in the finals where Newark showed its expertise in defeating the Passaic squad which also held its 2nd place position from last year's tournament. Cleveland's 17th "kurin" team took third in the men's division.

Newark's 47th "kurin" squad included M. Paslawsky, A. Holynsky, R. Wasiczko, M. Stocko, M. Chamulak, M. Chodnowsky, B. Turiansky and P. Hunczak.

The sixth annual Plast Volleyball Tournament of "Chervona Kalyna" ended at 8:00 o'clock Sunday night with an awards presentation to the victorious Cleveland and Newark teams.

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