SPORTS SCENE: Yonkers hosts Spring Volleyball Tournament
by Mark Howansky
YONKERS, N.Y. - The Yonkers branch of the Ukrainian American Youth Association (SUM) and the Krylati Sports Club on Saturday, April 16, welcomed 10 adult teams and seven youth teams back to Lincoln High School for their recently revived Spring Volleyball Tournament.
Teams traveled from as far away as upstate New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania to participate.
YOUTH TOURNAMENT SUMMARY
Co-ed teams from seven SUM branches participated in the youth division: Yonkers, N.Y. (three teams), Binghamton, N.Y., Whippany, N.J., Passaic, N.J., and Philadelphia. The teams were made up of "starshe yunatstvo" SUM members (boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 18).
In the preliminary round, the teams were split into two groups and played a round-robin format. The final standings after the preliminary round were as follows:
| Team | Wins-Losses | (Pt. Diff.) |
| Yonkers I | 4-2 | (+11) |
| Philadelphia | 4-2 | (+3) |
| Passaic | 3-3 | |
| Binghamton | 1-5 |
| Team | Wins-Losses |
| Yonkers II | 4-0 |
| Yonkers III | 2-2 |
| Whippany | 0-4 |
The playoffs started with the fifth place match, where first-time tournament participant Whippany upset last-year's second-place finisher, Passaic.
In the first semifinal match, Yonkers I survived a scrappy Yonkers III team, 15-9, 15-12, to advance to the final. It should be noted that the Yonkers I team made it all the way to the final, despite being without its coach, Iko Danyluk, who sustained a knee injury early in the day playing in the adult division and had to be taken to the hospital. Obviously, the young volleyballers did not forget their training from the months preceding the tournament.
In the second semifinal, the fashion-challenged Yonkers II squad (a.k.a. Skarpetky) defeated Philadelphia 15-12, 15-8, despite the fact that they were not able to color coordinate their uniforms.
In the third-place match, Philadelphia rebounded from its previous loss and staved off Yonkers III, 21-18, 21-12, to take home a trophy.
The final featured two Yonkers teams, who were playing for hometown bragging rights. In the end, it was the free-wheeling Skarpetky who prevailed over the coachless Yonkers I squad, 21-16, 21-7.
Youth Division Final Standings
ADULT TOURNAMENT SUMMARY
The adult tournament featured the usual powerhouse teams of Khmeli/Spartanky (Plast), the Morris County Volleyball Club of New Jersey and Hartford SUM, who all happened to be drawn into the same "group of death." Krylati and Team Sammy (last year's third- and fourth-place finishers, respectively) were also poised to pull off some upsets during the day.
The rest of the field was rounded out by some creatively named teams such as Hotness, Krapka, Absolute, Pyvo and Kompot.
As with the youth tournament, in the preliminary round, the co-ed teams were split into two groups and played in a round-robin format. The final standings after the preliminary round were as follows:
| Team | Wins-Losses |
| Krylati | 8-0 |
| Absolute | 6-2 |
| Kompot | 4-4 |
| Krapka | 1-7 |
| Hotness | 1-7 |
| Team | Wins-Losses | (Pt. Diff.) |
| Khmeli | 7-1 | |
| Hartford | 5-3 | |
| MCVC | 4-4 | (+11) |
| Sammy | 4-4 | (+8) |
| Pyvo | 0-8 |
In the playoff round, the top-ranked team of each group had a bye, and the No. 2 and 3 teams played quarterfinal matches. Therefore, Krylati and Khmeli rested as Absolute played MCVC (who narrowly edged out Team Sammy by three points in group play) and Kompot played Hartford.
MCVC showed the strength of Group B by forcefully upsetting Absolute, 15-5, 15-8. And Team Kompot put forth a valiant effort pushing Hartford to extra points in the first game before eventually falling, 18-16, 15-11.
The first semifinal featured a rematch of last-year's final: Khmeli vs. MCVC. The final score does not reflect the intensity and closeness of the match, which saw Khmeli Spartanky prevail, 15-8, 15-9.
In the second semifinal, it took Hartford three games to beat the soccer-players-turned-volleyball-players Krylati, 15-9, 7-15, 11-9.
And Krylati pushed the third-place match into a deciding third game as well, before falling to MCVC, 15-9, 13-15, 11-8.
The final saw the Khmeli/Spartanky squad, complete with two former All-Americans, successfully defend their title from last year against a tired, but dogged Hartford team, 15-7, 15-9.
Adult Division Final Standings
After the tournament, all the teams gathered at the Ukrainian Youth Center on Palisade Avenue, where they watched video highlights from the tournament and enjoyed dinner. The evening culminated with an awards ceremony during which trophies were awarded to the winning teams as well as division MVPs.
Recognized as tournament MVPs were: adult male - David Cunicowicz (MCVC), adult female - Helen Szedga (Hartford), and youth - Peter Drobenko (Yonkers).
During the dinner, thanks were expressed to all the organizers, volunteers and participants, especially tournament director Sammy Warycha, Krylati S.C. President Mark Howansky and Yonkers SUM President Andrij Burchak.
Much credit should go to the organizers, who hosted another successful tournament despite some unexpected surprises, such as technical difficulties setting up the nets and a fire alarm the morning of the tournament.
For more information about local Ukrainian volleyball, including the upcoming quads tournament at the SUM Oselia (resort) in Ellenville, N.Y., on July 23, readers may e-mail [email protected].
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 19, 2005, No. 25, Vol. LXXIII
| Home Page |