NVASeasonTornadoes Make Their Debut in San Bernadino, California

Day 1, Match #3

Team Freedom’s Consistent Play Trumps Tornadoes Valiant Effort

Tornadoes started strong with one kill by OH Nicholas Mueller and three kills by OH Steven Roschitz. At 6-6 Team Freedom took the lead and extended it with three mini runs that included kills by setter Matt Elias, OH Christopher Vaughn, block by MB Matt Seifert, kill by OPP Joe Norman and service ace from Elias to 13-7. Tornadoes Roschitz and MB Chike Opurum made a valiant try to spark a comeback but Team Freedom found ways to curtail their efforts. Team Freedom hung on to their six point lead with some great side outs and finished off the set with Seifert and OH Christopher Nugent and a block by Seifert for the 25-17 win. 

Team Freedom took an early five point lead in the second set with a service run from Seifert’s ace; and kills from Norman and Vaughn. Roschitz stopped the bleeding with a kill. But then Team Freedom started another run with a series of kills by Roschitz and Vaughn; block by Elias and a Vaughn ace to extend the lead to 14-5. Although the Tornadoes passed well and played some good defense they just couldn’t score points thanks to Team Freedom’s defense, much of it as a result of good coverage covering, digging balls and good transition offense. Strong serving also helped Team Freedom dominate this set and win 25-10. 

In set three the Tornadoes made a lineup change and took their first lead of the match at 5-4 thanks to some solid play from Roschitz who ended up with a team leading 9 kills. But Team Freedom built a lead on a run of blocks by Keith Kegerries and Seifert; and a Seifert ace to take the lead of 8-5. Both teams sided out until Team Freedom pulled away at 18-16 and won the match 25-19.   

Team Freedom’s constant play coupled with Tornadoes poor hitting of 28% resulted in an easy sweep. Roschitz led the Tornadoes with 9 kills and Sequil Sanchez had 4 kills in a losing effort. Norman led Team Freedom with 12 kills and Nugent finished with 9 kills. 

 

Day 2, Match #4

Stingers Shut Down Tornadoes In 3 Sets 

While the Stingers started off well with Leo Durkin setting balls for kills by Jorge Mencia, Alex Shmelev, Cory Metcalf and Novel Romero, the Tornadoes struggled with hitting errors and fell behind early 8-4. The Tornadoes picked up their play with kills by Aaron King and an ace by Luis Vasquez to cut the lead to 11-9. The Stingers answered with kills by Paul Clark and Romero but then a series of Stinger hitting errors relinquished the lead to the Tornadoes at 16-12. After the media timeout the Stingers substituted setter Hamilton Day for Durkin. Unfortunately the Tornadoes’ hitters couldn’t find the court. They committed a slew of errors, which gave the Stingers free points to gain back the lead at 20-13. The Tornadoes only scored two more points on a Stinger hitting error and kill by King. The Stingers scored five of the last seven points from kills by Clark and Carson Henninger, and block by Shmelev. Clark scored a service ace on the last point to secure the set win for the Stingers 25-15.

In set two the Stingers started Chandler Baugh at Libero.  The Tornadoes struggled to find the court and a block by Romero gave the Stingers 4-0 lead. Tornadoes scored their first point on a service error by Clark at 4-1, then followed up with the first real point from a Hernandez kill. A stinger service and hitting error gave Tornadoes two more points. During this stretch Stingers scored points on kills by Clark, Mencia and Shmelev to build an 8-4 lead. After the timeout the Tornadoes continued with their hitting errors. Clark had three consecutive kills that increased the Stingers’ lead to 12-5. The Tornadoes finally started to side out with kills by setter Brady Castillo, Eduardo Hernandez, King and block by Patrick Moscicki but a run of kills by Romero kept the Stingers’ lead at 16-11. At 22-17 the Tornadoes scored their last point of the set on an ace by Vasquez. The Stingers closed the set with three straight points on Tornadoes’ service and hitting errors and ended the set on a service ace by Stingers’ Shmelev to win 25-18.

In set three both teams scored on each other’s service or hitting errors on the first six points. Metcalf scored the first real point to give the Stingers a 4-3 lead. The Tornadoes captured their first lead of the match from a kill and block by Moscicki to 6-4 but the Stingers’ took back the lead from a Tornadoes hitting error, ace by Romero and kill by Metcalf to 8-6. Tornadoes rallied back to tie at 12-12 on hitting errors by the Stingers and kill and blocks by Eduardo Hernandez and kill by Moscicki and then took the lead back at 16-15 on a Hernandez kill. Tornadoes added to their lead on another Hernandez kill to 17-15. Stingers answered with kills by Clark and Shmelev; and back to back Shmelev blocks and tied the set at 19-19. Both teams sided out well with kills by Hernandez, block by King and Moscicki for the Tornadoes; and kills by Clark, Romero and Metcalf and block by Shmelev for the Stingers. Stingers closed out the match with the last two points on a Romero ace and a Metcalf kill for a 26-24 win.

For the Tornadoes Hernandez had 6 kills and Vasquez and King had 4 kills; and team hitting was 29%. For the Stingers Romero led all players with 11 kills, Clark with 10 kills, Metcalf 6 and Henninger 5 kills; and team hitting was 46%. 

 

Day 3, Match #3

Blaze Rebound After First Set Loss to Tornadoes and Win Match in 4 Sets

Blaze and Tornadoes offenses started strong. Blaze scored on kills by Charles Belvin, Jordan Walley, John Rodriguez and a dump by setter Marques Buggs. For the Tornadoes middle blocker Steven Roschitz started the set with a kill, followed by two kills from Sequiel Sanchez, kill from middle blockers Patrick Moscicki and Roschitz block to lead 8-7. After the first media timeout Blaze hitting errors helped Tornadoes increase their lead to three points with an ace and kill from Eduardo Hernandez and Sanchez. During this run Blaze only had two kills from Travis O’Gorman. At 16-13 two kills by Roschitz and block by Aaron King increased the lead to 20-16. But O’Gorman caught fire and scored four of the next five points for the Blaze that cut the Tornadoes lead to 21-20. But the Tornadoes fought back and scored the last two points of the set on kills by Sanchez and won 25-22. 

In set two both teams committed a total of 14 hitting and service errors. Blaze took the early lead that began with a block by middle blocker John Rodriguez, followed with two kills by Belvin, O’Gorman kill and Rodriguez service ace that gave them a three point lead at 8-5. The only two real scores for the Tornadoes came on kills from Sanchez and Moscicki. After the first media timeout Tornadoes scored on kills by King, Roschitz, Hernandez and block by Sanchez. Blaze scored on 4 kills by O’Gorman, Nieves Rodriquez and block by Rodriguez and service ace by Buggs and took a commanding 20-13 lead. Tornadoes countered with a short rally on a service ace by Roschitz and a Sanchez kill and block. Blaze won the set 25-21 on kills by Walley and O’Gorman. 

Set three was a mirror image of set two that ended in the same score. Blaze and Tornadoes committed a total of l8 hitting and service errors. A Sanchez kill started the scoring for the Tornadoes, followed by a King block and kills by Roschitz and Hernandez. Blaze scored on two consecutive kills by Belvin, one by Nieves, another Belvin kill, a Walley kill and Rodriquez block to lead before the first media timeout at 8-7. Both teams had a successful spurt of side-outs in which the Tornadoes scored on a Hernandez block, Sanchez kill, Moscicki block and Sanchez service ace. Blaze scored points from a Buggs dump and kills by O’Gorman, Nieves and Walley. At 12-12 Blaze pulled ahead by two points with a  kill by Belvin and a block by O’Gorman to 16-14. Only four real points were scored by both teams the rest of the set. For Tornadoes a kill by Sanchez and Roschitz; and Blaze O’Gorman and Belvin. The set ended on a Tornadoes’ hitting error that gave the Blaze a 25-21 win. 

In set four Blaze cut down on their errors but not the Tornadoes, who had a total of 10 service and hitting errors. Blaze capitalized on the Tornadoes’ early errors and took a commanding 8-1 lead that they never relinquished. Bad passing contributed to most of the Tornadoes’ errors and only managed to score 6 real points on two kills and one block by Roschitz, two kills by Sanchez and one kill from King. Blaze scored on three kills by Nieves, three kills by Walley, three kills and an ace by Belvin, O’Gorman kill and block and Rodriquez kill. Blaze closed out the match with a kill and block by Joseph Cuevas and won 25-13.

Roschitz and Sanchez led Tornadoes with 10 kills each, Moscicki 4 and King and Hernandez 3. Tornadoes had 5 blocks and hit 33%. For the Blaze  Belvin and O’Gorman led all players with 11 each, Jordan 8, and Nieves and Rodriguez 8. Blaze had 8 blocks and hit 50%. Tornadoes finished with an 0-3 record and Blaze 2-1.