Durham Attack | 15U Attacks at Rochester Can-Am

The weekend of January 13 – 14 was the annual US Junior Olympic Qualifier in Rochester N.Y. Durham Attack was well represented with a 3rd place finish from the 14U boys and a 5th place result from the 16U boys. Top finish however, went to the 15U Boys who came home with a silver medal and a lesson learned in how far a bit of hard work will take you.

The team opened with a late Saturday afternoon match quickly putting away Pitt United 25 -11, 25 – 18, led by setting from Tim Flynn. The next two matches against Southtown from Buffalo and host, Pace Bootlegger, did not go their way, losing 22 – 25, 23 – 25 and 16 – 25, 25 – 23, 9 – 15 respectively. After a team meal and a few hours sleep the boys were back at it trying to work their way into contention. Starting the morning with an 8:00am loss to Club Lehigh was the wake up call they needed. Cross town rivals, Toronto West, were no match for Seb Keegan’s driving hits and Pete Koropatwa’s flawless blocking, as they bowed 25 – 21, 25 – 15. Pace – 2 could not contend with Cam Wynn powering the ball and Jordan Wyszynski patrolling the right side, they went down in two sets, 25 – 20, 25 – 13.

The medal round opened with a rematch against Southtown and D.A. did not disappoint. Controlling the net with big hands from Nathan Minard and a passing lesson from Libero, Tom Alayon, winning the first set 25 – 13 before Southtown squeeked out a 24 – 26 victory in the second set. This set up the third set that was 8 – 7 at the switch but a series of awesome serves by Pierre Auger put away the opponent 15 – 11. The semi – final was against unknown Eden, also from Buffalo, who had lost only one match in the first round and one in the second round. Durham opened with a comfortable 25 – 19 win as Bryan Wysocki found his range at the net and combined his pounding hit with some well timed tips to keep the opponent in check. Our boys seemed to watch as the opponent racked up a 15 – 25 score in the second set. Once again the 3rd set and the team came out ready, with repeated points scored by the combination of setting by Scott Cockburn and ambidextrous hits by Kieran Sadler, it was all over, 15 – 11 for the good guys.

The final match, against Pace – 1, was the 6th match of the day for D.A. and it showed dropping two sets 15 – 25, 16 – 25 to a team that, although they were superior on that day, the 15U boys are looking forward to a rematch next year.

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