week9

The week started off hot and humid, the worst of the summer but by Wednesday the heat had broken. It was a near perfect night for volleyball, just a few weeks from the big playoff extravaganza. Eight of the ten scheduled weeks have been completed, leaving only two regular season weeks to be played. Races are extremely tight in 6 divisions – the Ocean has Freedhand’s, Hyper Athletic and Gatemate.net within 2 games of each other; the Ocean Breeze has Casino Auto Body, JG Electric and That’s What She Set within 2; The Beach has Rat Pack NYC, Edison Place and the Wharf Rats within 3; the Sun has Perfect Settings, the White Horse Tavern and the Bungalow Baranha’s within 3; and the Moon has Channimals, Boarder’s Surf Shop and the IFMA’s within 2 of each other. The next two weeks will heat up these pennant races even more as teams vie for better playoff positions. Kobeyaki Got Kills, the Breakaways, It’s 5 O’clock Somewhere and the Harbor Light Sandhogs have opened up leads in their respective divisions but you never know what could happen.

In the Boardwalk division, It’s All Good edged the Rockaway Breakers 3-2 to tie them for first place along with the Rockaway Gliders, all of whom have 26 points. This was the first loss of the season for the Breakers and a man who shall remain nameless seemed to place the blame for the defeat on the Wave’s editorial policy. No one else could quite make the connection. The RBVL sports reporters were given “Total Access” to It’s All Good and were lucky enough to be in the huddle while Bugsy delivered one of his famous pep talks. Of course, everything else that was said was off the record so that’s it. We have nothing else. Game five took a sad turn when spiritual leader, Dickie Flanagan, pulled a calf (some say it was a full grown cow) muscle and had to leave the game. TBG showed fans a large piece of cement that had to be removed from Dickie’s shoes via an emergency beach operation. Concerns grow for the team for the upcoming playoffs as Cement Shoes availability is up in the air. He is not the squad’s most valuable bumper, setter or spiker but he is the team’s most valuable cooler coordinator. And no team goes very far in the playoffs without the proper amount of liquid nutrition. It might be time for TBG to step up and make it all good. Bugsy demonstrated that being a team captain is not just about the glory and the power when he had to run onto the court to massage Cement Shoes injury. That’s doing the dirty work, my friends. He then dropped $15 on the boardwalk masseuse to finish the job. (If it was an upper groin injury he would have went for $30.) Cement Shoes, get well soon.

The last place Sands Point Physical Therapy played against Sand Spikes for the second week in a row, taking only one game on the sand. They admit they need to communicate more, and said it takes a while to get their groove going. They get props, though, for recreating a team from scratch after former players had to retire (that commute from the city is brutal.) Casino Auto Body beat That’s What She Set three to two in a battle for first place (that’s rare for Casino) in the Ocean Breeze Division. Lauren Ganun was Casino’s MVP – and all five games were dead even, which makes ten games in two weeks that the games were decided at the very end. Half of them were overtime, too. Don’t be surprised if these two face off in the playoffs on 8/8. The White House Tavern Beach Posse and the Bungalow Baranha’s played five hard-fought games. The bumps, sets and spikes felt like playoff day, and tempers were high on both sides. (That’s what makes things fun.) High-flying Vinny had mad ups, surprising many opposing players with his spikes over the net. “Sweet T” made a few jumps, too, and Casey also stepped up her level of play. But the Posse’s killer spikes had the fish’s heads spinning. Both teams played their best to match the other’s level. It felt like August, in the best way.

The host team Wharf Rats took four games against Edison’s Place. There were comebacks, but the Rats dominated most games. Bobby Leckie played like a professional, with a record-number face spikes and good serves in all of the games. Miley’s Home Improvement played Hyper-Athletics tonight. They lost all five, their third sweep in a row. They didn’t have much else to say except, “We play alright but we just lose every game.” Sometimes that’s how it goes on the sand. The second-place Arverne Avengers lost their first three games but bounced back to take the final two after boosting their energy and communication. Michael Barna, the team’s young stud, was the team’s MVP with at least 10 spikes and even more blocks. Top spectator award goes to John Powers, who provided emotional support on the sidelines. Last Call played Billy Macs, taking three out of five. They played well in the winning games due to communication, with plenty of plays. The losing games, though, it was more of a rush to get it over the net. Suns of Beaches swept the Social Yachties, and the first few games weren’t even close, one player said. Their star player was Lianne with great serves and digs. Sandro was out celebrating his 48^th birthday on the beach, and Mike, another star player, made the supreme sacrifice tonight by playing instead of watching the world premiere of “Sharknado 3.” He was the team’s Ian Ziering tonight, attacking the competition with sets that looked like a chainsaw, annihilating the Yachties like sharks.

EZ Company bounced back with 3 wins against the Harbor Light Sandhogs. Mikey Sharapova did the grunt work at the net and if you didn't hear him go get your hearing checked. Brooklyn Dan likes to hide his peaches with his homegrown fig leaves. TJ fell bass ackwards and took a sitting 8 count, obviously not the Most Interesting Man in the World. Dos Equis has canned his sponsorship. And how did he get 3 Adams Apples anyway? Young Dan and Martina played like birds of a feather. An APB is out for OQ. The Big R gave himself a cold foot but his serving hand is en fuego. Lady Rockne inspired the troops in a compelling pep talk with big words that nobody understood. But it worked! C- Eth was the Irish Setter with one nice set after another. The Devinator coaxed one Parental Unit to the game but how about the Big Guy? Ms. Team First gave her spot to another to keep the hot 6 rolling. (Looks like she's played team sports before.) Annie the M wants her beloved to recognize personal volleyball boundaries. Break up Connolly’s. The charter team beat the RBVL’s newest team, Eh-Stay 5-0. That was 26 years of experience and angles not superior running and jumping that led to that victory. And where was Mr. Happy? At times, Connolly’s keeps him locked up in the equipment room as they register more and more wins. After 8 weeks, the Channimals are still undefeated. Keep up the good work. Once again, since week one was cancelled due to weather all of those scheduled games were played last week and coincidently 8 divisions had rematches this week. It was just a scheduling quirk due to the big, bad wind of week one. The sunset was, as usual, breathtaking at the host bar, the Wharf, and many volleyball players came out to show their support. It was one of the largest turnouts of the year.

The buzz is growing for the annual Graybeard’s Family Fun Run next Friday 7/31. Bugsy will be very busy hosting the festivities and the Grayriders are going to take a break from performing so Gearth, Wind and Fireman were called in from the bullpen from Bay Ridge to make some beautiful noise. Joe McGivney and his band mates are warming up and are ready to take on the Rockaway’s after a busy season performing in Bay Ridge. If you run the 5k, we’ll see you at the finish line; if you don’t, we’ll see you at the beer line. Either way, come by and enjoy the music. Captains are reminded that they can have team items entered in the weekly Wave article by showing up at the sponsor bar or by e-mailing Joe at jmcgivney2@nyc.rr.com by 11:59 PM on Wednesday night. The RBVL has a Facebook page and, if you like it, you will receive timely updates, whoever you are, captain or not. Your RBVL Committee members will be around each and every week to help out on any matters and answer your questions. If you have any questions please call Patty Moule at 917-613-0908. (Call between 10 AM and 9 PM.)

See you on the beach!