Congratulations to StrikeForce Gold!

The SF Gold Men's team finished FIRST in the Puget Sound Regional Tournament and went on to compete in the National Tournament held in Atlanta, GA the first week of June, 2004.

Before going into the recap though, let me state that EVERY team in the Men's AA division was incredibly gifted. The combination of height, experience level, and athletic abilities were "most impressive" to say the least. Also, after having had a chance to see some of the matches in the "Open" division while watching SAC play, I am convinced that any of the top 6 or 8 "AA" teams could have played "Open" and competed well. This was a fantastic tournament.

Nationals Recap:
Day One: This day of pool play was a bit disappointing to the team. StrikeForce certainly felt as though they could have done better. SF Gold posted a record of 1-2 after Day One. To add to the frustration, Andrew Robertson, one of the team's 3 middle hitters, went down with an injury that would take him out of the rest of the tournament.

Day Two: As the team began to play a little better, their spirits also became visibly higher. Day Two saw the team go 1-1 to finish pool play with a record of 2-3. So after pool play, SF Gold had only placed 5th of 6 in their pool and a mere 14th of 18 overall going into playoffs on Friday.

The realized they had been playing far from their "best game" and promised themselves to step it up a notch come playoffs.

Day Three: Friday marked the first day of a straight Double-Elimination playoff bracket. Because of the relatively poor finish in pool play, SF Gold was matched up against a first place team from another pool for this first round. Game one was a nail-biter, but Team Next pulled out enough key plays to beat Gold 22-25. The SF Men however, were determined. They bounced back in the second game and hammered Next 25-18. This led to the third and deciding game of the match. A short series of miscues from the SF team along with the solid play from Team Next meant that our SF Guys would eventually lose that third game and be sent immediately to the loser's bracket.

Side Note ~ Team Next went on to place 4th in the tournament.

Well this situation left our local heroes a little down and more than a bit frustrated. Facing a second round elimination... BUT... our SF Men had been in this place before. At the Regional tournament they had lost round one in that "Double-Elimination" playoff as well. So after a bit of soul-searching by the players, a brief team meeting, and a serious adrenalin rush, our boys went to work!

Friday proved to be full of surprises... for the SF opposition. In the next round, SF faced Del Fuego, one of the teams they had already beaten in pool play. Unfortunately for Del Fuego, SF Gold had "that look" going into the match. StrikeForce took game one 25-22, then turned it up another notch to literally CRUSH the already teetering opposition 25-15. SF Gold sends Del Fuego home.

In round three, the "Gold-en Boys" of StrikeForce matched up against Bar A, a team that had beaten them in pool play in two games straight (25-20, 25-21). During the warm up, there were not a lot of smiles from the SF side. Determination and focus seemed to be the motto for this match. If Gold could somehow win this, they would get to come back on Saturday for Day Two of the playoffs and a guaranteed 8th place finish.

Game one in this collision of talent found Bar A coming up just a hair short. SF Gold pulled out a 25-22 victory. In game two however, the word "squeaker" came to mind. This game found our local champions behind 19-24 in a 25 point game. Some phenomenal defense, key offense, and a serving run left Bar A in disbelief. The Gold team came back to win game two 29-27. Later, in talking with a few of the Bar A players, they made comment that the SF Gold team that they had just faced in playoffs was a totally different team than the one they had matched up against in pool play. And although the Bar A team had good things to say about our SF Fellahs, SF Gold sends Bar A home.

So the StrikeForce Men's team would indeed get to come back Saturday morning for Day Two of playoffs. The win against Bar A had assured the SF team a "tie for 7th" finish.

Day Four: Saturday morning brought yet another team meeting. The coach is probably some nut who just likes to hear himself talk. This time though, the mottos was, "let's have fun". The thought of a guaranteed 7th place was beyond comprehension a short 3 days ago... then after each day of pool play had slipped by, a high-place finish looked even less likely. Yet here they were, 7th... a match win away from 5th.

Bring on "WVC-Balls". The "Gold-en Boys" had a rough looking warm-up. But when the whistle blew for the first serve, the Puget Sound's underdogs were all business. Game one was a complete rout as SF Gold hit the Balls hard. The 25-14 loss left long faces on the opposing bench. Game two looked entirely different. WVC-Balls stepped it up and our Gold Guys had a couple keys errors to allow Balls to get by our men 24-26. It was time for another huddle.

In game three, our boys decided to "get serious". When questioned about "having fun" one player said, "I have more fun when we win"; and that was that. StrikeForce Gold took game three in blowout fashion, 15-8. SF Gold send WVC-Balls home.

The defeat of WVC-Balls moved Gold into 5th place. Then came the WVC-Balls' "brother" team, WVC-Houdini.

SF Gold and WVC-Houdini had squared off once already, in Day One of pool play. Houdini had beaten Gold in two straight (19-25, 23-25), but Puget Sound's best hadn't been playing very well on Day One...

So a fatigued StrikeForce team took the court, prepared once again to do battle. Game one of this match was extremely close, but eventually went to WVC-Houdini (22-25). The decision was made not to change the line up for SF Gold. Although the team was tired, they still looked very solid. Unfortunately, this turned out to be an unwise decision by the coach. The SF Gold men, although giving every ounce of effort they could, came up just 2 point shy of going to a third game. WVC-Houdini had also won game two. This time by a score of only 23-25.

Side Note ~ Team WVC-Houdini went on to place 3rd in the tournament.

This left StrikeForce Gold finishing the 2003-2004 indoor season as: Puget Sound  "A" Regional Champions and 5th in the Nation in the Men's "AA" Tournament.

Congratulations StrikeForce Gold. You have earned our praise and respect.

Several members of this Champion SF Team are "retiring" from indoor A/AA competition. The Club wishes you all well and hopes that you consider perhaps playing "a little" next season at some level within the Organization. Each of you are ALWAYS welcome at StrikeForce Volleyball Club. Thank you for the memories.