Sandinista Falls to Bottom of League

CHICAGO (January 18, 2005) /DHC Wire/ -- Riding high after its first-match win, Team Sandinista fell hard in their second match of the season, losing all three games to the top-ranked Bump, Set, Drink. The loss puts them in a three-way tie for last place in ranking points, dead last in terms of points scored. Ironically, Sandinista's points-for/points-against ratio, 33-87, is exactly opposite B,S,D's.

"Those guys really surprised us," said Andrew Huff, starting front right for Sandinista. "They didn't look all that special in warm-ups, but they all could spike, and did so regularly. It took us a game just to figure out where their weak spot was."

Sandinista scored just one point in the first game, but nearly took the second, thanks to some great serving and improved spike management. Rookie Andy Hodapp is proving himself a monster at the net, capably blocking as well as delivering a few spikes of his own.

In game three, the spector of poor serve return loomed again, and Sandinista was again held to just one point.

"I got nailed again," Huff said. "I'm not getting down fast enough on short serves, and I was having trouble getting to ones that were off to the sides. I'll be working on that in our next match."

Sandinista plays a fellow last-place team, Kiss My Pass, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, January 25, in the Windy City Fieldhouse.

Sandinista Matches Previous Season Win Record in First Match

CHICAGO (January 11, 2005) -- A reformulated Team Sandinista won a game in its first match of the winter season, scoring as many wins on the first day of play as it did in the entire fall season.

"It was amazing," starting front center Michael Macias said. "We actually played like a team, and it showed in the results. Now that we don't have to perform damage control we can concentrate on the areas where we need work."

One of those areas is service return. Fresh off the win in the second game, Sandinista was completely shut out in the last, falling to just two of Last Minute's servers. Sandinista rear center Andrew Huff bore the brunt of the barrage.

"Their server really had my number -- I was either too far back or too far over on nearly every serve," Huff said. "By the time we finally got the ball, the damage was done and we were too flustered to recover. We'll definitely be working on serve returns before the next match."

Team Sandinista plays again January 18 at 8pm, going up against another returning team, Bump Set Drink.