1. Mens vball game 2/19/11<br />No. 9 Hannibal – LaGrange upsets No. 2 Park <br />With the weather warming up and the ground starting to thaw out, the atmosphere was heating up inside Breckon 2/19/11. Hannibal-LaGrange and the Park University Pirates have already played this season, resulting Park putting an impressive imprint on the Trojans by coming back by losing the first two sets then breaking away with a 3 set winning streak, thus winning the last meeting.<br />Saturday’s game fell into a similar pattern. The first set both squad’s faced off trading point for point for most the set. Hannibal-LaGrange muscled its way past the Pirate’s in the first set winning 25-21. After a quick switch of benches and a water break, offense of Zach Penolio breaks away with 4 kills with perfect set’s from freshman Rob Cordero; making major statements back across the court to Hannibal-LaGrange. Defensive specialist #13 Cory Roberts also had 3 digs which helped to ensure a Pirates victory in set number two. The intensity started to fire up, the enthusiasm and heart of each athlete showed as emotion poured out onto the court. <br />However, this did not discombobulate the Trojans. The Trojan’s had a strong 3rd set, capitalizing on some forced errors on our part. Either way the favor of the match seemed to favor the Trojans, winning set number 3, 25-19. <br />The asinine heckling coming from the bench athlete’s from the Trojan’s seemed to have a small effect of irritating fans and players throughout the game. “Spin, spin, spin, ball, ball, ball, tosss!!!” seemed to consistently be repeated every time our guys served. Rather than immature sportsmanship being repeated on our side of the court, our guys took their “A-Game” to Hannibal in the 4th set, 25-22. Bringing the match at 2-2, and heading into the 5th and final set of the afternoon. <br />Each team had outstanding performances in the final set, trading points back and forth with each team battling it out to the end. The game was consistent of what these teams have done prior in the season. Both of these squads are competing for conference wins, which ended up as a showdown; Park was the better team but had some forced errors on serving and was not in the usual rhythm the Pirates usually show. Rumor’s of potential sickness started being passed on the sidelines, some folks implying a flu-like bug might be floating around and making our usually powerful team, look somewhat sluggish. <br />Either way, performances by, S #16 Rob Cordero showed his usual setting skill totaling him to 51 assists, with 1 serving Ace, 7 digs and 2 kills for 5 games. Senior Bosko Novovic MB also had a good game giving him 12 Kills on 25 attempts giving him a .400% for the day. Also senior Erick Albuquerque seemed to get double teamed on the outside, resulting him with only 13 kills for the afternoon, he too had 7 digs as well. Raphael Vieira played solid with 5 kills, 2 assists and 7 digs. However, it just was not enough for the Pirates, a questionable call at the end of the set, a blown whistle on a very close outside line call was made. Thus, breaking the Pirates rhythm and making the Hannibal-LaGrange Trojans victorious, moving the Trojans with their first conference win this season, and moving our Pirates back to (3-4) in the MAMVIC and 10-5 overall. <br />The pirates are traveling to Missouri Valley College on 2/22/11 at Marshall, Mo to hopefully rebound and defeat them, like they did a few weeks prior. The next home game will be on 2/25/11 at Breckon against Missouri Baptist University at 7pm, hope to see you all there!<br />
