Everything is on the line for Smack athletes
in the Manhattan Open

The AVP tour came back to where it all began, Manhattan Beach, with players vying for all sorts of prizes and goals, one of which was a bid into the King of the Beach tournament which will be occurring in Las Vegas in October. Three of those competing for an invitation to the KOB were Smack athletes Adam Jewell, Eduardo "Anjihno" Bacil, and newcomer Fred Souza, and everything depended on how they finished in Manhattan. Adam, playing with Nick Hannemann, had a tough initial match against Scott Friedrichson and Chris Makos, but eventually came out on top. Fred and Anjihno breezed through their first round game, only to meet Adam in the second round of the winners bracket.

Besides being a huge game in terms of making it further in the tournament, this game would most likely determine who went to KOB and who didn't. Fred and "Jack" (nickname for Anjihno) jumped out to a quick lead and never looked back. Adam and Nick mounted a slight comeback, with a few jump serve aces, but Fred was too big, Jack was too consistent, and Adam's shoulder was hurting. The final score was 15-10 - Fred and Jack.

It was on the the quarterfinals, where Fred and Jack would play the team representing the U.S. in Sydney, Eric Fonoimoana and Dain Blanton. Fred was once again huge at the net, and Jack was just as dominant on the defensive side. Jack also received about 90% of the serves (because Fred is 6'9" and hits over almost every block) and sided out like a "god". Unfortunately for the Americans, the Brazilians played a flawless game on their way to a thundering 15-6 victory (which by the way was the same score when the two teams played in Hermosa Beach earlier this summer).

As for Adam, he and Nick then played former Smack athlete and Nick's brother Albert Hannemann (and Brian Ivie). The motivation of this sibling rivalry, as well as Brian Ivie's last game on the AVP tour (he plans to retire after the season), helped Albert and Brian pull out a decisive lead, so much so, that Adam decided to forfeit the game and avoid further injury to his ailing shoulder. The KOB would have to wait for the young "Skywalker", however Jack and Fred were still pluggin away in hopes of not only making the KOB, but winning the Manhattan Open.

Unfortunately for them, they ran into the well oiled machine of Canyon Ceman and Mike Whitmarsh on Sunday morning in the semi finals of the winners bracket. Canyon played better than I've ever seen him play ... getting about 8 points of his serve and another 3-4 off fantastic digs. When the smoked cleared, Fred and Jack were off to the consolation bracket and Canyon and Whitty were moving on to play Loiola and Rego in the winner's bracket finals.

In the consolation bracket, Fred and Jack did what they do best ... block and dig balls, and sideout on the serves. They played through a tough game against Adam Johnson and Brian Lewis, who kept themselves in the game with ace after ace, but ultimately the Brazilian Smack boys won and earned a match with Todd and Dax, the ball control specialists. Once again, Fred and Jack dominated all around, moving on for a rematch with Ceman and Whitmarsh in the Consolation finals.

The stage was set ... thousands of beach volleyball enthusists perched on the pier, on the sand, on the bike patch, waiting for this rematch ... to see who would play Loiola and Rego in the finals. The game got off to a frenzied start, when at 2-0 (Ceman/Whit leading), the line ref made a touch call on Fred's block (on a hit that Anjihno dug and Fred put away with authority). Sure I am a little biased, but there was no way Fred touched that ball .. it was a "homer" call for a hometown boy, and it bothered Fred and Jack so much that they ended up delaying the game for 10 minutes and finally got a red card. After that, the game remained tight, however Ceman and Whitmarsh pulled away at the end for a 15-11 victory. Even though it had been a difficult loss for the Smack boys from Brazil, they accomplished their goal of placing high in Manhattan, but more importantly they made it into the King of the Beach. We celebrated briefly, as Fred was getting on a plane for Brazil that night ... but he was very happy to know that he would be making plans to come back in a month for a very special trip to Las Vegas. We wish these very nice men all the best on their first trip to the KOB.

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