LL Sleese Staks lead PIC pack

Three nights of beachside volleyball equaled three nights of wins for the L.L. Sleese Staks, as they earned sole possession of first place on Tuesday night with a win over the Small Hustlers despite dropping their first set of the 6th Annual Coors Light Four-Person Beach Volleyball League.

The LLSS Express was all but untouchable on the sand court behind the Pacific Islands Club, as Randy Steele, Chris Nelson, Dan Westphal, and Melissa Halaby received coaching from the sidelines from team captain Laurie Peterka in their 11-5 first-set win over the Small Hustlers.

The squad didn’t lose any momentum in the second set when Peterka came in for Halaby, as the Staks gagged the Hustlers with an 11-3 spoon to clinch the win. Though the L.L. Sleese Staks remained focused throughout the contest, they remained loose, picked up difficult points, and communicated well en route to the victory.

With the official “W” etched in the standings, the first-place team lightened up a bit and found themselves in an odd position as the losers of a set for the first time this season. The Small Hustlers wrangled an 11-7 win from the LLSS express, but lost the overall point race by a combined three set total of 29-19, and dropped their first game of the season to fall to 2-1.

The L.L. Sleese Staks weren’t the only bumpers, setters, and spikers to maintain their flawless record as the Beach Side Rockers and Libweiirs!! each improved their records with wins over …But We Don’t Swallow and the Smackers, respectively.

Bruce Berline and the Rockers overwhelmed their opponents with a three-set sweep that kept them in the race for the pennant, as they gradually sucked the life out of …But We Don’t Swallow with consecutive sets of 11-6, 11-4, and 11-0 scores.

While the non-swallowers dropped their second game in a row, team captain Jay Worrall voiced his optimism following the match, and noted that his team improved their point total from their previous affair with Libweiirs!!.

The same Libweiirs!! kept their first-place dreams alive when they dealt the Smackers a smack down in a three-set sweep, but the game was much closer than the one-sided set count indicates.

Angie Mister and the rest of the Libweiirs!! found out early that they had their work cut out for them, as they needed extra points to edge the Smackers in the first set, 13-11. The points came a little easier in the second, but not by much, as they earned their second win of the season with the 11-7 win in the second set.

The Smackers lost a bit of their swagger after their record officially dropped to 1-1, but they continued to play with tenacity that only the cast of Clubmates can despite falling in the third, 11-8.

The only other match of the night featured the first win for Monkeys and Bananas, and the second straight loss for Yacchatta!. The combination of Taula Peter and Nan Intharaluk proved to be too much for Yacchatta! in the first set, as the M and B dream team rolled to a swift 11-5 win.

Personnel changes failed to help Yacchatta! in the second as they were skunked 11-0 to put an end to their hopes of their first win. Peter’s sets to Intharaluk and Jay Jay Lu were the precursor to the powerful spikes and deceptive dinks that yanked Yacchatta! into the world of the winless with a mark of 0-2.

Rather than call it quits, Yacchatta! returned to the sand in the third set with encouraging words from Steve Nguyen to rally for their most productive set of the night despite slipping on the peels, 11-9.