Dramatic Ending in Spike-4-Spain

The Spike-4-Spain spike ball tournament took place at the high school on Friday, October 1st, after school for the Spanish Club. There were 20 teams that were competing for the first place prize which was $50 to each team member. Each team played 3 matches in the beginning to determine who would and who wouldn’t make the playoffs.

 After those 3 games were played for each team, the first round of playoffs started. If you lose, your team is eliminated, there’s no second chances or anything. There were many feared teams that you didn’t want to play in the first round like Doom, Ball Crunchers and Uno Mas. 

Doom's team was Max Malich and Anthony Kelly who were the fan favorites to win the whole tournament together. Ball Crunchers were Tyler Axelsen and Baylen Slansky who were a last minute sign up for the tournament. Lastly, Uno Mas was Nicky Ruisi and Melissa Neder who could potentially make a good run in the playoffs.

 Unfortunately for Uno Mas, they were playing Doom in the first round of playoffs and lost a close game 21-19 as they went home early with 9 other teams. Nicky Ruisi said, “We had them on the ropes 20-19. One more point, the ball hits the rim and the rest is history.” The Ball Crunchers, Doom, and 8 other teams advanced to the second round.

In the second round, Doom and Ball Crunchers were playing each other. Everyone knew this would be the game of the day. Doom started off hot and took a lead late in the game 19-15, only two more points needed to win. The Ball Crunchers went on a big run and tied up the game 19-19. This is when Dooms star player Anthony Kelly went down with a calf cramp.

Since the Ball Crunchers were in such good shape and were making Doom run a lot with their big hits, there was a suspicion that he was faking the injury for their team to get their breath back. The Ball Crunchers were furious since they lost their momentum.

After their two minute break, Doom returned to playing and ended up winning 21-19. Tyler Axelsen stated, “We played our hearts out that game. We gave it our all but they faked an injury which changed the momentum and stole the win away from us.” 

They were now heading into the semi-finals. Doom was playing the Stars and Spikes which featured Thomas Sullivan and Christian McNally. Thomas and Christian put up a good fight but Doom was once again victorious in the end after winning 21-16. 

In the finals, we had a matchup of Doom vs Bishop Sycamore which was JJ Desiderio and Jude Callan. This was a great matchup. However, Doom took a large early lead and put them away after a 6 point win. After winning, Max Malich said, “We fought through many hardships in this tournament from knee injuries to calf cramps, we did it. We put all these obstacles aside and kept the one goal in mind of winning it all, the haters will continue to hate as we continue to stay on top.”

Max Malich and Anthony Kelly were your Spike-4-Spain winners and walked away with $50 each. They performed just like how everyone thought they would.