Quinn-Mister takes BSEA men’s title

A pair of familiar faces from the local scene dusted off their game and joined forces this weekend as Russ Quinn and Tyce Mister returned to the American Memorial Park in Garapan to win the BSEA Two-Man Grass Volleyball Tournament.

Quinn and Mister earned their laurels on Saturday by downing the tandem of Kevin Carey and Mark McDonald in the finals, 15-5, in front of a crowd of spectators enjoying the day’s action while just a good serve away from the beach.

The dynamic duo wasted little time in getting to the finals and the string of wins played a major role in the tournament’s outcome. After skating on a first-round bye, Quinn-Mister sank Dale “the Dread Pirate” Roberts and Rob Epley 15-2 in their first action of under the sun.

They next vanquished “Bangkok Bomber” Kitinan Intharaluk and Rannel Calexterio in an equally lopsided 15-3 match that raised a few eyebrows, but they found plenty of resistance when they challenged veterans Bruce Berline and Randy Steele.

Quinn-Mister trailed 13-6 and 14-9 at different points of the game before digging deep to pull off a come-from-behind win, 16-14.

As they steadily crept back into the game, the cool-headed Quinn-Mister combo benefited from a controversial call that actually went against them. The referee eventually ruled in favor of Berline-Steele following a play in which the ball hit the post and came back in, but the 10-minute delay that ensued shifted their focus away from the solid game that they were playing to that point.

From there it was a relatively easy trip through their competitors in the finals as Quinn and Mister played only three games heading into the match against Carey-McDonald, while the runner-ups played twice that amount.

After dispatching Jon Cramer and Taula Peter, 15-4, Carey-McDonald was sent to the loser’s bracket by Intharaluk-Calexterio with a 15-1 loss. The tandem bounced back in their next match by throttling Nick Gross and Cooper Schraudenbach, 15-1, and from there bounced Roberts-Epley, 15-6 to force a rematch with Nan-Ran.

Carey-McDonald got its revenge with a 15-1 win over Intharaluk-Calexterio to send them packing from the double elimination tournament, and followed with a close won over Bill Owen and Scott Eck, 15-12.

They still had one more match to win in order to enter the finals, and Carey-McDonald took care of business by delivering one-way tickets to Berline-Steele following their 15-3 match in the grass to earn their tango with the top team.