Summer Co-ed Sand Volleyball at Eastmoreland Courts Thursdays

There was no way Meghan Mulkey of How I Set Your Mother was going to miss Opening Day of sand VB at Eastmoreland Courts on Thursday. Even though she was working through a bad virus, Meghan wasn't about to let her teammates down by staying home nursing her illness. How I Set Your Mother has another sand championship on their minds, so every set, assist, service and dig counts to these people. Despite being under the weather (literally was raining!), Meghan had a fantastic game and never missed a beat with spectacular digs, and picture perfect setting at net for teammates Aubrey and Ben. With a 3-0 game victory over Binge Dinkers, Meghan not only conquered her bug, but was queen of the court and our first Thursday night POTW! Now get back to bed, Meghan - you deserve the rest!

By saying Scott Baranick spends a lot of time on his butt isn't saying that he's lazy, in fact, quite the opposite. 'Cause Scott is a busy man on the sand courts. Which means he is not letting anything get by him or anyone else on his side of the net. In true sandy fashion, Scott will take his tallness and flail himself across the sand to use his arms and legs to find a dig or eek out a save. And a lot of times that means Scott lands out of bounds or in the next court. But really, what we want to do is acknowledge Scott's extreme body sacrificing to bring each and every point home for the Butt Sets week in and week out. This Thursday saw a great 3-0 match vs. Take A Hit with the Butts coming out the winners. And that's due in large part to the means Scott Baranick takes to make a point with his bad selflessness and body slams!

Hey Beau Iwersen, we missed you! A big USL welcome back shout out to Beau of the Dinkheads, who's been MIA for many months due to injury. A regular fixture on the indoor VB circuit, he also transitions those many skills to the outdoors where you could clearly see that he was happy to be digging his twinkle toes back into the sand. Beau's known for his tenacity at net, and Thursday was no different as he battled for blocks vs. McGriffins I on defense. No visible rust on his offensive game either, as Beau pummeled the defense with some dangerous service and a few aces thrown in for good measure. The Dinks secured a 3-0 match victory to celebrate his return to the court. Glad to have you back in action, Beau!

Mike McCaffrey has a distinctive style of service and we had to watch his routine a few times through to get the gist of it. First, he carefully sets his feet at the service line, flipping the boundary lines with his toes to clear the sand. Then he gives the ball a few rotations just to get a good feel for a spin. Finally, he tosses it up with the right amount of momentum to deliver his serve which launches in tight rotation to skim the net and land at the defense where the ball continues to spin and is really tough to bump back. Mike's method of service helped score many points in Notorious D.I.G's first round playoff win vs. Sets on Sets on Sets. That victory led to a walk up the bracket to face perennial sand VB champs, How I Set Your Mother. Mike continued to employ his successful service technique in this playoff match, but HISYM was too powerful to overcome in their challenge bringing an end to D.I.G.'s great season. But not before we salute Mike for being this week's POTW with a serve like no other!