JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
The Air Force Personnel Center won the Joint Base San
Antonio intramural volleyball title by defeating the 25th Air Force in the
championship match May 26 at the JBSA-Fort Sam Houston Medical Education and
Training Campus fitness center.
AFPC beat the 25th AF from JBSA-Lackland in three sets, 2-1,
to win its first ever JBSA volleyball title.
David Nowinsky, AFPC team captain and medical career field
team chief, said AFPC had to fight hard to earn the title. On May 24, AFPC
defeated the 359th Medical Group to win the JBSA-Randolph tournament title in
two sets to earn a berth in the JBSA championship tournament.
Against the 359th MDG, AFPC won the first set, 25-16, but
had to rally in the second set to win, 26-24, to clinch the JBSA-Randolph
crown.
“We were down 24-21 (in the second set) and they needed one
point to win (the set),” Nowinsky said. “We were so confident that we held our
composure to come back and win.”
Nowinsky said winning the JBSA championship was the team’s
goal from the beginning of the season.
AFPC won the JBSA title with a roster of nine players,
several of whom had not played together on a team before the season started.
Only two of the team’s players, Nowinsky and Capt. Miguel Vallejo, team
co-captain, had played together before.
“We had the skills from the start. We just needed to develop
the team chemistry,” Nowinsky said. “We developed our chemistry pretty quickly
and early on because we had highly skilled and experienced players.”
The team chemistry, which quickly developed, helped AFPC
roll to a 12-2 regular season record, which earned them a number-one seed in
the JBSA-Randolph intramural tournament. At both the JBSA-Randolph and JBSA
championship tournaments, AFPC did not lose a single match, going a combined
5-0.
AFPC’s best players were Vallejo and setter Cisco Ramos.
Nowinsky said Vallejo has the skill for hitting the ball by
finding the hole in the opponent’s defense for a kill. The team’s offense
evolved around the play of Ramos, who Nowinsky said was AFPC’s “floor
quarterback.”
“Those were our two key players that kept us in the game
many times,” Nowinsky said.
The rest of the AFPC squad included Maj. Carlos Colon, Capt.
Alexander Leong, Merilee Aquino, Katherine Morton, Jason Tabor and Alfonso
Vega.
Winning the JBSA title over the 25th AF was an amazing feat,
Nowinsky said.
“It was amazing because we were a newly established team
that had never played together before as a team, and to win over the 25th AF,
who were the defending champions, was sweet,” Nowinsky said.