COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The 2013 Warrior Games officially kicked off here May 12, and the Army sitting volleyball team put on an impressive display of their skills early by crushing both of their competitors during the preliminary games, looking to repeat last year's gold medal performance.
The first game of the night pitted the Army team against the Special Operations Command team.
The Army came out strong sending two unanswered aces past the SOCOM defenders and quickly taking a two-point lead. The SOCOM warriors quickly answered back with two points of their own tying it up. As the battle raged on each team managed to add a few points to their scores, but then retired Army Spc. Anthony Pone, a three time gold medal winner at Warrior Games, drilled a nasty spike past the SOCOM defenders bringing the score to 7-5 Army.
Pone's impressive spike seemed to energize the Army team. With the assistance of some great serves by Army Spc. Quinton Picone, a National Guard infantryman from the Fort Sam Houston Warrior Transition Battalion, and Army Sgt. Monica Southhall, a former sitting volleyball gold medalist, and National Guard automated logistics specialist, assigned to the Community-Based Warrior Transition Unit in Virginia, the Army team increased their lead 17-9.
Although trailing by eight points, the fight was definitely not gone out of the SOCOM team. They made an impressive rally and clawed their way back up the score board to within one point of the Army team at 18-19. That would be as close to victory as they would come as the Army team shut the door and clenched the victory 25-21.
The team's changed sides of the net and battled again, but SOCOM could not find an answer for the Army team's skills and suffered their second loss of the night 25-12.
"I was really happy with our performance," said Pone. "But I am going to continue to try and get better. With this win behind us, I think we will be more focused from now on and be ready to go."
"This win gives us a lot of confidence," said Kari Miller, Team Army sitting volleyball coach, and 2012 U.S. Paralympics Silver Medalist. "During the first game we had to shake some of the nervousness off, and I think we learned to use that to our advantage during the second match."
The U.S. Air Force team was the next to take the court against the now victorious Army team.
As soon as the game started it was clear the Army now had their work cut out for them. The two teams jostled for the lead and were tied at 8-8. But that was the last time the Army team was within striking distance of the lead. With several nice unanswered spikes, the Air Force team went on to clench the victory 25-18 and handed the Army their first loss of the night.
The next game was a battle on both sides. The Army team fought continuously for the lead and pulled ahead toward the end 21-19. Army Sgt. Delvin Maston, a four-time Warrior Games medal winner, and infantryman from the Fort Sam Houston Warrior Transition Battalion, took the serve for his team and hammered the ball the rest of the way to victory 25-20.
The Army's win forced the Air Force team back onto the court for a tie-breaker and the first team to 15 would claim the victory for the night.
As the final match began, the Air Force team seemed to have the winning momentum on their side as they swooped to a quick lead, which included a run of five unanswered points in a row. Trailing 5-11 the Army called a much needed time-out.
When the Army team came back onto the court they seemed to have a renewed passion to win, and one Soldier found his time to shine. Retired Army Cpl. Perry Price, two-time gold medalist at Warrior Games, took up position to serve the ball with his team still trailing 8-13. Serve after serve he fired them over the net and the Air Force team had no answer. With the support of his teammates and Maston who spiked the last two points, the Army team pulled off the win 15-13.
"It felt good to come back and win this," said Maston. "At first we started playing their game, and we just had to reset and start playing our game again. We had great fans cheering us on and it took a total team effort to pull this off. "
With two wins under their belt the team is looking forward to their next challenge scheduled to take place on May 13 against the Marines and Navy team.
Related Links:
U.S. Army Warrior Transition Command Warrior Games Web Page
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