736th AMXS wins volleyball championship

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Chuck Walker
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  Coming into Wednesday night's volleyball championship match, the 736th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron knew they had to win two games in order to be champions.

The 736th AMXS would need two matches and five games to defeat the 436th Maintenance Squadron and become base champions.

Fermin Rodriguez slammed home a total of 31 kills and Jon Lu, player-coach with the 736th AMXS, added 25 kills as the 736th AMXS won the base championship May 23, at the Fitness Center on Dover Air Force Base, Del. The 736th AMXS lost Match 1 29-31 and 26-28, but won Match 2 21-25, 25-16 and 15-9.

To say the 736th AMXS earned the title the hard way would be an understatement.

"It was a long, long, long hard-fought battle," said Lu. "We deserve this championship. We came from behind to win it. We started out shaky and didn't play like we're accustomed to. In the end, we came together as usual."

Match 1 was won by the 436th MXS in a sweep, but the games were so close it could have gone either way. The 736th AMXS had the game-winning point in their grasp three times in Game 1 and twice in Game 2, only to see the 436th MXS sweep the match 31-29 and 28-26.

In Match 2, the 436th MXS looked like it would pull a four-game sweep and win the base championship as it won Game 1 25-21. However, the 736th AMXS fought back, cruising to victory in Game 2 25-16 and winning Game 3 15-9 to be crowned champions.

Lu said he told his team before Game 2 of Match 2 they had nothing to lose, so leave it all on the floor.

"I told them to just go out there and have fun and play our game," Lu said. "We knew it was a must-win game and that if we lost it was over. But we were able to play our game and to come back. We learned from our mistakes early on and we came back and took it from them."

For the 436th MXS, it was a bitter pill to swallow after being so close to accomplishing the hard task of winning a title from the losers' bracket.

Eddie Alesana, player-coach with the 436th MXS, said his team finally started the feeling the fatigue of having to play so many games in the loser's bracket just to reach the finals.

"Knowing that we had to win four games in order to win it all, we knew we had a tough task," said Alesana. "After we won Match 1, we felt great. We started to feel exhaustion, but we tried to fight through it all. I'm really proud of our team and the season we had."

Lu said his team will savor the hard-fought victory.

"It was definitely nerve-wracking," said Lu. "We missed a lot of serves and we made a lot of mistakes. But we came back and we took it from them. "