Franciscos win Comet Bowl Sand Volleyball League Tournament

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Newly formed teams tend to jell late in the season.

And that’s usually right on time for the playoffs.

The Franciscos were 13-7 according to the final regular-season standings posted by the Comet Bowl Sand Volleyball League. That placed them in the middle of the 10-team pack granting them the last berth in the “A” bracket of the league’s end-of-season tournament.

The bottom five teams competed in the “B” bracket.

Though the Franciscos may have been the lowest “A” seed, they emerged tournament champions on Thursday.

“This is the first time we put this team together,” said Francisco Ruiz of he and his teammates Alexa Bock, Matt Klever, Joe Kennedy, Brooke Huegli and Megan Mohar.

For a first-time team, the “Franciscos”  had the league’s coolest name.

“They just used my name for the team name because we needed one,” Ruiz said.

The regular-season champions just called themselves “Team 6” — Ashley Feller, Erich Feller, Eric Miller, Lisa Pitkin, Kris Wegner, Brad Sloter and Makaila Sloter.

Winning the “B” bracket was The Pub — Tyler Mitchell, Moriah Mitchell, Dalton Reams, Lyndsey Frazer, Rob Gillespie and Dan Caffrey.

The Comet Bowl league is held during the summer after fall-winter league bowling season is over.