Familiar Faces are crowned at NVL Port St. Lucie - Articles

As play concluded Sunday at the NVL season opener at Club Med Sandpiper Bay, Port St. Lucie, Fla., familiar faces were crowned champions. For the men, experience ruled. Veterans and No. 10 seeds Mike DiPierro/Steven Grotowski managed to take down a young, high-flying, hard-hitting No. 12 seed Martin Caban/Petr Doubravsky in a 21-19, 21-23, 15-12 final. Grotowski is a 2012 beach volleyball Olympic veteran; DiPierro has been playing on the tour since 2000. On paper, it looked as if Caban/Doubravsky would dominate. The pair of 6-foot-4, 24-year-olds possessed far more athleticism than DiPierro/Grotowski. One spectator quipped that it was a battle between the “six-pack abs” and “dad bods”. But DiPierro hits with both hands and Grotowski sliced and diced, frustrating the block. Caban/Doubravsky played “big boy” volleyball, soaring and launching high velocity bombs. The match was a see-saw affair; but late in the third set, Grotowski put together a couple of stuff blocks, and DiPierro managed to overhand dig some high speed spikes to put the match away. After the match, Grotowski stated: “Mike and i have always been very fortunate to get a lot of support from the Florida volleyball crowd! This is our third time playing together and it was really great to get a big win like this with Mike. Having our kids and family there was really cool too. The video work from the NVL was really great and will make for fun memories when the kids get older.” If Port St. Lucie is any indicator, there will be a great deal...

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