10 straight for the Scottsdale Vixens!

Mon, Feb 24th 2014, 01:59 PM

Winning New Providence Volleyball Association (NPVA) women's titles seems to get easier and easier for the Scottsdale Vixens.
For the second straight year, they have swept the Johnson's Cherry Bombers, formerly the Johnson's Lady Truckers, in the championship series. This coming after being pushed to the limit by their nemesis three years in the championship series. Overall, it's 10 straight NPVA titles for the Vixens.
They won game three comfortably on Sunday, 25-27, 25-19, 25-20 and 25-20, over at the D.W. Davis Gymnasium, and now after winning 10 straight titles, they are showing no signs of slowing down.
"Winning is like second nature to us right now," said middle attacker Krystel Brown.
"What happened is that we added some new players to the mix this year, and some people thought that because we had those new players we wouldn't gel as much. We are the Vixens, and no matter what happens, we will always gel. This is the start of a new era for us. We feel as if the Vixens will always be the team to beat."
One of those new players Brown is referring to is outside attacker Melinda Bastian, one of the better power hitters in the country. Bastian
actually came over to the Vixens from the Bombers, a voluntary move that reportedly still have some players and coaches in the Bombers club fuming.
Be that as it may, the Vixens are certainly reaping the benefits. Bastian was dominant from the outside and at the net yesterday evening, and the sister combination of Cheryse Bain and Krystel Brown providing support, it turned out to be a cakewalk for the Vixens.
"Melinda is strong offensively and defensively. She was huge addition to our team," said Brown. "What Melinda brought was another dimension to this team, and that really helped a lot because we lost Tamaz (Thompson) to COB (College of The Bahamas). We had to make up for Tamaz's departure, particularly on the defensive side, and Melinda brought a combination of offence and defence to our team, so it just seemed to fit right in to what we were doing."
Bastian led the Vixens with 12 kills yesterday, and Bain added 10. Davia Moss had a game-high 14 for the Bombers. Bastian and Brown had two blocks apiece for the Vixens, and Kelsie Johnson led the Bombers, with three. In the service winners department, Laval Sands had a game-high five for the Vixens, and Bastian added two. Moss led the Bombers with three.
The Vixens were completely dominant yesterday, and in the series for that matter. The series was so one-sided, that the Vixens dropped just two sets - one yesterday, and the other in the first game of the best-of-five series last Wednesday. The Vixens outscored the Bombers, 275-232, in the series. The last set, in particular, was indicative as to how the series went for both the Vixens and Bombers. The Vixens got out to an early lead, withstood a mini Bombers rally, and them finished off their opponents with precise passing and timely hits. A few unforced errors and mental mistakes by the Bombers aided their cause as well.
"I think that we got ahead of ourselves at one point in that last set," said Brown yesterday. "We went into that last set thinking that it would be an easy win, and we would put them away easily, but the Bombers is a team with a lot of heart. They are not going to go down without a fight. At the end, we just had to dig down deep and pull out all of the stops."
Meanwhile, game four of the men's championship series between the Scotiabank Defenders and the Technicians will be played on Wednesday night, starting at 8 p.m., at the D.W. Davis Gymnasium. The three-time NPVA Champions Defenders lead that best-of-five series two games to one, after winning game three yesterday, 21-25, 25-23, 25-19 and 25-23.

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