Battery Park City-based Asphalt Green volleyball teams continue their winning streak, with the 15 and under girls team winning their division on Sat., Apr. 19.
Asphalt Green Wave Volleyball Team went 5 and 0 at the all-day Garden Empire Volleyball Association tournament at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey.
Each team, explained Ben Freeman, associate director of sports for Asphalt Green, is put into a flight, or a division based on ranking. The new club team was in the third flight and was ranked in the mid-30s out of some 80 teams, said Freeman in a phone interview.
The tournament started with pool play, with each pool having four teams. The first match was against Sideout Sports, from Fairfield, N.J., and it was very exciting and close, he said. Asphalt Green won in three sets 32 to 30.
The next two games, the team won in two sets and were ranked first going into their division playoffs. Asphalt Green won their first game in two sets and that landed them in the championship: a rematch with Sideout.
“It was a good battle back and forth,” said Freeman.
Sideout came out strong and was up 23 to 17, when Asphalt Green fought back and won eight straight points in a row, winning the championship for their flight 25 to 23.
The team has several players from Lower Manhattan: Payton Reising, Kendall Chapman and Gabi Folit are from Tribeca and Alex Kusio is from Battery Park City. Leora Shlasko, Khariyyan Flowers and Chiara Hardy are from the Upper West Side with Juliet Schulman-Hall from Brooklyn and Gisselle Sorin from the Bronx.
The team practices at the Asphalt Green Battery Park City campus at 212 North End Ave.
— DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC
