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Volleyball at the 2008 Ukrainian Diaspora Olympiad

The 2008 Ukrainian Diaspora Olympiad volleyball tournament took place Saturday, July 5, 2008 at BucksMont Indoor Sports Center in Hatfield, Pennsylvania - a short ride from the sports complex at Tryzub. The recently built facility provided the athletes with air conditioned, spacious, well lit courts, Teraflex flooring and bleachers for spectators.

There were 15 teams in all, with over 120 participants. Referees Joy Moyer, Bill Stevens, Donna Manetta and Patrice Ockenhouse officiated all matches. The volleyball Tournament coordinators were Anna Hursky de Vassal and Myron Bytz. They also participated in play - making for a very long but fun day for both.

The Men's Open volleyball competition started the day with 8:00 AM registration/check-in and matches did start shortly after 9:00 AM - not bad. There were 6 men's open teams: Chicago “Slava”, Hartford “CYM”, LYS “I”, LYS “II”, Toronto “Ukraina”, and Tryzub (19 and under team). Competition was tight all day - the 6 team round robin format played 2 games rally scoring to 25. At the end of pool play, Chicago Slava finished first, LYS I second and there was a 3 way tie for 3rd and 4th - Toronto Ukraina filled the 3rd spot based on points. LYS II and Hartford CYM had to play a set (one game ) to determine who would get the 4th spot for play-offs (a team can not be eliminated from play-offs based on points alone). After some discussion, LYS II chose to forfeit to Hartford “CYM”.

The play-offs were exciting with Toronto “Ukraina” ( captain Roman Darewych, Myroslaw Chwaliuk, Oleh Kowalchuk, Oleh Minyaylo, Paul Khomenko, Vladimir Khomenko, Roman Kabanov, Slavko Betlej ) ending up rising to first place for gold medals.(25:22, 25:16) Chicago Slava placed second for silver and Hartford CYM took 3rd place for bronze medals.

Men's over 45 and women's open were given a later start time - 10:00 AM - with heated competition in both. Both played 3 games to 25 rally scoring in the round robin and best of 3 for play-offs. Games were close with many won by 2 or 3 points.

The Men's over 45 competition included teams: LYS, Toronto “Ukraina” and Tryzub. LYS ( captain Myron Bytz, Leonid Slavutki, Igor Vayl, Alex Korobov, Micha Kleiman, Vladimir Lechinski, Alex Andruschak, Myron Kukurudza ) took gold (25:23, 25:22), Toronto “Ukraina” silver and Tryzub bronze.

After the Men's open and the Men's over 45 competition, 10 teams proceeded to Tryzub for the medal ceremony arriving shortly before 8:00 PM just in time to catch the last rays of day light on the Olympic podium.

The Women's open included teams: Chicago”ODUM”, Chicago “Kryla”, and Tryzub. ODUM Chicago ( Bohdana Ciolko, Tatiana Mirutenko, Roma Mirutenko, Ariana Mankus, Teresa Kuritza, Natalie Patzin, Nina Kocko, with their coach Wasyl Mirutenko ) took gold (25:21,25:20), Chicago Kryla silver and Tryzub the bronze.

The medals ceremony for the women competition was held on the outdoor deck at the Tryzub during the zabava about 11:30 PM.

Volleyball at the Ukrainian Diaspora Olympiad