Kathryn got recruited to join a Women’s 65+ volleyball team playing in the Maryland Senior Games. Over the course of the year she played in the nationals in FL, state qualifiers in NY, MS, PA MD, NJ and the Huntsman Senior Olympics in Utah..
Kathryn organized a woman’s age 65+ team to play in Massachusetts Senior Games. They secured a silver medal and ahe lack of other teams in the age bracket automatically qualified them for the Nationals in Pittsburgh in 2023.
This is a view of the Steuben Valley, from where we play pick up volleyball on Wednesdays. We are lucky to live and play in such a beautiful place.
Tuesday nights we play in a league at 12 North, Friday’s we play with a group of seniors in Syracuse.
Front Row: Jim, Mike, Stewart. Back Row: Matt, Larry, Jim, George, Rich, Tim
After a few practices trying to become proficient playing a 5-1 Team Jabberwocky had to face the music and play for real against better teams in the Empire State Senior Games (ESSG) in SUNY Cortland Field House. there were 5 teams in our pool play and after being booted out of the first round of the playoffs we ended up receiving a bronze medal for ‘participation’ but qualifying the team to participate in the National Games to be held in Pittsburgh in 2023. Thanks to Mike and Jim for organizing our team.
Kathryn organized a seniors volleyball team to compete in the Slippery Rock Tournament. They were unable to practice prior to the games and it reflected in their play. However, they managed to get several games against similar competition.
This season marked our 21st year of playing volleyball at ADK Lanes, and our 11th or 12th years of having a Wednesday night Volley Llamas team. Our team was largely Kathryn, BillieJo, Josh, Jim, Michael, Rick, and Connor with Shelly, Courtney and Scott filling in as substitutes. We finished 2nd of 10 teams in the regular season. We got a 1st round bye and beat Ice Cold Sixpack (formerly The Young Finndale). We then faced Scrappers who had battled their way to two wins; 25-23 and 25-22. We won game 1 and had a much closer game 2 to move into the championship game vs Dig Pink. Dig Pink lost only one game all season to Volley Llamas in a position round game. We lost 2 competitive games to Dig Pink closing out our season.
Kathryn’s 65+ volleyball team finished 4th in their 18 team pool – just out of the medals, but they did get this nifty ribbon.
The Empire State Senior games draw more than 1,100 athletes aged over 50 from around the state to compete in 20 events. The biggest draw this year is pickleball with 450 registered, followed by volleyball with 275 registrants. I got invited onto a 65+ volleyball team, Jabberwocky, from the Amsterdam area and we managed to practice together twice. Separately, Kathryn joined a women’s over 60 team. Men’s games were all day Saturday and women’s matches were on Sunday at SUNY Cortland’s Lusk Field House . Our 65+ Team, Jabberwocky, started off playing a 5-1 configuration and losing 2 of our 1st three games. We switched to a 4-2 alignment with better passing and won our 1st medal match. We lost in the gold/silver finals to a team that practices together on a weekly basis. We played 12 games in all. It was nice to improve our play and come away with a silver medallion.
Our Volley Llamas 2018 team finished the regular season solidly in 2nd place in the ten team league. Dig Pink finished in 1st place with only 3 losses (2 imposed by Volley Llamas) and Scrappers finished in 3rd place.
The Volley Llamas summer season ended after reaching the finals after playoff wins 2-0 over Balls Deep and Scrappers before a 2-1 loss to Dig Pink in the finals.
Thanks to BillieJo Davis, Joshua Darrow, Kathryn Skelly Muller, Tim Reed, Chris Poore and Ron Haier for their play. Thanks go to Isabelle Moo, Sara Mierek, Andy Haier, Matt Kochan, and Connor Ludwin for contributing during the summer. The league at Adirondack Lanes always manages to pull off the tricky combination of competition and fun.
Kathyrn joined a team of women from Syracuse and Rochester to compete in the 65+ Division at the Empire State Senior Games in Cortland. She had a fabulous time at the Empire State Senior Games and played some great volleyball. Their team won most of the games they played against the next-younger age bracket teams and took Gold in our own age bracket. After 12 games of volleyball, it was a long full day. Below are the “Volleyball Chicks” wearing their gold medals from the 2018 Empire State Senior Games.
