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Knuutilla triumphs at Nationals
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@acnpapers.com
Winning a USA Volleyball Boys’ Junior National Championship would be high on the list of most any male volleyball player.
Accomplishing that goal by serving an ace on match point would rank a little higher.
Both those feats were accomplished Friday by Allen resident Nathan Knuuttila at the Austin Convention Center as his service winner clinched the 17 Open Division title for Seaside 17-Mikasa, a club team based out of Southern California.
Gregoriew is plenty familiar with Knuuttila as he practiced with the Lady Eagles during his sophomore season and served as a defacto general manager for the team while also participating in the school’s co-ed volleyball classes.
After defeating Halcones de Torrimar (Puerto Rico), 25-13, 22-25, 16-14, in the semifinals, Seaside 17-Mikasa moved into the finals against another Southern California-based team, Manhattan Beach Surf 17s.
Seaside 17-Mikasa was able to get the championship sweep, but had to rally in both sets to do so.
Knuuttila’s squad, which also defeated Manhattan Beach Surf 17s in the fourth round, was triumphant this go round, 28-26, 25-19.
Seaside 17-Mikasa found itself on the wrong end of the first five points, but surged back to pull within 11-9 in the first set. That trend repeated itself as Manhattan Beach Surf 17s went back out in front, 16-10, only to see the score eventually knotted at 19-19. Another tie ensued at 23-23 and the teams traded set point opportunities down the stretch. It wasn’t until Seaside 17-Mikasa led 27-26 that the opener was put to rest as Shane Beatty notched a winner to meet the requisite two-point advantage.
The second game featured more of the same.
Manhattan Beach Surf 17s once again posted an early lead, this time 8-5, only to see ties reached at 10-10 and 17-17. It was all Seaside 17-Mikasa from there though as Knuuttila followed up an error by the opposition with a block and a kill to start an 8-2 run that would close the match.
“Nathan scored a lot of points,” Gregoriew said. “He was kind of their go-to guy on the outside.”
The final point in that run was an ace from Knuuttila, which brought the 17 Open Division Finals to an end and also wrapped up the 31st Annual USA Volleyball Boys’ Junior National Championships.
In addition to being a boon to the 12 teams that won national titles, the event was branded a success for USA Volleyball as 5,500 tournament passes were sold and 4,500 players took part in the eight-day event.
“This year’s USA Volleyball Boys’ Junior National Championships event ran rather smoothly,” said Barbara Eisenbeis, USA Volleyball coordinator of events. “We had very few issues, and the little problems that did come up were fixed very quickly.”
But with that success in mind, adjustments are already being made for 2011.
“Every year we are adding new enhancements to make the event special,” Eisenbeis said. “This year we had an Olympian present medals on each day. For next year, I would like to stream all the championship matches on the Internet as one of our enhancements. We will continue to dress up the event to make this a special place for the boys to come to compete.”
Next year’s group will no doubt include Knuuttila’s club team.
In addition to taking home the top team honor in Austin, Seaside 17-Mikasa received multiple individual honors with Cole Tyler being named the 17 Open Division’s Most Valuable Player and Knuuttila getting selected for the all-tournament team.
“Nathan is such a hard worker,” Gregoriew said. “I really couldn’t be prouder of where he is and what all he has accomplished.”
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