June 2026 Recap

Master's Players,

Thank you to ALL the participants Sunday for their attendance! I think we got lucky by 24 hours, as the weather was absolutely perfect yesterday, but today, not so much. A little lighter turnout than the last few events, but the teams were once again very evenly balanced, as many teams had a chance to be in the finals with many overtime games and 2 point margins of victory. I hope to see more former and "soon to be" Master's players who are included in this email at an upcoming tournament this year. I got a lot of responses for the June Masters basically stating "I'd like to play but I have a conflict this month, see you next month." so I'm thinking the July Masters could be pretty big!

Thank you to Steve Devlin as always for not only supplying the setup equipment and stringing the nets to perfection, although I think he's getting taller or I'm getting shorter, because we had some high nets! 

As always, here is a link to the website for Information/Schedule/Results/Standings/Etc: https://chicagomastersvolleyball.com

2026 Remaining Dates:

July 26th

August 30th

6/28/26 Full Results:

1 Prestegaard, Chris / Maxton, Patrick 2 Gonzalez, Pedro / Lee, Kyung 3 McDermand, Bryan / Zurawski, Rich 4 Devlin, Steve / Behrendt, Scott 5 Filarski, Ron / Brady, Mark 5 Moehr, Jeremy / Van, Michael 7 Gordy, Tyler / Young, Luke 7 Gilmore, Scott / Neyland, Lance 9 Caraballo, Erv / Gaspar, Jeff

Roll Shots:

This will be a handful of my observations/memories /appreciation of the day, and my attempt at some humor-

New players-  Thank you to Jeremy Moehr, Mark Brady (did someone check his ID ?!? ), Lance Neyland, and Jeff Gaspar for joining the tradition of The Master's, glad to officially have you as part of the history! Honorable mention shout out to Scott Gilmore for returning to the event after a nearly 12 year "break", Welcome Back! 

Best Fans - Great to see Mike Schmitt (who didn't quite make it into the draw but will be back in July) and Rich Shoum drop by to support the tradition!

Best Ambassadors - Credit to the "Oak Park Guys" for introducing Mark & Lance to the tradition (among many others over the years). Also Bryan McDermand for his passion and support for the event, and stay tuned as he and I work out something we think will be very exciting to expand this series in the "off-season". 

Best defense - Soo many to name, but as many of us experienced yesterday, getting a ball in the sand (in the court) against Pedro, Kyung, Mike Van, Erv, or Bryan was a very tough task. 

Most  Thunder- Even with high nets, I witnessed Mark, Bryan, and Patrick have some pretty incredible hits!

Best post tournament spot: With easy, free parking, Fernando's is the official post-Masters hangout, and it was a pleasant surprise to see some old familiar faces like Terry McElligott, Frank Ruiz, and Elliott Fan who were coincidentally there after their North Ave outing. 

Repeat Champs - Patrick Maxton and Yours Truly join the short list of repeat champs, and I wouldn't mind drawing him again for a chance at a 3-peat!  

More players needed:

If you know a player that you would enjoy playing with, and they comply with my "no assholes allowed" policy, please invite them! They will appreciate being a part of this tradition.

Chris

chrisprestegaard1@gmail.com

847-612-4208

P.S. - Constructive feedback is always appreciated, please share.