On all fours with a face full of sand, a man, who was equally tall as he was tan, wiped the dirt from his beach blonde hair and looked up as the doubles team of Matt Akromis and Jeff Pheffere congratulated each other on their quarterfinal win during the 36th annual Mother Lode Volleyball Classic at Aspen's Kock Lumber Park.
As Akromis and Pheffere-the tournament's reigning men's master division champions-high fived each other, the man rose from defeat, dusted himself off and was soon lounging under a tree enjoying a cold one with his friends.
And this is how it was for most of the competitors during the tournament-though the competition was strong the celebratory attitude was even stronger.
"We love it here. This is our favorite tournament of the year," said Akromis, who has been competing in the MotherLode since 1993. "The community, the competition, and the venues are all great here. It's just a great way to celebrate the end of volleyball season."
Stocked with over a pool of 700 of the country's top volleyball duos competing in 18 divisions of play at various parks throughout Aspen, MotherLode certainly lived up to its reputation as the nation's largest beach doubles volleyball tournament.
Emceeing the event was Rocky Dunmier of Hawaii. The 24-year veteran volleyball announcer, who has worked on such prolific tournaments as the Association of Volleyball Professionals and the USA Volleyball Open, was very impressed with the Aspen-based event.
"(MotherLode) far exceeds anything I've ever seen. We've got the best talent in the country here and you can't find a better location," said Dunmeir as he sipped keg beer from a plastic up. "The partying is just icing on the cake."
