Ayakatubby Bounces Back, Wins at Huntington Beach

Ack is back.

It took him almost five years, but Scott Ayakatubby finally won his 18th Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tournament.

One of the top players in the mid-1990s, Ayakatubby had his career short-circuited by a slew of knee surgeries. But he teamed with Eduardo Bacil to defeat Mike Whitmarsh and Canyon Ceman, 21-14, 16-21, 17-15, in the Huntington Beach Open championship on Sunday.

Ayakatubby, who plays with nine screws and a metal plate in his right hand, said he never lost hope.

“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs. . . . The surgeries just kind of came one after another,” he said. “But I believe I’m a good volleyball player. I knew my career wasn’t done.”

Ayakatubby, 36, won for the first time since June 30, 1996, when he teamed with Brian Lewis at an AVP tournament in Grand Haven, Mich.

Ayakatubby, nicknamed “Ack,” won eight tournaments in 1995 and two in 1996, but had surgery on his right knee each of the next three years. He did not play in 1999 and played one tournament last year.

Several teams skipped Huntington Beach to play in an international tournament in Spain, but Ayakatubby didn’t care. An AVP victory is an AVP victory.

“I know some of the top teams aren’t here, but it wasn’t easy,” he said.

Ayakatubby and Bacil faced match point in the third game at 14-12 but reeled off five of the next six points to win the rally-scored match.

Bacil served the winner, a floater down the middle that fell between Ceman and Whitmarsh.

Mistakes were costly for Ceman and Whitmarsh. Ceman had five hitting errors in the third, including a shot that went wide and gave Ayakatubby-Bacil a 16-15 edge.

“Part of me is happy to see Ack come back and get a victory, but I’m [upset] we lost,” Whitmarsh said. “We made a couple errors at the wrong times. You do that in this scoring and you’re dead.”

Adam Jewell and Nick Hannemann defeated Mike Lambert and Collin Smith, 21-19, 21-15, to finish third.

The fourth-place finish was impressive for Smith and Lambert, who had never played together.

Lambert, a member of the U.S. Olympic indoor team in 1996 and 2000, was competing in only his fourth AVP tournament.

“The wind, the sun, these are things I’m not used to,” he said. “In the indoor game, you can just bang away. But outdoor, you need more ball control.”