BUFFALO, N.Y., July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The 13-time champion Western
Region Men's Scholastic Volleyball team was sky high heading into this
morning's three games against the team from the New York City region at
the 19th annual Empire State Games in Buffalo.  They went 8-1 on Thursday
to lead the field.  The team then went out and beat New York City in the
first two games they played today, rallying from a
14-9 deficit in game 2 to win 16-14 and raise its mark to 10-1.  But
in the rally game, with New York City leading 14-13 and needing just one
point to win, Western appeared to have tied the score when a ball,
according to a linesman, landed in bounds on New York's side of the court.
But the ball was then ruled out of bounds on an overrule, giving New York
City the victory.
    "It's been a very resilient team," said Vince Pandoliano, the coach of
the New York team.  "We're not exactly overpowering our opponents.  We've
played tough teams and we've had tough matches."  New York's record is now
an impressive 8-4 after this morning's set of games against the host team.
    The Western Region coach, Chris Luksche from Cheektowaga, who is in
his fifth year coaching at the games, emphasized how closely matched the
six men's scholastic teams are now compared to a few years ago.  "The
competition has gotten a lot better throughout the whole State.  The
scholastic teams I coached in '89 and '90...we weren't really challenged.
We had outstanding talent, guys going to play Division I College ball.
But now, anybody can knock any team off.  You can see it. Volleyball is
growing in New York State."
    Two open women's volleyball teams got off to 9-0 starts yesterday and
faced each other this morning.  "I have 10 outstanding players who have
all played.  I am extremely confident I can play any one of them," said
Laura Bulger, coach of the Western Region team.   Long Island also went
undefeated on Thursday, but now neither team is without a loss.  Long
Island won two of the three tightly contested games today.
    Athletics competition from this morning saw two athletes defend their
titles from a year ago in the shotput.  Richard Pulver of Fort Edward of
the Adirondack Region won gold in the men's open competition with a
distance of 15.90 meters.  Alex Brown of New Paltz of the Hudson Valley
Region had a distance of 16.06 meters to repeat as scholastic champion.
    Arguably, the most high-profile athlete at this year's games is Felipe
Lopez, who is entering his junior year at St. John's and is a member of
the school's Big East basketball squad.  Lopez was questionable until the
last minute as to whether he was going to participate in the ESG.  He's
here and scored 20 points in helping the New York City Region open men's
basketball team defeat Long Island,
92-81, last night at the Buffalo Auditorium.  New York City will play the
Adirondack Region later this afternoon.
    The New York Lottery is the primary sponsor of the 1996 Empire State
Games.  The games are a natural extension of the Lottery's educational
sponsorship, which last year raised more than $1.5 billion in support of
primary and secondary public schools throughout New York.
    The schedule and updates of the events are available at the Empire
State Games World Wide Web Site (http://www.empiregames.org).