The format for this tournament was 2 days of snake seeding followed by bracket play on the third day. One day one, We had the #2 (Roseburg 14 Black), us at #11, the #14 (Lake Tapps 14 Blue) and the #23 (Pacific 14 Crew). Sometimes when you play in "open" tournaments like this, the seeding is sometimes a guess, leading to some tough pools and some easier ones. Unfortunately for us, we had a tough pool. Both Roseburg and Pacific Crew finished in the top 8 and Lake Tapps was in the top of the Silver Division. So while we didn't play all that well on day 1, we had a really tough pool to deal with.
The first match against Lake Tapps started out pretty well. We served tough and really played pretty solid. Marin executed a perfect dump at set point to seal the win. Unfortunately, we suddenly started making tons of unforced errors in game 2 (5 missed serves and 10 zero passes!) and while we cleaned up the serves in game three, we made 9 unforced errors in the deciding 3rd set... giving Lake Tapps the 3 set win.
While disappointing, I was confident that we could play well against Pacific Crew. Unfortunately for us, this team was much, much better that their #23 seed. We played hard and had a 23-21 lead in game 1, but this time we we choked a bit toward the end of the game and ending up losing 25-23. I notable highlight in this game was a great down-the-line kill by Emma!
The poor serving we saw earlier again raised it's ugly head, with us missing 9 serves in set 2, essentially giving them the win.
Our 3rd match was against Roseburg's #1 team, and while we played OK, they really were too much for us and took the match from us 25-15, 25-21.
So, after day one we ended up #23, with no chance to get out of Diamond Division. Despite the disappointing finish, I knew we were resilient and that we would come back strong on day 2.
Day two, had OVA, YVBA and Roseburg Orange. As I suspected, the competition wasn't as tough as day one and we took advantage of it by implementing our free ball plays. While sometimes the entire team wasn't on the same page, we did finally get the hang of it and executed plays successfully by the end of the day. Match one against OVA, wasn't much of a match as we cruised to a 25-12, 25-15 victory.
Our next victim was YVBA that gave us a defense that we hadn't seen before. What they did was that they never blocked, instead they just dropped the front row back to play short tips and off-speed attacks. While this sometimes works, you still have to make plays and YVBA just couldn't put it together and we won 25-17, 25-11.
Our last match was against Roseburg's #2 team, Roseburg Orange. The long layoff coupled with easy matches in the morning led to us not playing all that well in set one. We ended up losing 25-17. I talked with team about just playing solid... we didn't have to do anything special, just play solid. The team responded well by doing just that and cruised to a set 2 AND set 3 win. We only missed one serve over the last 2 games and played pretty well. We had a great play were Tayler had to dive to the floor to get to a short ball and while she got to it, it went straight into the net. Zoe didn't seem to care because she dug it out of the net and got it up to Tayler, who was still trying to get back up. She did get up and managed to get it back over the net. We eventually won the point on a great hustle play.. Nice job girls!
So on day three, we were the 2 seed in our division, so we had a bye. I really didn't like the schedule since we had a bye, then ref, then were off, then finally play at 11. On top of that we had all morning to think about who we got to play, Webfoot 14 Green. A match-up with a supposedly lower team is always tough because the "lower" team has nothing to lose, while we get all freaked out about it. So while we served well (missed only 2 the entire match), the rest of our game was shaky. Coupling that with 14 Green playing really well... and you wend up with a 3 set loss. While very disappointing, we did learn a thing or two about being on a team, like we win as a team and we lose as a team... we don't win because of an individual and we don't lose because of an individual. I still go back to the Friedrich Nietzsche quote "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger", and no, it's not a Kelly Clarkson quote!
So while it was a trying tournament for us, remember we are in it for the long run. The things we're working on will make us better in the future... things like 9 different zone serves, 5 different play sets and three defensive schemes with "read" responsibilities. All these things are relatively advanced volleyball concepts. So while learning all this, we invariably will struggle with them at first.
Individually, everyone had great moments and plays. Our middles once again played well, with Emily and Alyssa being in on all the plays. They really started to get the mechanics down and hopefully will get more comfortable in their responsibilities. Alyysa really had a great serving day on day 3... while not getting any aces, the opposing team really had trouble with them. This is especially satisfying since I wouldn't let her serve one day 2 after a foot fault!
Our Libero Ally did well once again. She struggled a bit on day one, but bounced back well on day 2 and 3. She particularly stood out by not missing any serves on day 2 or 3.
We only had Nikki for for the third day, so she didn't have much of a chance for her to shine, but she played well while in there. Our other outsides, Emma, Tayler, Holly and Tasha all did well. Tayler wow'd us by only missing one serve the entire tournament and Tasha got on the bandwagon by serving 12 straight against OVA on day 2. Emma got a hold of a couple of balls when attacking and really put them down with authority. Holly was very solid, keeping the ball in play when necessary and attacking hard when the set was great.
Our setters really shined this tournament. Marin, Zoe and Alli really mixed up the offense, keeping everyone involved. Marin and Zoe each had a few dump kills, while Alli F did a great job getting the balls nice and high for our hitters. We're very lucky to have three very good setters on our team.
So, next up, Power League. Prairie High School in Vancouver WA.
Go Webfoot!
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Rose City Invite
1/22/12, We found ourselves at the Boys and Girls Club in Milwaukie Oregon.
I knew this would be a tough tournament because PVC, OJVA and Rose City always send their top teams. In fact, the tournament had PVC's top two teams, Rose City's top two teams, along with Rose City's top 12 team. Of course, there was also Webfoot's top 2 teams.
Our pool had:
OJVA Gold (Their #1 team)
Rose City Gold (Their #2 team)
PVC Green (Their #2 team)
Us
Our first opponent was against Rose City Gold, a very good Gold level team currently rated #2 in CEVA (for reference, we're 15th). Not much to say about this match, other than Rose City was a very tough serving team and we just didn't respond well to the challenge. We went down pretty easily, 25-8, 25-10.
Our next opponent, OJVA wasn't any easier, considering they are ranked #3 in CEVA. Pretty much the same story... we didn't pass well and ending up losing 25-17, 25-12. Although we got beat, there was some spark from the girls. They were starting to make some hustle plays that helped everyone pick up their own game. The one I remember was when after a time-out, Marin told me she really wanted to get a block... not two plays later she did get one, not a full blown stuff, but a tip block, but a block nonetheless. OJVA managed to keep the ball in play and made a great attack that we managed to get to, but passed it into the net. That didn't deter Zoe, who dug it out of the net, setting it up perfectly for Alyssa, who took advantage of the situation by executing a great deep corner kill.
Our last opponent in pool play was PVC Green, their #2 team. I was pretty leery of this team because they are usually pretty good that always seemed to play great against us. I think it's a bit of a rivalry thing between myself and the PVC coach. We've played many times over the years with each of us taking about the same amount of wins, so we each we're motivated to win. Unfortunately for them, their team is quite a bit weaker than they had been in the past and we stepped up and took care of them in game one, 25-18. The highlight of this game was that we served another perfect game (no, they don't get ANOTHER dinner!)
Game two was a little different in that PVC just kept hanging around, and eventually got to 24-24. We were calm and determined and finally took the last two points for the win, 26-24.
Our 1-2 finish earned us the #3 spot in our pool... the same as our sister team, Webfoot Gold had. I knew if they won their first match in the afternoon and if we won ours, we would face each other. I didn't tell the girls that, although a couple of them figured it out. First we had to beat a historically tough Rose City 12's. I say tough because I had never beat them outright (I split with them last year). They always do what we coaches call "ball control you to death". They play great defense and keep the ball in play until the opposing team makes a mistake. Fortunately, we are a pretty good team that would have nothing to do with that, and they were not very strong this year. Consequently we cruised to a 25-16, 25-13 win.
That win pitted us against 14 Webfoot Gold (of course!). We were pretty pumped up for the match and it showed because we played the best we had all day. Even though 14 Gold served really tough, we nailed our passes pretty well. We served tough and played hard the entire match, but 14 Gold was a little too tough for us. So while we ended up losing 25-17, 25-16, i was happy with our effort and, for the most part, our execution. The reason I say "for the most part" is because while we lost by about 8 points, that really means that there was a 4 point difference. If we had made 4 more plays, that's 4 points we would get and 4 less points for 14 Gold. So instead of of 25-17, it would have been 21-21... any one's game.
Nonetheless I was pretty happy with our play. While we didn't give Rose City Black or OJVA much of a match, we took care of teams ranked below us and played Webfoot 14 Gold pretty well.
As a team, we served pretty well, getting 89.4% in. (One less miss and we would have hit our 90% goal). Not only did we get 89% in, we served a tough 1.93. (A score of 2 or greater is great).
An area of improvement would be our passing. As a team, we passed a weak 1.3 for the day. (Our goal is 1.8). The teams we played had a lot to do with this, but we need to be able to step up and do a better job on serve receive.
Individually we really did some great things. First, we had 6 girls serve over 90% in. Tasha, Zoe, Nikki all were over the 90% mark and Marin, Tayler and Emily all served perfect for the day. I don't think I've ever had 6 girls over 90% and I know I've never had 3 girls serve perfect. Looks like all the serving practice is paying off. Also worth mentioning is Alyssa, who took her 63% in at the last tournament to over 82% in for this tournament.
Our Libero, Ally G, again had a solid day. She did much better at getting down and staying down and therefore got to quite a few more balls. Again, as in the last tournament, she passed more than twice as many balls as any other player, which is a good thing since she's such a good passer!
Our other outsides Emma (sometimes RS) and Holly had good games. Holly continued to nail the zone serves that I gave her and Emma really hit well. We teased Emma a bit in the match against Rose City 12 because Emma hit a ball pretty hard that hit a little 4th grader before she could even move.
Our setters, Zoe and Alli F did a great job getting to all those errant passes, running all over the court and digging balls out of the net. We are very lucky to have such good setters on this team... actually we have 3 as Marin steps in and does a wonderful job in one of our rotations.
So next up, Power League at the Courts in Beaverton, Sunday, Feb 5th. I will be in the Galapagos islands, so Kandice will have the team. I'm sure we'll play great, I can't wait to hear about all the great plays!
Go Webfoot!
Norm
I knew this would be a tough tournament because PVC, OJVA and Rose City always send their top teams. In fact, the tournament had PVC's top two teams, Rose City's top two teams, along with Rose City's top 12 team. Of course, there was also Webfoot's top 2 teams.
Our pool had:
OJVA Gold (Their #1 team)
Rose City Gold (Their #2 team)
PVC Green (Their #2 team)
Us
Our first opponent was against Rose City Gold, a very good Gold level team currently rated #2 in CEVA (for reference, we're 15th). Not much to say about this match, other than Rose City was a very tough serving team and we just didn't respond well to the challenge. We went down pretty easily, 25-8, 25-10.
Our next opponent, OJVA wasn't any easier, considering they are ranked #3 in CEVA. Pretty much the same story... we didn't pass well and ending up losing 25-17, 25-12. Although we got beat, there was some spark from the girls. They were starting to make some hustle plays that helped everyone pick up their own game. The one I remember was when after a time-out, Marin told me she really wanted to get a block... not two plays later she did get one, not a full blown stuff, but a tip block, but a block nonetheless. OJVA managed to keep the ball in play and made a great attack that we managed to get to, but passed it into the net. That didn't deter Zoe, who dug it out of the net, setting it up perfectly for Alyssa, who took advantage of the situation by executing a great deep corner kill.
Our last opponent in pool play was PVC Green, their #2 team. I was pretty leery of this team because they are usually pretty good that always seemed to play great against us. I think it's a bit of a rivalry thing between myself and the PVC coach. We've played many times over the years with each of us taking about the same amount of wins, so we each we're motivated to win. Unfortunately for them, their team is quite a bit weaker than they had been in the past and we stepped up and took care of them in game one, 25-18. The highlight of this game was that we served another perfect game (no, they don't get ANOTHER dinner!)
Game two was a little different in that PVC just kept hanging around, and eventually got to 24-24. We were calm and determined and finally took the last two points for the win, 26-24.
Our 1-2 finish earned us the #3 spot in our pool... the same as our sister team, Webfoot Gold had. I knew if they won their first match in the afternoon and if we won ours, we would face each other. I didn't tell the girls that, although a couple of them figured it out. First we had to beat a historically tough Rose City 12's. I say tough because I had never beat them outright (I split with them last year). They always do what we coaches call "ball control you to death". They play great defense and keep the ball in play until the opposing team makes a mistake. Fortunately, we are a pretty good team that would have nothing to do with that, and they were not very strong this year. Consequently we cruised to a 25-16, 25-13 win.
That win pitted us against 14 Webfoot Gold (of course!). We were pretty pumped up for the match and it showed because we played the best we had all day. Even though 14 Gold served really tough, we nailed our passes pretty well. We served tough and played hard the entire match, but 14 Gold was a little too tough for us. So while we ended up losing 25-17, 25-16, i was happy with our effort and, for the most part, our execution. The reason I say "for the most part" is because while we lost by about 8 points, that really means that there was a 4 point difference. If we had made 4 more plays, that's 4 points we would get and 4 less points for 14 Gold. So instead of of 25-17, it would have been 21-21... any one's game.
Nonetheless I was pretty happy with our play. While we didn't give Rose City Black or OJVA much of a match, we took care of teams ranked below us and played Webfoot 14 Gold pretty well.
As a team, we served pretty well, getting 89.4% in. (One less miss and we would have hit our 90% goal). Not only did we get 89% in, we served a tough 1.93. (A score of 2 or greater is great).
An area of improvement would be our passing. As a team, we passed a weak 1.3 for the day. (Our goal is 1.8). The teams we played had a lot to do with this, but we need to be able to step up and do a better job on serve receive.
Individually we really did some great things. First, we had 6 girls serve over 90% in. Tasha, Zoe, Nikki all were over the 90% mark and Marin, Tayler and Emily all served perfect for the day. I don't think I've ever had 6 girls over 90% and I know I've never had 3 girls serve perfect. Looks like all the serving practice is paying off. Also worth mentioning is Alyssa, who took her 63% in at the last tournament to over 82% in for this tournament.
Our Libero, Ally G, again had a solid day. She did much better at getting down and staying down and therefore got to quite a few more balls. Again, as in the last tournament, she passed more than twice as many balls as any other player, which is a good thing since she's such a good passer!
Our other outsides Emma (sometimes RS) and Holly had good games. Holly continued to nail the zone serves that I gave her and Emma really hit well. We teased Emma a bit in the match against Rose City 12 because Emma hit a ball pretty hard that hit a little 4th grader before she could even move.
Our setters, Zoe and Alli F did a great job getting to all those errant passes, running all over the court and digging balls out of the net. We are very lucky to have such good setters on this team... actually we have 3 as Marin steps in and does a wonderful job in one of our rotations.
So next up, Power League at the Courts in Beaverton, Sunday, Feb 5th. I will be in the Galapagos islands, so Kandice will have the team. I'm sure we'll play great, I can't wait to hear about all the great plays!
Go Webfoot!
Norm
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Jan 8th Power League
Our first tournament finally got here! It was the Power League Qualifier. All it does is seed the teams into upcoming power leagues. It's like no other tournament in that there is really no bracket play... you play pool play in the am, then 2 rounds of crossover matches in the afternoon. In the am pool, you take over the seed of the team that was in that position. Our pool had:
2 - PVC Red
15- Us
18 - Mid-Valley
31 - Blues Power
So if we ended up first, we would get the #2 spot, 2nd... the #15 spot, 3rd... the #18 spot, 4th... the #31 spot. Obviously, 1st would be fantastic, 2nd... great, 3rd... not so hot, 4th ... disaster.
Then after morning play, we would play teams from the other pool. We ended up playing the #3 and the #10 team. Whew... got it?
The first match was against the #31, Blues Power. This match was really dangerous because if we tanked it, we would be in a hole that would be hard to dig out of. Fortunately, we played pretty well. We only missed one serve in game one, and didn't miss any in game two (earning them a dinner at Kabuki's). We didn't play poorly, yet didn't play great either. I think our hustle on the 50/50 plays (plays that could go either way) pushed us past them. We won game 1, 25-21... a little too close for my taste, but OK since we started out 0-5. Game two was pretty tight also, until about 18-15. During a Blues time out I told the girls that the Blues would get the ball back and that we would have to get it right back. Little did I know we would score 7 straight to win 25-15! Alyssa really played well with her kills and blocks in this match... her kills and blocks inspired the rest of the team to step up their game also.
Our second match was also critical in that there wasn't much separation in seeding between us and Mid-Valley. (15 vrs 18). Fortunately for us, we played better in this match and cruised to a comfortable 2 game win, 25-17, 25-19. What paced us was some timely serving runs, where we would serve 4 or 5 in a row, giving us separation that we would need when we struggled. All in all, a good match. We were inspired by Holly trying to pass a ball off her faced (she failed), bringing a little levity to the match.
Our last match was against the #2 team, PVC Red. While we ended up losing to them, 18-25, 16-25, I was pretty pleased on how they fought the whole time. We decided to turn loose some jump serving and Zoe took the challenge well and put a clinic scoring 3 aces in a row. She also saw a huge defensive hole on the PVC side and simply free-balled the ball to that spot for an easy bump-kill. Nice job Zoe!
Our 2nd place finish secured our #15 seed, with the only thing that could happen is that we would move up. So our 1st cross-over was against Rimrock, the #3 seeded team. Again, we played well against a higher ranked team, but just couldn't seal the deal. So while losing 20-25, 21-25, I was encouraged because we played a "Gold" level team pretty close. Alli F did a couple of great things in this match... first she got to hit from the RS in one rotation and got her first kill of the season with her first swing. She also made a great hustle play, going to the floor to get an errant pass... she got the ball up and we eventually got the point. Great job Alli!
As it happened, we ended up playing our sister team in the final cross-over. After some good-natured trash talking we took them on. Unfortunately, we really laid an egg in the first game. I really don't think we were overly intimidated, we just had some bad breaks and didn't play all that well. 14 Gold really did well in taking advantage of us and cruised to a 25-9 win. I didn't dwell a whole lot on the loss as I wanted to regain some confidence in game two. Once we started playing game 2 and hung with them for the first 10 points or so, the team realized that they really could beat them if they played solid and with confidence. After siding out with each other all the way to us being ahead 24-23. 14 Gold got the next side out, but we really pushed through, scoring the next 2 points to take a 26-24 win. The win was really exciting for us.... with everyone contributing. Zoe and Holly's serves really paced us, and we all got a lift from Emily's great block.
The quick game three was much like game two, but 14 Gold just made a play here and there that we didn't respond to, so we ended up losing 10-15. Nonetheless, I really liked how tough we played against "Gold" level teams... it bodes well for us.
So we ended up right where we started... #15 in the region, Silver Division (there are 127 teams in our league). We're in the same division as 14 Gold, so we may see them again (watch out!)
As mentioned before, the team served perfectly in set #2 of match #1, earning them a dinner on me. For the day we served 85% in, with an average "serve score" of 2.0. A serve score of 2.0 or greater means we served tough... now the challenge is to get the in % up to my target of 90% as a team... and keep the serve score at 2.0 or better. A couple of the girls hit the +90% in, with Tasha at 91% and Zoe getting in an eye-popping 96%. We had 5 girls with serve scores over 2.0, Ally G, Tasha, Zoe, Marin and Holly all had +2.0 scores with Marin taking top honors scoring 2.35. Nice job girls.
Our other tracked stat is passing. It's a score that measures how well we do on serve receive. Here we have a lot of room for improvement. I have a goal of passing at least a 1.75. For the day, we passed at 1.57... as I said, a lot of room for improvement. Another telling stat is that we recorded 33 "zero" passes... these are passing attempts where the other team scored an ace. The 33 zero passes out of the 158 attempts represent a 1 out of every 5th pass will be a zero pass. Ouch... anyone want to guess as to what we'll be doing a lot of in practice???? While those numbers are not good, we did have 3 players pass above the 1.75 mark... Tayler passed an even 2.00, Holly passed a 2.13 and Alyssa passed a 2.25. Nice work girls.
Our setters, Alli and Zoe did a great job for us, distributing the ball well to all the offensive players. Usually at this age, the setters always set the middle (because it's the easiest set), but not these two... they set the 5 (outside) and the 9 (right side) well, keeping everyone engaged in the games. Alli even got a chance to attack and got a kill from the right side and Zoe contributed with a couple of excellent timely dumps.
Our full-time right side, Marin was great, especially her serving. Emma and Tayler played OH and RS and did a really good job keeping the responsibilities of each straight. Having players that play multiple positions is a mental challenge that these girls accepted and performed admirably.
Our other OH's Holly, Tasha and Nikki also did well. Even though Holly can't pass off her face very well, she showed us how to make a pressure packed serve (game 2 against 14 Gold) and played well all day. As mentioned earlier, Tasha served a great 91% in and got numerous kills. Nikki contributed by playing really solid all day. contributing in all parts of the game with respectable scores in serving, passing as well as attacking well.
Our middles, Emily and Alyssa were awesome. Numerous blocks and kills were recorded by each... I'm really excited to have 2 really good middles with tons of potential
Lastly, our Libero Ally G was great. She was the passer on 58 of the 158 balls served at us, which is more than twice as many as any other player.
So, all in all, I think we did great. I'm really excited for this team 's future as we did really well in certain areas. We do have a lot to work on, but their skill at this point is pretty good. With that said, what I really like about this team is the way they've come together as a team. They really seem to have clicked as a group and really have a good time. While there were some communication errors, that will get cleaned up as they play more.
The following picture is an example of what I'm talking about. I love it!
So next up, the Rose City Invite on Sunday, Jan 22nd. Can't wait!!!
Go Webfoot!!!!
2 - PVC Red
15- Us
18 - Mid-Valley
31 - Blues Power
So if we ended up first, we would get the #2 spot, 2nd... the #15 spot, 3rd... the #18 spot, 4th... the #31 spot. Obviously, 1st would be fantastic, 2nd... great, 3rd... not so hot, 4th ... disaster.
Then after morning play, we would play teams from the other pool. We ended up playing the #3 and the #10 team. Whew... got it?
The first match was against the #31, Blues Power. This match was really dangerous because if we tanked it, we would be in a hole that would be hard to dig out of. Fortunately, we played pretty well. We only missed one serve in game one, and didn't miss any in game two (earning them a dinner at Kabuki's). We didn't play poorly, yet didn't play great either. I think our hustle on the 50/50 plays (plays that could go either way) pushed us past them. We won game 1, 25-21... a little too close for my taste, but OK since we started out 0-5. Game two was pretty tight also, until about 18-15. During a Blues time out I told the girls that the Blues would get the ball back and that we would have to get it right back. Little did I know we would score 7 straight to win 25-15! Alyssa really played well with her kills and blocks in this match... her kills and blocks inspired the rest of the team to step up their game also.
Our second match was also critical in that there wasn't much separation in seeding between us and Mid-Valley. (15 vrs 18). Fortunately for us, we played better in this match and cruised to a comfortable 2 game win, 25-17, 25-19. What paced us was some timely serving runs, where we would serve 4 or 5 in a row, giving us separation that we would need when we struggled. All in all, a good match. We were inspired by Holly trying to pass a ball off her faced (she failed), bringing a little levity to the match.
Our last match was against the #2 team, PVC Red. While we ended up losing to them, 18-25, 16-25, I was pretty pleased on how they fought the whole time. We decided to turn loose some jump serving and Zoe took the challenge well and put a clinic scoring 3 aces in a row. She also saw a huge defensive hole on the PVC side and simply free-balled the ball to that spot for an easy bump-kill. Nice job Zoe!
Our 2nd place finish secured our #15 seed, with the only thing that could happen is that we would move up. So our 1st cross-over was against Rimrock, the #3 seeded team. Again, we played well against a higher ranked team, but just couldn't seal the deal. So while losing 20-25, 21-25, I was encouraged because we played a "Gold" level team pretty close. Alli F did a couple of great things in this match... first she got to hit from the RS in one rotation and got her first kill of the season with her first swing. She also made a great hustle play, going to the floor to get an errant pass... she got the ball up and we eventually got the point. Great job Alli!
As it happened, we ended up playing our sister team in the final cross-over. After some good-natured trash talking we took them on. Unfortunately, we really laid an egg in the first game. I really don't think we were overly intimidated, we just had some bad breaks and didn't play all that well. 14 Gold really did well in taking advantage of us and cruised to a 25-9 win. I didn't dwell a whole lot on the loss as I wanted to regain some confidence in game two. Once we started playing game 2 and hung with them for the first 10 points or so, the team realized that they really could beat them if they played solid and with confidence. After siding out with each other all the way to us being ahead 24-23. 14 Gold got the next side out, but we really pushed through, scoring the next 2 points to take a 26-24 win. The win was really exciting for us.... with everyone contributing. Zoe and Holly's serves really paced us, and we all got a lift from Emily's great block.
The quick game three was much like game two, but 14 Gold just made a play here and there that we didn't respond to, so we ended up losing 10-15. Nonetheless, I really liked how tough we played against "Gold" level teams... it bodes well for us.
So we ended up right where we started... #15 in the region, Silver Division (there are 127 teams in our league). We're in the same division as 14 Gold, so we may see them again (watch out!)
As mentioned before, the team served perfectly in set #2 of match #1, earning them a dinner on me. For the day we served 85% in, with an average "serve score" of 2.0. A serve score of 2.0 or greater means we served tough... now the challenge is to get the in % up to my target of 90% as a team... and keep the serve score at 2.0 or better. A couple of the girls hit the +90% in, with Tasha at 91% and Zoe getting in an eye-popping 96%. We had 5 girls with serve scores over 2.0, Ally G, Tasha, Zoe, Marin and Holly all had +2.0 scores with Marin taking top honors scoring 2.35. Nice job girls.
Our other tracked stat is passing. It's a score that measures how well we do on serve receive. Here we have a lot of room for improvement. I have a goal of passing at least a 1.75. For the day, we passed at 1.57... as I said, a lot of room for improvement. Another telling stat is that we recorded 33 "zero" passes... these are passing attempts where the other team scored an ace. The 33 zero passes out of the 158 attempts represent a 1 out of every 5th pass will be a zero pass. Ouch... anyone want to guess as to what we'll be doing a lot of in practice???? While those numbers are not good, we did have 3 players pass above the 1.75 mark... Tayler passed an even 2.00, Holly passed a 2.13 and Alyssa passed a 2.25. Nice work girls.
Our setters, Alli and Zoe did a great job for us, distributing the ball well to all the offensive players. Usually at this age, the setters always set the middle (because it's the easiest set), but not these two... they set the 5 (outside) and the 9 (right side) well, keeping everyone engaged in the games. Alli even got a chance to attack and got a kill from the right side and Zoe contributed with a couple of excellent timely dumps.
Our full-time right side, Marin was great, especially her serving. Emma and Tayler played OH and RS and did a really good job keeping the responsibilities of each straight. Having players that play multiple positions is a mental challenge that these girls accepted and performed admirably.
Our other OH's Holly, Tasha and Nikki also did well. Even though Holly can't pass off her face very well, she showed us how to make a pressure packed serve (game 2 against 14 Gold) and played well all day. As mentioned earlier, Tasha served a great 91% in and got numerous kills. Nikki contributed by playing really solid all day. contributing in all parts of the game with respectable scores in serving, passing as well as attacking well.
Our middles, Emily and Alyssa were awesome. Numerous blocks and kills were recorded by each... I'm really excited to have 2 really good middles with tons of potential
Lastly, our Libero Ally G was great. She was the passer on 58 of the 158 balls served at us, which is more than twice as many as any other player.
So, all in all, I think we did great. I'm really excited for this team 's future as we did really well in certain areas. We do have a lot to work on, but their skill at this point is pretty good. With that said, what I really like about this team is the way they've come together as a team. They really seem to have clicked as a group and really have a good time. While there were some communication errors, that will get cleaned up as they play more.
The following picture is an example of what I'm talking about. I love it!
So next up, the Rose City Invite on Sunday, Jan 22nd. Can't wait!!!
Go Webfoot!!!!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
XMAS Break
We've had a great couple of practices... can't wait to play someone! We're going thru line-ups and rotations, which is really boring for the girls, but trust me, at the first tournament they'll be lost!
The girls were a bit confused about practices over the break. I will have practices every Mon and Wed, even the ones after XMAS and New Years. I told the girls that if they are in town and not doing anything to come to practice, but DO NOT change plans because of a practice. The XMAS break is for family time and I want to respect that. There will be 6 more months of practices, so don't feel guilty about missing any.
I posted Santa hat pictures on our webpage, check them out!
That's about it for now... Go Webfoot!!!
The girls were a bit confused about practices over the break. I will have practices every Mon and Wed, even the ones after XMAS and New Years. I told the girls that if they are in town and not doing anything to come to practice, but DO NOT change plans because of a practice. The XMAS break is for family time and I want to respect that. There will be 6 more months of practices, so don't feel guilty about missing any.
I posted Santa hat pictures on our webpage, check them out!
That's about it for now... Go Webfoot!!!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
New 14 Silver Season
Hey 14 Silver! It was great meeting you all the other night. I'm looking forward to a great season with you all.
Here's a pic of what 14 Silver is all about.... a nothing hits the ground attitude. We have Katie and Michelle going to the floor for a ball (executing a perfect pancake) while Rylee and Sophia are ready to play the ball. Awesome!
Couple of things:
* - I've posted out roster and schedule on our team page. For all you photographers, either send me the pics, or send me the links to photos throughout the season and I'll get them on our page.
* - I've added all your cell numbers to my phone so I'll be sending mass texts out to you all periodically. Look for them!
* - We will be having a season get to know you party... tentatively on Sunday, Dec 4th. One of the activity will be an ornament exchange, so start looking for a cool ornament.
* - Rumor has it our awesome parent reps are organizing a warmup shirt making party, sounds fun!
* - We will be practicing over the XMAS break, for sure on 12/19 and 12/21. 12/26 and 12/28 are little more iffy. My wife is trying to convince me to go to California after XMAS... we'll see.
* - Lastly - We need 4 girls to attend the scorekeepers clinic, Saturday Dec 3rd, 9:00-12:00. I know Alli Fuller said she would be there,... I need three more. Let me know.
That's it for now, Go Webfoot!
Here's a pic of what 14 Silver is all about.... a nothing hits the ground attitude. We have Katie and Michelle going to the floor for a ball (executing a perfect pancake) while Rylee and Sophia are ready to play the ball. Awesome!
Couple of things:
* - I've posted out roster and schedule on our team page. For all you photographers, either send me the pics, or send me the links to photos throughout the season and I'll get them on our page.
* - I've added all your cell numbers to my phone so I'll be sending mass texts out to you all periodically. Look for them!
* - We will be having a season get to know you party... tentatively on Sunday, Dec 4th. One of the activity will be an ornament exchange, so start looking for a cool ornament.
* - Rumor has it our awesome parent reps are organizing a warmup shirt making party, sounds fun!
* - We will be practicing over the XMAS break, for sure on 12/19 and 12/21. 12/26 and 12/28 are little more iffy. My wife is trying to convince me to go to California after XMAS... we'll see.
* - Lastly - We need 4 girls to attend the scorekeepers clinic, Saturday Dec 3rd, 9:00-12:00. I know Alli Fuller said she would be there,... I need three more. Let me know.
That's it for now, Go Webfoot!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Regionals
We were looking forward to Regionals as we were only the 2nd 14 Silver team ever to make the top 16. With that said, I was concerned because everyone in the tournament would be good, and for us to get a win or two we would have to be at the top of our game and the opponent would have to struggle a bit. Our pool consisted of:
Rose City 14 Black---------- #3 in the region
Webfoot 14 Gold------------#6 in the region
Us-----------------------------#11 in the region
West Valley Jrs 14 Black---#14 in the region
While we didn't play poorly in pool play, we didn't play all that great and our opponents played as well as I thought they would. So while we were competitive, we couldn't find a win.
Our fourth place finish landed us in Gill Colosseum on day two, with Roseburg 14 Black up first. I had never played there so I was hoping that the courts would be large, allowing us to jump serve and chase down errant passes. As luck would have it, the court we were assigned was just the opposite. On the north side of the court was a bleacher that was about 2 ft from the side line... not the best situation and while there was room to jump serve, there was an overhang at the end of the courts that was a bit distracting. Despite those obstacles we actually played better than we had the day before. Unfortunately, Roseburg played better and took the match from us, putting us in the challenge bracket (lose and go home).
The loss pitted us against Pacific 14 Black, a team that had beat us a couple of Power Leagues ago. Being the incredibly consistent team we are, we played real solid... but not exceptional and lost to them in two games.
Although the finish was disappointing, there are some positives to take away from the Power Leagues/Regionals. First, we finished tied for 15th in our Region. The last time I was in the top 16, they didn't format the Regional tournament the way they do now so in that tournament, we ended up 16th... so another "first" for 14 Silver. Second - we are the #2 team (#1 in my heart!) in our club. There were only 3 clubs that put two teams in the top 16, OJVA, Rose City and us. That speaks volumes about 14 Silver.
From a coaching standpoint, we are weak in offense. While we pass-set-hit most of the time, the hits aren't screamers that hits the floor before anyone can get to it. We're going to concentrate quite a bit over the next couple of weeks to see if we can get some of the "oohhhh" kills. (Kills that make the spectators go "ooohhhh").
Individually, the girls and boy did some really nice things. Brighton continues to do a great job alternating between a Right Side and setter/backup setter. Her consistency is really appreciated by our hitters. Brighton also jumped up into the +90% in club, serving 93% in. Evan is really starting to get consistent with the jump serves and get aces out of them. Couple that with his strong hitting, he's an offensive force to deal with. While I thought he might of missed a serve over the 2 days, the book says he served 100%. Great job Evan.
Our setters are our unsung heroes of our team. They go out and chase down errant passes all day long and continue to put balls up giving our hitters an opportunity to do their stuff. If the hitters don't thank them enough, I will. THANKS SARAH AND BRIT!!!!!
Our middles, Victoria and Alexa, continue working on hitting what's called "shot boxes". Basically they are zones on the court that either are difficult to defend or if you hit them, it will disrupt the other teams' offense. Victoria is really starting to hit them and Alexa continues to wow us with hits that come out of nowhere. You think a ball is going to drop, but Alexa comes out of nowhere to not only gets to the ball, but attacks it successfully!
Our Libero, Anna continues to get praise from other coaches. Twice after matches the opposing coach would ask me "is she a 7th or 8th grader???" (They hope she's an 8th grader so they don't have to play against her next year). The attention is well deserved and feel we're so lucky to have someone like Anna anchoring our back row. Oh, she also served 93% in. :)
Emma, Rebecca, Delaney and Sara all did a great job... not only in their roll as outside hitters, but on serve receive, defense and serving. All four of these girls lead the team in passing out of serve receive, with Delaney leading again leading the way... scoring 1.74. Emma is not far behind at 1.71, followed by Rebecca at 1.62 and Sara at 1.52. Great job girls!
So next up, the Willamette Valley Classic, Mother's Day Weekend. We'll work on offense between now and then...I can't wait!
Norm
Rose City 14 Black---------- #3 in the region
Webfoot 14 Gold------------#6 in the region
Us-----------------------------#11 in the region
West Valley Jrs 14 Black---#14 in the region
While we didn't play poorly in pool play, we didn't play all that great and our opponents played as well as I thought they would. So while we were competitive, we couldn't find a win.
Our fourth place finish landed us in Gill Colosseum on day two, with Roseburg 14 Black up first. I had never played there so I was hoping that the courts would be large, allowing us to jump serve and chase down errant passes. As luck would have it, the court we were assigned was just the opposite. On the north side of the court was a bleacher that was about 2 ft from the side line... not the best situation and while there was room to jump serve, there was an overhang at the end of the courts that was a bit distracting. Despite those obstacles we actually played better than we had the day before. Unfortunately, Roseburg played better and took the match from us, putting us in the challenge bracket (lose and go home).
The loss pitted us against Pacific 14 Black, a team that had beat us a couple of Power Leagues ago. Being the incredibly consistent team we are, we played real solid... but not exceptional and lost to them in two games.
Although the finish was disappointing, there are some positives to take away from the Power Leagues/Regionals. First, we finished tied for 15th in our Region. The last time I was in the top 16, they didn't format the Regional tournament the way they do now so in that tournament, we ended up 16th... so another "first" for 14 Silver. Second - we are the #2 team (#1 in my heart!) in our club. There were only 3 clubs that put two teams in the top 16, OJVA, Rose City and us. That speaks volumes about 14 Silver.
From a coaching standpoint, we are weak in offense. While we pass-set-hit most of the time, the hits aren't screamers that hits the floor before anyone can get to it. We're going to concentrate quite a bit over the next couple of weeks to see if we can get some of the "oohhhh" kills. (Kills that make the spectators go "ooohhhh").
Individually, the girls and boy did some really nice things. Brighton continues to do a great job alternating between a Right Side and setter/backup setter. Her consistency is really appreciated by our hitters. Brighton also jumped up into the +90% in club, serving 93% in. Evan is really starting to get consistent with the jump serves and get aces out of them. Couple that with his strong hitting, he's an offensive force to deal with. While I thought he might of missed a serve over the 2 days, the book says he served 100%. Great job Evan.
Our setters are our unsung heroes of our team. They go out and chase down errant passes all day long and continue to put balls up giving our hitters an opportunity to do their stuff. If the hitters don't thank them enough, I will. THANKS SARAH AND BRIT!!!!!
Our middles, Victoria and Alexa, continue working on hitting what's called "shot boxes". Basically they are zones on the court that either are difficult to defend or if you hit them, it will disrupt the other teams' offense. Victoria is really starting to hit them and Alexa continues to wow us with hits that come out of nowhere. You think a ball is going to drop, but Alexa comes out of nowhere to not only gets to the ball, but attacks it successfully!
Our Libero, Anna continues to get praise from other coaches. Twice after matches the opposing coach would ask me "is she a 7th or 8th grader???" (They hope she's an 8th grader so they don't have to play against her next year). The attention is well deserved and feel we're so lucky to have someone like Anna anchoring our back row. Oh, she also served 93% in. :)
Emma, Rebecca, Delaney and Sara all did a great job... not only in their roll as outside hitters, but on serve receive, defense and serving. All four of these girls lead the team in passing out of serve receive, with Delaney leading again leading the way... scoring 1.74. Emma is not far behind at 1.71, followed by Rebecca at 1.62 and Sara at 1.52. Great job girls!
So next up, the Willamette Valley Classic, Mother's Day Weekend. We'll work on offense between now and then...I can't wait!
Norm
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Power League 4/2
Here we are in Gold.... So I was really concerned about how we would play, we could play scared or loose with nothing to lose, or somewhere in between. Our pool consisted of the #1, the #4, the #5 and us at #8. Not only were we in Gold, we had our sister team, 14 Gold in our pool. 1 - OJVA 2 - Webfoot 14 Gold 3 - Rose City 14 Gold 4 - Us As it would happen, we got to play 14 Gold first. I kind of had a feeling we would play them pretty well since we just scrimmaged them and did pretty well. We also had a pretty good idea of their tendencies and what their strengths and weaknesses were. Our game plan was to stay away from their excellent Libero Courtney and exploit the middle hole (area 8). We also wanted to take them out of their offense by hitting area 1 and 9... where their setter camps out. Game 1 was pretty tight for the first half of the game, but we made a few more errors than they did and 14 Gold went on to win 25-16. We didn't play that bad, but we just needed to make a few more plays. Game 2 was a bit different in that not only did we step it up, 14 Gold struggled a bit. One thing I like about this team is that when they see an opportunity to take advantage of a team that is struggling, they step up their intensity and really put the pressure on. We jumped to an early lead and never gave it up and went on to a great 25-21 win! This was a great win in that I have never took a game from 14 Gold.... so it was quite an accomplishment. Unfortunately we never got it going in game three and 14 Gold went on to a three game win. Next up we had the overall #1 in the region, OJVA. This team just did not make mistakes. We would make a great pass or block and they would just keep bringing it until they would either get a kill or we would make a mistake. We lost the match in 2, 25-14, 25-10. I was semi-pleased that we didn't give up and played hard throughout the match... they were just way too much for us. Our last match in pool play was against Rose City's #2 team. There isn't a very big difference between the #1 and #2 team for Rose City, in fact the #2 team had beat the #1 team at the last Power League. We played exceptionally well in game one, and had a chance to win it, but just couldn't quite finish the game and lost 26-24. When you lose a close game to a supposedly better team it can lead to two different things. It can motivate you to know you can play with them, or it can discourage you because you gave it all you had and still lost. Unfortunately for us, we chose the latter and didn't put up much of a fight, losing 25-12. The crossover match was against the 3rd place team from the other pool, Excel NW Black. We had never seen these guys before, so we had no idea what they were like. We found out pretty quick that they were a very solid team that again... didn't make mistakes. We were competitive, but just didn't have enough and lost the match 25-14, 25-15. Our final match of the day was a one-game affair against 14 Gold again. We were pretty excited because we knew we could take them if all the stars aligned correctly. We started out pretty well, getting up a few points on them. Unfortunately for us, 14 Gold cleaned up a lot of there errors and finally put us away, 25-20. Even though we lost to them again, I was pleased with our competitiveness. So while we played pretty hard, we couldn't get a match win. I wasn't too disappointed since we had never been up in Gold before, so we didn't know what the play would be like. Now we know and we know that we can play with these guys... which we will do at Regionals! Individually, the girls (and Evan!) each found a way to help the team. Our setters, Sarah J and Brit did a great job distributing the ball to all our hitters. They had very few doubles (something I was worried about since we had "official" officials in Gold). Sarah J had a great dump against 14 Gold that dropped without a touch and Brit contributed by serving 100% for her third consecutive tournament. Our right sides Brighton and Evan are really important to us from both an offensive and defensive standpoint. Some team put their weakest players on the right side and then never set them, but with our talent on the right side they are so important to us. They adjusted well to hit line when I asked them to and Evan got more than one stuff block... including a couple against 14 Gold that went straight down. Brighton contributed with real solid play, making very few errors. Our middles Alexa and Victoria contributed positively as well, exploiting other teams weaknesses by tipping and hitting off-speed to area 8... then mixing it up with a deep attack or two. Nice job girls. Our Libero, Anna really was a warrior. She passes over twice as many balls as the rest of the team combined is always on the floor diving for ball after ball. She showed me her war wounds after the match.. the knees, wrists, elbows and hips all were banged up with floor burns and bruises. She really is an awesome asset for us, not only because of her defensive prowess, but her offense... hitting the "pipe" is an added bonus. That leaves our outsides who are kind of our unsung heroes. The only get to play every other game, but really take advantage of their opportunities. Rebecca bounced back from an OK tournament 2 weeks ago to a very solid performance this time. Emma also played well, passing well and only missing one serve all day. Delaney was out of synch with her offense, so I had a quick chat with her... challenging her to find a way to help the team. She responded really well by be the best passer on the team as well as serving really well, especially after pool play. Sara B had another outstanding tournament, serving perfect for the 2nd time this season as well as passing well and getting some real important kills. So, while we didn't win a match, I was pleased with our effort. We did have some lapses in passion and intensity, but I expected that knowing that getting discouraged would be likely. Timely time-outs usually took care of this, so I'm not too concerned about it. This is a team of "firsts" and they didn't disappoint this time either... I have never had a team take a game from Webfoot 14 Gold. I am continually impressed with what this team has done and can't wait to see what the future holds. So now what does our finish mean to us? Unlike all previous Power Leagues, team do not automatically move up or down based on their finish. We received Gold level points which will help us get a good seeding for regionals. The way it works is that at the end of every Power League, we get assigned points based on our finish. For Regionals, they add up all the points then rank the teams from top to bottom. The two-day Regionals allow the top 16 to compete for 1st place, while 17 thru 128 play a one-day tournament that is effectively just another Power League. Getting to the 2-day Power League is huge and only one other 14 Silver has done it... getting seeded 16th one time. The point totals have not been posted yet, but I'm pretty sure we'll be ranked somewhere in the low teens... 12-14. We will just have to wait and see. Next up is a special practice on Wednesday, 4/6... it is goofy dress day. The players need to dress as silly and goofy as they can. THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL! The winner of the goofiest outfit will win a prize! We will do a little athletic stuff, but not much. Instead we will do team fun games, each with a purpose. Parents - Bring your cameras and team.... be creative!!!!! Go Webfoot!
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