Hi 14 Silver! It was really great meeting all of you at the signing meeting, I can't wait for the season to start. I'll use this blog to communicate upcoming events, do tournament summaries and to post any other random thing that comes up during the season. The first thing I want to communicate is that our team webpage is up w/ our roster and tournament schedule. Check it out by going to http://www.webfootjuniors.com/ , select TEAMS, then 14 SILVER. There is a link to this blog as well as a link to our photo gallery (once we get some pics!) .
Next up - Team get together at my house, 7:15 pm, Dec 6th. Bring an WRAPPED ornament for exchanging and your favorite ice cream topping. The entire family is invited. My address is 693 Elwood Drive, Eugene. It's real close to Valley River Center. I e-mailed everyone directions, let me know if you didn't receive them.
Go Webfoot!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
End of the Season
The things I remember:
Season started 7 months ago with tryouts. The girls were all nervous, hoping to do well, worrying about what the coaches were thinking.
We had the tryouts, formed the team and then got to meet each other at the signing meeting. A member of each team won something at the signing meeting, who won ours? – Molly’s neighbor.
Our first practice was actually a XMAS party at my house. Do you remember the rules game and the history of volleyball? What were the very first hitters called? Bombarinos.
Do you remember practicing in Santa hats???
MLK tournament. Who was the first team we beat in our very first tournament? – Webfoot 13 Gold
Power League Qualifier, where was it? The Courts in Beaverton.
There was a girl 6”-2”. How old was she? - 12. What was her name? Ariana
Who won the award for totally ruining the waffles at breakfast in the hotel? - Laina
Canby Tournament – We went outside to warm up, so I sent them sprinting down the track about 50 feet, when they stopped to turn around, 3 of them fell on their keesters because of frost on the track.
2 things that never have happened before happened at this tournament. What were they? 25-0 against Club Momentum Pink, and we won the tournament. What was the seed of Canby at the time? 6th.
Then came Guatemala. While it is very rewarding to go down there, I really miss the girls. So this time I decided to text to them often to see how they were doing. Little did I know that I was racking up over $1,000 worth of data charges! (it got reduced to $200)
Power League #2 at Salem Hoop. I did something in the crossover match that has become a signature move for me. What was it? Called 2 time outs in a row. Who was it against? PVC Green.
Rose City tournament. Talk about having distractions and adversity. What happened to Norm on the way to the tournament? – Put two contacts in one eye, and put the left in the right and the right in the left.!
What happened to Molly? – Bloody Nose
What happened to Kayla – Bonked her head
What happened to Sidney – Got her hair all tangled up in her hair band.
Next came goofy dress night. – They really outdid themselves. I will never forget getting dropped on my head… 3 times!
Next was our last Power League in Springfield. We beat Canby, again and had an incredible comeback win against a team in game 3. We were down 10-1 and came back to win 15-13. Who was it against? Blues Power.
Regionals – Where we learned to play on “plastic”. Just missed getting into the 2-day, while Canby made it (although we beat them 3 times in the season)
Kabukis – For the perfect serving games. The girls were looking really good. While we were waiting a family came in with a young man about the girls age. You should have seen him do a double take when he saw all the pretty girls!
WVC - Hard luck tournament.. Just couldn't get any momentum. Some of the girls posed with a wooden statue of Benny Beaver. Who thought it was a bear? Kelli.
Bayview.
Who lost her shoe up on a shelf 15 feet up a wall Courtney…. and not to be outdone, who got a ball stuck too? Karson
Finally shutting up 14 Green by beating them.
Winning our very last match.
The limo ride - The girls all signing Katy Perry’s California Girls. Waving at the “large” African-American gansta guys at the side of the road. Having boys at the overlook taking their pictures.
Who thought that Alcatraz was named Azkaban. (Harry Potter). Laina
All the food at the Rainforest!!
So we started the season with a win, and ended with a win, with a tournament championship in between… mixed in was 6 perfect serving games, including the 25-0 win, and a win over 14 Green. I’ll forget about all the other stuff.
I’ll always remember the endless games of cross court wars… them always yelling “3 meter line” when I said 10 foot line, all the blizzards I bought, running sixes for missed serves (Who always yelled encouragement? Kayla. Who always served last ? Sidney. I remember making the girls yell Webfoot at Kabukis (they really didn’t want to) and then again at the Rainforest… where they didn’t bat an eye! I’ll remember all the languages we learned. What's the number ladies? 3
But what I will remember most about this team is their work ethic, their camaraderie and great personalities. I have been truly blessed and honored to be able to be their coach this season. I truly believe I have 10 new best friends and hope they feel the same way.
Awards -
Brick Wall Award - Amanda
Match Winning Shot Award - Karson
Flaming Volleyball Award - Kelli
Ultimate Teammate Award - Laina
Height Doesn't Matter Award - Molly
Go Ahead And Hit As Hard As You Can Award - Sidney
Most Inspirational - Rachel
Most Improved - Kayla
Best Defense - Courtney
Best Offense - Rachel
MVP - Sky
I hope you all have a great summer, see you all next year!!!
Season started 7 months ago with tryouts. The girls were all nervous, hoping to do well, worrying about what the coaches were thinking.
We had the tryouts, formed the team and then got to meet each other at the signing meeting. A member of each team won something at the signing meeting, who won ours? – Molly’s neighbor.
Our first practice was actually a XMAS party at my house. Do you remember the rules game and the history of volleyball? What were the very first hitters called? Bombarinos.
Do you remember practicing in Santa hats???
MLK tournament. Who was the first team we beat in our very first tournament? – Webfoot 13 Gold
Power League Qualifier, where was it? The Courts in Beaverton.
There was a girl 6”-2”. How old was she? - 12. What was her name? Ariana
Who won the award for totally ruining the waffles at breakfast in the hotel? - Laina
Canby Tournament – We went outside to warm up, so I sent them sprinting down the track about 50 feet, when they stopped to turn around, 3 of them fell on their keesters because of frost on the track.
2 things that never have happened before happened at this tournament. What were they? 25-0 against Club Momentum Pink, and we won the tournament. What was the seed of Canby at the time? 6th.
Then came Guatemala. While it is very rewarding to go down there, I really miss the girls. So this time I decided to text to them often to see how they were doing. Little did I know that I was racking up over $1,000 worth of data charges! (it got reduced to $200)
Power League #2 at Salem Hoop. I did something in the crossover match that has become a signature move for me. What was it? Called 2 time outs in a row. Who was it against? PVC Green.
Rose City tournament. Talk about having distractions and adversity. What happened to Norm on the way to the tournament? – Put two contacts in one eye, and put the left in the right and the right in the left.!
What happened to Molly? – Bloody Nose
What happened to Kayla – Bonked her head
What happened to Sidney – Got her hair all tangled up in her hair band.
Next came goofy dress night. – They really outdid themselves. I will never forget getting dropped on my head… 3 times!
Next was our last Power League in Springfield. We beat Canby, again and had an incredible comeback win against a team in game 3. We were down 10-1 and came back to win 15-13. Who was it against? Blues Power.
Regionals – Where we learned to play on “plastic”. Just missed getting into the 2-day, while Canby made it (although we beat them 3 times in the season)
Kabukis – For the perfect serving games. The girls were looking really good. While we were waiting a family came in with a young man about the girls age. You should have seen him do a double take when he saw all the pretty girls!
WVC - Hard luck tournament.. Just couldn't get any momentum. Some of the girls posed with a wooden statue of Benny Beaver. Who thought it was a bear? Kelli.
Bayview.
Who lost her shoe up on a shelf 15 feet up a wall Courtney…. and not to be outdone, who got a ball stuck too? Karson
Finally shutting up 14 Green by beating them.
Winning our very last match.
The limo ride - The girls all signing Katy Perry’s California Girls. Waving at the “large” African-American gansta guys at the side of the road. Having boys at the overlook taking their pictures.
Who thought that Alcatraz was named Azkaban. (Harry Potter). Laina
All the food at the Rainforest!!
So we started the season with a win, and ended with a win, with a tournament championship in between… mixed in was 6 perfect serving games, including the 25-0 win, and a win over 14 Green. I’ll forget about all the other stuff.
I’ll always remember the endless games of cross court wars… them always yelling “3 meter line” when I said 10 foot line, all the blizzards I bought, running sixes for missed serves (Who always yelled encouragement? Kayla. Who always served last ? Sidney. I remember making the girls yell Webfoot at Kabukis (they really didn’t want to) and then again at the Rainforest… where they didn’t bat an eye! I’ll remember all the languages we learned. What's the number ladies? 3
But what I will remember most about this team is their work ethic, their camaraderie and great personalities. I have been truly blessed and honored to be able to be their coach this season. I truly believe I have 10 new best friends and hope they feel the same way.
Awards -
Brick Wall Award - Amanda
Match Winning Shot Award - Karson
Flaming Volleyball Award - Kelli
Ultimate Teammate Award - Laina
Height Doesn't Matter Award - Molly
Go Ahead And Hit As Hard As You Can Award - Sidney
Most Inspirational - Rachel
Most Improved - Kayla
Best Defense - Courtney
Best Offense - Rachel
MVP - Sky
I hope you all have a great summer, see you all next year!!!
Friday, June 4, 2010
Bayview and the "End of the Season"
For those of you looking for my season ending post, I am going to wait until after our season ending party. I don't want to give anything away!!!
Suffice to say that we had a great time, played hard and ... beat 14 Green! Woo-woo!
Suffice to say that we had a great time, played hard and ... beat 14 Green! Woo-woo!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Willamette Valley Classic
Well, if you hadn't heard, we didn't have the best tournament. We went in 18th and ended 41st..... not a very good showing. Our serving hit an all time low and we had, what seemed like hundreds, .. zero passes (aces against us and un-settable balls).
We had our good moments, but they were far and few between. However, through it all, I never saw the girls give up. They always worked hard and strived to win. I never saw them getting nasty to each other. They truly have learned that we win as a team and we lose as a team.
So, as a firm believer in learning from our mistakes and moving on, so we won't dwell on the tournament and get ready for Bayview.
We had our good moments, but they were far and few between. However, through it all, I never saw the girls give up. They always worked hard and strived to win. I never saw them getting nasty to each other. They truly have learned that we win as a team and we lose as a team.
So, as a firm believer in learning from our mistakes and moving on, so we won't dwell on the tournament and get ready for Bayview.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Kabuki's!
Since the girls have served numerious perfect games, I owed them a nice dinner out. So they got all gussied up (who knew they cleaned up so nicely?) and we had a great time at Kabuki's on Wednesday. Check out the pics on our Webfoot page
http://www.webfootjuniors.com/Photos/Photo%20Galleries/14Silver/Kabukis/index.htm
http://www.webfootjuniors.com/Photos/Photo%20Galleries/14Silver/Kabukis/index.htm
Regionals
This tournament is structured a little different than any other we've been in. It's setup so that 2 divisions actually cross play each other. So if your in the higher division, you have a chance of playing down and if your in the lower division, you have a chance of moving up.
In out pool, there was us, Blues Power, Vancouver Lightning and West Valley Juniors. Our first match, against Vancouver Lightning, was a tough one for us. Although I felt we are a better team, Vancouver put a great game together, while we played pretty poorly. Our serving was OK, missing 4 over the whole match... not good, not bad. However our serve receive really struggled and consequently, they beat us in 25-16, 25-22. About the only highlight of the match was a great one arm pass that came from Rachel. There was a great tip by Vancouver Lightning that almost hit the floor, but our girls kind of all dove for it, managing to get it up a little. Our second contact was another "barely got it up" pass. So, although Rachel was on the ground from the first scramble, she saw the ball falling to the ground and put an arm on it, muscling it over for a great bump-kill.
The loss put us in a precarious position, having to beat Blues and West Valley in order to stay in Bronze Division. West Valley was a really young team and we handled them pretty easily, 25-9, 25-18. We pretty much served them off the court in game one and continued it into game two, although we allowed them to score 5 straight before we closed them out.
So on to the Blues, a team that beat us in our last power league, but one we had beat before. Sometimes I tell the girls about important matches and sometimes I don't. This time I opted to let them know that if they won, we stay in Bronze, if we lose we go to Diamond. The strategy seemed to backfire in that we went out and missed 6 serves in the first game! That poor performance made the game very tough and we on to lose 25-18. Between games, I got on them a bit about the serving. I told them, play hard, get your serves in and be smart... do that and I would be happy. While they did make me happy by doing all that, we ended up losing 25-23. So on to Diamond Division.
Needless to say, we were pretty disappointed, but understood that it was our own doing. So after the break, we went to bracket play. The way bracket play worked was the first game either sent you into the winners bracket or the consolation bracket. Taking one match at a time, we obviously vowed to go to the winners side. Our opponent was North Pacific Smack. They were a decent team, but in the end we were a better team winning 25-21, 25-15. With the win, we secured 25th thru 28th.
Our next opponent was PVC Green, a team we barely beat a couple of power leagues ago (remember the 2 time-out/sub situation? That was them). Like last time, the games were very tight. We took the first 26-24 and they took the second, 25-19. I was pretty confident going into game three as we had played pretty well in the past third games. Unfortunately, we put ourselves in a quick hole, unable to serve receive. While we played hard and missed zero serves, we ended up on the short end, 15-9. If it's any consolation PVC Green went on to win the division.
So, while we were disappointed with our play, I felt we played pretty well (except against Vancouver Lightning). We ended up 28th in our region (out of 117), not where we had hoped to be, but not bad.
Since I always talk about our Libero last, I'll change it up and talk about her first. Courtney is so awesome, coming out of nowhere to pass short balls perfectly to our setters. In addition she has never served below 90% (the only one one on the team to do this) and is getting more and more kills from the "pipe".
Our setters hustled their rear ends all over getting to errant passes. Sky hit a personal all time high in serving, getting 95% in (a team high). Kayla upped her serve percentage over her last game and got her first outside block. Molly even joined the blocking party by getting a touch!
Our outsides (Kelli, Sidney, Laina and Karson) had a very consistent day attacking, getting more confident with their swing. There was a point in the game against West Valley that the opposing coach took her right back and put her in the middle of the court to counteract the dump (leaving zone 1 wide open). I pointed this out to the outsides and they promptly made them pay by hitting more down the line. Serving wise, Laina was just under the 90% mark while Karson was just over. Kelli made some great scramble plays and Sidney always an awesome defensive player.
Our middles, Amanda and Rachel played well, especially in blocking andserving. I think Rachel got a block in every match (game?). Both of them served in for all-time highs over 90% helping the team to hit a team high 88.7%.
So again, dispite our finish, these girls are the best. They are very coachable and truely like each other. I wouldn't trade them withe anyone.
Next up Dinner at Kabukis!
In out pool, there was us, Blues Power, Vancouver Lightning and West Valley Juniors. Our first match, against Vancouver Lightning, was a tough one for us. Although I felt we are a better team, Vancouver put a great game together, while we played pretty poorly. Our serving was OK, missing 4 over the whole match... not good, not bad. However our serve receive really struggled and consequently, they beat us in 25-16, 25-22. About the only highlight of the match was a great one arm pass that came from Rachel. There was a great tip by Vancouver Lightning that almost hit the floor, but our girls kind of all dove for it, managing to get it up a little. Our second contact was another "barely got it up" pass. So, although Rachel was on the ground from the first scramble, she saw the ball falling to the ground and put an arm on it, muscling it over for a great bump-kill.
The loss put us in a precarious position, having to beat Blues and West Valley in order to stay in Bronze Division. West Valley was a really young team and we handled them pretty easily, 25-9, 25-18. We pretty much served them off the court in game one and continued it into game two, although we allowed them to score 5 straight before we closed them out.
So on to the Blues, a team that beat us in our last power league, but one we had beat before. Sometimes I tell the girls about important matches and sometimes I don't. This time I opted to let them know that if they won, we stay in Bronze, if we lose we go to Diamond. The strategy seemed to backfire in that we went out and missed 6 serves in the first game! That poor performance made the game very tough and we on to lose 25-18. Between games, I got on them a bit about the serving. I told them, play hard, get your serves in and be smart... do that and I would be happy. While they did make me happy by doing all that, we ended up losing 25-23. So on to Diamond Division.
Needless to say, we were pretty disappointed, but understood that it was our own doing. So after the break, we went to bracket play. The way bracket play worked was the first game either sent you into the winners bracket or the consolation bracket. Taking one match at a time, we obviously vowed to go to the winners side. Our opponent was North Pacific Smack. They were a decent team, but in the end we were a better team winning 25-21, 25-15. With the win, we secured 25th thru 28th.
Our next opponent was PVC Green, a team we barely beat a couple of power leagues ago (remember the 2 time-out/sub situation? That was them). Like last time, the games were very tight. We took the first 26-24 and they took the second, 25-19. I was pretty confident going into game three as we had played pretty well in the past third games. Unfortunately, we put ourselves in a quick hole, unable to serve receive. While we played hard and missed zero serves, we ended up on the short end, 15-9. If it's any consolation PVC Green went on to win the division.
So, while we were disappointed with our play, I felt we played pretty well (except against Vancouver Lightning). We ended up 28th in our region (out of 117), not where we had hoped to be, but not bad.
Since I always talk about our Libero last, I'll change it up and talk about her first. Courtney is so awesome, coming out of nowhere to pass short balls perfectly to our setters. In addition she has never served below 90% (the only one one on the team to do this) and is getting more and more kills from the "pipe".
Our setters hustled their rear ends all over getting to errant passes. Sky hit a personal all time high in serving, getting 95% in (a team high). Kayla upped her serve percentage over her last game and got her first outside block. Molly even joined the blocking party by getting a touch!
Our outsides (Kelli, Sidney, Laina and Karson) had a very consistent day attacking, getting more confident with their swing. There was a point in the game against West Valley that the opposing coach took her right back and put her in the middle of the court to counteract the dump (leaving zone 1 wide open). I pointed this out to the outsides and they promptly made them pay by hitting more down the line. Serving wise, Laina was just under the 90% mark while Karson was just over. Kelli made some great scramble plays and Sidney always an awesome defensive player.
Our middles, Amanda and Rachel played well, especially in blocking andserving. I think Rachel got a block in every match (game?). Both of them served in for all-time highs over 90% helping the team to hit a team high 88.7%.
So again, dispite our finish, these girls are the best. They are very coachable and truely like each other. I wouldn't trade them withe anyone.
Next up Dinner at Kabukis!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Last Power League
For our last Power League we finally got to stay close to home by playing at the Regional Sports Center in Springfield! Yay!
While the format was the same as all our other Power Leagues, the end result had very little to do with our seeding in Regionals. The reason is that Regionals' seeding is determined by points, not your finish during this tournament. In all Power League tournaments, teams accumulate points based on their finish. For example, we received 495, 495 and 490 points for a total of 1,480 points. The team directly beneath us, Blues Power, had 485, 480 and 505 for a total of 1,470 points. So, although Blues Power finished ahead of us in this tournament (4th vs 7th), we finished higher for Regionals because we had a higher point total. This is also why Canby finished 15th overall (we finished 20th). Although they had finished 8th in EVERY Power League, they had enough point to get into the top 16... because they started out 6th. They had 565, 525 and 485 for a total of 1,575 points. In the end, our finish in this Power League had no bearing at all in where we would be for Regionals. If we had won the tournament, we would have ended up with 1,510 points... which would have made no difference in our seeded! We still would have been 20th! Hopefully this all makes sense to you!
Our pool consisted of:
Canby Blue
Salem Black
Webfoot Silver (us)
Blues Power
Our first match was against Canby Blue... the team we beat at their tournament for the championship. We knew they wanted revenge, but we also wanted to deny them the pleasure. Game one was kind of ho-hum... nothing particularly good or bad happened, although we dd make quite a few skill mistakes. On top of that, luck was on their side as every random play fell their way. On the flip side, Courtney had a great run of serving, getting 7 opportunities and scoring aces on two of the attempts. Despite that, we lost game 1 25-20. Game two was complete turn around for us as we played much better. Kelli paced us with some great serving, scoring 4 aces which really put them on their heals. I think the tough serving really got into their heads. We took advantage and cruised to a 25-19 win. This set up the critical game 3 (Take note... this will be a theme for us all day!). We started out real strong, again relying on Courtney's great serving. We made the switch at 8-1 and cruised to an easy 15-7 win.
Match two pitted us against Salem Black. This was a very good team that we hadn't seen before. They did a couple of things that we had to adjust to... first, they tipped effectively over the blocks and 2nd, they triple blocked middle attacks. While we have practiced a rotation defense (good for teams that tip), we didn't execute very well and ended up losing 25-23. After stressing the need to play the defense, we did much better in game 2. We also took advantage of the triple blocks in game 2 by hitting right into it. This may seem to be a little counter intuitive, but they weren't quite athletic enough to execute the triple block, so everything we hit against it ended up dropping because they would get a deflection, but never a full block. These two changes, along with our 3rd (4th?) perfect serving game of the season, led us to a 25-18 win. Serving particularly well were Courtney (again!), Laina (2 aces) and Kayla (1 ace) So, on to the 3rd game again. Unfortunately, we started off poorly with our serve receive and never recovered, eventually losing 15-5.
So, now we were 1-1, need a win to get into 1st or 2nd (I thought). Our opponent this time was Blues Power. They were another team that we hadn't seen, but looked pretty comparable to us. Game one was a real tight one, and although we missed 5 serves in game one, we managed to squeak out a 25-23 win. For whatever reason, we didn't show up for game two and lost badly 25-15. So... game 3 again!!!! This game started out the same as the last game 3.... we just couldn't get a side out. Poor passing, mental mistakes and skill mistakes all caught us at the wrong time as we soon found ourselves down 10-1. Then, things changed. All the talking about never giving up started to sink in and we started to score some points. This rattled Blues a bit and they started to make the mistakes. In the end, we outscored them 14-3, taking the game 15-13! An unbelievable comeback!
So we ended up 2-1, usually good for 2nd place. However, everyone was beating everyone else (except Canby), so we ended up in a three-way tie for first. The way they handle ties is they have 2 play-off games to determine seeding. The highest ranked team, gets a bye the first game (assuring 1st or 2nd) while the other teams have to play in in order to get to 1st or 2nd. This arrangement is very frustrating because although you are tied for first, you could end up 8th. So, we were the 3 seed coming in, so we had to play the Blues again. The outcome was different this time as the Blues played very well, and although we didn't play poorly, they just beat us.
So we ended third (grrrr!!!!) after being tied for first. Our next match was against Roseburg Orange. This was a team we lost to at our last Power League, but the girls didn't let that phase them as they took game one 25-22. The we hit the wall...... While played hard, I think all the games we played earlier finally caught up to us and we ended up losing the match 25-22, 15-9.
The last match was again the relatively meaningless game that we never seem to win. The difference this time is that is was against Canby, a team we love to beat. The girls really stepped up and played well... really putting the pressure on them with some great serving. We scored 6 aces (Sky - 2, Sidney - 3, Amanda - 1) and only missed 3, a good ratio. Consequently, we went on to a 25-19 win (it really wasn't even that close).
So, as I said early, our finish really had no bearing on our seeding for Regionals... so while i was disappointed with finishing 7th, I actually was pretty happy with the way we played. We beat everyone we played at least once, which means that we're having longer "good" streaks and shorter "bad" streaks. Our serving was the best of the season, coming in at 89%, just under the magic 90% mark.
While they all had their ...less than stellar moments, the girls really did some outstanding things. Our setters worked real hard all day, chasing down errant passes, getting them up for the hitters. Kayla (I love to dump!) toned the dumping down a bit, which actually made it more effective. Since the teams were not ready for them, they were more successful. One that come to mind was for the game 1 win (25-23) against Blues. Kayla also served 8 aces over the course of the day with her jump floats. Not to be outdone, Molly and Sky both upped their serve percentages from the previous tournament... now if I could only get them to dump!
Our middles were key in our victories. Rachel continues to hit hard and makes athletic plays while Amanada is starting to hit harder and more aggressively. This duo is hard to stop when the get an opportunity to attack. Rachel also went on to post her best serving day of the season, getting 93% in.
Our Libero, Courtney is getting better at determining "in" or "out" and really served the snot out of the ball. She served 35 times and only missed one serve all day. What was particularly outstanding is the she served in streaks. It seems that every time she went to serve, she served at least 4 or 5 in a row. Outstanding!
I left our outside until last because they were really awesome as a group. They all played great, both defensively and offensively. Like Courtney, Laina and Kelli both had great serving streaks that really put the opposing teams on their heals, while Karson had a great solid day... she served well, played defense well and took care of business when she got the opportunity to attack. I feel real confident with putting any one of these girls in any situation. Then there's Sidney. At our last tournament, Sidney really struggled with her serving, getting only 38% of her serves in. I knew Sidney could do much better, but was I was concerned that her confidence might be low. In serving, confidence is one of the most important traits to have... so needless to say, I was concerned. Well, no one told Sidney that she should be unsure of herself as she went out and had a PERFECT serving day! I was so proud of her determination and performance. Great job Sidney!
I talked briefly with the team after our last match (very briefly since we were in the gym from 7:15am to 7:15 pm!) and talked about their never give up attitude and how well they all play together. I am so impressed with the team as they continue to do things no other team has ever done (coming back from 10-1, serving 25 straight points, winning the Canby Invitational, etc). I can only hope that all of you are as proud of them and their efforts as I am. This a special team (no... not special needs) that makes me want to coach forever.
So now on Regionals. We are 20th (out of 117) , which puts us in the middle of the Bronze Division. If we get 1st in our Division, we'll be 17th, if we finish last, 24th. While the season isn't over yet, this is outstanding for this team. When we started the season, I privately hoped that we rank somewhere in the 30's... so ending up 20th is awesome.
I don't have the schedule yet, but I think we'll be a 2 seed in our pool, which means we ref first... probably an 8 o'clock start. I'll let you know as soon as I find out.
Upcoming:
Sidney's Birthday on Wed, April 14th!
Dinner on me for the girls on Wednesday, April 21st! 6:00 pm to 7:30ish. Where - It's a secret for now. Dress nice !!!!!
While the format was the same as all our other Power Leagues, the end result had very little to do with our seeding in Regionals. The reason is that Regionals' seeding is determined by points, not your finish during this tournament. In all Power League tournaments, teams accumulate points based on their finish. For example, we received 495, 495 and 490 points for a total of 1,480 points. The team directly beneath us, Blues Power, had 485, 480 and 505 for a total of 1,470 points. So, although Blues Power finished ahead of us in this tournament (4th vs 7th), we finished higher for Regionals because we had a higher point total. This is also why Canby finished 15th overall (we finished 20th). Although they had finished 8th in EVERY Power League, they had enough point to get into the top 16... because they started out 6th. They had 565, 525 and 485 for a total of 1,575 points. In the end, our finish in this Power League had no bearing at all in where we would be for Regionals. If we had won the tournament, we would have ended up with 1,510 points... which would have made no difference in our seeded! We still would have been 20th! Hopefully this all makes sense to you!
Our pool consisted of:
Canby Blue
Salem Black
Webfoot Silver (us)
Blues Power
Our first match was against Canby Blue... the team we beat at their tournament for the championship. We knew they wanted revenge, but we also wanted to deny them the pleasure. Game one was kind of ho-hum... nothing particularly good or bad happened, although we dd make quite a few skill mistakes. On top of that, luck was on their side as every random play fell their way. On the flip side, Courtney had a great run of serving, getting 7 opportunities and scoring aces on two of the attempts. Despite that, we lost game 1 25-20. Game two was complete turn around for us as we played much better. Kelli paced us with some great serving, scoring 4 aces which really put them on their heals. I think the tough serving really got into their heads. We took advantage and cruised to a 25-19 win. This set up the critical game 3 (Take note... this will be a theme for us all day!). We started out real strong, again relying on Courtney's great serving. We made the switch at 8-1 and cruised to an easy 15-7 win.
Match two pitted us against Salem Black. This was a very good team that we hadn't seen before. They did a couple of things that we had to adjust to... first, they tipped effectively over the blocks and 2nd, they triple blocked middle attacks. While we have practiced a rotation defense (good for teams that tip), we didn't execute very well and ended up losing 25-23. After stressing the need to play the defense, we did much better in game 2. We also took advantage of the triple blocks in game 2 by hitting right into it. This may seem to be a little counter intuitive, but they weren't quite athletic enough to execute the triple block, so everything we hit against it ended up dropping because they would get a deflection, but never a full block. These two changes, along with our 3rd (4th?) perfect serving game of the season, led us to a 25-18 win. Serving particularly well were Courtney (again!), Laina (2 aces) and Kayla (1 ace) So, on to the 3rd game again. Unfortunately, we started off poorly with our serve receive and never recovered, eventually losing 15-5.
So, now we were 1-1, need a win to get into 1st or 2nd (I thought). Our opponent this time was Blues Power. They were another team that we hadn't seen, but looked pretty comparable to us. Game one was a real tight one, and although we missed 5 serves in game one, we managed to squeak out a 25-23 win. For whatever reason, we didn't show up for game two and lost badly 25-15. So... game 3 again!!!! This game started out the same as the last game 3.... we just couldn't get a side out. Poor passing, mental mistakes and skill mistakes all caught us at the wrong time as we soon found ourselves down 10-1. Then, things changed. All the talking about never giving up started to sink in and we started to score some points. This rattled Blues a bit and they started to make the mistakes. In the end, we outscored them 14-3, taking the game 15-13! An unbelievable comeback!
So we ended up 2-1, usually good for 2nd place. However, everyone was beating everyone else (except Canby), so we ended up in a three-way tie for first. The way they handle ties is they have 2 play-off games to determine seeding. The highest ranked team, gets a bye the first game (assuring 1st or 2nd) while the other teams have to play in in order to get to 1st or 2nd. This arrangement is very frustrating because although you are tied for first, you could end up 8th. So, we were the 3 seed coming in, so we had to play the Blues again. The outcome was different this time as the Blues played very well, and although we didn't play poorly, they just beat us.
So we ended third (grrrr!!!!) after being tied for first. Our next match was against Roseburg Orange. This was a team we lost to at our last Power League, but the girls didn't let that phase them as they took game one 25-22. The we hit the wall...... While played hard, I think all the games we played earlier finally caught up to us and we ended up losing the match 25-22, 15-9.
The last match was again the relatively meaningless game that we never seem to win. The difference this time is that is was against Canby, a team we love to beat. The girls really stepped up and played well... really putting the pressure on them with some great serving. We scored 6 aces (Sky - 2, Sidney - 3, Amanda - 1) and only missed 3, a good ratio. Consequently, we went on to a 25-19 win (it really wasn't even that close).
So, as I said early, our finish really had no bearing on our seeding for Regionals... so while i was disappointed with finishing 7th, I actually was pretty happy with the way we played. We beat everyone we played at least once, which means that we're having longer "good" streaks and shorter "bad" streaks. Our serving was the best of the season, coming in at 89%, just under the magic 90% mark.
While they all had their ...less than stellar moments, the girls really did some outstanding things. Our setters worked real hard all day, chasing down errant passes, getting them up for the hitters. Kayla (I love to dump!) toned the dumping down a bit, which actually made it more effective. Since the teams were not ready for them, they were more successful. One that come to mind was for the game 1 win (25-23) against Blues. Kayla also served 8 aces over the course of the day with her jump floats. Not to be outdone, Molly and Sky both upped their serve percentages from the previous tournament... now if I could only get them to dump!
Our middles were key in our victories. Rachel continues to hit hard and makes athletic plays while Amanada is starting to hit harder and more aggressively. This duo is hard to stop when the get an opportunity to attack. Rachel also went on to post her best serving day of the season, getting 93% in.
Our Libero, Courtney is getting better at determining "in" or "out" and really served the snot out of the ball. She served 35 times and only missed one serve all day. What was particularly outstanding is the she served in streaks. It seems that every time she went to serve, she served at least 4 or 5 in a row. Outstanding!
I left our outside until last because they were really awesome as a group. They all played great, both defensively and offensively. Like Courtney, Laina and Kelli both had great serving streaks that really put the opposing teams on their heals, while Karson had a great solid day... she served well, played defense well and took care of business when she got the opportunity to attack. I feel real confident with putting any one of these girls in any situation. Then there's Sidney. At our last tournament, Sidney really struggled with her serving, getting only 38% of her serves in. I knew Sidney could do much better, but was I was concerned that her confidence might be low. In serving, confidence is one of the most important traits to have... so needless to say, I was concerned. Well, no one told Sidney that she should be unsure of herself as she went out and had a PERFECT serving day! I was so proud of her determination and performance. Great job Sidney!
I talked briefly with the team after our last match (very briefly since we were in the gym from 7:15am to 7:15 pm!) and talked about their never give up attitude and how well they all play together. I am so impressed with the team as they continue to do things no other team has ever done (coming back from 10-1, serving 25 straight points, winning the Canby Invitational, etc). I can only hope that all of you are as proud of them and their efforts as I am. This a special team (no... not special needs) that makes me want to coach forever.
So now on Regionals. We are 20th (out of 117) , which puts us in the middle of the Bronze Division. If we get 1st in our Division, we'll be 17th, if we finish last, 24th. While the season isn't over yet, this is outstanding for this team. When we started the season, I privately hoped that we rank somewhere in the 30's... so ending up 20th is awesome.
I don't have the schedule yet, but I think we'll be a 2 seed in our pool, which means we ref first... probably an 8 o'clock start. I'll let you know as soon as I find out.
Upcoming:
Sidney's Birthday on Wed, April 14th!
Dinner on me for the girls on Wednesday, April 21st! 6:00 pm to 7:30ish. Where - It's a secret for now. Dress nice !!!!!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Rose City Invitational
I was really looking forward to this tournament because we would have both Laina and Sky back from their Star Quest trip, but on the down side we were missing Karson who had a BB tournament.
The day really didn't start out all that well for me. I got up at 5:something in the morning and went to put my contacts in. When I went to put in the right contact in, I seemed to have lost it. I couldn't see worth a darn so I assumed it fell down the sink. No matter... I just got another one out and put it in. While driving up, I just couldn't see worth a darn, so I finally pulled off at a rest stop and took the right contact out... when I did I discovered that I actually had 2 in!!!!! SO I left one out and continued my drive. When I got to the gym, I checked in and got our pool play information... but I still couldn't see. So I took them out, cleaned them and put them back in. Nevertheless, I still couldn't see. I was really scratching my head when it dawned on me that I had them in the wrong eyes! My left and right are significantly different, so when I finally put them in the correct eyes, I could see!!!!!
So, now I think we're ready to play. Our first opponent was Rose City 12's. Although they are 12's, they are VERY good. I've played them about 5 times now and have never beat them so I was hoping for a different outcome. Well, needless to say, the Rose City 12's are very good again as they handled us pretty easily. with them winning 30-17, 30-16. This match had a few distractions that we had to work through. To start things out, Molly took a ball off her face and got a bloody nose in game 1. Then in game two, Sidney got her hands and hair all tangled up and barely was able to get through a play. We got her subbed out so she could get fixed up, when Kayla dove for a ball and banged her head against the floor. She was gesturing that she needed to come out but I couldn't figure out what she was trying to tell me, so I called a time out. Once we got her taken care of, I wondered what else could go wrong. Fortunately, nothing weird happened for the rest of the day!
Our next match was against Rose City Black, the #1 team in the region. One look at these girls and you would think you were playing 16's. Not only were they all were 4-6" taller then us, their faces all looked like they were in high school! While we played hard, we really never had a chance against these guys as we went down pretty quickly, 30-6, 30-9.
So our last chance for a win in pool play was against PVC Yellow. While they are not ranked very high (57th), I was a bit worried because we always seem to get the opposing teams best shot and we hadn't had much success in our earlier games. We jumped to about an 8 point cushion in the first game, but PVC kept chipping away at us cutting the lead down to only 4 by the end of the game. While we one, 30-26, I was pretty concerned about them gaining momentum on us. PVC continued their good play, while we played mediocre. Consequently, we were down for most of the game. Finally, we took the lead at 18-17, but went back and forth all the way to the end and ended up winning a the tight game 31-29.
So we ended third in our pool, which put is in the second division. Our first match of the afternoon was against East Count Juniors. This team really struggled with all parts of the game as we won easily 25-10, 25-11, putting us into the 2nd tier finals.
As luck would have it, we had to play Rose City 14 Gold, their #2 team that is #7 in the region. Dang! Again, we played hard, but came up short 25-7, 25-9.
One of the great things about this team is that they never stop working hard, no matter if we are up big or down big. While frustration is a natural reaction to getting beat badly, they never let it affect their hustle and hard work. Even when a particular player isn't playing well, I encourage them to find a way to help their team, which is exactly what our outsides, Laina, Kelli and Sidney did. Sidney didn't have a particularly good serving day, but played great defense, nailing perfect passes on hard attacks. Laina, on the other hand, was the opposite. She struggled w/ her passing, but served perfectly for the day, no misses! Kelli took the best of both worlds... she only missed one serve all day, played good defense and through in a good offensive day.
Our setters, Kayla, Sky and Molly all had a good day despite having the deck stacked against them. Molly had the bloody nose, Kayla bonked her head early and Sky just returned from a school trip to Florida. Any one of them could have had a bad day because of all that, but they pushed through it and play ed well. Sky even had a great outside stuff block against Rose City in the second match of the day. It was awesome.
Our middles, Amanda and Rachel both had a good day. Rachel recovered from a poor serving day at the last Power League by upping her percentage by 6 percentage points and continues to play hard and well. I tried to get Amanda to show me her mean game face, but she just busts out laughing whenever she tries... but despite that, she is getting more aggressive with her attacking.
Of course, we would be lost with Courtney. Not only is she anchoring our passing and defense, she is our most consistent server. In addition, she is gaining confidence with her "pipe", scoring more points every tournament than she had before.
So, next is a much needed rest since we just came off of 3 tournaments in 4 weeks. No practice over Spring break!
BTW - Check out the "Goofy Dress" night pics on our website!
The day really didn't start out all that well for me. I got up at 5:something in the morning and went to put my contacts in. When I went to put in the right contact in, I seemed to have lost it. I couldn't see worth a darn so I assumed it fell down the sink. No matter... I just got another one out and put it in. While driving up, I just couldn't see worth a darn, so I finally pulled off at a rest stop and took the right contact out... when I did I discovered that I actually had 2 in!!!!! SO I left one out and continued my drive. When I got to the gym, I checked in and got our pool play information... but I still couldn't see. So I took them out, cleaned them and put them back in. Nevertheless, I still couldn't see. I was really scratching my head when it dawned on me that I had them in the wrong eyes! My left and right are significantly different, so when I finally put them in the correct eyes, I could see!!!!!
So, now I think we're ready to play. Our first opponent was Rose City 12's. Although they are 12's, they are VERY good. I've played them about 5 times now and have never beat them so I was hoping for a different outcome. Well, needless to say, the Rose City 12's are very good again as they handled us pretty easily. with them winning 30-17, 30-16. This match had a few distractions that we had to work through. To start things out, Molly took a ball off her face and got a bloody nose in game 1. Then in game two, Sidney got her hands and hair all tangled up and barely was able to get through a play. We got her subbed out so she could get fixed up, when Kayla dove for a ball and banged her head against the floor. She was gesturing that she needed to come out but I couldn't figure out what she was trying to tell me, so I called a time out. Once we got her taken care of, I wondered what else could go wrong. Fortunately, nothing weird happened for the rest of the day!
Our next match was against Rose City Black, the #1 team in the region. One look at these girls and you would think you were playing 16's. Not only were they all were 4-6" taller then us, their faces all looked like they were in high school! While we played hard, we really never had a chance against these guys as we went down pretty quickly, 30-6, 30-9.
So our last chance for a win in pool play was against PVC Yellow. While they are not ranked very high (57th), I was a bit worried because we always seem to get the opposing teams best shot and we hadn't had much success in our earlier games. We jumped to about an 8 point cushion in the first game, but PVC kept chipping away at us cutting the lead down to only 4 by the end of the game. While we one, 30-26, I was pretty concerned about them gaining momentum on us. PVC continued their good play, while we played mediocre. Consequently, we were down for most of the game. Finally, we took the lead at 18-17, but went back and forth all the way to the end and ended up winning a the tight game 31-29.
So we ended third in our pool, which put is in the second division. Our first match of the afternoon was against East Count Juniors. This team really struggled with all parts of the game as we won easily 25-10, 25-11, putting us into the 2nd tier finals.
As luck would have it, we had to play Rose City 14 Gold, their #2 team that is #7 in the region. Dang! Again, we played hard, but came up short 25-7, 25-9.
One of the great things about this team is that they never stop working hard, no matter if we are up big or down big. While frustration is a natural reaction to getting beat badly, they never let it affect their hustle and hard work. Even when a particular player isn't playing well, I encourage them to find a way to help their team, which is exactly what our outsides, Laina, Kelli and Sidney did. Sidney didn't have a particularly good serving day, but played great defense, nailing perfect passes on hard attacks. Laina, on the other hand, was the opposite. She struggled w/ her passing, but served perfectly for the day, no misses! Kelli took the best of both worlds... she only missed one serve all day, played good defense and through in a good offensive day.
Our setters, Kayla, Sky and Molly all had a good day despite having the deck stacked against them. Molly had the bloody nose, Kayla bonked her head early and Sky just returned from a school trip to Florida. Any one of them could have had a bad day because of all that, but they pushed through it and play ed well. Sky even had a great outside stuff block against Rose City in the second match of the day. It was awesome.
Our middles, Amanda and Rachel both had a good day. Rachel recovered from a poor serving day at the last Power League by upping her percentage by 6 percentage points and continues to play hard and well. I tried to get Amanda to show me her mean game face, but she just busts out laughing whenever she tries... but despite that, she is getting more aggressive with her attacking.
Of course, we would be lost with Courtney. Not only is she anchoring our passing and defense, she is our most consistent server. In addition, she is gaining confidence with her "pipe", scoring more points every tournament than she had before.
So, next is a much needed rest since we just came off of 3 tournaments in 4 weeks. No practice over Spring break!
BTW - Check out the "Goofy Dress" night pics on our website!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Power Leagues 1 & 2
Despite not being there of our first Power League, I did get feedback on how we played, along w/ serving stats. While we didn't play well, we did manage to win the cross-over to stay in Bronze Division. The only highlights I have is that Courtney served %100 in, with Sky and Kayla joining the good serving party by getting over 90% in.
Power League #2
We were out the services of Laina and Sky as they were on a school trip to Florida. We would miss them dearly! On top of that, Kayla was feeling under the weather, but sucked it up and played all day.
Back at the Salem Hoop, we had Columbia Juniors Black, NW Jrs Air Elite and the Sharks in our pool. The Sharks had moved up from Diamond; while Columbia Juniors Black had moved down from Silver.
Match #1, against Columbia Juniors was the best of the day. We played pretty good in game one winning 25-20, although we missed 5 serves. Columbia Juniors played much better in Game 2, but we responded by playing great. We served a perfect game (no, the girls DON'T get another dinner out!) and went on to a 25-18 win. One of the highlights of this match was a play were Columbia attacked a ball pretty hard, but we git it up. It was such a bang-bang play play, Rachel didn't see where the ball was. She picked it up at the last second and one-armed passed it over... and eventually we got the point.
After match #1, I gave the girls some Guatemalan goodies (remember the lucky shoelaces?) thinking the hair scrunchies would inspire them to more victories!
Match #2 was against NW Air Elite. For some reason (if I knew why, I would be coaching the Olympic team!) the team fell out of there normal smoothness into a more hectic, frenetic style. They just didn't play smoothly and we ended up losing 25-19, 25-19. All through the match I tried to get them out of their funk telling them that we couldn't do anything about the past, only the future and to shake it off and start playing as well as I knew they could.... but to no avail.
Match #3 was against the Sharks, a team that won the Diamond Division. It was evident that this team started out in Power League way too low as they were pretty good. The ran a rather unorthodox defense (called center up) where they run their back row setter to the middle of the court and drop the outside off on center attacks. The weakness of the defense is that it gives up deep corners. Unfortunately, we aren't good enough (yet) to hit the deep corners mainly because we don't pass well enough to get consistent attacks. We probably played the worst of the day and ended up losing 25-19, 25-12.
So we ended pool play 3rd. We had to wait quite a long time to play the important crossover match because of a tie in the other pool. By the time we played PVC Green, we were already over an hour over schedule. So after being off for about 2 1/2 hours, we took the court to play. PVC Green had played in the tie-breaker and lost badly, so I was hoping they were a bit demoralized and/or tired. Game one was real solid for us as we cruised to a 25-17 win. Since we had played pretty well, I wasn't real worried about game 2, but PVC Green wasn't ready to give up. So while we served well, only missing 2) PVC Green won 25-20. So on to the important game three. We vowed to be the first to 8 and helped ourselves by jumping to a quick 6-1 lead. This is when PVC woke up and made it tough for us. While we were the first to eight, it was 8-6 when we switched sides. We served well and got up on them to about 12-10. We fought back and forth, eventually getting to 14-12. We served the pressure packed serve in, but after a long rally PVC got the point. So to settle the team down and to try to break any momentum PVC might have gained in getting the side-out, I called a time-out. After the time-out, PVC subbed... I'm not sure what position we went into, but it really didn't matter as I had forced the coach into making a change. Before PVC served, I called another time-out to ice their server. I told the girls that it doesn't always work, so be ready for a good serve. Coming out of the time-out, the PVC coach called for another sub. I didn't think this was legal since no play had occurred and questioned it w/ the up official. She surprised me by coming off the ref stand and left the court to find the head official. When she came back, she said it was legal, so play would resume. To my surprise, their server missed the ball badly and the ball hit the net harmlessly. So we win 15-13,... and stay in Bronze!
The last match of the day was the relatively meaningless match against Roseburg Orange, a team that had dropped down from Silver. They were a pretty good team and cruised to a 25-16 win.
Highlights for that day:
Karson and Sydney did a pretty good job hitting, but since we didn't pass all that well, so they didn't get a lot of opportunities. Since Kayla wasn't feeling well, I had a backup plan to get her rest whenever I could by subbing her out when she was in the front row. Kelli got the dubious honor of learning a new position (the right-side) in about 5 minutes. We ran the rotation twice and Kelli performed awesome, never out of position and even getting a kill from the right-side. Karson served over 95% in, second highest for the team. Sydney struggled a bit with her serving, but made up for it with defensive determination in the back row.
As I said earlier, Kayla was ill, but played great. I remember early on she dumped a ball, but the ref called a double contact. While the ball has spin, I didn't think it was a "two"... instead I think she surprised the ref. I made it clear what I thought of the call and moved on. Later on, in the next game, Kayla did it again, this time turning her body before she dumped. Of course, there was no call since it was clean and I won't forget the look on Kayla's face... while she didn't glare at the official, she had a "that will teach you to call a double on me" look on her face. It was priceless. (More on Kayla's faces later!) Our other setter Molly, played every point during the day... being the warrior of the team. She served well, getting 89% in and played great all day. Her mastery of the short serve is a great asset to us. Now if we could get her to dump every now and then (lol!).
The middles were real solid in their front row play as Rachel attacked hard and Amanda came up with a few blocks, on of them a stuff block. Amanda served great getting 95% of her serves in. In addition to that, Amanda is probably our best deep zone server as she consistently hit the zone I give her.
Lastly (why is she always last???) Courtney played great. She's getting more confident in her "pipe" attack, only mis-hitting one all day. She is getting smarter on when to attack and when to free ball. In addition to that, she served perfectly... that's two tournaments in a row!!!! Nice job Court!!!
I mentioned Kayla's faces earlier and would like to elaborate. No one can ever say that Kayla hides her emotions as it's very clear how she feels. In the last match against Roseburg, I decided to run a 5-1 just to get the girls used to it. The reason we might go to a 5-1 is that someday we might be down to one setter. The big difference in this setup is the serve receive when the setter is in the front row. Once it was clear that it would be tough for us to win the game, I subbed Kayla out, forcing the girls into a 5-1. The look I got from Kayla was one that made my blood run cold! It was an icy stare that I wouldn't want to see again! I love the passion that Kayla has, but yikes... don't mess with this girl!!!
On to the Rose City Tourney this Sunday. Remember to turn your clock ahead Sat night and plan on arriving NLT 8:15 at the Boys and Girls Club of Sellwood. We'll have Laina and Sky back (yeah!), but Karson has a basketball tournament (boo!)
Go Webfoot!
Power League #2
We were out the services of Laina and Sky as they were on a school trip to Florida. We would miss them dearly! On top of that, Kayla was feeling under the weather, but sucked it up and played all day.
Back at the Salem Hoop, we had Columbia Juniors Black, NW Jrs Air Elite and the Sharks in our pool. The Sharks had moved up from Diamond; while Columbia Juniors Black had moved down from Silver.
Match #1, against Columbia Juniors was the best of the day. We played pretty good in game one winning 25-20, although we missed 5 serves. Columbia Juniors played much better in Game 2, but we responded by playing great. We served a perfect game (no, the girls DON'T get another dinner out!) and went on to a 25-18 win. One of the highlights of this match was a play were Columbia attacked a ball pretty hard, but we git it up. It was such a bang-bang play play, Rachel didn't see where the ball was. She picked it up at the last second and one-armed passed it over... and eventually we got the point.
After match #1, I gave the girls some Guatemalan goodies (remember the lucky shoelaces?) thinking the hair scrunchies would inspire them to more victories!
Match #2 was against NW Air Elite. For some reason (if I knew why, I would be coaching the Olympic team!) the team fell out of there normal smoothness into a more hectic, frenetic style. They just didn't play smoothly and we ended up losing 25-19, 25-19. All through the match I tried to get them out of their funk telling them that we couldn't do anything about the past, only the future and to shake it off and start playing as well as I knew they could.... but to no avail.
Match #3 was against the Sharks, a team that won the Diamond Division. It was evident that this team started out in Power League way too low as they were pretty good. The ran a rather unorthodox defense (called center up) where they run their back row setter to the middle of the court and drop the outside off on center attacks. The weakness of the defense is that it gives up deep corners. Unfortunately, we aren't good enough (yet) to hit the deep corners mainly because we don't pass well enough to get consistent attacks. We probably played the worst of the day and ended up losing 25-19, 25-12.
So we ended pool play 3rd. We had to wait quite a long time to play the important crossover match because of a tie in the other pool. By the time we played PVC Green, we were already over an hour over schedule. So after being off for about 2 1/2 hours, we took the court to play. PVC Green had played in the tie-breaker and lost badly, so I was hoping they were a bit demoralized and/or tired. Game one was real solid for us as we cruised to a 25-17 win. Since we had played pretty well, I wasn't real worried about game 2, but PVC Green wasn't ready to give up. So while we served well, only missing 2) PVC Green won 25-20. So on to the important game three. We vowed to be the first to 8 and helped ourselves by jumping to a quick 6-1 lead. This is when PVC woke up and made it tough for us. While we were the first to eight, it was 8-6 when we switched sides. We served well and got up on them to about 12-10. We fought back and forth, eventually getting to 14-12. We served the pressure packed serve in, but after a long rally PVC got the point. So to settle the team down and to try to break any momentum PVC might have gained in getting the side-out, I called a time-out. After the time-out, PVC subbed... I'm not sure what position we went into, but it really didn't matter as I had forced the coach into making a change. Before PVC served, I called another time-out to ice their server. I told the girls that it doesn't always work, so be ready for a good serve. Coming out of the time-out, the PVC coach called for another sub. I didn't think this was legal since no play had occurred and questioned it w/ the up official. She surprised me by coming off the ref stand and left the court to find the head official. When she came back, she said it was legal, so play would resume. To my surprise, their server missed the ball badly and the ball hit the net harmlessly. So we win 15-13,... and stay in Bronze!
The last match of the day was the relatively meaningless match against Roseburg Orange, a team that had dropped down from Silver. They were a pretty good team and cruised to a 25-16 win.
Highlights for that day:
Karson and Sydney did a pretty good job hitting, but since we didn't pass all that well, so they didn't get a lot of opportunities. Since Kayla wasn't feeling well, I had a backup plan to get her rest whenever I could by subbing her out when she was in the front row. Kelli got the dubious honor of learning a new position (the right-side) in about 5 minutes. We ran the rotation twice and Kelli performed awesome, never out of position and even getting a kill from the right-side. Karson served over 95% in, second highest for the team. Sydney struggled a bit with her serving, but made up for it with defensive determination in the back row.
As I said earlier, Kayla was ill, but played great. I remember early on she dumped a ball, but the ref called a double contact. While the ball has spin, I didn't think it was a "two"... instead I think she surprised the ref. I made it clear what I thought of the call and moved on. Later on, in the next game, Kayla did it again, this time turning her body before she dumped. Of course, there was no call since it was clean and I won't forget the look on Kayla's face... while she didn't glare at the official, she had a "that will teach you to call a double on me" look on her face. It was priceless. (More on Kayla's faces later!) Our other setter Molly, played every point during the day... being the warrior of the team. She served well, getting 89% in and played great all day. Her mastery of the short serve is a great asset to us. Now if we could get her to dump every now and then (lol!).
The middles were real solid in their front row play as Rachel attacked hard and Amanda came up with a few blocks, on of them a stuff block. Amanda served great getting 95% of her serves in. In addition to that, Amanda is probably our best deep zone server as she consistently hit the zone I give her.
Lastly (why is she always last???) Courtney played great. She's getting more confident in her "pipe" attack, only mis-hitting one all day. She is getting smarter on when to attack and when to free ball. In addition to that, she served perfectly... that's two tournaments in a row!!!! Nice job Court!!!
I mentioned Kayla's faces earlier and would like to elaborate. No one can ever say that Kayla hides her emotions as it's very clear how she feels. In the last match against Roseburg, I decided to run a 5-1 just to get the girls used to it. The reason we might go to a 5-1 is that someday we might be down to one setter. The big difference in this setup is the serve receive when the setter is in the front row. Once it was clear that it would be tough for us to win the game, I subbed Kayla out, forcing the girls into a 5-1. The look I got from Kayla was one that made my blood run cold! It was an icy stare that I wouldn't want to see again! I love the passion that Kayla has, but yikes... don't mess with this girl!!!
On to the Rose City Tourney this Sunday. Remember to turn your clock ahead Sat night and plan on arriving NLT 8:15 at the Boys and Girls Club of Sellwood. We'll have Laina and Sky back (yeah!), but Karson has a basketball tournament (boo!)
Go Webfoot!
Guatemala Part II
Well, I made it back all in one piece although it seems that I have brought back something "special". Nothing too serious, just a little GI issue along w/ fatigue.. I tried to be careful about what I ate, but nonetheless picked up something.
I'll put together a CD with photos for everyone so you can see what it is we do down there.
I'll put together a CD with photos for everyone so you can see what it is we do down there.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Guatemala Part 1
Hi from Guatemala! Things are going good, although we endured a couple of 5.6 earthquakes on Tuesday!
For those who don't know what I am doing, go to www.cmt-oregon.org. and poke around. FAQ is a good place to start. (See if you can pick me out on the team picture!) I am doing the ONIL stove installations in the field. I get to go out into the rural communities and help build the stoves, install water filters and other home improvements. The best part of the job is interacting with the families... the are so gracious and friendly. A couple of stories so far:
I went to a home and was trying to talk to a grandma about her grand kids and mine. I finally managed to communicate to her that I had two new twins in the family, so I showed her a photograph of them that I had. She really got excited when she found out that one the names was Lucy, since her name was Lucia. She showed the photograph to her family and when I went to take it back, she wouldn't give it to me! We asked if she wanted to keep it and she did, so now a picture of my twin grand-babies is stuck on a nail somewhere in a mud brick home in the middle of Guatemala!
The second story also has to do with a grandma, this one was 83. She was showing off her grand kids, all 7 of them. I was asking each they're name and how old they were. When we got done with that, I hi-fived them all. When I got to the end, the grandma (all 3´11" of her) put her hand up and hi-fived me too! It was pretty funny.
One of the problems here is that the indigenous population doesn't speak Spanish as their native language, so when we need to ask them a question or explain something, we have to tell it to our English to Spanish translator, who tells it to our Spanish to Keechea translator, who tells it to the home-owner. Then the process is reversed to get a response. Surprisingly, we manage to communicate.
What's so fun is to see that kids are the same all over. The girls are shy... they giggle and whisper to each other and giggle some more. The boys are bouncing around, jumping into the pictures, making faces, throwing things and generally being boys.
I'll return 3/4 with more stories and pictures. See you all at the next Power League, March 6th, Salem Hoop.
Go Webfoot!
For those who don't know what I am doing, go to www.cmt-oregon.org. and poke around. FAQ is a good place to start. (See if you can pick me out on the team picture!) I am doing the ONIL stove installations in the field. I get to go out into the rural communities and help build the stoves, install water filters and other home improvements. The best part of the job is interacting with the families... the are so gracious and friendly. A couple of stories so far:
I went to a home and was trying to talk to a grandma about her grand kids and mine. I finally managed to communicate to her that I had two new twins in the family, so I showed her a photograph of them that I had. She really got excited when she found out that one the names was Lucy, since her name was Lucia. She showed the photograph to her family and when I went to take it back, she wouldn't give it to me! We asked if she wanted to keep it and she did, so now a picture of my twin grand-babies is stuck on a nail somewhere in a mud brick home in the middle of Guatemala!
The second story also has to do with a grandma, this one was 83. She was showing off her grand kids, all 7 of them. I was asking each they're name and how old they were. When we got done with that, I hi-fived them all. When I got to the end, the grandma (all 3´11" of her) put her hand up and hi-fived me too! It was pretty funny.
One of the problems here is that the indigenous population doesn't speak Spanish as their native language, so when we need to ask them a question or explain something, we have to tell it to our English to Spanish translator, who tells it to our Spanish to Keechea translator, who tells it to the home-owner. Then the process is reversed to get a response. Surprisingly, we manage to communicate.
What's so fun is to see that kids are the same all over. The girls are shy... they giggle and whisper to each other and giggle some more. The boys are bouncing around, jumping into the pictures, making faces, throwing things and generally being boys.
I'll return 3/4 with more stories and pictures. See you all at the next Power League, March 6th, Salem Hoop.
Go Webfoot!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Canby Invitational
Upon our arrival at Canby, I gave all the girls "good luck" shoelaces, hoping it would inspire us on to a good day. To get ready, we went outside to do a little warmup on the track. The idea was for them to sprint about 20 yards and then sprint back. They were so pumped to get going that when they got down to the end and then tried to stop and come back, 3 of them slipped and fell on their rear ends. Quite an auspicious start!
We recovered from that and came in to play! Our pool consisted of us, Canby White, North Count Wildcats and Club Momentum Pink. I had an opportunity to watch the competition since we had a bye the first round and quickly realized that there wasn't going to be much competition in our pool. When you play teams that are not very skilled, you really switch to a "manage the game" mode. Put our serves in, watch out for the 1st and 2nd balls, etc.
Prior to the first match, the girls were circled close together talking, so I assumed that they were talking strategy.... but being 7th and 8th graders I discovered that Sidney and Laina were showing their teammates how they could wiggle their ears, Molly was showing how she could put her whole hand in her mouth and Sidney could flick here eyes back and forth really fast! I was glad to see that they were focused!
Our first match was against Club Momentum Pink, a team that really struggled w/ serve receive. In the first game, Amanda started us out by serving 10 straight, putting us in control early. We easily cruised to a 25-8 win. In the second game, Rachel went back and quite matter of factly served 25 straight points! I've coached for quite awhile and have never seen a team get "bageled" in a 25 point game. I made a promise to the girls that if they served a perfect game (no misses) that I would take them to dinner. Little did I know that one girl would do the whole thing herself, but a promise is a promise, so plan on getting dressed up and going out in the future!
Our 2nd match was against a bit of a better team, North County Black. We didn't help much in that we made quite a few mistakes in game 2, but nevertheless, we prevailed 25-14, 25-19. The highlight of this match was two beautiful tips by Amanda to an empty zone 2.... something we had been working on in practice!
Our last match in pool play was against Canby White. Again, they didn't provide much of a challenge as we cruised to a 25-10, 25-13 win. We played much better in this match, with some great hustle plays. Laina provided a highlight as she went to attack a ball, made good contact, putting the ball cross-court, then promptly fell down. We were composed enough to recover and scored on the rally. It was quite a sight!
So we ended up 1st in our pool, with a gaudy point differential of +86... a number that is huge. The big differential won us a #1 seeding for bracket play, so we got a bye the first round.
A danger of playing teams that are not very good is that you drop down to their level of play, then when you play someone tough, you're not ready. We talked about it during the break and vowed not to let that happen.
Our first match of bracket play was against the Bearcats. they are not a big attacking team, but they proved to be a great ball control kind of team. Nothing would hit ground... they just kept passing the ball up and freeballing back over. I remember one sequence where we attacked 6 times and they free-balled back 5 of those times. While we didn't play poorly, we made enough mistakes to allow them to take game 1 from us 18-25. Game two was a bit different as we stayed the course and kept attacking... coupled with some timely service aces, setter dumps by Kayla and a great tip kill for the game win by Karson lead us to a 25-15 win. Confident that we had them figured out, we continued the good play and cruised to an easy 15-8 win.
So on to the finals against Canby Blue, a very good team seeded 6th in the region (we're 24th). We knew we had a battle because we saw them play in their semi-final match and while they all played well, they had one stud player that they went to time and time again. She had a really tough top-spin serve along with good attacking skills... she would be tough to stop. We didn't start out well, getting down pretty quick to them as #6 (their stud) really hurt us with her serving. I think at one point we were at 12-20. Then the tide turned a bit as we slowly started to gain on them, but lost game one 25-19. During the 3 minute break, we stressed the importance of not giving them free balls for them to attack and to serve tough. We reacted real well and went on to post a 25-20 win. The highlight of this game was a couple of awesome kills... one from Karson and one by Rachel. They were they type of kills that make the fans gasp when they saw them! So on to game three, where we always push to be the "first to eight". We managed that goal as we switched at 8-7. The girls really saw the opportunity and played out of their heads pushing the lead to 14-13 on a side out for us. Our server, Sky went back to serve the pressure packed serve. She hadn't served all game, but she calmly served a tough ball that they had trouble handling, but nevertheless got it back over to us. We passed a good ball, Sky set it up to Karson, who went up and pushed a tip over the blocks. The right back managed to get to the ball but she didn't get a good contact out of it and the ball dropped to the floor with out a touch. A great WIN!!!!! The girls were soooo excited as were the parents (I, of course was cool and calm.... NOT!)
So after collecting our 1st place medals, we talked about the match and they day. Words like "epic", "intense" and "awesome" were thrown around. We all agreed that this really was a team win as we all contributed to the great day.
Serving as team was down, but can be explained by all the jump serving were were attempting. We ended at 83%, a season low, but OK considering we won it all!
Although it was definitely a team win, we couldn't have done it with out the individuals. Our setters Kayla, Sky and Molly were awesome. Molly had limited playing time as she was playing in a soccer tournament at the same time (can we say "overachiever"?), but she did a great job while she was in. Kayla's dumps were timely and on the money. In addition to that, we unleashed Kayla's jump serve... she did great! Sky played great and was the one who calmly (was she calm???) went back to serve the crucial match point for the tournament win.
Our outsides, Karson, Kelli, Laina and Sidney all had a great day. Karson unleashed some fantastic kills and Sidney played a mean left back. Kelli and Laina were real solid and dependable... and Kelli managed to make a girl on the other team cry again (This is the second time!)
Middle blockers also participated in the fun. I already mentioned their great serving streaks... Amanda starting us out in the very first game serving well and continued it all day. Amanda gets special kudos for playing sick all day.... during the breaks she would go out to her car and lay down for a while to recover. Rachel continued being the awesome player that she is by serving tough, getting jump serve aces and hitting one of the hardest hit balls I've seen this season.
Courtney did her part... coming out of nowhere to pass short balls over and over again. Combine that with a good 88% serving rate and it's easy to see that she had a great day.
So I would like to take credit for the win (remember the shoelaces?) but it really was the girls. they just stepped it up and played great. I have to say that it was one of the best wins I've ever had. I can't remember ever beating a higher ranked team!
Upcoming events:
Wed - 2/10 - Scrimmage 14 Gold
Mon - 2/15 - Scrimmage 14 Green
Wed - 2/17 - Picture Day
Sun - 2/21 - Power League, Salem Hoop
Since the team served a perfect game (well, it was Rachel, but the rest of them kept giving her the opportunity) I owe the girls a nice dinner. So sometime when we have a long break between tournaments, we'll get all dressed up (dresses or skirts, no jeans, no flip-flops!) and go to a nice dinner on me. I'll let you know more when I figure it out.
Next post - after the 3/6 Power League!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Power League Qualifier
We found ourselves at lovely courts in Beaverton for our Power League Qualifier. Our pool had the #1, #16 and the 32 ranked team, we were #17.
The way the qualifier works is that you take over the seed number of the position you finish in in pool play. So if we were first in our pool, we would take over #1, 2nd = #16, 3rd=#17 and 4th=#32. I really wanted to manage the day and come out at least where we went in, which was in the 3rd division (#17-#24).
Our very first match was against the #1 team, PVC Red. While they were warming up, we got our first look at Ariana, there 6'2" 12 year-old middle blocker... 12 years old!!! Anyway, while I had hoped that we would play well, I didn't entertain any thoughts of being very competitive. Boy was I wrong. We came out and played really awesome, making vwery few errors, while PVC Red made tons. We took advantage of those errors to push them to a 24-23 deficit. PVC Red had the side-out and went on to win the first game 26-24. PVC Red cleaned up their act a little bit in game to, as they went on to win 25-16. We had a couple of great highlights in this game, .. Rachel had three jump serves in in game 2 (2 for aces) and Kayla executed a perfect dump that got PVC completely off-guard. Nice job girls!
Match 2 was against a team we had seen before, Clark County. They had beaten us pretty easily 2 times before, but I was optimistic that we would be more competitive this time around. Alas, it wasn't meant to be as they really put a beating on us, 25-5, 25-13. There are some teams that just give us trouble and I guess this is one of them. Clarck County played really well and we didn't. Nuff said.
So going into match #3, we were where I though we might be, 0-2. However, we needed to beat Yakima in order to hold our #17 position. Game 1 was a back and forth affair, with neither team really playing all that well. We did OK, but in the end, we lost game #1, 25-20.
Game two was a different story as we cleaned up some of our mistakes while Yakima made a few more... so we cruised to a 25-22 win, setting up the important game #3. This was the first match where we went 3 games this year, so I was curious as to how we would respond to the pressure. It was a really close game to the end, but with some timely time-outs and strategic substitutions, we prevailed, 15-13. I really nice win! All there girls played well under pressure, with our setters executing some pretty dumps and our hittersmaking some nice kills... of course all set up by Libero making gereat passes over and over.
So we ended pool play in the same place we started, 17th. Next up was another important match, the cross-over. What this match does is it allows teams from the other pools to play each other, supposedly to even up the pools if there are inbalances. For some reason, this is the match that my teams have always tanked... pushing us out of our current division, so I was pretty nervous. and I really didn't know much about the team, Cowlitz Blue the #29 team.
Needless to say, my fears were unfounded as we easily won in 2, 25-13, 25-14. So we get to stay in Bronze! Woo-woo!
The last match of the day is kind of a meaningless match in that it really doesn't change your division, it just seeds you within that division and since you play everyone in your pool, it really doesn't matter what seed you are. So we went in with the mentality to try stuff that we wern't real comfortable with, more jump serves, dumps, back row attacks, etc. While I wanted us to play hard and win, it just wasn't there as we lost pretty quickly to them (Rose City 14 Gold).
So my hopes came true, we stayed in Bronze for our next Power League. .. (and I'm pretty sure Clark County isn't!)
Individually the girls all had there great moments. Our setters practiced and saw how and when to dump, with Kayla taking the lead in trying them. Sky executed a few and Molly got one to area 4.. so look for more offense out our setters!
Our hitters did well, with a much better job of keeping the balls in, with Karson really hitting well. Laina and Kelli both followed Karson lead in attacking"in" while Sydney did another outstanding job playing defense.
Our middles, Rachel and Amanda were there solid selves, making good decisions as to when to really crank on the ball and when to keep it in play.
Of course, none of this would have been possible if it wasn't for our outstanding Libero, Courtney. Not only did she pass really well, she starting to get the confidence to hit the "pipe".
As far as serving goes, we improved as a team, going from 84.8% in to 87.3% in. No one dropped below the 75% in mark while 3 players broke into the > 90% in mark. Sidney led the way with perfect serving for the day 100% (I didn't count the last game against Rose City because we were all jumping) and two others, Courtney and Molly both were over 90% in... for the second week in a row. That consistency is awesome! What's so exciting about Sidney's performance is that she was the low girl at MLK, with a 62% in mark. Amanda joined the improvement party, going from 69% in to 87% in... great focus and commitment to getting better! Good job Sidney and Amanda! Kayla, Rachel and Amanda all were over 85% in so they are right there.
So next up is the Canby Tournament, Feb 7th. Can't wait!
Norm
The way the qualifier works is that you take over the seed number of the position you finish in in pool play. So if we were first in our pool, we would take over #1, 2nd = #16, 3rd=#17 and 4th=#32. I really wanted to manage the day and come out at least where we went in, which was in the 3rd division (#17-#24).
Our very first match was against the #1 team, PVC Red. While they were warming up, we got our first look at Ariana, there 6'2" 12 year-old middle blocker... 12 years old!!! Anyway, while I had hoped that we would play well, I didn't entertain any thoughts of being very competitive. Boy was I wrong. We came out and played really awesome, making vwery few errors, while PVC Red made tons. We took advantage of those errors to push them to a 24-23 deficit. PVC Red had the side-out and went on to win the first game 26-24. PVC Red cleaned up their act a little bit in game to, as they went on to win 25-16. We had a couple of great highlights in this game, .. Rachel had three jump serves in in game 2 (2 for aces) and Kayla executed a perfect dump that got PVC completely off-guard. Nice job girls!
Match 2 was against a team we had seen before, Clark County. They had beaten us pretty easily 2 times before, but I was optimistic that we would be more competitive this time around. Alas, it wasn't meant to be as they really put a beating on us, 25-5, 25-13. There are some teams that just give us trouble and I guess this is one of them. Clarck County played really well and we didn't. Nuff said.
So going into match #3, we were where I though we might be, 0-2. However, we needed to beat Yakima in order to hold our #17 position. Game 1 was a back and forth affair, with neither team really playing all that well. We did OK, but in the end, we lost game #1, 25-20.
Game two was a different story as we cleaned up some of our mistakes while Yakima made a few more... so we cruised to a 25-22 win, setting up the important game #3. This was the first match where we went 3 games this year, so I was curious as to how we would respond to the pressure. It was a really close game to the end, but with some timely time-outs and strategic substitutions, we prevailed, 15-13. I really nice win! All there girls played well under pressure, with our setters executing some pretty dumps and our hittersmaking some nice kills... of course all set up by Libero making gereat passes over and over.
So we ended pool play in the same place we started, 17th. Next up was another important match, the cross-over. What this match does is it allows teams from the other pools to play each other, supposedly to even up the pools if there are inbalances. For some reason, this is the match that my teams have always tanked... pushing us out of our current division, so I was pretty nervous. and I really didn't know much about the team, Cowlitz Blue the #29 team.
Needless to say, my fears were unfounded as we easily won in 2, 25-13, 25-14. So we get to stay in Bronze! Woo-woo!
The last match of the day is kind of a meaningless match in that it really doesn't change your division, it just seeds you within that division and since you play everyone in your pool, it really doesn't matter what seed you are. So we went in with the mentality to try stuff that we wern't real comfortable with, more jump serves, dumps, back row attacks, etc. While I wanted us to play hard and win, it just wasn't there as we lost pretty quickly to them (Rose City 14 Gold).
So my hopes came true, we stayed in Bronze for our next Power League. .. (and I'm pretty sure Clark County isn't!)
Individually the girls all had there great moments. Our setters practiced and saw how and when to dump, with Kayla taking the lead in trying them. Sky executed a few and Molly got one to area 4.. so look for more offense out our setters!
Our hitters did well, with a much better job of keeping the balls in, with Karson really hitting well. Laina and Kelli both followed Karson lead in attacking"in" while Sydney did another outstanding job playing defense.
Our middles, Rachel and Amanda were there solid selves, making good decisions as to when to really crank on the ball and when to keep it in play.
Of course, none of this would have been possible if it wasn't for our outstanding Libero, Courtney. Not only did she pass really well, she starting to get the confidence to hit the "pipe".
As far as serving goes, we improved as a team, going from 84.8% in to 87.3% in. No one dropped below the 75% in mark while 3 players broke into the > 90% in mark. Sidney led the way with perfect serving for the day 100% (I didn't count the last game against Rose City because we were all jumping) and two others, Courtney and Molly both were over 90% in... for the second week in a row. That consistency is awesome! What's so exciting about Sidney's performance is that she was the low girl at MLK, with a 62% in mark. Amanda joined the improvement party, going from 69% in to 87% in... great focus and commitment to getting better! Good job Sidney and Amanda! Kayla, Rachel and Amanda all were over 85% in so they are right there.
So next up is the Canby Tournament, Feb 7th. Can't wait!
Norm
Monday, January 18, 2010
MLK Tournament Summary
This is the inaugural year of the MLK Classic here in Eugene. I was unsure as to what the format would be and what the competition would be like, but I kept an open mind and went with the flow.
What I liked about the tournament is that it would be a good first tournament in that we would get a lot of playing time and that would translate to us being comfortable w/ our lineups, defenses and each other before our upcoming power league. I also was looking forward to see how the team chemistry thing worked. Although I felt I had a pretty good read on the girls, you never know until you put them in a competitive situation.
Before I go into each game, I want to say that the team far exceeded my expectations as far a team chemistry goes. Usually I have to prod them a bit to do things together and to stay together as a team. This team needed no prodding. During down times they all hung together, either just sitting and watching or by playing a little ball together. When they were playing, they supported each other without finger-pointing or eye-rolls whenever there was a error made. There also were no "clics" which is really refreshing. With them being such great teammates, we can focus more on the skill part of the game.
OK, we started the season out with a match against our sister team, 13 Gold. I always am nervous about playing a team that is supposedly "lower" than us because the team that is "higher" freaks outs out and plays really poorly, while the "lower" team has nothing to lose and plays loose and aggressive. Fortunately for us, we played as we should, taking care of business and dispatching them 25-16, 25-18. 13 Gold has some pretty good servers and we struggled a bit with that, but we countered w/ 16 aces of our own. The only real mental mistake we made was a rotation error where one of our middles forgot to go in when we switched w/ the Libero... kind of an easy call since we only had 5 players on the court! There was no harm done and I'm sure that that will not happen again. A great start to our 2010 season though... undefeated!!!
Our second match of the day was against Clark County 14 Black. This team is right above us in Power League, ranked in the Silver Division. They were a pretty solid team with a very good setter. The girl was very athletic and she really took control of her team making critical plays when she needed. In addition to that, she ate us up with her serving. (We'll have to figure this team out... they are in our pool at our next Power League). Anyway, Clark Count beat us in two, 19-25, 11-25. While we didn't play poorly, we didn't have much spark either.
Our last match of the day was against WVBA Mizuno. This team consisted of girls that looked 16. They were tall and athletic and played really well. They triple-blocked successfully and pretty much dominated in all parts of the game. We lost the first game, 16-25, which in retrospect, was pretty good since they really took it to us in the second game, 9-25.
So we finished they day 1-2. We beat a team that was not as skilled as us and lost to a couple of teams that were very skilled. Looking ahead, - Both of these teams ended up in the finals, with WVBA wining the whole tournament and Clark County took 2nd.
Sunday - Pool Play:
The first match of day two had us pitted against a 13's team, WVBA Mizuno 13's. Yes, they are the sister team to the team that whooped us on Saturday, so I was a bit concerned that the whole club may be filled with skilled athletes. My fears were unfounded, not because the team wasn't good, but we played really well. We won game one 25-18 playing pretty solid, but then really took it to them in game two, serving them off the court with nine aces... the ending score was 25-14.
The next match of the day was against Motion Kaepa- Bantam 14's. This time we didn't play so well in the beginning, with us being down 6-0 before I called a time-out to settle the team down. They responded really well and went on to get it tied at 9, in route to a 25-19 win. With the confidence from knowing we came back to beat them, we went on to give them a thumping in game two, winning 25-13. The highlight of this game is that we only missed one serve (Remember, a perfect serving game earns the girls' a dinner out!)
So 2-0 so far, with our last match against East County Juniors. This team was not very skilled and I knew all we had to do was manage the game and we would be fine. This is exactly what we did as we cruised to a 25-9, 25-6 victory.
3-0 for the day, very cool!
Monday - Bracket play:
We ended pool play 4-2, which by my figuring put us 5th overall. Being fifth in in a 10 team pool matches us up with the 4th place team, which was Clark County again (sigh...). Nevertheless, I talked to the girls about playing hard no matter what the score was. While they played hard, Clark County was just too tough for us and the beat us 25-16, 25-10. We played OK in the match, but their athleticism coupled with some poor passing on our part led to the defeat.
So overall, we ended a respectable 4-3. When I look back on my goals for the tournament, I felt we did what we needed to do. We figured out our lineups and also figured each other out. I have a better feel for how the girls play and they know what my expectations and style are.
As a team, we served close to 85% of our serves in. Not too bad, considering that I always give them zones to hit, and some of them are pretty tough (2&4... ask your daughter!) I would like to see our percentage in up in the 90% area, so we will continue to work on that.
As I said earlier, I am very excited about the way this team played together. The great attitudes and chemistry will help us through the long club season.
Individually, the girls did some pretty awesome stuff. Sidney showed everyone what a great passer she was by nailing the majority of balls hit her way while Kelli and Laina offense really stood out. Not only did they hit well, they both served at a 95% in pace, with Kelli serving with the highest score, a 2.13 ... awesome! Karson had a BB tournament, so she had limited playing time but she took full advantage by serving a perfect 100% in! Our first 100%er for the year. Great job Karson!
Our setters, Sky, Kayla and Molly did a very good job of getting to most of the playable passes and putting them up for our hitters. In addition, the set the 9(back set to the RS) quite a bit. Usually my teams are afraid to try this difficult set, but these girls didn't know that, so they set it at will. Sky's serving was right at the 89% line so she did well there. They all were a bit timid when it came to the setter dump, but Kayla tried it numerous times with great success. Then there is Molly... who knew she could hit those short serves over and over? (OK, I knew... but did you?) Even when we played the really good teams, she would hit the short serve that more often than not, got us a free ball on the first return. Now we need to put that free ball away!
Our middle blockers Rachel and Amanda were great. Usually there is a net call or two on at our first tournament, but not these two, they were perfect at the net. We even got our first stuff block! On the second day, Rachel timed a middle attack perfectly and she blocked it straight down in front of the hitter. Woo-woo! Unfortunately, the chairs prevented Rachel from unleashing her jump serve... I can't wait to see more of that! Amanda played hard and smart all three days and is going to force to deal with as she gains confidence and skill.
And then there's Courtney. Where would we be without her anchoring the back row? She really played well, nailing pass after pass. In addition to the great back row play, she took advantage of her limited serving by only missing one serve over the 3 days, earning her an in rate of 93%. We are very fortunate to have such a solid Libero on our team.
So, a good start to what I hope is going to be a great season. We have lots to work on on Wednesday before our Power League Qualifier. Look for more back row attacks, higher sets, setter dumps and free balls taken on our hands. Speaking of the Power League, we are at the Courts in Beaverton. We play at 8:00, so plan on arriving NLT 7:15. We "get" to play the #1 team in the region, PVC Red and the team that beat us twice, Clark Count 14 Black. Woo-woo! It will be a good challenge to see how we respond to the competetion!
If anyone needs directions, go here!
http://www.columbiaempirevolleyball.com/about/directions/index.html
I sent a flyer home talking about the hotel I am staying at with the girls. If you want to see it, look in their book!
So that's aboout it. See you all on Sunday!
Go Webfoot!
MLK Monday Schedule
We went 3-0 Sunday, Woo-woo! The teams we played were not very good, but we took care of business.
We ended all the pool play ranked 4th, so we get a bye the first round. We play at 1:00, arrive NLT 12:00.
Go Webfoot!
We ended all the pool play ranked 4th, so we get a bye the first round. We play at 1:00, arrive NLT 12:00.
Go Webfoot!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
MLK Sunday Schedule
We went 1-2 our first day, beating a team not as good as us and losing to 2 teams that were clearly better. Saw a lot of good stuff today (along with some... opportunities). While we missed a few more serves than I like, they did a pretty good job hitting their zones. Our passing was pretty good, serve recieve a bit shaky at times and we had a few defensive lapses... but since the was our first competetion, I think we did pretty good.
Sunday - Arrive NLT 2:00. We play at 3:00, court 11. After that is a bit of a mystery,,, we'll sort it out tomorrow.
Go Webfoot!
Sunday - Arrive NLT 2:00. We play at 3:00, court 11. After that is a bit of a mystery,,, we'll sort it out tomorrow.
Go Webfoot!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Babies
The babies here! The weighed in at 4lbs 15 ounces each. Olivia and Lucy are doing great.... so is mom.
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