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!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
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.
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