XMAS Break

We've had a great couple of practices... can't wait to play someone! We're going thru line-ups and rotations, which is really boring for the girls, but trust me, at the first tournament they'll be lost!
The girls were a bit confused about practices over the break. I will have practices every Mon and Wed, even the ones after XMAS and New Years. I told the girls that if they are in town and not doing anything to come to practice, but DO NOT change plans because of a practice. The XMAS break is for family time and I want to respect that. There will be 6 more months of practices, so don't feel guilty about missing any.
I posted Santa hat pictures on our webpage, check them out!

That's about it for now... Go Webfoot!!!

New 14 Silver Season

Hey 14 Silver! It was great meeting you all the other night. I'm looking forward to a great season with you all.
Here's a pic of what 14 Silver is all about.... a nothing hits the ground attitude. We have Katie and Michelle going to the floor for a ball (executing a perfect pancake) while Rylee and Sophia are ready to play the ball. Awesome!




Couple of things:


* - I've posted out roster and schedule on our team page. For all you photographers, either send me the pics, or send me the links to photos throughout the season and I'll get them on our page.
* - I've added all your cell numbers to my phone so I'll be sending mass texts out to you all periodically. Look for them!
* - We will be having a season get to know you party... tentatively on Sunday, Dec 4th. One of the activity will be an ornament exchange, so start looking for a cool ornament.
* - Rumor has it our awesome parent reps are organizing a warmup shirt making party, sounds fun!
* - We will be practicing over the XMAS break, for sure on 12/19 and 12/21. 12/26 and 12/28 are little more iffy. My wife is trying to convince me to go to California after XMAS... we'll see.
* - Lastly - We need 4 girls to attend the scorekeepers clinic, Saturday Dec 3rd, 9:00-12:00. I know Alli Fuller said she would be there,... I need three more. Let me know.

That's it for now, Go Webfoot!

Regionals

We were looking forward to Regionals as we were only the 2nd 14 Silver team ever to make the top 16. With that said, I was concerned because everyone in the tournament would be good, and for us to get a win or two we would have to be at the top of our game and the opponent would have to struggle a bit. Our pool consisted of:

Rose City 14 Black---------- #3 in the region
Webfoot 14 Gold------------#6 in the region
Us-----------------------------#11 in the region
West Valley Jrs 14 Black---#14 in the region

While we didn't play poorly in pool play, we didn't play all that great and our opponents played as well as I thought they would. So while we were competitive, we couldn't find a win.

Our fourth place finish landed us in Gill Colosseum on day two, with Roseburg 14 Black up first. I had never played there so I was hoping that the courts would be large, allowing us to jump serve and chase down errant passes. As luck would have it, the court we were assigned was just the opposite. On the north side of the court was a bleacher that was about 2 ft from the side line... not the best situation and while there was room to jump serve, there was an overhang at the end of the courts that was a bit distracting. Despite those obstacles we actually played better than we had the day before. Unfortunately, Roseburg played better and took the match from us, putting us in the challenge bracket (lose and go home).

The loss pitted us against Pacific 14 Black, a team that had beat us a couple of Power Leagues ago. Being the incredibly consistent team we are, we played real solid... but not exceptional and lost to them in two games.

Although the finish was disappointing, there are some positives to take away from the Power Leagues/Regionals. First, we finished tied for 15th in our Region. The last time I was in the top 16, they didn't format the Regional tournament the way they do now so in that tournament, we ended up 16th... so another "first" for 14 Silver. Second - we are the #2 team (#1 in my heart!) in our club. There were only 3 clubs that put two teams in the top 16, OJVA, Rose City and us. That speaks volumes about 14 Silver.

From a coaching standpoint, we are weak in offense. While we pass-set-hit most of the time, the hits aren't screamers that hits the floor before anyone can get to it. We're going to concentrate quite a bit over the next couple of weeks to see if we can get some of the "oohhhh" kills. (Kills that make the spectators go "ooohhhh").

Individually, the girls and boy did some really nice things. Brighton continues to do a great job alternating between a Right Side and setter/backup setter. Her consistency is really appreciated by our hitters. Brighton also jumped up into the +90% in club, serving 93% in. Evan is really starting to get consistent with the jump serves and get aces out of them. Couple that with his strong hitting, he's an offensive force to deal with. While I thought he might of missed a serve over the 2 days, the book says he served 100%. Great job Evan.

Our setters are our unsung heroes of our team. They go out and chase down errant passes all day long and continue to put balls up giving our hitters an opportunity to do their stuff. If the hitters don't thank them enough, I will. THANKS SARAH AND BRIT!!!!!

Our middles, Victoria and Alexa, continue working on hitting what's called "shot boxes". Basically they are zones on the court that either are difficult to defend or if you hit them, it will disrupt the other teams' offense. Victoria is really starting to hit them and Alexa continues to wow us with hits that come out of nowhere. You think a ball is going to drop, but Alexa comes out of nowhere to not only gets to the ball, but attacks it successfully!

Our Libero, Anna continues to get praise from other coaches. Twice after matches the opposing coach would ask me "is she a 7th or 8th grader???" (They hope she's an 8th grader so they don't have to play against her next year). The attention is well deserved and feel we're so lucky to have someone like Anna anchoring our back row. Oh, she also served 93% in. :)

Emma, Rebecca, Delaney and Sara all did a great job... not only in their roll as outside hitters, but on serve receive, defense and serving. All four of these girls lead the team in passing out of serve receive, with Delaney leading again leading the way... scoring 1.74. Emma is not far behind at 1.71, followed by Rebecca at 1.62 and Sara at 1.52. Great job girls!

So next up, the Willamette Valley Classic, Mother's Day Weekend. We'll work on offense between now and then...I can't wait!

Norm

Power League 4/2

Here we are in Gold.... So I was really concerned about how we would play, we could play scared or loose with nothing to lose, or somewhere in between. Our pool consisted of the #1, the #4, the #5 and us at #8. Not only were we in Gold, we had our sister team, 14 Gold in our pool. 1 - OJVA 2 - Webfoot 14 Gold 3 - Rose City 14 Gold 4 - Us As it would happen, we got to play 14 Gold first. I kind of had a feeling we would play them pretty well since we just scrimmaged them and did pretty well. We also had a pretty good idea of their tendencies and what their strengths and weaknesses were. Our game plan was to stay away from their excellent Libero Courtney and exploit the middle hole (area 8). We also wanted to take them out of their offense by hitting area 1 and 9... where their setter camps out. Game 1 was pretty tight for the first half of the game, but we made a few more errors than they did and 14 Gold went on to win 25-16. We didn't play that bad, but we just needed to make a few more plays. Game 2 was a bit different in that not only did we step it up, 14 Gold struggled a bit. One thing I like about this team is that when they see an opportunity to take advantage of a team that is struggling, they step up their intensity and really put the pressure on. We jumped to an early lead and never gave it up and went on to a great 25-21 win! This was a great win in that I have never took a game from 14 Gold.... so it was quite an accomplishment. Unfortunately we never got it going in game three and 14 Gold went on to a three game win. Next up we had the overall #1 in the region, OJVA. This team just did not make mistakes. We would make a great pass or block and they would just keep bringing it until they would either get a kill or we would make a mistake. We lost the match in 2, 25-14, 25-10. I was semi-pleased that we didn't give up and played hard throughout the match... they were just way too much for us. Our last match in pool play was against Rose City's #2 team. There isn't a very big difference between the #1 and #2 team for Rose City, in fact the #2 team had beat the #1 team at the last Power League. We played exceptionally well in game one, and had a chance to win it, but just couldn't quite finish the game and lost 26-24. When you lose a close game to a supposedly better team it can lead to two different things. It can motivate you to know you can play with them, or it can discourage you because you gave it all you had and still lost. Unfortunately for us, we chose the latter and didn't put up much of a fight, losing 25-12. The crossover match was against the 3rd place team from the other pool, Excel NW Black. We had never seen these guys before, so we had no idea what they were like. We found out pretty quick that they were a very solid team that again... didn't make mistakes. We were competitive, but just didn't have enough and lost the match 25-14, 25-15. Our final match of the day was a one-game affair against 14 Gold again. We were pretty excited because we knew we could take them if all the stars aligned correctly. We started out pretty well, getting up a few points on them. Unfortunately for us, 14 Gold cleaned up a lot of there errors and finally put us away, 25-20. Even though we lost to them again, I was pleased with our competitiveness. So while we played pretty hard, we couldn't get a match win. I wasn't too disappointed since we had never been up in Gold before, so we didn't know what the play would be like. Now we know and we know that we can play with these guys... which we will do at Regionals! Individually, the girls (and Evan!) each found a way to help the team. Our setters, Sarah J and Brit did a great job distributing the ball to all our hitters. They had very few doubles (something I was worried about since we had "official" officials in Gold). Sarah J had a great dump against 14 Gold that dropped without a touch and Brit contributed by serving 100% for her third consecutive tournament. Our right sides Brighton and Evan are really important to us from both an offensive and defensive standpoint. Some team put their weakest players on the right side and then never set them, but with our talent on the right side they are so important to us. They adjusted well to hit line when I asked them to and Evan got more than one stuff block... including a couple against 14 Gold that went straight down. Brighton contributed with real solid play, making very few errors. Our middles Alexa and Victoria contributed positively as well, exploiting other teams weaknesses by tipping and hitting off-speed to area 8... then mixing it up with a deep attack or two. Nice job girls. Our Libero, Anna really was a warrior. She passes over twice as many balls as the rest of the team combined is always on the floor diving for ball after ball. She showed me her war wounds after the match.. the knees, wrists, elbows and hips all were banged up with floor burns and bruises. She really is an awesome asset for us, not only because of her defensive prowess, but her offense... hitting the "pipe" is an added bonus. That leaves our outsides who are kind of our unsung heroes. The only get to play every other game, but really take advantage of their opportunities. Rebecca bounced back from an OK tournament 2 weeks ago to a very solid performance this time. Emma also played well, passing well and only missing one serve all day. Delaney was out of synch with her offense, so I had a quick chat with her... challenging her to find a way to help the team. She responded really well by be the best passer on the team as well as serving really well, especially after pool play. Sara B had another outstanding tournament, serving perfect for the 2nd time this season as well as passing well and getting some real important kills. So, while we didn't win a match, I was pleased with our effort. We did have some lapses in passion and intensity, but I expected that knowing that getting discouraged would be likely. Timely time-outs usually took care of this, so I'm not too concerned about it. This is a team of "firsts" and they didn't disappoint this time either... I have never had a team take a game from Webfoot 14 Gold. I am continually impressed with what this team has done and can't wait to see what the future holds. So now what does our finish mean to us? Unlike all previous Power Leagues, team do not automatically move up or down based on their finish. We received Gold level points which will help us get a good seeding for regionals. The way it works is that at the end of every Power League, we get assigned points based on our finish. For Regionals, they add up all the points then rank the teams from top to bottom. The two-day Regionals allow the top 16 to compete for 1st place, while 17 thru 128 play a one-day tournament that is effectively just another Power League. Getting to the 2-day Power League is huge and only one other 14 Silver has done it... getting seeded 16th one time. The point totals have not been posted yet, but I'm pretty sure we'll be ranked somewhere in the low teens... 12-14. We will just have to wait and see. Next up is a special practice on Wednesday, 4/6... it is goofy dress day. The players need to dress as silly and goofy as they can. THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL! The winner of the goofiest outfit will win a prize! We will do a little athletic stuff, but not much. Instead we will do team fun games, each with a purpose. Parents - Bring your cameras and team.... be creative!!!!! Go Webfoot!

Power League - Salem Hoop

Since this was our first power league in Silver Division, I was pretty nervous about how we would fare. If we had bad match at the wrong time and we would be back in Bronze, so I was hoping to maintain our position in Silver.
Our pool:
1 - Roseburg 14 Gold
2 - North Pacific 14 Black
3 - Mid-Valley 14 Black
4 - Us

The first match was against North Pacific. While we didn't play poorly, we didn't play very inspired. We just kind of went through the motions, losing 25-18, 25-17. I don't know if we were looking ahead to Roseburg (they beat us badly in the PLQ) or what, but we just kind of stank it up.
As I said earlier, we had played Roseburg early in the season and played well in one game, but got smoked in the second, so I was unsure how we would play. In addition, Roseburg had been in Gold Division all season, dropping down to Silver in the last Power League. Roseburg's strength is in their middle blockers as they block very well on middle attacks, but the can't get to the outside very quickly, so we really wanted to set the outsides a lot. Much to my pleasure, we really played well winning game 1, 25-19..... with a good portion of our points coming from our outsides. I didn't mention that they had cleaned our clock in game 2 the first time we played, hoping they wouldn't remember. Unfortunately, we kind of laid an egg and lost game two 25-12. So on to the short game three. Would it be a blow-out or would it be back and forth all the way..... game 3's tend to be one or the other. It ended up a blowout... in our favor!!!! We served perfect and really took advantage of Roseburg's mistakes by keeping the pressure on with some great offense and inspired defense. This was a really great win because it gave us the opportunity to maybe get second in our pool (keeping us in Silver), so I was pretty happy.
Our last match was against Mid-Valley 14 Black. We actually played pretty well, serving perfect, but Mid-Valley was just better. We lost game one, 25-21. However, we recovered really well and beat them in game two, 25-18. So here we go again... another game 3. This one was a back and forth affair, but we pulled away at the end, winning 15-11! This was another great win in that it guaranteed 1st or 2nd in our pool!!! The match that would determine 1st or 2nd was actually between Roseburg and North Pacific. If Roseburg won, we would get first, if North Pacific won, we would get second. Fortunately for us, Roseburg took care of business and won in 2, giving us a first place finish in pool play!
After much confusion about who was first and who was second, we ended up playing..... guess who??? West Valley. I think we've played them a hundred times and have yet to win. The match had an additional amount of pressure in that the winner gets to move to Gold. Game one was a typical game between us. We went back and forth, with West Valley getting the edge, winning 25-21. Game 2 was a complete reversal in that we played harder and more aggressively, and we ended up winning 25-21. Here we go again... game 3. We played a zillion game three's, but none like this one. We served perfectly and really got into West Valleys heads, forcing them to make numerous errors. We went on to win this crucial game 3, 15-5. !!!!!!! Not only did the win move us into GOLD, we did it against West Valley!! The team was soooooo excited while I was calm and cool (not!!!).

After the huge win, we were just emotionally and physically drained and had nothing left for the final match of the day against Roseburg. We ended up losing to them to take 2nd overall, an outcome that had not even entered my mind as possible.
Firsts:
14 Silver in the Gold Division
14 Silver beating West Valley
The way I figure it, no matter what happens in our next Power League, we are going to be in the top 16 for regionals (2-day). Also, we will be seeded in Regionals HIGHER that West Valley... woo-woo!!!!!

During one of our time-outs, I emphasized that we win as a team and lose as a team. So with that in mind, I'm not going to single out any players for great play. Instead, I am going to just say that this was an awesome team win. EVERY player on the team contributed in a positive way and I cannot image playing without any of them. They really worked hard and deserve to be where they are.. did I mention that they are in GOLD!!!!!!!!!

Next up - the final Power League.
Go Webfoot!!!!!!

Rose City Tourney 2/27

This tournament is always a tough one in that there some really good teams there, and some teams that are not very skilled, with us being in the middle. One of our additional challenges this time is that we didn't have Alexa since she was sick. She made the trip and tried to play, but she just couldn't do it and went home early. This forced us into making our outsides play middle... a challenge that they all excepted excitedly.



Our morning pool consisted of:

Us

PVC Yellow

Rose City 12's

Alpine Falcons



Our first match was against the Rose City 12's. Don't let the "12's" title fool you. The Rose City 12's are usually very good. In fact, I have never beat them.



We started out really well, as we normally do, and really took it to them, winning 25-17. But, as it usually happens with us, we let them score a bunch of points early in game 2, forcing us to play from behind the whole way. We did manage to make up the difference around 20-20, so I thought that we would push through for the win.... but as it happened we missed 3 out our 4 next serves and ended up losing 25-23. This tournament was set up as 2 games only, so we didn't go to a third. Since we had a positive point differential with them I was confident that the close loss wouldn't hurt us.



Match 2 was against the Alpine Falcons, a Gold Division team that we had seen before. they are real solid and can hit pretty hard. The only way for us to beat this team was for them to have an off game, and for us to take advantage of that. Needless to say, that didn't happen and we ended going down 25-18, 25-8.



So on to match 3. If we win it, we are second and get to play in the Gold Championship... lose it and we play in the Silver Consolation. I had watched PVC Yellow play and realized that they were not very skilled. the only way we wouldn't beat them easily is if we made a huge # of errors. We didn't as we beat them handily,25-6, 25-8.



As I predicted, we took second in our pool, Yay! The only problem is that we earned the honor of playing Rose City's #1 team, 14 Black. They are currently 3rd in the region, making them a really good team. Besides the obvious skills, they also had size and power. While I was hoping that the final score was competitive (it wasn't), we did put forth a good effort. We've seen what happens when really good teams play teams that a not as skilled... the really good team makes the other team look worse than what they are (we've done that to team this season). So while we didn't score many points, I wasn't too upset about the way we played.



Since there was a second game for the losers of the first round in bracket play, we got to play again.... the only problem that it was against the Alpine Falcons again. After the tough loss to Rose City 14 Black, we didn't have a whole lot left. So while we didn't play bad in game one, we didn't play with much passion. So for game 2, I asked the team how we could beat a superior team. They made me proud by immediately saying "out-hustle them". So I challenged the team to make 3 hustle plays in the last game, which they did, diving to the floor to get to balls that had dropped in game one. The outcome wasn't much of a surprise though as Alpine beat us 15-4, 15-10.



We do owe Alpine a great big Thank You as they offered to do our reffing for us since we had the farthest to drive. That was very gracious of them, especially since I was hollering at their coach about a call in the Rose City match. Thank you Alpine!!!



It's kind of hard to identify individual accomplishments since we didn't have many opportunities for our offense (we either served the other team off the court, or we were playing Gold level teams!) With that said I do want to acknowledge everyone for having a great attitude and always striving to play there best. The outsides, Emma, Rebecca, Sara B and Delaney all stepped in to the roll of the middle blocker without hesitation and did well. Our setters Sarah J and Brit again worked their tails off getting to errant passes and even executing a dump or two. Brit has joined our 100% serving in club and Sarah J also was over 90% in. Victoria, our only real middle continues to improve with her hitting the corners instead of just hitting and through in a stuff block or two. Our Right Sides Brighton and Evan were solid. Brighton steps into the setter roll better than I had hoped for in the beginning of the season and Evan is really starting to hit the ball with authority. It's really fun to see the perfect back 9 set to him and to watch him really crank on the ball.



Of course, we couldn't set a perfect back 9 if it wasn't for our awesome Libero Anna. She continually comes out of nowhere to make passes on short tips... not only is she getting to these balls, she's usually passing them beautifully to the setter. She also really likes hitting the pipe and is getting more and more successful at it.



As a team we served 87% in, a season low for us. While Brit, Anna Sarah J and Emma all had over 90% in, the rest of the team struggled in this area. Not quite sure why this happened, but I'm confident we'll be back on track before the next tournament.



As a team we passed a 1.57. This is also pretty low, however when you play really good teams and not so good teams, it's hard to do well passing. The really good teams serve the snot out the ball while the less skilled teams don't give us an opportunity to pass since we serve them off the court. So, while the dropped balls between players is frustrating, I'm not too concerned about the score for this tournament.



Next up - Power League 3/13/11, Salem Hoop.



Go Webfoot!!!!!

Wilson Invitational

This was an odd formatted tournament in that they used what is called snaking seeding for pool play. In this type of seeding, there is a high seed, a med high seed, a med low seed and a low seed. In our pool, we had the 3 seed, the 10 seed (us), the 15 seed and the 22 seed. After the first round of pool play, the first place team would assume the #3, the second place team assumes the #10, the third place team assumes the #15 and the fourth place team assumes the #22. After the first round of pool play, they would "re-snake" the seeding, (changing the direction of the "snake") to come up with new seeding for round 2.

Then after all that, they take the top 6 and put them in a bracket, the next 6 in a bracket, the next 6... etc.

We started out playing Nafanua, the 15 seed. We started out really well, clicking on all cylinders and Nafanua helped by making lots of mistakes. We ended up winning 25-7, which probably was a bad thing since we suddenly stopped playing in game 2 and Nafanua woke up. The problem with VBall sometimes is that momentum really takes over when you are either playing well or bad. Unfortunately, we ended up losing game 2 28-26. We had as couple of opportunities to win it, but we just couldn't finish. So we go to a third game, where anything can happen. We played about the same and let Nafanua stay in it by making mistakes at inopportune times. Needless to say, we lost 20-18. It was a real frustrating loss for us because we knew we were the better team.

So now, if we beat the 22 and lose to the #5, we take over the 15. If we pull off an upset and beat the #5, anything could happen because of tie-breakers (more on that later!) First we have to take care of the #22, Falcon VBC. This was a team where we just had to manage the game as they were not very skilled. We did just fine with this, winning 25-10, 25-11.

Next was the #5, the Alpine Falcons. I was hoping that Alpine would have an off match and that we played exceptional, but neither happened. We played OK, but Alpine really took it to us and ended up winning 25-14, 25-10.

So we took over the 15 seed. That put us in a pool with the #5, #11 and the # 24. This wasn't too bad because if we took over the #11, we would be right back in the same bracket as we would have if we hadn't lost to Nafanua, so we had incentive to do just that. In order to do this, we had to beat Team OVA. After we started, it became apparent that we could hang with these guys because we went back and forth all match. We ended up winning the match, 25-27, 25-22, 15-13... a great win! I was confident that we would beat the 24, so we would most likely get 2nd and get back to the Silver Division. They played really well, and in fact, served another perfect game in game 3(no, they don't get another dinner)!

We had to wait until Sunday to play the #5, CCJV. They were a real solid team that made few mistakes and was bit too skilled for us and we went down, 25-13, 25-19.

Our last pool play match was against the #24, Capital City Elite. I had watched them play and saw that they shouldn't be much of a problem as long as we manage the game. We didn't disappoint and went on to an easy win, 25-13, 25-13.

I was real pleased since I was confident that CCJV would take care of OVA and that we would be 2nd. Unfortunately, nobody told OVA and CCJV that they should follow form as OVA managed to beat CCJV, causing a three way tie. Someone would end up 1st, someone 2nd, and someone 3rd based on a tie breaking procedure. Since we had 4 game wins and OVA had 5 wins and CCJV 5 wins, we got third. Dang! This was really frustrating, but there really isn't anything we could do about it. So we ended pool play 15th, in Bronze Divsion.

As it happened, 14 Green was in our bracket (of course!), but we first had to get by Fire 14-1. While they were a decent team, we started playing really well, a trait that would carry us through the afternoon. We took them down pretty easily, winning in two.... 25-16, 25-20, setting up another showdown with 14 Green. I was pretty concerned since it is always hard to beat a good team three (or more) times in a row, and 14 Green is a pretty good team. If we played like we played against Nafanua, they would beat us.... if we played up to our potential, we would win. We played pretty well in game 1, getting up to 24-19 before they got a side out. After that we just couldn't get a point for the win. I even tried calling 2 time-outs in a row to freeze their server, but she would have no part off it. We let hem get to 24-24 before we finally out them away, winning 26-24. That kind of win can have 2 different effects on the losing team, it can either have an "we almost beat them, we can do this" or it demoralizes them. On the flip side, then winning team runs the risk of feeling "Whew!" or it can motivate them to play better. We quickly took control of game 2 by jumping out 10-1 and never let 14 Green into it. Consequentially, we cruised to an easy 25-12 win.

The win put us into the finals with CCJV, #2. This team really wasn't too bad, but we really started to play well. We played so well that we gave them no hope in stopping us and we went on to a 25-16, 25-5 division win! Woo-woo! We only missed on serve during the match, yes another perfect serving game. In addition we just out hustled them, even when we were up big, we didn't let up.

As a team served an eye-popping 93% in which really helped us at the right time. In addition, we upped our passing score to 1.69... not the 1.8 that we are shooting for, but up from the last tournament. We talked after day one about winning as a team and losing as a team... and this team really embraces this. They understand they all need each other and to that end, support each other. I really love that about this team!

Individually, everyone did some really great thing. We had 7 players serve over 90% in, Anna, Sarah J, Emma, Evan, Delaney, Rebecca and Alexa all were over 90%, with Delaney posting another 100% in day! Even the four that were below 90% were all above 88.9% This was an awesome serving performance.

We worked on getting our outside more involved in our offense in practice and Brit and Sarah did a great job mixing up the sets, keeping the opposing teams' defense off balance. I remember a couple sequences where we set the outside, the middle, the back 9 a pipe and a setter dump... eventually getting the point. Brit and Sarah never had a bad game and in fact, stepped up their game as the tournament went on. Sarah even dove to the floor for a beautiful pancake, keeping a rally alive that we eventually won.

Our outsides, Emma, Rebecca, Delaney and Sara all took advantage of the increased number of sets by taking care of business, getting numerous "Boom-Boom-Boom-Reload!"s. We did have to make a mid-course adjustment during the tournament... for some reason, we started to do nothing but down balls instead of getting an approach and attacking. A little talk about it quickly corrected that as they all responded well and started attacking with purpose again. Sara B and Emma both passed over 2.0 and as I said early, Delaney served 100% in. Rebecca's consistency is huge for us... she can always be counted on to make the smart play.... I love our outsides!

Our middles, Alexa and Victoria each stepped up there game for this tournament. Victoria responded well to my challenge to start hitting again by hitting deep corners time and time again. Alexa continues to amaze me pulling out plays out of nowhere. I'm on the sideline saying "no,no,no.... YES!"

Our rights, Evan and Brighton are getting more and more kills as the sets are getting better and better. Brighton like to hit line exposing the weakness in defense that the other teams run and Evan really hits un-passable balls when he gets a hold of one... which is happening more and more often.

Anna, our Libero was great again. Every tournament I have an opposing coach tell me how much the like our Libero's play and this tournament was no exception as I had 2 coaches tell me just that. We are so lucky to have her anchoring our defense as she makes great pass after great pass.

So, all things considered, I give us an A-. We had only one bad match and we really dominated Sunday afternoon when it mattered.

Next up, the Rose City Tournament on Sunday.... Can't wait!

Go Webfoot!

Power League - Albany Boys and Girls Club

Our first real Power League was close, at the Boys and Girls Club in Albany. Our pool looked like:
West Valley Juniors (yes... the same team we've already played 3 times)
NW Jrs 14 Air Elite
Us
PVC Green

I was looking forward to this tournament because I thought we might have an opportunity to move up in the standings.

We started out playing West Valley Juniors. I was hoping that the early start would throw West Valley off a bit and that we would play really well.... but the opposite happened. West Valley played really well, while we didn't. We missed 5 serves in the first game, while only serving one ace. West Valley countered with good serving (again), scoring 5 aces against us. Consequently, we lost game one 14-25.

We righted the ship for the next game, cutting down on the missed serves, increased our aces, cut down on our zero passes and generally just played better. So, we cruised to a 25-18 victory, setting up yet another 3rd game against them.

Again, the poor passing hit us as we had 5 zero passes, which is just too much to overcome in a 15 point game, so another loss to them..... 9-15. Acck!!!

Match 2 was against NW Jrs Air Elite. This was a team ranked higher than us (to date, we had not beat a higher ranked team), but I thought we were playing pretty well despite the early loss. I had watched them play earlier and saw that they were beatable as long as we didn't make too many errors. The team must have read my thoughts as they played really well, so well in fact that they served a perfect game (no misses) so they've earned themselves a dinner on me (More on that later)! Needless to say, they won game one 25-21... it wasn't that close but we gave up a mini run by them at the end. They continued to play well and cruised to a 25-15 game 2, and match 2,victory. A couple of highlights in this match were the aces we scored (9) compared to the misses (2). We also passes pretty well, only recording 2 zero passes.

Match 3 was against the team we played in the end at the Power League Qualifier, PVC Green. We beat the rather easily that day, but I was a bit concerned because it was the end of the day and the match was pretty meaningless, so I was unsure as to had good they could be. While PVC Green played well, we were just better, and won the match 25-20, 25-18.

So after pool play we ended up second, which pitted us against the number 1 team from the other pool.. with the winner of that match moving up to the Silver Division. As it turned out, that ended up being our sister team, Webfoot 14 Green. I really dislike playing teams that are supposedly below us (although they were ranked higher than us) because the other team really has nothing to lose, while 14 Silver might get all freaked out about it. My concerns were warranted in that 14 Green played really well.. I mean really well. They are a solid team with some great skills, however 14 Silver stepped up to the challenge and took care of business, beating them 25-21, 25-20.
Yay! We move up to the top 16! There are 127 teams in our region so to say we
are in the top 16 says something special. Now are challenge is to stay there!

The last match of the day would be against the winner of the other crossover pool, of course it was West Valley Juniors again. The way I saw it, we could either go through the motions because we just can't to beat them or we could give it our all and see what happens. 14 Silver would have nothing to do with the roll-over attitude and played their hearts out. We out hustled them and played the hardest I've seen them play. We served awesome, no misses in game one and only 2 total for the match. Unfortunately, West Valley prevailed in three 25-22, 20-25, 9-15. Despite the loss, I was really proud of the way they fought... wait til next time!

As a team we served the best we have all season. We had two perfect games and had an "in" percentage over the 90% mark, scoring 90.6% in. GREAT job Webfoot! I told you in the beginning that I am a big fan of serving and I knew if we hover around that 90% mark, we would be successful. We had 7 players over that 90% mark and no one under 80. Nice... really nice!

On the other side (passing) we also improved. As a team we passed a 1.6... still below out target of 1.8, but better than the last tournament.

So by combining great serving, better passing and really playing hard, I give the day an A-.... with WVJ keeping us from an A+. We moved up in the standings and we beat 14 Green. A great day!

Individually we had some great play from everyone. Our right sides, Brighton and Evan did great. Evan's athleticism gives a huge boost to our offense as well as his fantastic serving (only 1 miss all day, 96.3%). Evan needs to thank the other right side, Brighton for setting wonderfully while he's back there serving. She stepped up and set beautifully all day.

Our middles, Alexa and Victoria both had a good tournament. Victoria provided a defense spark for us by getting more than few stuff blocks, while never getting called for "in the net". Our other middle, Alexa had an exceptional tournament. She got numerous kills while rarely making any mistakes, and she served a career high, 96.4% in. This was her best tournament so far and a suspect her play is something we can count on from here on out. Nice job Alexa.

Our setters, Sarah and Brit really worked hard all day. If you would look at them during time-outs or during a break in play, you would see them sweating up a storm and breathing hard. They really work hard for us. Brit served 95.4% in while Sarah was flying around getting to errant passes all over the place.

Our Libero, Anna had another good day, especially hitting the pipe. She's added power to her hit that really adds to our offense. Even when she doesn't get kills out of the attack, the opposing team can't get a good pass out of it, limiting what they can do. As usual, she was as solid as a rock passing, allowing us to get into our offense.

Our outside were great. They ALL are members of the "over 90% in" club. Emma scored 90.5%, Rebecca 90.9%, Sara B 93.3% and Delaney led the pack with a perfect 100% in. Nice job Delaney!!! Emma hit a career high with her serving and Sara B was solid as a rock for us and for the third time, posted over 90% of her serves in. Her consistency really elevates everyone else's play.

The outside were also in the top half of the team in passing with Delaney again leading the way, scoring a 2.06. We would be really hurting without this group of outsides... they are so solid in everything they do... we're lucky to have them!

Next up, The Wilson Invitational at Truax on the campus of OSU. It's a 3-day tournament crammed into 2 days. Be prepared for a long weekend! Here is a link to the tournament website:
http://www.wilsoninvitational.com/tournament-information

As I said earlier, the team won a dinner on me for their perfect serving game. We will wait until there is a lull in tournaments to do this. We will go to a nice dinner, that means dress nice. No t-shirts, jeans, flip-flops, sweat shirts. I told the girls skirts or dresses preferred.... Evan in a kilt? Naw, nice slacks and button down shirt. The girls do not have to wear heals (they can if they want) as some of them are not comfortable in them, besides I don't want any rolled ankles! We will probably go to Kabuki's on West 11th. I will get you more information when we get closer to the actual date.

Go Webfoot!

Tournament Summary Power League Qualifier

We were eager to get into Power League hoping to play well enough to maintain our seed or move up a little. This is a really tough tournament in that one match can determine what division you'll end up in, so inconsistency is a killer.

Our pool consisted of the #5 team, Roseburg 14 Black, the #12 seed CCJV 14 Black, us at #21 and the #28, Pacific 14 Crew. The way this qualifier worked in pool play is that you take over the seed # of the position you finish in pool play. So if we finished 1st, we would take the #5 spot, 2nd the #12 spot, 3rd we would keep the #21 spot and if we finished 4th, we would take #28. BTW, there are 128 14's teams in our region.

Our first match was against the #5 team in the region, Roseburg 14 Black. We knew they would be very good and that we would have to be at our best in order to beat them. Fortunately, we really played well in game one, nailing passes and playing offensively well. We really passed well, only recording one zero pass. We added really good serving, only missing one serve in the game, while scoring a couple of aces. When we were able to run our offense, we were real successful. In the end, we lost game one 23-25. We were confident that we could play with them and were eager to see what we could do in game 2. For whatever reason, we played as poorly and got behind quick. That poor start shook our confidence and the whole team contributed to a rout by Roseburg. It was disappointing because we had played so well in game 1 so we knew how we could play. In game one we only had one zero pass... in game two we had eleven. Yikes! One positive to take out of the match is that we only missed one serve in the entire match, while serving up 3 aces.

Match #2 was against Clark County Juniors, a Vancouver WA team. Again, we played pretty well, not great, but not bad either. Playing solid and consistent is good, but when playing a better skilled team like CCJV, you have to play awesome, while the opposition has to play poorly. Neither one of those things happened, so we ended losing in 2, 1i9-25, 17-25.

That set up a crucial match against the #28 team, Pacific Crew. This is the one match we HAD to win. If we lose it, we drop into Diamond Division. Win it and we stay in Bronze. I didn't tell the team how important the match was, confident that they would play well... I didn't want to add any unnecessary pressure. My hopes were realized when the team performed as expected. They made a few mistakes, but on the whole played well. We ended up winning the match rather easily, 25-15, 25-15. Whew!!!

So we started the morning 21st and ended 21st. Since we had the last round in pool play off, and our next match wouldn't start for at least an hour after the end of pool play, we had a couple of hours off. This is always concerning because of the potential let down after a long break. We passed the time in the sunshine with some games of hacky-sack.... Norm is horrible.

This next match is what they call a cross-over challenge. It gives teams an opportunity to jump up (or down). If a team does something unexpected, they can be rewarded handsomely or punished harshly. Fortunately for us, the match didn't hold a whole lot of importance... it had us pitted against the #20 team. So we win it, we move up a spot... we lose it and we stay #21. By coincidence, #20 team was West Valley Juniors, the very same team we've played twice at our last tournament. In those matches, we played pretty good, but ended up losing in three. Unfortunately for us, we were a little off and WVJ played really well and we ended up losing in 2, 16-25, 7-25. Game 2 was much like the second game against Roseburg, we just couldn't catch a break. Nonetheless, we ended still 21st going into the last match.

This last match is simply a seeded within our pool match. Win it and we stay #21, lose it and we end up #24th.... not a whole lot of difference. Since we were running way late, the tournament director asked if we wanted to do a one game match, or a regular 2 out of 3. Since we had a2 hour drive and Roseburg (reffing team) had a 3 1/2 hour drive, we agreed to do the one game variety. Our opponent was PVC green, who started out #25. These early season matches are always worrisome because you just don't know how accurate the rankings are. Fortunately for us they didn't prove too tough and we handled them easily, winning 25-16.

So after a very long day, we ended where we started, 21st. Solidly in the Bronze Division. I'm pleased with our position in that I think from what I've seen of other Bronze teams, we should be able to make a run at Silver.

Our serving percentage in was a respectable 88% (our goal is 90%) with 2 players posting a perfect day, Sara B and Victoria. Nice job girls.

Our serve receive however was a poor 1.52... obviously something we will work on over the next few weeks. Anna and Delaney posted a 1.9 while Sara B posted a team high 2.0. Again, nice job girls.

Our setters, Brit and Sarah J worked hard all day. Brit added a 91% serving percentage to her day and Sarah J mixed up setting well, getting everyone involved. One of the Sarah's great plays was the very nice setter dump that ended the match and our day. Nice job setters.

Our outsides continued their good play. I already mention Sara... both for serving and passing, but the others contributed as well. Rebecca served over 90% for the second tournament in a row. As mentioned before, Delaney passing score was over a 1.9 and Emma contributed with solid play all day.

Our middles, Alexa and Victoria contributed in their own way as well. As mention above, Victoria served perfectly and Alexa had another great day day both on serving (for the second tournament in a row, over 94%) and at the net. Alexa has this knack for making reaction plays at the net when it looks like their is no chance for a play... nice job both of you.

Our right side Evan and Brighton both served over the magical 90% mark. In addition, Brighton set exceptionally well when she has the duties during our special rotations when we have Evan serve. Evan's athleticism is huge in that he gets a good swing on most set balls and is a huge contributor to our offense.

Our player of the day goes to Sara B for the best passing and serving for the day, along with some great attacks.

Our play of the day goes to Anna for diving to the floor to get to a short ball, then popping up and hitting a great down ball, all on the same play.

Our goofy play of the day goes to Rebecca for letting Emma fake her out on a served ball, resulting in a ball hitting the floor between Rebecca's feet.


Next up, Power League in a couple of weeks. Can't wait!!!

Norm

Tournament Summary - Club Ridge 1/9/11

I couldn't wait for our first tournament to start... I was really anxious to see how we would do. I went into the tournament with a goal of getting used to playing with each other... used to the rotations... used to my "style". I really didn't care how we fared with win-losses, I just wanted to see where we were and for the team to get comfortable.


We started out playing a pretty weak team, Bridgetown 14 Navy. While they were weak, we didn't do ourselves any favors... we made numerous skill errors in game 1, and ended up losing it 19-25. I did my best to calm the team down between games and it seemed to work as we cruised to an easy match victory winning games 2 and 3 25-7, 15-5. Once we got the first win under our belts we settled down and started playing pretty well.


Match 2 was another easy opponent, MHAC Velocity. There wasn't much for highlights in this one.... we won easily 25-13, 25-2. The only two points they earned were from 2 of our missed serves.


I knew that match 3 in pool play (West Valley Juniors) would be tougher for us. We had seen them play since we had reffed them, so we knew they were good. We started game 1 a little shaky, we would give up a point or two, then earn one back. Before we knew it, they had stretched that to a 15-25 win. They simply outplayed us. Game two was a different story as we really executed well. Our serving and serve receive were good, as was our setting and hitting. When everything clicking, we went on to win 25-19. While I was hoping to carry that momentum into game 3, it just didn't happen as we fell 9-15.


So after pool play, we were 2nd in our pool, 4th overall. Our first opponent (victim?) in bracket play was CC Athletics, a team from Washington. Sometimes after a long break a team will be flat, but that didn't happen to us. Really played pretty well in this match, cruising to a two game win, 25-18, 25-21.


That win put us into the semi-finals with our sister team, Webfoot Green. I really dislike playing teams that supposedly ranked lower than us. You really are in a no-win situation. The "lower" team is excited to have an opportunity to knock off the "higher" team, while the "higher" team is afraid that that is exactly what they would do. Despite that, 14 Silver really played well in game 1, winning 25-15. The win was a little too easy in that we decided to spot them a 8-1 lead in game two... making my already grey hair,.. greyer. After a couple of timeouts to settle them down, we started playing better and would gain a point here and there and eventually climbed back into the game. We never lead until the very end, eventually winning 26-24. Whew!!!!


That win put us in the finals with the same team we lost to in pool play, West Valley Juniors. While we played hard and won game one 25-21, we eventually lost to them in three games. One note is that we served perfectly in game 3, no misses.... but since we didn't win it, no dinner (dang!).


So we ended up second, a really great start. While there wasn't a whole lot of competition, we beat everyone that was lessor skilled and played a better skilled team great to the end. I am really pleased with where we are this early in the season. While there are lots of things to work on, all aspects of our game are good. We have a real solid foundation.


Individually, our setters, Brit and Sara did great. We learned that Sarah is going to get to just about anything (get out of the way!). Brit got 96% of her serves in, 2nd best on the team, while Sarah had the highest passing score on the team. I'm not quite sure how our setters even get passing opportunities on serve receive, but I'll take it! Both girls distributed the ball to all three hitters, keeping the defenses guessing. We even had a couple of dumps!!!!


Our Right-sides, Evan and Brighton did exactly what I was hoping they would do. They each got a stuff block on the outside hitters (that's why we have them out there!) and also had numerous attacks and kills. My right sides on past teams have been a bit ... heigth challenged so I never had the opportunity to use them as an offensive weapon, but with these two, we'll do great. Not only did they both play the rightside well, they both served over the magical 90% mark, with Evan posting a perfect day, no missed served.


Our Middles were equally great, Alexa and Victoria. Victoria joined the stuff block party with one of her own and Alexa was a serving machine for us, hitting over 95% in. In addition, Alexa was diving on the floor over and over to keep balls in play, allowing us to get a kill and thus allowing her to serve again.


Our outsides, Emma, Rebecca, Sara B and Delaney all did well, scoring numerous kills from the outside. Rebecca and Sara both served over 90% in, and Emma and Delaney really played some nice defense.


Last but not least comes Anna. OMG! Who knew she would be so awesome in the back row. Usually passes are going all over the court, but not when Anna passed. Her accuracy is the start of all our offense. Without her skill back there, we would be really struggling. In addition, she served the snot out the ball, serving more than any other player.


You probably saw the girls keeping stats on the sideline. The two stats we keep are passing and serving. For serving, we strive to hit the 90% in mark. If it's higher, that means we are serving too easy, lower than that and we're giving away too many points. As a team, we served 89.8% in, right at the target. We scored numerous aces and made it really tough on our opponents. The other stat is passing. We only record the first pass from serve receive, but it gives in indication on how well we pass as a whole. the scoring goes like this: a 0 is for an ace by the other team, a 1 is for a bad pass, a 2 is for a OK pass and a 3 is for a nailed pass. For this tournament, we passed a 2.1 which is pretty good. Anything over 2 is OK, while a 2.5 is excellent. Our challenge will be to maintain the goods score when the competition is a little higher.


As I said in the beginning, I wasn't real concerned about winning and losing this tournament, but a 2nd place finish was awesome. The team got to know how each other plays and at times, looked really good. There wasn't anyone who "stunk it up", everyone contributed to our success.


I always give out tournament awards for "Play of the Day" and for Player of the Day". In addition, something really goofy happens, so we'll start with that one. The "Where's my Chair" award goes to Victoria for entertaining us by missing her chair when she went to si down... landing on her rear-end. It was quite a sight!


Our "Play of the Day" goes to three players for their stuff blocks. Congratulations to Evan, Brighton and Victoria!


Our "Player of the Day" goes to Anna. Her rock solid performance was awesome. Nice job Anna!


Next up - Wednesday, Jan 19th - Bring something for Rebecca as her birthday is next Tuesday.


Next Saturday, the 22nd. Power League Qualifier, The Courts in Beaverton... not very far from where we were at.



Go Webfoot!