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!