2 - PVC Red
15- Us
18 - Mid-Valley
31 - Blues Power
So if we ended up first, we would get the #2 spot, 2nd... the #15 spot, 3rd... the #18 spot, 4th... the #31 spot. Obviously, 1st would be fantastic, 2nd... great, 3rd... not so hot, 4th ... disaster.
Then after morning play, we would play teams from the other pool. We ended up playing the #3 and the #10 team. Whew... got it?
The first match was against the #31, Blues Power. This match was really dangerous because if we tanked it, we would be in a hole that would be hard to dig out of. Fortunately, we played pretty well. We only missed one serve in game one, and didn't miss any in game two (earning them a dinner at Kabuki's). We didn't play poorly, yet didn't play great either. I think our hustle on the 50/50 plays (plays that could go either way) pushed us past them. We won game 1, 25-21... a little too close for my taste, but OK since we started out 0-5. Game two was pretty tight also, until about 18-15. During a Blues time out I told the girls that the Blues would get the ball back and that we would have to get it right back. Little did I know we would score 7 straight to win 25-15! Alyssa really played well with her kills and blocks in this match... her kills and blocks inspired the rest of the team to step up their game also.
Our second match was also critical in that there wasn't much separation in seeding between us and Mid-Valley. (15 vrs 18). Fortunately for us, we played better in this match and cruised to a comfortable 2 game win, 25-17, 25-19. What paced us was some timely serving runs, where we would serve 4 or 5 in a row, giving us separation that we would need when we struggled. All in all, a good match. We were inspired by Holly trying to pass a ball off her faced (she failed), bringing a little levity to the match.
Our last match was against the #2 team, PVC Red. While we ended up losing to them, 18-25, 16-25, I was pretty pleased on how they fought the whole time. We decided to turn loose some jump serving and Zoe took the challenge well and put a clinic scoring 3 aces in a row. She also saw a huge defensive hole on the PVC side and simply free-balled the ball to that spot for an easy bump-kill. Nice job Zoe!
Our 2nd place finish secured our #15 seed, with the only thing that could happen is that we would move up. So our 1st cross-over was against Rimrock, the #3 seeded team. Again, we played well against a higher ranked team, but just couldn't seal the deal. So while losing 20-25, 21-25, I was encouraged because we played a "Gold" level team pretty close. Alli F did a couple of great things in this match... first she got to hit from the RS in one rotation and got her first kill of the season with her first swing. She also made a great hustle play, going to the floor to get an errant pass... she got the ball up and we eventually got the point. Great job Alli!
As it happened, we ended up playing our sister team in the final cross-over. After some good-natured trash talking we took them on. Unfortunately, we really laid an egg in the first game. I really don't think we were overly intimidated, we just had some bad breaks and didn't play all that well. 14 Gold really did well in taking advantage of us and cruised to a 25-9 win. I didn't dwell a whole lot on the loss as I wanted to regain some confidence in game two. Once we started playing game 2 and hung with them for the first 10 points or so, the team realized that they really could beat them if they played solid and with confidence. After siding out with each other all the way to us being ahead 24-23. 14 Gold got the next side out, but we really pushed through, scoring the next 2 points to take a 26-24 win. The win was really exciting for us.... with everyone contributing. Zoe and Holly's serves really paced us, and we all got a lift from Emily's great block.
The quick game three was much like game two, but 14 Gold just made a play here and there that we didn't respond to, so we ended up losing 10-15. Nonetheless, I really liked how tough we played against "Gold" level teams... it bodes well for us.
So we ended up right where we started... #15 in the region, Silver Division (there are 127 teams in our league). We're in the same division as 14 Gold, so we may see them again (watch out!)
As mentioned before, the team served perfectly in set #2 of match #1, earning them a dinner on me. For the day we served 85% in, with an average "serve score" of 2.0. A serve score of 2.0 or greater means we served tough... now the challenge is to get the in % up to my target of 90% as a team... and keep the serve score at 2.0 or better. A couple of the girls hit the +90% in, with Tasha at 91% and Zoe getting in an eye-popping 96%. We had 5 girls with serve scores over 2.0, Ally G, Tasha, Zoe, Marin and Holly all had +2.0 scores with Marin taking top honors scoring 2.35. Nice job girls.
Our other tracked stat is passing. It's a score that measures how well we do on serve receive. Here we have a lot of room for improvement. I have a goal of passing at least a 1.75. For the day, we passed at 1.57... as I said, a lot of room for improvement. Another telling stat is that we recorded 33 "zero" passes... these are passing attempts where the other team scored an ace. The 33 zero passes out of the 158 attempts represent a 1 out of every 5th pass will be a zero pass. Ouch... anyone want to guess as to what we'll be doing a lot of in practice???? While those numbers are not good, we did have 3 players pass above the 1.75 mark... Tayler passed an even 2.00, Holly passed a 2.13 and Alyssa passed a 2.25. Nice work girls.
Our setters, Alli and Zoe did a great job for us, distributing the ball well to all the offensive players. Usually at this age, the setters always set the middle (because it's the easiest set), but not these two... they set the 5 (outside) and the 9 (right side) well, keeping everyone engaged in the games. Alli even got a chance to attack and got a kill from the right side and Zoe contributed with a couple of excellent timely dumps.
Our full-time right side, Marin was great, especially her serving. Emma and Tayler played OH and RS and did a really good job keeping the responsibilities of each straight. Having players that play multiple positions is a mental challenge that these girls accepted and performed admirably.
Our other OH's Holly, Tasha and Nikki also did well. Even though Holly can't pass off her face very well, she showed us how to make a pressure packed serve (game 2 against 14 Gold) and played well all day. As mentioned earlier, Tasha served a great 91% in and got numerous kills. Nikki contributed by playing really solid all day. contributing in all parts of the game with respectable scores in serving, passing as well as attacking well.
Our middles, Emily and Alyssa were awesome. Numerous blocks and kills were recorded by each... I'm really excited to have 2 really good middles with tons of potential
Lastly, our Libero Ally G was great. She was the passer on 58 of the 158 balls served at us, which is more than twice as many as any other player.
So, all in all, I think we did great. I'm really excited for this team 's future as we did really well in certain areas. We do have a lot to work on, but their skill at this point is pretty good. With that said, what I really like about this team is the way they've come together as a team. They really seem to have clicked as a group and really have a good time. While there were some communication errors, that will get cleaned up as they play more.
The following picture is an example of what I'm talking about. I love it!
So next up, the Rose City Invite on Sunday, Jan 22nd. Can't wait!!!
Go Webfoot!!!!
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