Power League - 3/3/12

We found ourselves way up in Vancouver WA for this power league. Our pool looked like this:
1 - Us
2 - Athena
3 - OJVA
4 - NW Reign

Our first opponent was OJVA. While we didn't play bad, we just made too many untimely errors in this match. In the first set, we didn't miss a serve, but lost 25-15, in match 2, we missed 4, but only lost by 2, 26-24. The downside of this match is that Zoe went down with a ankle sprain while we were up in game 2, but kind of fell apart and gave them them win. Tasha tried to lighten things up a bit by by doing a nice spin and fall on her backside right in from of everyone!

Match 2 was against NW Reign. This team was a little tough for us as they just kept the ball in play. we would make a little run, but give it back with a run of points on them It would all depend on what team was making a run at the end. Fortunately for us, we were the ones making plays. Marin really had a nice stuff block in this match to get us fired up and Ally G made a real nice save on a badly shanked ball. Plays like that led us to a 25-20, 25-23 win.

Match 3 was against Athena. I can't say much about the match because we did so poorly, I don't know how good Athena was! We had 19 zero passes in the match and 7 missed serves... kinda hard to be competitive when we have stats like that. Needless to say, we lost 25-19, 25-13. The highlight of this match was Norm protesting a back-row attack call. The ref thought if the back-row player jumped, it was a back row attack. Of course every good 14 Silver player knows that it's the ball, not the player , that determines if it is a back-row attack. We won the protest, but obviously it didn't alter the outcome.

Our 3rd place finish in pool play pitted us against the 4th place team from the other pool, Blues VBC. Winner stays in Bronze, loser drops to Diamond.... no pressure. In what is becoming a pattern for us, we got down big right away. I called two time-outs early trying to do something to get them playing. Finally, it clicked and we started to make a dent in there lead. I was pleased that we came all the way back to make it close, losing set 1, 25-23. I knew if we kept the momentum, we would take set 2... which is exactly what we did, cruising to a 25-15 win. Set three, however is what makes my hair go gray. Once again, we spotted them 6 straight points before we scored.6!... in a 15 point game!!!! So a side out for us at 6-0 gave us a chance. Tayler-Linn went back and served an ace... then another, then a good play by us, followed by another ace. Blues called a time out to stop the bleeding, but that didn't phase us. Tayler served an amazing 10 in a row, 5 of them aces before they got a side out. So, now we're up 9-7. We pushed hard and was up 14-9 when we couldn't make a play. We shanked passes, hit in the net, free balled out... arrrgghhh! Finally, we had a scramble play were Tasha sent a tough free ball back to zone one that they couldn't return. We won 15-13, whew!!! There is a highlight here in that we served perfect, once again and won the game. So... no they don't get another dinner, but nice job anyway.

I held out Zoe (Sprain) and Emma (pulled muscle) of our very last match of the day because this match really doesn't do a whole lot as far as seeding goes. Between the players out and the mental exhaustion, we didn't play all that well and lost to OVA 25-16.

So for the day, I gave us a C+... the girls thought a B- was more appropriate, but I wouldn't budge. We are at the part of the season where we're trying to put it all together, both physically (skills, being tired) and mentally (remembering plays, working thru the exhaustion, frustrations with other players and ourselves). We'll get through it... this is an amazing group of young women that I wouldn't trade for anything, girls like these are why I keep coaching year after year.

Individual honors are too numerous to mention... but I'll give it a shot anyway! Our setters (Zoe, Alli and sometime Marin) once again did an outstanding job of hustling down errant passes and getting our hitters a chance to do their thing,.. which our hitters, Emma, Nikki, Tayler, Tasha and Holly took advantage of. We worked on "reaching high" when we were attacking and they all had their moments of glory. Ally G once again did a great job anchoring our back, passing nails over and over again. Our middles are really fantastic. They are in every play, moving this way and that, getting into position to make a kill. Alyssa is really good at hitting the deep corners while Emily is hitting harder and harder every tournament.

So, next up - The Salem Invitational. Sunday, March 18th.
Go Webfoot!!!!!