Yakima was a good tournament for us. We headed over to Yakima with 9 players on Saturday and only 8 on Sunday. We started strong in pool play finishing 1st in the morning wave. We were not playing great volleyball, but it was solid enough and our confidence was growing. We started strong against a scrappy Wildcats team, we struggled a little with getting caught in transition due to the ball coming back over so quickly, but we pulled it out. Then played PACV and did some good things Sarah and Renee connected with a couple nice slides and started to get into a rhythm which was nice to see. Kallie had some nice kills in this match made possible by a strong defense, anchored by Julia and her "special" shirt. Our big match for 1st and 2nd in the pool was against, "THE HOUNDS", and man they had some loud fans, not always positive either. Jamilee stepped up with some nice line shots, Miranda was a strong back row presence passing better with each game. Nicole was solid on the right side picking up a couple touches while blocking and her setting improved throughout the match. Ryleigh put together a few nice service runs and we pulled away with the win in 2.
We started wave 2 against Cowlitz Red and it was a fun match for the kids, and the coaches. I enjoyed seeing some players I miss from last yr and our girls had fun playing against their buddies. We ended day one undefeated and really starting to move better on defense.
Our evening of secret sister stuff was short lived, we had players ill and tired so we all were in for the night at 10:00.
Sunday slotted us against a solid team form up north, we went 3 but played well and pulled out the win. Our net play was great and setters were working hard on getting the ball to the net and thinking more. Several of our girls were sick and struggling to breathe, no complaints while they played very hard though. We faced "The Hounds" again, this time we lost a little focus and ended up falling to them in 3 very close games. They are a team that just never gives up, they are scrappy and it was good a long battle, we learned to cover better in this game. Miranda and Meredith both improved with every match, feeling more confident in coverage and base defense.
Bracket play started with us reffing 2 very talented volleyball teams (I thought we might be in a little trouble if we moved on to face the winner) We stepped out on the court against Desert Shock and played some very good volleyball, Sarah was a huge presence at the net over the weekend, she really played well and anchored our front line. Meredith stepped into the OH position and had key kills in this match. Julia covered the back row with a lot of composure and leadership. Nicole and Renee really started to control the tempo more moving the ball around to our hot hitters. Ryleigh had beautiful passing that helped our offense get started right off the bat. Desert Shock didn't know what hit them! We moved on in the bracket to face Strike Force, a very good team full of talented 8th graders with a lot of front row power and great defense. We stepped up to the challenge and took them to 3 games, eventually falling 13-15. Jamilee was a huge front row presence in this game racking up critical kills and good block timing on their big hitter. It was a great volleyball match with long rallies and solid play by everyone! Strike Force went on to win the Power Division with us being very happy with our 3rd place (tie) finish in Power Division I. Kellie and I were so proud of the way the girls played all weekend!!!! Looking forward to many more great tournaments and fun volleyball.
*We finished our Power League Qualifier in Silver division and are shooting for Gold on Feb 21st.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
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