We took 1st place this weekend!!
This tournament was so rewarding for us for many reasons, but most important was that we became a true team! We had many things finally fall into place and the girls were able to see their hard work pay off. Ashlynn Leach stepped in and played solid in middle front and Raelyn Curry was consistent and aggressive at the net. We became comfortable with a new defense and practiced serving aggressive and hitting weak areas with our serves. Shelby Risner played a solid 5-1 the entire day and Shelly Pitts was amazing as our libero. Savannah Wallace became an aggressive server, Evy Elting continued to put up a strong block and run a slide hit that was tough to defend. Avery Dyer was an animal at the net with her hitting and attacks anything that comes her way. Emma Booth was rock solid in the back row and made some outstanding defensive plays. Britzy Hockett was awesome on serve receive and served some tough to handle serves as well. It was an outstanding team performance!
We started the day playing South End Juniors and with the strong serving of Shelly Pitts and great passing in the front row by Evy Elting we won the first game. The next game Britzy Hockett provided strong densive play and Shelby Risner's serving and setting were excellent. We finished our first match with scores of 25-15 & 25-14.
We faced Jammin next and handled them quickly with some amazing serves. Averi Dyer was unstoppable in both games and Shelly Pitts was quick and accurate as our libero. Emma Booth had solid passing and Ashlynn Leach began to gain confidence at the net as well. We won this match with scores of 25-10 & 25-7.
Our aggressive serving continued in our next match against UPVBC. Evy Elting and Ashlynn Leach were great at the net and Savannah Wallace led us with her serving. We won both games with scores of 25-10 & 25-1.
Kylie Smith returned to our line-up going into bracket play. We were ranked first and faced Olympia in our semifinal match. We did not go out and serve aggressively and let some free balls drop on our side. In addition, we didn't communicate as well as we had earlier in the day. We struggled the first game but pulled through with the win. In the next game, Averi Dyer's serving and passing and Evy Elting's aggressive net play led the way to a strong finish. We won our match with scores of 25-22 & 25-12.
We were excited to play in the championship game and came out fired up and ready to work together. We did what we had done all day and served aggressively. With our aggressive serves, we were able to get lots of freeballs back which enabled us to run our offense off some strong passes and outstanding sets. Raelyn Curry had some amazing hits and was very aggressive at the net. Kylie worked hard on defense and had some important plays for us.
This group of girls is truly amazing to work with! They communicate and work together and have a “team first” attitude. They work hard at practice and are growing each and every time they step on the court.
We miss Brielle who is out with mono and can’t wait for her to get better and return to our team!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Power League Qualifier-January 23, 2010
Wow, what a long day for 10, 11, & 12 year olds! After an early morning officiating assignment, we started with our first opponent, Mt. Hood. We came out very sluggish, had some early service errors, and let some balls hit our floor. After a quick timeout to refocus we seemed to wake up! Shelby and Brielle served great, Kylie, Emma and Britzy played well defensively and Evy had some awesome kills once we got going. We won 25-19 & 25-16.
Our next opponent was Clark County Juniors Black. Again, we came out sluggish and couldn’t really find our rhythm. Clark County likes to send the ball over on the first contact, which we knew going into the match, but couldn’t seem to transition quick enough. When we finally did make a pass, we couldn’t place our sets to run the offense and when the pass and set were there the hitters couldn’t find the court. We began making quicker transitions and finally were able to run the offense with the help of Shelly, Evy, Averi and Savannah’s passing. Raelyn and Ashlynn did a nice job at the net and Kylie had some fantastic hits. Shelly served aggressively but overall service errors and poor passing were the general story for us in this match! We lost in three with scores of 26-24, 23-25, and 5-15. We were very disappointed knowing that this should not have been a team to beat us.
After our disappointing loss, we then came back fired up and ready to face the number one team, Rose City Black. Rose City is an incredibly talented group of girls and we were excited to play them. We were able to do some great things and Evy had a couple amazing blocks against their hitters. Shelly played great defensively, Shelby and Britzy set very well, and Averi took advantage of the setting with some tough hits. Kylie was determined to not let anything hit our floor and made many key saves. She was everywhere!! We saw the true potential of our team and it was so much fun! We can’t wait to face them again.
Going into our crossover games we played Asics Athena Beta first and handled them quickly with some very aggressive serving by Britzy, Kylie and Shelly. Brielle played outstanding defense for us.
We waited for what seemed like days to play our final opponent and once again seemed to come out very sluggish! We went into the second game with a bit more fire and had some great rallies. Shelly was amazing as our libero making some key passes and helping us to be in a position to run our offense. This win forced a third game which we seemed to be in control of from the start. Again, with the aggressive serves of Shelly and Brielle and strong defensive play of Kylie, Britzy, and Shelly we were able to allow Shelby to run the offense and finish our day with positive match. Long day but what fun!!
I can’t say enough about these girls. They are true team players. They cheer each other on, encourage each other when someone is struggling, and have more dedication and commitment than you can imagine. They work hard in practice and are willing to try new things and trust that we are teaching them solid fundamentals!
Finally, I must also compliment our parents on their leadership of these girls. I asked them in the beginning to be positive, supportive, and please let us coach and this is exactly what they have done. They cheer for all the girls not just their own, and they support the decisions that we are making as coaches. They are true examples for what youth sports are all about! I have no doubt that we have a great season ahead!
Wow, what a long day for 10, 11, & 12 year olds! After an early morning officiating assignment, we started with our first opponent, Mt. Hood. We came out very sluggish, had some early service errors, and let some balls hit our floor. After a quick timeout to refocus we seemed to wake up! Shelby and Brielle served great, Kylie, Emma and Britzy played well defensively and Evy had some awesome kills once we got going. We won 25-19 & 25-16.
Our next opponent was Clark County Juniors Black. Again, we came out sluggish and couldn’t really find our rhythm. Clark County likes to send the ball over on the first contact, which we knew going into the match, but couldn’t seem to transition quick enough. When we finally did make a pass, we couldn’t place our sets to run the offense and when the pass and set were there the hitters couldn’t find the court. We began making quicker transitions and finally were able to run the offense with the help of Shelly, Evy, Averi and Savannah’s passing. Raelyn and Ashlynn did a nice job at the net and Kylie had some fantastic hits. Shelly served aggressively but overall service errors and poor passing were the general story for us in this match! We lost in three with scores of 26-24, 23-25, and 5-15. We were very disappointed knowing that this should not have been a team to beat us.
After our disappointing loss, we then came back fired up and ready to face the number one team, Rose City Black. Rose City is an incredibly talented group of girls and we were excited to play them. We were able to do some great things and Evy had a couple amazing blocks against their hitters. Shelly played great defensively, Shelby and Britzy set very well, and Averi took advantage of the setting with some tough hits. Kylie was determined to not let anything hit our floor and made many key saves. She was everywhere!! We saw the true potential of our team and it was so much fun! We can’t wait to face them again.
Going into our crossover games we played Asics Athena Beta first and handled them quickly with some very aggressive serving by Britzy, Kylie and Shelly. Brielle played outstanding defense for us.
We waited for what seemed like days to play our final opponent and once again seemed to come out very sluggish! We went into the second game with a bit more fire and had some great rallies. Shelly was amazing as our libero making some key passes and helping us to be in a position to run our offense. This win forced a third game which we seemed to be in control of from the start. Again, with the aggressive serves of Shelly and Brielle and strong defensive play of Kylie, Britzy, and Shelly we were able to allow Shelby to run the offense and finish our day with positive match. Long day but what fun!!
I can’t say enough about these girls. They are true team players. They cheer each other on, encourage each other when someone is struggling, and have more dedication and commitment than you can imagine. They work hard in practice and are willing to try new things and trust that we are teaching them solid fundamentals!
Finally, I must also compliment our parents on their leadership of these girls. I asked them in the beginning to be positive, supportive, and please let us coach and this is exactly what they have done. They cheer for all the girls not just their own, and they support the decisions that we are making as coaches. They are true examples for what youth sports are all about! I have no doubt that we have a great season ahead!
Friday, January 1, 2010
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