16 Gold February Power League Write-up

OJVA 16 Gold team played this weekend in Power League in the Platinum Division.  Like the 18’s Gold team,  playing against the top Oregon and Washington teams is exactly where we want to be.  We played a tough first match against Excell NW, the other Oregon team in our pool.  We came out strong in game one, winning 25-14, but then lost the next two sets 20-25, 12-15.   Excell ended up winning the tournament, and our match was very competitive, so that was very encouraging. 

Our second match was against Kent Jrs and was our best match of the day.  It was definitely a battle,  but the girls showed great heart in hanging on and finding a way to win the match with scores of 25-23 and 31-29!   Whew!   Those kinds of matches are awesome but emotionally draining, and that showed in our next match where we just didn't have quite enough left to get the win.  We lost to Capitol Ice in two very close sets, 23-25 and 24-26.   We ended up in a three way tie for second place  in the pool and had to play it off.  We played one game to 15 against Capital Ice and lost 12-15, so we ended up third out of our pool.   This made our cross-over match extremely critical.  A win would keep us in the Platinum Division,  but a loss would potentially see us moving down to Gold.   Our goal for the season has been to be in the Platinum Division all year to be able to play those top teams.  This was definitely threatened at this point, and the girls were feeling the pressure.   For the cross-over match we face Lake Tapps, another Washington team.  We came out strong and played two very solid sets, winning the match easily in two with scores of 25-20, 25-14.   With the win, we secured our place in the Platinum Division next month in Power League.  

Looking back on the day,  there was some frustration with our performance in a couple of matches that we didn't win, but overall we did what we set out to do, which was to play tough and stay in the Platinum Division.   And we did it short handed because of injuries, which showed a lot of heart.  Thanks again to Kathryn from the 14 Gold team for playing with us and filling a big hole,  even after being sick all week before the tournament!