16's MLK Tournament Write Up
Oregon MLK Tournament January 19-21st
OJVA’s 16 Gold team tied for 5th place at the Oregon MLK tournament this weekend at the University of Oregon. It was a three day tournament with 72 teams. Day one, we played at the Matthew Knight Arena. There were only two courts set up there, so it didnt have that big tournament feel. We finished seconded in pool on the first day. We beat both Washington Volleyball Academy and Boss (the only team from our region in our pool) playing very well against both teams. The last team we played in our pool was Puget Sound. They were the best team we have played against this year. The girls played with a lot of emotion and intensity, but were very tight. This really showed itself in our ball handling and communication, in particular in our serve receive. We ended up losing in two sets, 17-25 and 19-25. Everyone was disappointed, but we had to regroup to come back for day two.
We were seeded second in our pool on Sunday, and played two very solid matches against Rimrock and DSK. I was proud of how the girls rebounded from the loss the day before to come out strong in the first two matches. The last match of the day was against a very talented Kent Jrs. team. This was our best, and most exciting match of the tournament. We lost a very tight first set 23-25. Then we got down right away in set two 2-10. After a time out where we talked about staying relaxed and disciplined and how we needed each other, we made a great run to come back and win the set in an exciting 28-26 score! Our serving was tough and took Kent Jrs completely out of their game. The third game saw us coming out strong and confident and dominating the game, winning 15-5! So much fun, and it showed such great character and teamwork. I was super proud of the mental switch the girls made after falling so far behind in game two. They could have let it just continue and fall completely apart, but instead they battled back together. Good job girls!
Winning the pool put us in the Gold Bracket for bracket play on Monday. We played Excell NW 16-1. We lost the match 18-25, 18-25, and just never got out rhythm. The effort was definitely there as the girls played hard, but the teamwork and trust and discipline started breaking down. I think day three was a good learning lesson for us. The third day of a tournament is hard, and discipline and technique start to break down as you get tired. It’s a mental challenge to fight through this in a positive way and to stay together as a team when things are not going well, either for yourself or your team.
Overall, the good moments outweighed the bad, it was just hard ending on a loss where we didn’t feel like we competed well. But we did some really good things over the weekend and showed improvement both individually and as a team. Hopefully its motivation to work more mindfully when we get back into the gym, as we will be seeing many of these teams at the next Power League in the Platinum Division.
