12 White -Salem VBC Friendship Tourney at The Hoop

As one of the parents said…  "it was a tough day for the win column.”  I agree, but I am definitely not disappointed.  The girls started switching to positions in the front row and used a libero all day.  They didn’t complain about it and learned a lot!  Nina & Ally shared the duty of libero and both did well passing and being aggressive.  The team started off quiet and slow moving (I think that some of them were not awake)and throughout the day got louder and faster.  Our serving was definitely an improvement from last tournament.  We were getting more serves in and they were going deeper into the court. The best set of the day was the second set against Rebel VBC.  We lost 23-25, but the girl’s energy, intensity and communication were awesome!  We had some hard hits from Ally & Ella, which were a result of great passing and setting for those points. The girls even started coming to the middle after each point and cheering each other on (on the court and on the bench). I am definitely looking forward to power league when we are playing teams that are all at our level! We will really see what they can do.

-Coach Caryn

President's Day Tournament- Eugene

Well, I must say, I was pleased with our performance. The team played great and hustled all weekend with great overall effort. Their starting to buy into the mechanics, trusting themselves, their teammates and staying aggressive.! It was a TEAM effort, with all the ladies contributing and limiting their mistakes. Though we still had our fair share of miss 'cues' the team was aggressive and realize where/when to play it smart. 

We started out day One, 4th in our Pool and finished 2nd, behind North Clackamas, after losing to them in a close, well played match. Day Two, we started 4th in our Pool, finishing 3rd. We played Apollo and Roseburg tough, but two 4 point runs, did us in both matches. Day Three, we faced North Clackamas, beating them 25-17, but falling short the next two, 23-25 & 13-15. Then we faced Mt Hood- Black, losing in 2. I think the close match with NCVB, did us in mentally, but we still played tough.

Again, overall we played great and having seen the faster pace of better teams, we know to keep working on the process and getting better. Keep it up OJVA RED!

   

16 Gold Power League Qualifier

The 16 Gold team fell one match shy of its goal, the Platinum Division, at the PL Qualifier. The very first set of the day started off a little rough, and we found ourselves losing to NW Jrs 21-25. But we regrouped and came out strong to finish off the match 25-14, 15-7. We learned that we have to not only be physically ready to play in the morning, but mentally ready as well. We won the next two matches of pool play easily, beating Wave 16-1 25-4, 25-22 and Cowlitz 16-1 25-9, 25-8. We also won our first crossover match against NPJ easily with scores of 25-14, 25-9. Once again our serving was a great weapon. We had 23 aces in the four matches! We also had a big size advantage in the middle and were able to handle the ball well enough to utilize the middle effectively. Genna, Kathryn and Jade all three had some dominating moments in the middle, where they just couldnt be stopped. In the second crossover match, we were playing to get into the Platinum Division. We played a very tough Boss team. They were the biggest, and deepest team we had seen all day. The team fought hard, but unfortunately, we lost the ball handling battle with them, which meant we couldn't utilize our middles as well and ended up losing 25-27, 25-23, 7-15. Our serving got tentative as well, so we learned that we have to be able to continue to serve tough in tight situations if we want to beat a good team. So for now, we are in the Gold Division and are back in the gym working hard to get better, with the goal of winning the Gold Division and moving up to Platinum. But we first have to "DO WORK! "

16 Gold MLK tournament

16 Gold Finishes 3rd at MLK Tournament

The MLK tournament in Eugene was our first tournament of the year.  We did not really feel like a "team" yet going into the tournament, due to the nature of our pod training and working on fundamentals at the beginning of the first training cycle.  So everyone was excited to finally get to play together and see what this team is all about.  We won all three pool play matches on the first day, beating CCJV and 253 Elite (WA) easily in  two, and then Seattle Jrs. in a close three set match.  We saw right away that our team has a good blend of talent and competitiveness, as we fought hard in our first real test in the win against Seattle Jrs.  Day two also saw us win our pool, winning our matches against Webfoot 15's, All Out, and NPJ all in two sets.  Serving was a huge strength, as the girls showed they were capable of consistently serving tough, hitting areas, and confidently mixing up their serves.  Along with the 16 aces we had on the day, we had only 6 errors and caused a lot of disruption in the other teams' offense.  Our first match in bracket play on Monday was against a very strong Athena team.  We managed to scrape by with a win, but it wasnt pretty, winning 25-21, 8-25, 16-14.  And yes, you read that right,  8-25 in the second set.  Everything that could go wrong did!  But the girls were able to let it go and regroup for the third set.  They showed a lot of character as a team to come back from that second set and compete hard, ultimately winning the match.  By far the best moment in the tournament for our team! Unfortunately, we lost in the semi-final  match to a tough Lake Tapps (WA) team 22-25, 25-18, 9-15. This put us finishing in a tie for third place in the tournament.   But we came away from the tournament with a better sense of self, and a lot of things to work on both individually as a team.  We found that along with the talent that we knew we had, we also possess a depth of character that was exciting to discover, and great chemistry that will help us through the ups and downs of the year.  

14 Gold - Power League #1

This past weekend showed us two sides of our team. As coaches we would like to see one side a lot more than the other!  We started off in pool play against PVC and although the score did not necessarily show it, we did a lot of good things at times. We are still struggling with maintaining a higher level of play. Next we had Athena, and again, we played them much tougher than at the Qualifier, but we still lost in 2 sets. Our poorest showing of the day was against Trails End for the last pool play match. Unfortunately, we didn't compete in any aspect of the game, and lost in 2 again. That put us 4th in pool play. 

Our cross over was against Rose City Black and we managed to rally and play much better, winning the match in 2 sets. We served very well and played more heads up volleyball. That guaranteed our spot to stay in the Gold Division. Our last set was against Trails End again, for seeding, and we focused and beat them handily to help ease the pain of the earlier loss.

We are getting more consistent setting from Cara and Taylor and that is helping our hitters out more.  The best part is that every time we step on the court we get an opportunity to improve our overall game and react quicker to certain situations. We will continue to move forward as a team!

 

OJVA 18's Blog

It is always great to play against the best in your area!!!!!  The 18's played very well against the best and finished 3-2 at the Platnium League which is the best 4 teams in Washington and the 4 best in Oregon.   We started off with a close match against NW Juniors losing 25-23 and 25-22. Then we played KJ 18's who won the MLK tourney and did not lose a set at that tourney. We played very well and won the first set 25-22, Then struggled in the second and lost 20-25.... The third set was close at the switch as we led 8-7 but could not hold the lead and lost 10-15. KJ ended up winning the tourney!!!!  IN our 3rd match we played Wahine 18's from Seattle and won in 2 25-19 and 25-18.    In the cross over we played KJ 17-1 and won in 2 in a good match that we played with a new lineup and some confusion. IN the Finals of the Lower bracket we beat Seattle Juniors ini a Rock Paper scissors match as the tourney was late and the regional finish for both would not change.   SO even tho we ended up 3-2 for the day we will drop out of the Platnium division as we finished 4th out of the Oregon Teams.  Our Pool ended up finishing with 1st, 2nd and 5th place as the Pool was clearly tougher than the other. Play in Gold in Feb and hope to get back to the Platnium in March!!!!

Now it is prepare for Vegas where we will see nothing but good teams again!!!!

Steve Suttich

The Courts in Beaverton

The Eastmoreland Courts

www.TheCourtsinBeaverton.com

OJVA

https://www.facebook.com/EastmorelandCourts

14 Red PL#1

WHAT AN AWESOME TOURNAMENT!!!! We weren't sure what to expect from the other teams, expecially seeing how seeding really is no indication of how good a team is sometimes.  In pool play we met, who is turning out to be our friendly rival, a great DSK team.  We played them tough but lost a close 3 set match to finish 2nd in our pool.  On the crossover the girls played aggressive and rolled the competition to secure one of 2 spots moving up a division.  Although the girls' rapidly improving skills are probably the most evident, we were most impressed by how they hung in on tight games, and played up even when the competition didn't push them.  We met DSK again(the 3rd time this season) in the PL division final and ran out of gas.  Overall, the day was a HUGE success and both coaches could not be more proud of the girls and how far they have come!

 

GO RED!!

 

Coach Kev and Coach Mattea

14 Purple CEVA PL #1

Challenging morning for Purple, pool play for us was rough! It’s safe to say everyone now understands how important it is to be able to finish a 3^rd set. We took ALL 3 matches to 3 sets, losing each of those 3^rd sets by 2 points.  But instead of coming out of pool play discouraged, the girls came out refreshed and won their two matches that afternoon.  It definitely was a change in competition from the second day of our PL qualifier, but beating those teams are definitely within reach for these girls! I’m excited to see what they can do our next Power League Tournament!

 

 

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CEVA Power League 14 White!

The day started out great, as it had in past tournaments, we knocked off the #1 seed in our pool MAC 13’s. From there we struggled a bit, losing to OJVA 14 blue and MHAC who came out strong to win the pool. Losing was probably the best thing that could have happened to our team, it forced the girls to recognize the competition and learn to rise to the challenge of better teams. We are still working on our communication and striving to be loud on the court. This was the first tournament we had all 11 girls and everyone really showed up to play. Our middles are getting some blocks in which is very fun to see. By the end of the day our record was 3-2, we stayed in bronze, which is the right spot for us at this point. For the next power league we are ready to rise to the challenge and are looking to move up to silver. It is amazing to see the girls really working as a team and making huge improvements. GO WHITE!!!

 

CEVA power league #1 OJVA yellow

What a great tournament for team yellow!  We were paired up really well with our pool so the games were full of great rallys and just plain good volleyball for the most part! We took first in our pool and moved on to beat webfoot and on to the championship round vs VB west! We won in two set where we had over a 10 point deficit and in both sets was able to come back and win!! All with one of our setters home with the flu!  Moriah stepped up and took on the role of setter opposite Hazuki (and did it so well, I think I'll be using her as setter again). And Kelcie and Tia came in and played like leaders! Jasmine and was hitting and blocking so well! And Alyssa was a top server! Ally was all over the court covering everywhere and was a go to hitter when we needed a kill. Lexi was rock solid and worked so hard all day to improve her game even more! Absolutely everyone took a part in this win.