12 -White Friendship Tourney at the Courts

We continued to change up the rotation all throughout pool play.  It was a little rough with high ranked power league teams in our pool. We did end up giving them a run for their money.  We challenged each team in a set (18-25 v. Team Hiki No 12.1 & 19-25 v. NCVBC 12-Black).  We then played OJVA 12-Red and didn't have the intensity or energy that we had in the previous challenging sets. Fun fact: We only had 1 service error v. NCVBC-Black.  Not so fun fact: Every serve was an error v. OJVA-Red. Once we had the full team, I found a rotation that was working!  We worked hard and everyone got to play.  The match was against a team that was at our level.  The girls went 3 v. Team Hiki No 12.2 with scores of 17-25, 25-22 & 15-7.  Although we didn't end the day with a win (we lost to Team Hiki No 12.1), we had a rotation that clicked for everyone.  Thanks Racquel for keeping us in serving order all day…it gets confusing when I change the lineup around!

-Coach Caryn

12 White PL#2 @ Willamette University

We were short of our full roster at power league.  This was a blessing in disguise because I was able to keep the rotation pretty consistent.  I think this helped the girls to really know where they were on the court (i.e. serving order & switching).  Warming up with regular volleyballs (the heavier ones as the girls put it) made it easier in the match to get our serves over and in!  We served more consistently and were pumped up and energetic most of the day.

As for our record, we won a match in pool play vs. SVC Red (25-21, 25-18 & 25-21).  We ended up coming in 2^nd.  We also won a match in crossover vs. NCVBC Blue (25-16, 17-25 & 15-11).  We ended up playing OJVA 12-Black at the end of the day (they were ready, but we were not)!   We lost and I think we all learned a valuable lesson about teamwork and energy.  Coming together in the middle and encouraging each other is very important, especially at the end of the day.    

-Coach Caryn

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

12 White PL Qualifier Highlight

Well, 12 White did AWESOME!  We placed 3rd in our pool.  Lost to MAC White 23-25 & 14-25, won v. NCVBC Purple 25-16 & 25-12, and then made an amazing comeback v. NCVBC Grey (who was undefeated at the time) to win 16-25, 25-19 & 15-??.  It was so intense that I forgot to write down the score!!!!  For the 2nd set, it was 4th graders all the way!  Only one of the 6th graders was on the court.  The team had 4 pass/set/hits in the match...this was the most they had in a match all day. In the other matches they only had 1 in each (this was my goal for the day- at least 1 pass/set/hit per match).  In the last set I got everyone on the court.  They all contributed to a great WIN.  The games were all about serving.  We had a lot of aces throughout the day.  We then had a bye and had to wait for our crossover match.  It was rough.  Mt. Hood had some really tough servers and we didn't see anything like it all day, so the team had a hard time passing.  

We have some true leaders starting to emerge...those who were talking on the court (all day), going after every ball and directing others to their positions. I can't wait to see what they do in the next month!

-Coach Caryn 

12 White Club Tourney #1 Highlight

12 -White

Attitudes were A+++!!!! None of them complained about ANYTHING all day -- even when I told them I was going try something new -- I showed them OJ's base defense for front row and back row and they did a great job learning their defensive base position and transitioning off the net.

They LOVED it and got it and were helping each other out there (Nina was pulling jerseys by end of day to get people up at the net when we were serving, etc.) It was great to see! A few parents even commented on how great it was to see them improve on just moving to the ball and on and off the net! :)

They had GREAT attitudes about doing the score keeping (Kailey, Elli and Allison all worked together and learned from each other and did a great job), everyone else took turns doing the lines and scoreboard and down refs were Vanessa and Nicole. Great attitudes all around.

We won a set against WVVC in pool play and lost second set 26-24!!!

-Summary from Coach Melissa Penn

Thanks for taking care of the team!  I am looking forward to this Saturday to see what the girls can do!!!

-Coach Caryn