16 Gold AAU Nationals Write-up & Pics

AAU Nationals in Orlando, Florida was such an incredible experience for not only myself, but also my entire team as well. We were excited to play at every moment for all four days and the enthusiasm radiated throughout the convention center.

Personally, this was my first national championship so I was in awe of how enormous it was. There were approximately 170 courts and thousands of people filling the massive building. The atmosphere was incredible. The moment you walked through the door you were instantly in volleyball mode and felt ready to get on the court to start playing.

The best part about that tournament was that every team there was highly competitive. There were no easy sets during any of the four days. Each point was fought for and most importantly everyone wanted to win. Play was really at a whole new level. It was hard work, but it was probably the most enjoyable volleyball I've ever played. It pushed me to step up my game and really play all out. I remember saying on the final day of the tournament that I felt I had played the best of my entire volleyball career thus far, and I truly think that was because of the level of competition I needed to rise to. It pushed me to play better and I do not think I am the only one who felt that way.

OJVA 16 Gold was the only team from Oregon in the open division and I think that we represented well. We really gave it our all and even when we lost we still felt so proud of how hard we played. For example, we took a set from Mizuno Northern Lights who finished third in the tournament overall.

The last day was single elimination and unfortunately we lost our first game and realized the season had ended. The passion our team felt for the game and the love we felt towards each other was apparent from our reactions when we realized our time as a team was over. Many tears were shed and we all kept hugging each other wishing we could stay together. We grew so close over the eight months of practicing and playing as a team, and Nationals was a perfect close to an amazing season.

Hello everyone,

I have a lot of photos from Nationals but unfortunately my team photos didn't really turn out that well.  I attached a few.

In a couple of the group shots you can see that T.J. decided to jump into the pool with her clothes on to surprise the girls.  They were shocked as you can see.  Too much fun!    

Donna

Pictures of OJVA 16 Gold at MLK Tourney

Pictures provided by the Groark family.

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! "

2013 Junior National Championships

Oregon Juniors Volleyball Academy proves yet again that it is the most outstanding volleyball club in the Northwest.  OJVA qualified 3 teams for this years 2013 Girls Junior National Championships held in Dallas Texas, which is testament to their dedication and excellence in training.  18's Gold, 16's Gold and 14's Gold were among some of this countries best teams to compete in the 4 day long tournament.  Not only did our girls compete, they did extremely well with all of them finishing in the top half of the divisions.

OJVA 18 Gold

OJVA's 18 Gold finished 13th in National Division, Silver bracket.  

Top row: Coach Steve Suttich, Kendall Brock, Mikaela Raudsepp, Gabby Susee, Alexa Basauri. Bottom row: Nicole Rigoni, Jordan Deming, Shelby Vas Mat, Taylor Beckman, Bethany Kosmowski, Olnita Martini.

OJVA 16 Gold

OJVA's 16 Gold finished 17th in American Division, won Bronze bracket

Top row: Head Coach Terri Jo Schlatter, Asst. Coach Amanda Wade, Heather Pippus, Jasmine Gross, Ariana Wiltjer, Genna Florig, Team Rep Marty Mozzochi.  Bottom row: Ryen Maulsby, Symone Tran, Nikki Nelson, Amanda Ganete, Katarina Moffett, Grace McGee, Maria Sweitzer.

OJVA 14 Gold

OJVA 14 Gold finished 21st in American Division, won Flight 1

Top row: Eva Wilch, Emily DeMots, Kathryn Decker, Nate Sutton, Coach Marty Mozzochi. Bottom row: Rebecca Finn, Ashley Cox, Marissa Kolb, Abby Groh, Brooklyn Bevens, Jenny Marnin, Payton Wade.

TRAN & GANETE RECEIVE AWARD AT ECC

Symone Tran and Amanda Ganete of the OJVA 16's Gold Team. were honored with awards this year at 2013 Emerald City Classics held in Seattle.  Symone was named to the 16 Open All-Tournament Team and Amanda was the recipient of the special Candace Carter Award. 

Pictures of 16 Gold at PNQ

Pictures provided by Tanya Ky (Symone's Mom)

Pictures of 16 Blue at Presidents Day Tourney

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!