Fwd: OJVA 12 Gold -- wins April GOLD Division power league upsetting #1 Rose City

OJVA 12 Gold -- wins April GOLD Division power league upsetting #1 Rose City

The girls played awesome all day and did not lose a set in the morning pool play.

They Beat #4 Athena in first crossover, beat PVC Pink (#2) in two sets in Semifinal and then went on the beat #1 Rose City in 2 straight sets:  25-18, 25-21

Melissa Penn

Picture of 14 Gold at PNQ

14 Gold at Pacific Northwest Qualifier in Spokane

2014 18U Far Western Volleyball Videos

Hello all,
In case anyone is interested, here are the recordings of all the games OJVA 18-1 played at the 2014 Far Western tournie in Reno.  By far, their best day was Saturday.  They entered the tournament ranked 17th and finished 15th.

Friday:

vs Sports Shack

  set1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc_LNS3hsvw

  set2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtpUpHu-fL4

vs Delta Valley

  set1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq1dMoqs-DU

  set2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhT4iILhJ28

  set3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2St7PHatvp4

vs Rage Garren

  set1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJXj8ALlYDk

  set2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfYr2JU0yTk

Saturday:
vs Lake VBC:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvD_6t5T7eE

vs Club Idaho

  set1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzbI9LmyxcI

  set2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qXufJRu0cc

vs Vegas Encore:

  set1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PafZITLX1K4

  set2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihwlw_X8qxA

  set3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tggsWiYMg-Q

Sunday:

vs Boise

  set1:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryaDpOD-77c

  set2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf3CIfGHyCM

Symone Tran 18U All Tournament Award

Symone Tran from OJVA 18-1's team selected to the 18U Open All-Tournament team at the 2014 Emerald City Classics Invitational in Seattle, WA.

USA High Performance Camp by Sophie Griese

I had the opportunity to go play for the USA Volleyball High Performance Girls' Youth/Junior A2 Invitational Team Program this summer in Colorado Springs. It was a surreal experience, everything I could have imagined, from the intensity on the court to the lifelong friendships made off the court. My favorite part about this program was how the coaches stressed that we weren't at any summer camp, we were at a USA volleyball training program, there to represent our country. I also enjoyed how every girl in the gym was not just there to promote themselves, we were all there to help/push each other to new levels of play. As the week went on, we continued to get more and more in depth in our training and the concepts of USA play. Most of which were quite familiar to me, I soon came to the realization that many of the concepts USA Volleyball has were the same, or similar to those of Oregon Juniors Volleyball Academy. I have benefited very much from the Program and have a better grasp of the game, I am so thankful for all of my coaches at OJVA and their support in this experience.

-Sophie Griese

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

USA High Performance Camp by Taylor Toms-Overn

This summer, I was invited to participate in the High Performance A2 Training and Invitational Team. This was my first year and I didn't know what to expect, but it was so amazing! (It was totally and completely exhausting, but still so amazing!!)  It was so cool to be able to play at that level with girls who eat, sleep and breathe volleyball, like me!

We had three practice sessions every day and one classroom session. I learned so much that I thought my brain was going to explode!  The coaches were all really awesome - some of them were really intense! 

In the A2 Program, we practiced for 5 days and then had a 2-day invitational tournament.  We lived on the college campus for the week and got to stay in dorms.  This was really fun, but also hard to be away from my family.  We were up by 6:30 almost every day to eat and go to our first practice at 8:00, and then we weren't finish with our last practice until about 10:00pm!  The beds weren't very comfortable, but I was so tired by the end of the day that I barely noticed!

Camp was a little intimidating at first.  All of the girls were so good!  I tried not to let it get to me, because I knew I have had some of the best coaching ever from my OJVA coaches and that they had prepared me to be able to keep up with any of them!  I started in the bottom group and by the end of the week I had earned a spot in the top group!  When they first announced the teams, my coach said I was going to be the backup setter because the other setter had a lot more experience.  I was really bummed and decided to work extra hard to show her I deserved more playing time.  During most of the tournament, she made me the primary 6-2 setter/hitter and made me floor captain because she said I was really positive, a hard worker and a good leader.

I'm really grateful to my OJVA coaches.  Without them, I never would have made it to the High Performance Program.  If I were to give advice to other girls who want to make volleyball their life, I would tell them to work hard, don't get lazy, and to use their mistakes as learning opportunities - don't dwell on them. They can negatively impact your confidence, your performance, and your whole team. Most importantly, don't be afraid to dream big!!

Signed,

Taylor Toms-Overn, 14 Gold

16 Red Regionals

Though we started slow on day one, we still played hard and battled. We had the lead in all the sets for the two matches we played 3 games, we just couldn't put it together and finish. We lost all three matches, but stayed positive and ready to work.

Sunday, was a much different story. We put it ALL together and started steam rolling teams. Digging their hits, serve receiving, moving sets and hitters around, keeping the teams on moving, forcing them to put free balls back over the net or a less aggressive hit. Are attitudes and energy was GREAT all day Sunday and I hope we realize this game can be easier and more fun, if we play our game and not worry about the opponent or score than it.!

Awesome job ladies, way to finish and stick together as a team! Thanks for the support parents.! 

All in all Regional's was a fun event and great experience for us and the city of Portland. 

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 Blue Power League April 13, 2014

Our 12 Blue team started off the day upsetting the number one seed in our pool in a three set match.  In the two sets they won they came from behind both times and finished strong.  We then lost to a consistent serving team and finished out pool play losing a three set match.  At the end of pool play we found ourselves in a three way tie for second, but got the fourth finish because of points.  We couldn't find our rhythm in our first bracket match and lost it in two sets.  We finished strong for the day winning our last match.