DAY ONE - Pool Play (seeds  9, 12, 29, 32)

We started the day seeded 9th overall and were ranked number one in our pool.  Our first match was against the number 29th seed.  However, after watching Onipa'a 13's from Hawaii warm up I noticed that whoever seeds this tournament was way off with this team.    Their ball control, great setting and strong attack was too much for us as we lost to them 18-25, 14-25.   Not the way we wanted to start the tourney.    With the goal of being in the top 16 on day two we would need to win our next two matches.    This would be a challenge as we would have to beat the number 12th seed Santa Monica Volleyball Club 13's..   They also were a good team and we would have to put together a solid game to win.   Fortunately, our game was on and we defeated them 2-0.   Our last match of the day was against Kern River 13's.   They were the weakest team in our pool, but had a lot of fight in them.  They took us to three but we prevailed in the end winnning 15-11.   This victory guaranteed us the 2nd spot in our pool.  SMVBC was playing Onipa'a in the last round of pool play.  If SMVBC beats Onipa'a we would have a three way tie for first.   And that is exactly what happened.   SMVBC beat them in three winning the 3rd game 23-21.    The good news for us is that we were seeded number one in our pool and were awarded a bye while Onipa'a and SMVBC had to play each other again one game.   Onipa'a came out on top beating SMVBC in the one game playoff and again got by our team to place first in the pool.   This dropped us to the 12th seed.

Team serving - 91%

Top servers today were...
Kelsey 100%, Mariah 96%, Shelby 96%, Kiana 94%



DAY TWO - Bracket Play (seeds 1-16)

We played Saddleback Valley Volleyball Club 13's (5th seed)  to open up bracket play on day two.   This team looked pretty strong in warm ups and I knew we would have to put together a strong performance to win.   The first game we played ok but lost 25-16.  In game two we were with them all the way to the end and lost on a horrible call by the ref.   We were down 26-25 and they had six hits which the referee did not call.  They ended up winning the rally and I ended up blowing a gasket.   Not a fun way to lose a game. 
This dropped us to the loser's bracket and matched us with the 13th seed IMUA 13's.   IMUA was another team from Hawaii.  I asked their coach what IMUA stood for and he said that in Hawaiian it means "Go for it".  We played a solid game and took advantage of many "freeballs" from IMUA and won 25-14, 25-20.    This win gave us the opportunity to play the number 6 seed (Laguna Beach 13's) and move up into the top 8.  This team was beatable, but they made us work for every point and they made few errors. Unfortunately, we made more mistakes than theye did and we lost in 3.   The good news was that we remained 12th seed.   View Bracket

Team serving - 95%

Top servers today were...
Shelby 96%, Kiana 95%, Kasey 95%, Kelsey 95%, Hannah 94%, Claire 90%



DAY THREE (9th - 16th seeds)

Our first match of the day was against South Bay VBC 13's from Southern California.  They were the 14th seed and were very colorful.  We played very well and defeated them in two 25-11, 25-14.   With this win we could finish no lower than 11th.   If we win our next match we play for 9th.  We were matched up with Onipa'a again.  The same team that beat us twice on Monday fairly easily.   Our girls were confident and were up for the challenge.  We played our best match of the tourney and by far our best volleyball of the season and defeated them in three.  The  score was close most of the way in game one but we pulled away in the end and won 25-20.   In game two Onipa'a stopped hitting and starting tipping and we lost our momentum.   Actually it was worse than that and we lost 8-25.   I told the girls after  the loss that it was behind us and really didn't matter.  What mattered was who got the first point in game 3.  We not only got the first point, we got the first 3 points.  This immediately gave us back the momentum we had had in game one and gave us the confidence we needed to pull away in the end winning 15-7.   This gave us the opportunity to play for 9th place championship against Torrimar from Puerto Rico.   We came out a little flat and found ourselves down 18-10 in game one.  Hannah served 11 straight  and the team played amazing defense and ran the offense to perfection and we found ourselves up 21-18.   We had them 24-22 but could not close out the game and lost 26-24.  In game two we played them even up until 12 points but could not keep up with them and lost 25-16.  View Bracket

Team serving - 98% (135 out of 138)  This was out best serving performance of the season

Top servers today were...
Hannah 100%, Kelsey 100%, Mariah 100%, Shelby 100%, Kiana 97%, Kasey 95%


What a fun week.!  What a fun season!  While sitting on the bench watching you guys play against Puerto Rico I was just in awe of how far you have come this year and what you have accomplished.  It was so fun to watch it all come together this week.  I am very proud of all of you.  Thanks for being such a good "TEAM" and for being coachable and committed to reaching your personal goals and the goals of the team.  It was a blast for me and everyone who had the opportunity to watch you play.   Congrats 13's Gold.