Day One

We started the day seeded 14th and seeded number 1 in our pool.   To make it into the top bracket we would need to win our pool.  We started the tourney playing Puget Sound VBC 13's Gold.  The girls played well and were in control from start to finish winning 2-0.  Our next two matches were against teams we had already defeated two weeks earlier at the Willamette Volleyball Classic.   Both teams gave us a good match the first time we played them.  We played Power Surge 14's Black next.   The game was close, but did not end well as we lost 22-25.    This apparently did not sit well with Kiana because in game two she ran 18 serves in a row to put us up 19-1.  It was absolutely amazing.  Talk about taking the wind out of your sails.  Power Surge looked a little bit bummed after game two.   We took a 10-4 lead in game 3 when Power Surge made a bit of a surge.  Thankfully, the girls did what they needed to do to pull out the win in game 3 15-11.  What a roller coaster.  Our last round of pool play was against OVA.     We had beaten them in Power League once and again at WVC.   You could tell they were fired up for us.  They looked pretty impressive in their first two matches as they had already beaten Puget Sound and Power Surge.   The winner moves up and the loser moves down.   Our girls were up for the battle and  won the match in two straight games just like before placing us first in our pool with a 3-0 match record.

Day Two

Moving up is great, but the competition is also stronger.   Our first match was agaisnt #2 ranked KJVBC 14's.  They had two hitters that could really put the ball away.   For some reason that I really can't explain, we were off our game and quickly were down 11-3.   Even though we lost game 1, after being down early we outscored them 16-14 and realized that we could play with them.  Game two started off much better and we were close most of the way but in the end our serve receive broke down and we lost 20-25.  Our next match was against seed #4 Cascade Blue 14.   They looked pretty strong but we built a big lead at 17-12 only to see it disappear in a flash.   We lost 23-25.   That was a tough loss especially considering game point went over the top of the antenna and they called us for a touch on a ball that flew about 10 feet out of bounds that wasn't even close.  We should have won 25-23.   At this point we are 0-3 in games and the girls were a little down.  However, they weren't ready to quit.  They came back strong in game two winning 25-14 forcing game 3 which they also held onto winning 15-12.    We won our last match of pool play easily 25-18, 25-10.   With this win we finished tied for first in our pool.  Unfortuantely, the tie breaking criteria they had dropped us to the third seed based on winning percentage of games played against all teams in pool.   Fortutnately, we moved up to the #7 seed in the open division which is pretty impressive. 

Day Three

Our first match of the day was against the pre-tourney #1 seed Washington Volleyball Academy's 14s team.    Quite an impressive team, but we were ready for the challenge.  The first game didn't start like I had hoped.   Quickly we were down 6-0.  We could not pass a serve anywhere near the target.  Finally we did and we earned our first point.  From that point on we played them point for point, but lost 20-25.  The second game we did the same.  We were even with them the entire game.  We were up 19-17 at one point but made some crucial mistakes at the end and lost 21-25.   This loss put us into the Silver bracket against a familiar CEVA team - NW Juniors Air Elite.   We had played them 2 times this season and beat them each time.    I could tell by the look on our girls faces, that they did not want to lose this time either.   The first game we pulled ahead early and won 25-20.  The second game was not as easy.  We were down 13-16 at one point and 20-23.   Then Kiana went back to serve, and I knew we still had a chance.  We ended up scoring the final 5 points to seal the deal. It was awesome.  This win put us into the championship against Capital Ice from Seattle.  The girls fought hard but could not finish game 1 or 2.  We lost 19-25, 20-25.  

You should be very proud of your season and all that you have accomplished.  I know I am, and so are your families.   Thank you for being so coachable and for your commitment to excellence.   You truly are winners in every sense of the word.  

Congratulations!!

Coach