THE COURTS - BEAVERTON  Saturday was another strong performance for NCVBC's 12's Black team as we went 3-2 and held on to our Gold Division ranking at #5. 

Our first match in the morning was against #8 OJVA.  It took us a little while to get going in the first game as we fell behind 14-4.  However, eleven straight serves by Jaime (the first seven were aces) and six serves by Anna got us going.  We took the first game 25-19.  The second game was close throughout and was tied at 21 before we pulled out a 25-22 victory.  Our second match in the morning was against #5 NW Excel. This is a team that ranked as high as #2 this season.  We always play them tough, but we can't seem to pull out a victory.  In both games we fell behind early (8-3 and 8-2) and could not completely recover.  We had the score tied in the first game at 17, but ending up losing 25-21.  We couldn't get things going in the second game after trailing 13-2 and lost 25-11.  Our final match in pool play was against #1 PVC. The first game was close throughout.  Sonja, Rachel, and Allison each had good service runs and Rachel had three hits, but PVC had a little run at the end to win the first game 25-21.  Again, the second game was really close. Bailee rattled off seven big serves, but we ended up losing 25-19.  We ended pool play as the #3 seed with a 1-2 win-loss record.  

We heated up in the afternoon with everyone really picking up their play.  We played with confidence and a sense that we knew we were going to win. Our serving was really strong, our hitters connected with power, and our back row really controlled serve receive.  Our first crossover match was against #7 NW Juniors.  We built a good lead in the first game and were up 18-9.  Rachel was on fire with her serving (28 of 30 for the day) and hitting all afternoon. We won the first game 26-24.  We really controlled the second game as we built a 19-9 lead. In addition to Rachel, Bailee, Anna, and Emma had service runs.  With this win, we were guaranteed of staying in the gold division.  We moved on to play #6 Athena for the 5/6 spot in a single game to 25. Emiko, Rachel, Jaime, and Anjola each had at least two hits during the match.  Anjola had her best service run of the season which helped us build a 20-15 lead. We went on to win 25-19.  

Playing in the gold division is tough as any team can beat any other team on any given day.    We are so close to beating PVC and NW Excel.  We are really starting to hit our stride that regionals should be very exciting. This weekend everyone really contributed. Our back row players (Callie, Emma, Brittany, Jaime, Allison, and Sonja) had their best serve receive of the season and our serving was really on.  Let's work really hard the next two weeks in practice and show everyone what we can do in regionals.  Well done girls!

Current Ranking: #5
Overall Record: 23-12