Post season awards are beginning

Faith Rohn was named to the NWI Times all-region second team. Read about it here: http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/high-school/girls-volleyball/article_fb5e97ac-c8c6-5f0f-9fc8-ba4c487d904a.html

Banquet and season recap

The banquet was a fitting wrap-up to what was arguably the best season in the history of Calumet volleyball.
Beginning with the food and ending with lingering players, coaches and family members who didn't want the evening to end, everything about the evening was celebratory and joyful.

The food as usual was very good, which we dove into following Mr. Blakely's opening prayer. It was different this year in that we moved to the worship area (auditorium? sanctuary? whatever it's called) for the program part of the evening, which worked very well with the videos, etc. All of the trophies and awards were lined up in the front, which presented a sort of visual summary of the success the teams had this season. Mrs. Obinger welcomed everyone and the explained the format - team video first, then the coach recapping the season and presented awards. Mrs. Eizenga began then with the junior high. The video was met with much laughing and comments from the team. I'm sorry, but I didn't take notes, so I don't know who got what awards. If you know, please put them in a comment. I do remember Mrs. Eizenga reporting that the A team finished 9-6 and the B team was 4-0.

Following the excellent season highlight video, Coach Franklin got through her presentations as quickly as possible - again, I didn't note the awards, so if you know them, please comment. She didn't remember the records of the teams, so I will recap them here: The A team was 27-7-1. They played more games than usual because they played many games that were originally scheduled as varsity games. The B team was 7-0 and the combined teams were 5-0. These were matches in which the A and B team each played at least one set each. So overall the JV team(s) were 39-7-1. Against varsity teams, the JV teams were 15-4-1. The only JV teams that our team lost to were Illinois Lutheran, Westville and Heritage. Highlights of the season were winning our own tournament for the first time, winning the Luther East varsity tournament, and coming in second in the first SSC conference tournament.

The soccers guys were up next. I didn't note the awards nor the record, but hey, this is a volleyball blog. I do remember that the season was successful and they came in second in the SSC conference tournament. And bananas were involved.

Then, the main event. Coach Franklin put together a fantastic video, summarizing the season without words while capturing the excitement at the end of the national championship game. Coach Carr gave a stirring speech on the spiritual growth of the team, as well as their individual and team athletic development. Some other observations: for the record, Coach Carr cried at 8:35 and 8:55; the team set an unofficial record for most inside jokes in a season; Coach Carr is obsessed with serving (as noted by her mentioning everyone's serving percentage when she spoke about each one); and did I mention inside jokes? The awards were presented and were as follows: Coach's award: Rachel Eizenga; Focus, Fight, Finish Award: Emily Eizenga; Serving award (see?): Ally Rohn; and MVP, Cassie Obinger. Just kidding. Of course it was Faith Rohn. The evening finished up with some beautiful singing by the girls and an eloquent season-summarizing speech by Emily. Mr. Obinger then closed with prayer.

 Just a terrific evening to end a terrific season.

Now, some of my favorite stuff: numbers. Varsity's record was 47-3. That's a great record, but if we had played the schedule we played just two years ago, we would have undefeated, and would have lost one set all year. (There I go with the "we" again. I give up, I'm saying "we" from now on.) Set record against non-IHSAA schools was 84-1, with that one loss to Goshen in the state semifinals. Set record against IHSAA schools was 26-10, so the total for the year was 110 set wins, 11 set losses. Match record was 37-0 against non-IHSAA teams, 10-3 against IHSAA teams. (Update on a previous blog entry about opponents: Lafayette Central Catholic did win the Indiana 1A title.) Regular season record was 17-0, first undefeated regular season since 2005 and fourth overall under Coach Carr. Total points scored: 2,930. Total given up: 1,778. They went 45-5 in first sets, 46-4 in seconds, 16-2 in thirds and 3-0 in fourth sets. They never went five sets with anyone. They are on a 43-game winning streak. They won five out of six tournaments this year, and seven out of eleven over the last two years. Coach's career record is now 468-108-22, a .801 winning percentage.

Individual numbers:

• Faith Rohn: Indiana: 6th in hitting percentage, 8th in kills per game, 6th in aces per game, 29th in digs per game; National: 92nd in hitting percentage (every girl except one higher than her in the hitting categories are 5'11" or taller except one, who is 5'9").
• Taylor Lindbloom: Indiana: 22nd in hitting percentage, 48th in kills per game, 2nd in aces per game (by a small fraction); National: 67th in aces per game.
• Rachel Eizenga: Indiana: 18th in assists per game, 28th in aces per game.
• Ally Rohn: Indiana: 27th in hitting percentage, 37th in assists per game.

Well, I guess that's it. Next years should be great as well, if the coaches can figure out how to plug the holes left by Emily and Rachel. Every year I wonder how she's going to replace those that are leaving, though, and every year she does. Next year shouldn't be an exception.

Crowning achievement on an incredible year

YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was because I wore my throat out at the first game on Friday and didn't have much left for the big one.

Yes, The Big One.

For the first time in its history, Calumet Christian has won the NACA Division I (yes, division I!!) National Championship in volleyball.

Wow.

Which was all I could say upon the completion of the 25-17, 25-14 annihilation of Hearts for Jesus Christ squad which wrapped up the victory late, very late, last night. Very late.

Let me get to the preliminaries. As I mentioned in my previous post, this tournament was shaping up like last year's. As we did last year, we faced Hearts for Jesus in the second round of the tournament. As it was last year, if we would defeat them, we would be one victory away from winning the national championship. But this year was quite different. Last year we were sent off to a cold dark unfinished gym at a church a long way away from the camp. Rachel was called at least six times for doubling on her sets, Hearts was determined to get us back after losing to us in the pool play round, and we got wiped out in the first game 25-10. We came back after getting down big in the second, but we fell short 25-23 and were relegated to the losers' bracket. The girls were quite dispirited and went down to defeat to the team they had beaten in their first bracket game.

But this was a new year. We weren't not coming off an exhausting trip to Pennsylvania the week before. The team was stable and unified all year. The players all had one more year of experience and were improved.  The game began with both teams showing their strengths. Their big hitter got a kill, which was answered by smashes by Taylor and Faith. Two Calumet errors were then sandwiched around another Faith kill, and it was 3-3. A third Faith kill then got the girls on a run. Rachel began firing aces and Ally got a kill, then Hearts ran off three straight hitting errors. 10-4, CCS. After a serving error, the Patriots got it going again. They scored five straight until a defensive lapse broke the string. Another error plus a Hearts kill enabled them to pull within nine, but Taylor answered with a couple of aces, Calumet scored four straight and it was a rout. Several of our errors contributed to Hearts' closing the gap to nine again at 22-13, but Faith then said, enough. Kill, Hearts error, and then a block by Faith ended what was supposed to be a tough game, 25-13.

An aside: you might notice I mention a lot of CCS errors. Most of those errors are due to the high risk/high reward style of play the Patriots employ. Most teams, if they tried all the stuff our girls do, would have a much higher error count than we do. Also, that style makes Calumet volleyball very exciting to watch. Anyway, back to the game.

Hearts seemed to be a little stunned with how easy the CCS buzzsaw went throught their team in game one, because they came out for game two a bit out of sorts. Of course, the continued high level of play by the Patriots contributed greatly to that. Calumet ran it up to 8-2. Hearts then had a partial mishit, which, as they often do, fell in after brushing the block put up to stop it. Ally got it back on a kill, which Hearts answered with a dink and an ace. Looked like game on. However, after letting Hearts get to within two, spike and dink kills started coming from everywhere. Soon the girls led 22-12, and it looked like a repeat of game one. Not so fast. Hearts didn't get here by being an inferior team. Primarily by dinking, Hearts ran off five straight. Ally matched their dinks with one of her own, but that didn't stop Hearts. Another dink kill and a net violation made it 23-19. CCS got one of the two needed on a miscommunication by Hearts, but they just couldn't put them away. Kill, ace, kill and it was 24-22. Hearts' magic ran out at that point, they missed on a serve, and the girls were guaranteed at least second. And the only way they would get second would be to lose two straight matches to whoever came out of the losers' bracket.

The championship match(es) for Div. I were scheduled for 8:45. We went over to watch Portage's soccer team play in their championship game, leaving just before it ended to go watch the loser bracket championship to see who we would play. The two teams were Hearts and Evangel, so we were rooting for Evangel, kind of, because we wanted a) a different team than ones we already played, and b) to be able to say that we beat all of the top teams. Hearts had a different idea, and dispatched Evangel rather easily. We all headed over to the house that Coach and several of the moms had rented on campus, to eat. I periodically snuck over to the gym to watch some of the other championship games, and it wasn't looking good, timewise. As I mentioned, this is a double elimination tournament. The first game of every championship match then is between a team with one loss and one with none. If the team with the loss would win, then each team would have one loss and they would have to play again. That's what happened with DIII, which was the first chamipionship match scheduled. D IV followed. Same thing. Things were now running at least a half hour behind. We left as the D II match was beginning, to eat supper. When we came back, they were still playing. The first match. Which, of course, was won by the team coming out of the loser's bracket, which meant one more best of three match. This one went only two, but by the time their awards, trophies and banners were presented, it was over an hour past the scheduled time for our match. Thankfully, the game was played by teenagers, who were used to staying up late.

So, here we were, playing Hearts again. And here I am, sitting at the scorer's table, being the libero tracker. I don't feel like explaining what that means; the important thing was that I really couldn't cheer, but since my voice was nearly gone already anyway, I guess this was OK. And since tracking the libero doensn't really take a lot of work, I was still able to take notes on the game. This game started out with some stellar play. Both teams were killing it and making few mistakes. CCS began to creep ahead. An ace by Holly gave Calumet a two-point lead. It went to four on beautiful stuff block by Ally and Emily. It was even from there until Taylor scored an ace sandwiched by two Hearts hitting errors. Six point lead. Calumet let down a little here, making some unforced errors and allowing Hearts to get back to within three at 18-15. At 20-17 Taylor put one down, followed by Faith crushing an over-pass. Taylor scored an ace, Faith crushed another and a well-placed dink by Rachel put Calumet within one set of winning it all.

In set two, the early play was even. It seemed both teams were tight, as three of the first four points scored were on service errors. A kill by Hearts cured their error ills, and a kill by Faith cured ours. At 4-3, Hearts, Faith hammered it down. Emily followed with a kill of her own, then Hearts couldn't handle a Faith jump serve. After a CCS error, it was kill by Taylor squared. They doubled on a set, Emily got an ace, and Hearts muffed a kill. A dink by Ally made it 12-5, Patriots. The teams ran off a streak of four errors, two by each, before Holly tipped on it to make it 15-7. Hearts block. Kill by Faith from the back row. 16-8, CCS. We were starting to taste it. I was barely maintaining control at the table. A CCS service error was followed by a Hearts kill to bring them back to within six. They botched a serve; we went into the net. 17-11. They doubled again on the set (nice to see the set double calls going the other way, right, Rachel?) and then misfired on a spike. 19-11. Two straight Patriots errors made it a six point game. A dink by Ally was followed by a CCS hitting error. 20-14. Taylor crushed one. 21-14. Then, on what looked like was going to be a broken play, Holly, the only person who could get to the second ball, went up as if to set it. At the last second, she twisted in the air and put one down with authority. Huge boost for the team. 22-14. Taylor found a hole. 23-14. Big block by Holly and Ally. 24-14. Game, match, tournament, national championship point. The ball went over to Hearts' side. They fumbled it around and it fell on their side.

25-14.

Bedlam. Screaming girls in the middle of the floor. Parents who weren't taking pictures were screaming as well. Some who were taking pictures were screaming. A quick handshake at the net and more clumping, screaming girls. Things would settle a bit and a couple of players who hadn't congratulated each other would come together and hug and scream. More jumping and screaming. Coach Carr hugging, crying, and smiling. Various family members coming out of the stands. High fives, hugs and cheering. I just stood there for a long time saying "Wow", over and over again.

It was great. I highly recommend being part of National Championship program to everyone.

Then the awards. Taylor, Rachel, Ally and Emily were named all-tournament. Faith won best offensive player and MVP. Holly should also have made all-tourney and Rachel should have been most valuable setter in my opinion, but it is what it is. They are all champions.

Then the trophies were presented. Trophies are OK, but we have won several already this year. But we hadn't gotten a banner. Until now. Receiving the banner got the biggest cheer from the team and families, and it looked real good in front of the girls in various pictures. Oh yes, pictures. I counted 425,324 pictures taken in the half hour after the championship was won. Well, a lot anyway. I didn't take my camera because with facebook, I didn't need to. I'll see every possible player/trophy/banner/plaque/parent combination there in the next several days.

My only regret is that I didn't get to experience this with Kara. I did with Kelsey in 2006 when we won the DII championship, but we just couldn't get over the hump last year. This was good, but not the same.

Possibly more thoughts on this as I have a few more days to digest it. I will blog on the awards banquet and probably some comments on the stats before I wrap this year up.

YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So far, so good...and exactly the same as last year

It's eerie how similar to last year this year's NACA tournament has been for us. Last year, CCS was the first seed in Division I after pool play. This year, CCS was the first seed in Division I after pool play. Last year CCS won their first round match in a tough game. This year CCS won its first round match in a tough game. Last year CCS faced Hearts for Jesus homeschool team out of Ohio in their next game. This year CCS will face Hearts for Jesus homeschool team in their next game.  Hopefully the similarities will end now. I won't go into detail for those not familiar with how things went last year, other than to say that the girls didn't win another match after that first round victory.

 The Patriots won a hard-fought first-round bracket play game this afternoon, defeating Vision (formerly Cornerstone) of Florida, 30-28, 25-22. Cornerstone was here last year, and we played them in pool play where we split two games with them. We didn't see them the rest of the tournament; I think they finished in fourth. They were good then; they are better now. Thankfully we're pretty good too.

It looked like we would win comfortably at points during the first game. After Vision went up 4-3, mostly on well-placed dinks, the girls took control of the game. Five consecutive points by Calumet - kill by Emily, net violation by Vision, dink kill by Emily, kill by Ally and a kill by Faith gave the girls an 8-4 lead. They maintained that four-point lead until a setting error by Vision and a Taylor kill extended the lead to six at 14-8. Shortly thereafter, two consective errors by Vision gave the Patriots a seven-point lead. Vision then began to creep back into the game. Their hitting and blocking became more effective while Calumet started making more errors. Quickly the lead shrank to one at 19-18. A Vision error and a dink kill by Ally gave the girls a three-point cushion. After an exchange of points, Vision scored on two consecutive kills. Faith got one back to bring the girls to within one point of victory at 24-22, but a kill and a CCS hitting error tied it up. Then it was back and forth. Both teams played very well; no points were unearned until, at 29-28, Vision hit on into the net to give the girls one of their toughest set victories of the year.

The Patriots went ahead 3-1 in set two on the strength of kills by Faith and Taylor (Taylor's being a back row kill) before Vision went ahead by two due to three straight Calumet errors and a kill. CCS pulled back even at 5, but Vision scored and then it was back-and-forth for a few points. At 7-6 Vision, Ally scored on a kill, and then Vision committed four consecutive hitting errors. Taylor put one down and Visiion couldn't return a serve by Emily and the lead was six. It got a big as seven at 17-10 on a beautiful stuff block by Emily and Faith, but then, as happened in game one, either the girls relaxed a bit or Vision picked up their game or both. The first part of the comeback apparently was our problem, as three consecutive errors were committed by our girls. Then, after a Faith kill, they matched it and we followed it up with a defensive error bringing Vision to within three. Taylor got it four on the ever-popular bump kill (ask Natalie). After an exchange of points, Vision scored two on dink and a CCS hitting error and it was two-point game. Rachel then paid homage to the soccer tournament going on outside by popping up a ball with her foot (now legal), keeping a rally alive that ended with a dink kill by Ally. That seemed to the momentum-changer, for a minute anyway, but at 22-19 Calumet, Vision scored on a kill, an ace and then a shanked pass by our defense. Tied at 22. Faith got things back on track with a big kill, Holly followed it with an ace, and then after our serve was passed back just over the net, Faith annihilated it and we were moving on after the exhilarating win.

With the double elimination format, that victory ensured at least a third place finish. That will not be enough for this team. They got that last year, and are committed, focused and hungry to take it all. And they have a score to settle with Hearts. Should be great.

Day One: Success

The pool play portion of the National Association of Christian Athletes National Championship is complete. Calumet finished the day undefeated which means they earned Division I, and after the calculations were made regarding seeding, were seeded number 1. Before we get all excited here, let's remember a couple of things: first of all, since the seeding was based on points given up, a team in a weak pool would be at an advantage. I'm not saying the Patriots were in a week pool; there's just no way of knowing without some play between the teams, so getting the first seed didn't prove that the girls were the best team in pool play. Second, the Patriots were the first seed last year after pool play, but they finished third.

On to the game recaps: CCS's first opponent was Lebanon Christian Academy of  Lebanon, PA. LCA was undefeated and champions of their state (Christian) athletic association coming in. Apparently their competition level was a wee bit lower than teams like Calumet. After a booming warmup kill by Faith, you could see LCA heads turn, with concerned looks on them. The first four points set the tone and confirmed the worry of LCA: kill by Taylor, kill by Faith, Taylor ace, Taylor ace. CCS led 11-2 shortly thereafter, and the two points were errors by Calumet. LCS scored three of the next four points to pull within seven, but from that point the girls started to pull away, stretching the lead to ten, eleven, twelve. Faith scored on an ace on game point, which went to CCS 25-11.

Set two was different. The girls, after scoring the first point on a Holly block, gave up three in a row, two on hitting errors ("heifers" in this case) and it was 3-1, LCA. CCS scored three straight to go ahead, but LCA tied it back up on a dink. The next four points were CCS' and that lead grew to 14-6. After an LCA kill, it really grew. Between Ally's aces and hitting by Holly and Faith, the Patriots scored the last eleven points for the win.

Our next match, which was nine hours after game 1, was against Mt. Carmel of Virgina. Again, we didn't know how good they were, not knowing their opposition level. Their record when submitting their info to Naca was 9-2, but they didn't place in their state tournament. Well, we found out they were a little better than LCA. The girls had to work a little in this one, but just a little. The lead was 5-1 when Mt. Carmel started picking it up. They took the lead at 7-6 before the girls ran off four straight. The lead was only two at 13-11 when CCS started rolling. Eight of the next nine were scored by Calumet and they cruised to the set win at 25-14.

Set two was nearly identical. A sluggish start led to a 4-3 Mt. Carmel lead, but then CCS got going, mostly behind aces by Rachel. But Mt. Carmel mounted a comeback and tied it at 11. But as was the case last set, it was all Calumet from that point on. Dinks and hits were distributed throughout the team, and adding in several Ally aces, all of a sudden it was a ten point game. The girls coasted into another 25-14 lead.

Because the girls gave up so few points, they ended up earning the number one seed overall. They play the winner of Covenant (who we haven't seen) and Vision (formerly Cornerstone, and a very talented team. We play at 1 (12 central) tomorrow in our first bracket blay game. I think it will be live-streaming. Check nacasports.com for more info.

Catching up on 2010 season opponents

Calumet's opponents from early in the season are now either eliminated or deep into the IHSAA state tournament (how we did against them in parentheses):

• Winamac (win) made it to the final eight in class 2A where they lost to Fairfield
• Eastern Greene (loss, 25-23, 25-23) made it to the final eight in class 2A where they lost to Brownstown Central
• Rockville (win) lost to Lafayette Central Catholic in regional final, class 1A (final 16 in state)
• Lafayette Central Catholic (loss, 25-22, 26-24) playing for 1A state championship next Saturday
• Griffith (win), Kankakee Valley (2 wins) and Andrean (lost 23-25, 25-23, 15-10) lost to Knox in the sectionals (Knox made it the final eight in class 3A)
• Merrillville (2 wins) lost to LaPorte in the first round of sectionals; LaPorte lost in the state semifinals (class 4A).

Other opponents include Ridgewood Baptist and Schaumburg Christian, who played for the Illinois ACS championship, with Ridgewood winning. Ridgewood then went to NCSAA and took third.

Undefeated regular season

Here it is, Saturday, and I'm finally getting around to posting about Tuesday's game. Since the girls finished up their first undefeated regular season since 2005, you would think I would have been more motivated to post. The atmosphere of the evening, however, was more of getting through this one, to get on to bigger and better things. Goshen is a decent team, and gave the girls something of a game, but the anticipation of completing some unfinished business seemed to be looming over the match. As it is, the girls did finish 17-0 in non-tournament games this year, their best finish since 2005 when they were 16-0. This was the fourth year since Coach Carr has been at the helm that the Patriots finished undefeated - they also had unblemished records in 2002 and 2003. Seventeen wins is the most the team has had in an undefeated season, so this season surpassed those in that respect (the team finished 18-1 last year, which was the most regular season wins they have had).

A quick recap of the Goshen game. As you recall, CCS defeated Goshen in the semifinals of the ICST state tournament, with Goshen even winning one set. Tuesday was a little different. After the JV won their game in three hard-fought games, the varsity teams took the floor. The tone was set early in set one. A kill by Taylor which she followed with an ace. Then Faith crushed one and it was 3-0. The girls muddled through a few points, then took off again. At 6-3 they went on an 11-1 run, and the girls then maintained a double-digit lead until an ace by Faith finished it, 25-14.

The girls dominated again in game two with a strong beginning (9-1) and ending, scoring the last eight points to win it, 25-11. During the time between the second and third sets, the girls tried to get the crowd riled up. And there was a crowd, it being senior night and the last home game of the year. They weren't too successful, however, so I decided to put down the notepad and scream a little. Which seemed to distract the girls rather than spur them on. I had to leave for a church meeting before the game was over; I think it was 16-13 when I left. They did win it, 25-17, so it seems like they do better without cheering. Or because they haven't had cheering all year, they were a little disoriented when they got it. We'll see how things go at nationals.

Next week the team will have the opportunity to accomplish something no Calumet team has ever done - win a Division I championship at NACA. Going by the guidelines originally set by NACA, CCS should always be DIII because of their size. However, because of their level of play, they have never been less than Division II. They won Division II championships in 2002 and 2006. I witnessed the 2006 win, and also saw the team finish in second in 2007 (Beat Ballard!!). Calumet didn't go to NACA in 2008; we tried NSCAA (don't ask). Last year we tried both; at NACA, we went DI. According to Coach Carr, that was the second time Calumet was DI, this time the result was the same as the first time; third place. The disappointing thing was that we had defeated the two teams that finished ahead of us: Hearts for Jesus, who we beat in pool play; and Broadfording, who we beat in bracket play (the tournament is double elimination). The week before we finished second at NCSAA, which sounds pretty good until I tell you that there really were only two excellent teams there.

We haven't gotten the final list of teams playing DI yet. So far there are six: Hearts for Jesus (OH), Cornerstone (FL), Evangel (VA), Northern Methodist (AL), Bay Town (TX), and us. The checking I was able to do makes me believe that Northern Methodist and maybe Evangel will the toughest. Besides CCS, of course. Hopefully they will add two more teams so we have more games. As close as we were last year, I think the girls have a good shot at winning it all this year.

Looking forward to the tournament next week. I don't think I will miss eight annoying teenage girls behind be the whole way. Well, maybe just a little.

Oops. Forget to post about state.

Which goes a long way toward telling you how unsuspenseful it was. Quite a contrast from last year. No nail-biter with Faith Christian. No packed gym of crazed fans. Too bad, but the girls aren't giving the trophy back. A little bump with Goshen in the semifinals was followed by (as I predicted) the easiest game the girls had on their way to the title.

Game one was against the Goshen Blue Blazers. Many of you will remember them from last year, when we beat them three times - once in our tournament, once in the state semifinals, and once in the regular season. But I'm sure most of you remember their incredible eighth-grader, Azariah Stahl. She was one of fifty in the country, and the only one from Indiana, invited by USA Volleyball for U15 players last year. Five foot eleven with an incredible vertical leap, she showed great potential even while she played at a very high level already. Well, she's gone. Elkhart Central got her along with her mother as their coach, so we didn't have to face her. But the team she left is pretty good. Maybe the others were deferring to her or just got better - whatever the case, they were a worthy semifinalist.

In set one, Goshen showed they weren't going to go quietly. They were ahead 4-2 when CCS went on a seven-point run. But just when the parents (and siblings and friends of siblings - more on that later) were thinking that the match was over, Goshen tied it up and then went ahead 11-9, mostly on dinks. From there the set remained close until a kill by Ally was followed by a smash by Rachel on an overpass. A dink kill by Holly was next, and the Patriots led 20-16. Calumet added a couple of points to the lead to win set one, 25-19.

Set two started similarly - even early, followed by a Calumet scoring streak. This time, though, it was a longer streak, and Goshen never recovered. It really wasn't a Calumet scoring streak, it was a Faith ace frenzy. She really was locked in with her jump serve, and Goshen couldn't do anything with it. Eight straight aces before she put on into the net. It almost made you feel sorry for Goshen. The nine-point lead that the ace fest gave CCS was maintained to 20-11, then the Patriots extended it to thirteen by the time the game was over.

After watching the girls goof around on the court before set three, Jeff Schaap leaned over to me and sarcastically asked if I thought the girls were loose enough. I responded by saying they were too loose. That proved prophetic.  The set started close as the first two did, but this time it stayed close. Calumet did go up 14-9 after an ace by Holly, but Goshen got the next two, and the lead was three or four points when a Goshen hitting error made it 19-14. Goshen then scored seven in a row, three on errors by CCS. Taylor then put one down, but Goshen scored the next two. Calumet got three to tie it at 23, but Goshen put two down to win it, 25-23.

The girls then got serious. After the typical close start (4-4), Calumet outscored Goshen 9-2 to make it 13-6. Goshen got back to within five, but Calumet put together four straight on a kill by Faith, who then moved into the serving position and got an ace, which was followed by Emily and Ally putting balls down. After a Goshen kill, Calumet outscored the Blue Blazers 6-1 to finish out the set four and game victory, 25-12.

Lighthouse Christian Academy was the opponent for the finals. Southern Indiana volleyball (at least in this group) is not as strong as the north, and this game displayed that. I won't go into a lot of detail. LCA had one really good middle and another pretty good one, but they are quite young, and that was evident. CCS had leads in set one of 7-2, 13-5, and 19-8. Lighthouse scored on a Calumet serving error but that was the last point they got in the set. Four straight LCA errors ended the 25-9 set one win for Calumet.

Set two saw the Patriots fall behind 6-3. CCS caught them at 7, however, and after falling behind again 10-8, Calumet outscored LCA 17-3 to win set two 25-13. Faith again was dialed in on her jump serve, getting five consecutive aces. Taylor put the finishing touch on the set win with a nice kill. In the third set, the teams were even at 7 when it was ace, ace, ace, ace, ace by Faith again. CCS ended an 11-1 run with an ace by Emily to make it 17-8. Goshen picked things up a little here, but on a nice set by Rachel to Ally who showed her appreciation by crushing it, the set, match and state championship was wrapped up by the Patriots. 

Oh, yeah about the friends of siblings - Ryan Rohn brought a friend along, and the two of them made enough noise for an entire cheering section. It brought back fond memories of Frank McClure leading a bunch of CCS students in cheers for the team in 2006, only these guys were a little funnier.

This was the first state championship since Rachel Kizer's (and Lyssa McClure's and Karissa Porter's) senior year, four years ago. That was also the last year Calumet won a national title at NACA, in Division II. It was the year before that Calumet last had an undefeated regular season. If the girls win tomorrow night, they will complete a perfect regular season. And if the girls win NACA, it will be the first DI national title ever for Calumet. Go get it, girls!

Backward state tournament

I think we won the state tournament tonight. How do you win a state tournament by winning the first game? By participating in an ICSTS tournament, of course! You should have the background on this by reading my post from earlier today. Tonight's activity confirmed what I wrote. First the sixth seed, Goshen, defeated the third seed, Faith Christian, without too much trouble. The the fifth seed, Heritage, easily defeated the fourth seed, Lakeland. The next round started out with Goshen playing the second seed, Clinton, and Goshen won in five. You might say, well, Goshen played over their heads and Clinton had a bad day, and you might have been right, had not Goshen had beaten Clinton twice already. But they did. So now there are three teams left: CCS, the first seed; Heritage, the fifth seed; and Goshen, the sixth seed. Perhaps the seeding wasn't quite accurate. Perhaps.

Only two teams are going to state however, so one more game needed to be played - essentially the state championship game, since I think it will be obvious that the two teams involved are the best in the ICST this year, once the tournament is over. We had beaten Heritage early in the year, in three straight, but the sets got progressively closer. Certainly over the season Heritage played us as tough or tougher than any other non-IHSAA team all year. Set one' tone was set early. CCS was down 2-1 when Faith went up for a big hit. Boom-boom. Big hit, big block by Danielle, straight down. Holly, who played great all night, hit one down immediately following, but Heritage had the momentum. They were placing hits and dinks to holes in the defense, and moved out to an 7-4, 8-5, then a 9-6 lead. Time to change the momentum. Kills will do that. Kill by Rachel. Ace by Taylor. Kill by Faith. Another by Rachel. Then it was Holly's turn. 11-9, CCS. After giving up a point on a setting error, the girls ripped off four more straight points. The lead never got less than three the remainder of the game. Rachel finished off the 25-20 set 1 win with a dink.

The girls kept it up to start set two. The lead was 4-1 when Heritage got back on track. Dink, spike, and another block on Faith, and it was tied. No team had greater than a one-point lead until two consecutive Heritage kills gave them a two-point lead at 14-12. Heritage began making errors. CCS scored five of the next six, four on Heritage errors. Heritage tied it up at 17, then the Patriots went up three on a Taylor kill and two Heritage mistakes. The teams exchanged kills, with one from Heritage pulling them to within two at 22-20. Faith then placed two nice kills where they couldn't be dug, and Ally then hit a downball that Heritage couldn't handle, and set two was in the books, 25-20.

Heritage came out a little off in the third. The Patriots outscored Heritage 6-1 to start the set, but five of the points were off of Heritage errors. Heritage went on a dink kill binge, scoring three in a stretch that brought the Defenders back to a 7-5 deficit. Faith interrupted their run with a kill, but then two errors by the Patriots allowed Heritage to get to within one. But then Taylor got a kill followed by a net violation by Heritage. Then a really cool point - Rachel shot out her leg on a ball that she couldn't get to any other way, and popped the ball up. Faith hit it up, then Amanda bumped the ball over. Heritage must have been a little flustered, because they ended up putting a hit into the net. 11-7, CCS. When the Patriots pushed the lead out to five at 14-9, Heritage called time. A bit later, a Heritage kill and block brought them to within two, but Holly stopped the run early with a nice kill. Finally, on a kill by Faith, Calumet finished the set and the game, 25-21.

Three closely-played games, not always pretty, but pretty entertaining. Heritage is a very good team and it's a shame that this game had to be so early in the tournament. I think we are going to see this as the game that really determined the state champ. Two games this week, Tuesday and Thursday, then the state finals next Saturday in Lafayette. Go Red!!

QR, Schaumburg and ICST illogic

On Tuesday, the Patriots traveled back to the site of their most recent tournament conquest, Quentin Road, for the anuual tri-match between Calumet, Quentin Road, and Schaumburg. Calumet had played each team in its own tournament, Schaumburg in the first round of bracket play and Quentin Road in the finals. Neither team came close to beat CCS, but neither team was a pushover, either. Tuesday was a little bit of a different story, from what I hear. Both opponents managed nineteen points against the girls. Coach Carr reported that it seemed the neither QR nor Schaumburg really wanted to play us. Add that Faith was still on the top of her game, continuing her great play from the QR tournament, and you have two blowouts. Schaumburg was the first victim, going down 25-6, 25-13. Quentin Road then went down 25-11, 25-8. As is it was with Ridgewood, it's a little sad, because both of these teams have played CCS tough in recent years.

The end result is that the Patriots are now 36-3, with a thirty-two game winning streak. Calumet's last loss was on August 28, almost seven weeks ago. One of the losses was to Eastern Greene, now 31-1 and raked fifth in the state in 2A, and another was to Lafayette Central Catholic, ranked #2 in 1A [UPDATE: LCC is now ranked #1]. The Patriots have won 84 sets and lost 10. They have scored 2,252 points versus 1,370 scored against them, or an average of 23.96 points for and 14.57 points against. Per Maxpreps, Faith is sixth in the state in hitting percentage and eighth in kills per set. Taylor is second in the state in aces at 1.37 per set.

And now for the rant. The rant is softened somewhat by the news that the person responsible for some of the inexplicable locations, schedule and seedings in stepping down after this year's tournaments. We are trying to restrain our expressions of delight. Perhaps there will now be sense in the ICST state tournament.

Now for some background. This probably began earlier than two years ago, but that was the first tournament that gave indications that thing weren't quite right. Two years ago the tournament had four regional tournaments, the winners of which advanced to the state tournament. Somehow the three best teams in the state - CCS, Heritage and Faith - all ended up in the same regional. Faith was an hour from the Indy, where the central regional was held, but nearly two hours from the northeast regional site. Hmmm. Last year, this was supposed to be avoided by seeding all the teams in the state, so the top seeds would all advance to the state final four. However, the seeding was completely screwed up, with Heritage, probably the third best team in the state last year, seeded seventh, and they ended up losing to us early on. On top of this, we were forced to travel to Lafayette four times over two weekends to play the state tournament games, as all tournament games were played there - no regional sites.  One common theme for both years was that Horizon, coached by the tournament director, always managed to make the final four.

This year is not very different. One of the improvements is that several of the weaker teams last year aren't in the tournament this year, but the tourney director can't take credit for that. One of the (many) weaknesses of this year's tourney is that all of the strong teams are in the north - a situation that cries out for an arrangement like last year where all teams are seeded, top to bottom. And since there were far fewer teams this year, this could have been done over a weekend at a central location. But as it is, there are six teams in the north and seven in the south. From what I can find out on the internet, at least four teams in the south would fall into the classification of "slightly higher play than gym class". The remainder are probably around the level of Quentin Road. In the north, however, the worst two or three teams are at the QR level. Then there are three teams a notch above them, and then CCS.

Now on to the north seeding, which is as follows: CCS, #1, Clinton Christian #2, Faith Christian, #3, Lakeland Christian, #4, Heritage Christian, #5 and Goshen #6.  Does this make sense? You tell me. During the season, Clinton Christian (#2) was defeated by Goshen (#6) at least twice, maybe three times. Lakeland Christian (#4) defeated Clinton (#2). Also, CCS has played all of the teams in the region except Goshen, and I have witnessed all of those games. I would rank the four that I saw as follows: Heritage Christian, Lakeland Christian, Faith and Clinton. Logic would dictate that Goshen should be somewhere in between Lakeland and Clinton (lost to Lakeland, defeated Clinton). Since Clinton defeated Faith head-to-head, I'll grant that Clinton should be ahead of Faith, but from what we saw, I think Faith just had a bad game. Bottom line is that possibly the weakest, and certainly one of the two weakest teams, is seeded #2. The two strongest teams besides us get to play each other in the first round, with the winner facing CCS. So, two of the three strongest teams in the state get eliminated before the final four.

Back to the south region. Once again, Horizon gets to play the weakest of the weak in its two games to get to the final four. I grant that the geographical division makes sense, however, and it's not Horizon's fault that the south teams are so poor. Of course, when Horizon gets to the final four and has to face the powerhouses of the north, they will be quickly eliminated, right? Not so fast. The semifinal games are the two representatives from the north playing each other, then the two from the South!. So we travel to the state site (which originally was going to be Indianapolis) to play a team right in our region. A team that was at our regional site the week before! Why not just play each other there and travel for only one game? I will tell you why. It would expose how weak the south is. Two blowouts are harder to explain than one. Everyone knows how good CCS is this year, so that blowout can be explained away, but both north teams blowing out the both south teams would be different.

We are thankful for a couple of things: the final four site is now in Lafayette instead of Indy. Also, the games are not spread out so much, so Coach Carr doesn't have to figure out if it's better to stay overnight or get up early to travel. We play today at 3:00 CDT, and if the girls win, they play at 2:30 the next Saturday. If they win that game, the championship is at 5:30. I think the actually championship game will our first game, but what do I know. And maybe next year there will be some logic used is setting up the state tournament.

Another year, another tournament, similar results

A nice matching set of matching sets. That's what I'm calling the completion of Calumet's second successful tournament championship defense Saturday night. Calumet followed up on their second consecutive Calumet tournament championship with their second consecutive Dayspring Volleyball Classic championship, downing the Saline Christian Academy Saints, 25-16, 25-21.

There were three pool winners that came out of pool play with perfect records on Friday - Calumet, Lady Crusaders and Saline. All of you who have been involved with the Calumet program the last couple of years are familiar with Saline - very conservative uniforms, not notably athletic, but extremely successful. They play possibly the best defense we see all year. We'll get to them shortly. Regarding the Lady Crusaders, we didn't judge their level of play correctly when we were scheduled to play them earlier in the year, so we sent our JV. The Lady Crusaders defeated them in three straight, and the reports were that they were pretty good. I guess a perfect pool record here confirmed that.

To get to these teams, however, we had to play a couple of other teams. First up was Nazarene, a little school from Beech Grove, south of Indianapolis. Nazarene has been a fixture here for many years, distinguished by their conservative uniforms and intense coach. I wasn't an eyewitness, but reports are that Nazarene played very good defense and made the girls play. This didn't translate into a close game, however. The final scores were 25-12, 25-13.

I did get there in time to see them play their quarter-final game, which was against Southside, a familiar opponent. The girls seem to have a bit of letdown in this one. Southside has been decent the last few years, but they lost their big middle hitter to graduation and didn't seem to be too imposing. The first game started as expected, and when Amanda put one down it was Calumet, 16-4. Southside decided to make it a game at this point, and we did our best to contribute to that. Kill, Calumet error, dink kill, Calumet error. CCS got three of them back with a kill by Taylor and two aces by Ally, but then Southside ran off five straight, again with some good play and some bad Calumet play. Faith got a kill from the back row at this point, and the lead stayed about six or seven until Southside shanked a pass and Calumet won game one, 25-18. Game two was similar - a big early lead (15-6), even play until it was 20-11, Calumet scored three, Southside scored four (three on CCS errors) and it was 23-15. A Southside bad pass, a Calumet setting error and then finally Taylor closed out the 25-16 victory with a kill. On to the semis.

Now we faced one of the other undefeateds - Lady Crusaders. The girls now seemed to realize it was time to get serious, as it was down to the final four teams. And boy were they serious, especially Faith. Two huge, HUGE hits by her were part of the very strong Patriot start. She wasn't the only contributor. There were aces by Taylor, Holly and Ally; kills by Ally, Taylor, Holly and Rachel; and a smattering of LC errors. When Taylor powered her last ace of the game, the score was 22-7, CCS. A bit of a LGFS ensued, but the girls closed it out, appropriately on a Faith kill, 25-11. Game two was more of a reflection of LC being a bit shell-shocked. The Patriots were still playing well but LC contributed by hitting a lot of balls into the net. Early leads were 4-0, 14-2 and 17-3. The teams then exchanged mini-streaks, with LC closing to 19-7, then Calumet scoring five to make it 24-7, followed by LC scoring four. Taylor then put the Patriots into the finals with a backrow kill.

On to the championship game. As expected, it was Saline. They also hadn't dropped a set the whole weekend. From what I saw of them they were stronger offensively than last year, with Hannah Atkins stepping up to join Sarah Mills as an offensive threat, and of course, the defense was very solid. As the game began, it became apparent that Saline's defense was more than adequate for most of the teams they played, but I don't think they see anything close to Calumet's offense or serving, including Taylors vicious floaters (seems like an oxymoron, but if you've seen Taylor's serves...) and Faith's sharply dropping jump serves. After a Saline hitting error opened the game, Faith put one down. Taylor hit a screaming ace. THEN FAITH PUT ONE DOWN! Wow. I don't think Saline has ever seen a hit like that. I've not seen many. Wow. I think Saline was little shaken here, because three Taylor aces and a Saline hitting error followed. Saline righted themselves a little here, getting two points on a dink and a spike, but then followed that up with an uncharacteristic serving error. Gradually CCS pushed the lead out to twelve at 16-4, at which point Saline, and Sarah Mills in particular, started getting going. The girls also made some errors to contribute to the 11-2 Saline run, which, after a block, brought them back to within three at 18-15. Emily stopped it by getting a kill which was followed by a Taylor ace. After another Saline block, they had three errors in a row, and then consecutive kills by Emily and Faith finished things up at 25-16.

Game two saw Saline getting confidence and playing well. The score was even at four when the Patriots committed two hitting errors. The score stayed within two from here to 12-10, Saline, when Saline, on a CCS hitting error and a kill, moved out to a four point lead. A few points later Saline led 15-12, when Faith made a signature kill, a crushing, loud, thing of beauty. That was the first of six consecutive Calumet points, all earned. There were two aces by Rachel, two more kills by Faith (one on an overpass) and a kill by Ally. Saline started playing better here, but Taylor's kill in this stretch kept the lead at about four. At 21-17 Saline hit one out and they couldn't return an Emily serve on the next point - 23-17 CCS. Saline was not done. They scored the next two on a backrow kill and a shanked pass by CCS. Ally then dinked one for a kill to put the girls within one of the title. The girls seemed to be a little anxious to finish it here, because they committed two straight hitting errors. Then Taylor hit one over and in, Saline couldn't return it, and Calumet was victorious again, winning game two 25-21 and with it, the championship.

You know you have a perennially successful program when fans of teams already eliminated are cheering for your opponents, which is what occurred during the championship game. Oh, well. I guess they just don't appreciate beautiful, powerful volleyball. Oh yes, the awards. Pathway defeated the Lady Crusaders in the third place game, so those trophies were presented. Then Saline got their second place trophy, giving them a first, a second and third place finish the last three tournaments. Calumet was then presented its championship trophy. The all-tourney teams were as follows - Hannah Atkins of Saline, Monich Schlabach of Pathway, our very own Taylor Lindbloom, Annika Albrecht of Crossroads, and to absolutely no one's surprise, Faith Rohn was named MVP. Faith's brilliance maybe isn't appreciated after you see it so often, but for me, watching her play volleyball is a rare privilege. She was awesome in this tournament. I can't wait to watch her at NACA.

Quentin Road and Schaumburg tomorrow at Schaumburg's lovely facility [CORRECTION: it's at Quentin Road]. I wish I could be there, but basketball activities are starting and we have something up with that. I expect full reports from those who can make it. I'm not sure if the varsity will play Friday, but if not, the next game is the one regional game. We play at 3 CDT at Lakeland against either Lakeland or Heritage. Hopefully I can get to my promised rant about this tournament this week. It needs a good ranting.

Pool day at Quentin Road

Pool play at the Dayspring Classic is complete, and the Calumet Patriot still have yet to lost even a set, much less a match in pool play so far this year. Last year the girls were perfect in pool play in both our tournament and Quentin Road, and this year's team has matched it.

I was only able to witness the last match of the evening and part of the second to last match (thank you, girls, for the LOUD greeting). Interestingly, a team had to drop out this tournament at the last minute this year, and Crossroads was invited to replace them. As I mentioned when I recapped our tournament, Crossroads is an up-and-coming team, quite young but quite talented. They finished third in our tournament, defeating Heritage in the quarters, but losing to Quentin Road in the semis. For some reason, the QR people put Crossroads into our pool, even though the team that dropped out was not in our pool. So, by my estimation, there are about six or seven teams capable of winning this tournament, and three are in our pool.

Crossroads was our first match of the day. From talking to the coaches and others, I gathered that the girls played well, continuing to put to rest the former characteristic of Calumet teams of not being able to play early. Crossroads, as mentioned, is a talented team, and the report is that their defense has gotten much better. After a relatively easy first set, 25-12, Crossroads started digging Calumet's hits in the second set, making a much more competitive set. Calumet did prevail, however, by a 25-22 score.

Game two was against Ravenswood. This game was a "yikes" game. After coasting through a 25-7 first set, in which Coach Carr substituted liberally, they really shook things up for the second game. Faith and Amanda were the setters, and two of the hitters were Jenna and Kassie. Also, the other girls that were hitting were hitting with their left hands. Throw in general silliness, and the Patriots squeaked by 25-22 in the second. From what I understand, Coach Carr had to "refocus" the girls after this one.

East Moline was next. It was 9-0 CCS in the second set when I walked in. And got loudly greeted. The Patriots kind of went through the motions in this game, winning both by the same score of 25-13.

The last pool play game and the last game of the night was against Maranatha, the team we thought was going to be the strongest opponent in our pool. Maranatha is the high school associated with the college in Wisconsin that hosts the volleyball camp that our girls attend. From what I hear, they pushed the girls a little at camp, but weren't really at their level. This game reaffirmed that. In set one, at 2-1 Maranatha, Faith made a statement with a crushing kill, a beauty. That so flustered Maranatha that they followed it with two hitting errors. Then ace, Holly; kill, Faith; ace again; then another. Then Maranatha started pushing the ball to the back corners and the girls were having difficulty getting to them. Maranatha outscored the girls 7-6 and the lead was 14-9. The girls retook control here and outscored Maranatha 5-1 to take a nine point lead. An ace by Taylor and a kill by Holly were included in this run. The teams played relatively even from that point, and it ended on a kill by Faith, making the final score 25-14.

The girls started strong in set two, but Maranatha played their best volleyball in this stretch. It went from a 3-1 CCS lead to a 7-5 Maranatha lead here, but that was about the end of it. The Patriots ran off six straight here behind kills by Holly, Ally and Taylor (2). After a Maranatha block. Taylor got things back on track with another two kills sandwiched around a Maranatha hitting error. A bit later a Faith kill made the score 21-11. They then ran into a bit of a LGFS, and Maranatha got their point total up to 16 before a defensive error gave CCS their game point.

Tomorrow the girls will play either Nazarene or Ravenswood at 9:15. Hopefully there will be good games later in the day.

I need a new word

Last year I described one of Calumet's games as perfunctory, in my quest to describe the game in an interesting way and to increase the girls vocabulary. Or just because I was bored. I don't remember. Anyway, today's match deserves a similar term. Since I already used perfunctory (per·func·to·ry adj \pər-ˈfəŋ(k)-t(ə-)rē\: 1: characterized by routine or superficiality : mechanical
2: lacking in interest or enthusiasm ), I will have to come up with a new word. And the word for today's game is: desultory (desəlˌtôrē/Adjective 1. Lacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm. 2. (of conversation or speech) Going from one subject to another in a halfhearted way; unfocused: "desultory conversation").
 
The shame that I had to use a word like desultory is that the game described was against Ridgewood. The last couple of years, of all the Christian schools we play, Ridgewood might have been/is the closest thing we have to a rivalry (apologies to Heritage). Last year, Ridgewood had four quality players - Dominique Steagall, Callie Frazier, Lauren Peterson and Christen Johnson and had a very good team. Good enough to win the IACS state championship. We played them twice last year; once at home and once in the championship game at the Dayspring Classic tournament at Quentin Road. We never dropped a set to them, but the biggest margin of victory was eight. All the games were tense, tight and well-played. But this is high school, where after four years (usually) they make you leave. Dominique, Callie and Lauren had used up their four years and moved on. That left Christen Johnson. This year her teammates are young, unskilled or both. 
So tonight the Patriots went out to Joliet and defeated the Rams in a desultory game, 25-8, 25-8.
 
I don't know what happened in the first game. Maybe there was metal in the net and magnets in Ridgewood's uniforms. Whatever the reason, Ridgewood couldn't stay out of the net. Points one and two were net violations against the Rams. Net violation #3 made it 4-2, CCS. It was 9-5, Calumet, when net violation #4 occurred. A point later, #5 made it 12-5. Finally Ridgewood made their last one, #6, to give CCS a 16-5 lead. Sixteen points, six from net violations. Meanwhile, our girls were playing, well, desultorily. Disinterested defense was preventing good hitting opportunities, so the girls were dinking a lot. Effectively, I might add. Emily ended set one with a dink kill. Final score: 25-8.
 
Set #2 was CCS's turn to start with goofs. A bad serve was followed by our own net violation. The Patriots got the next two, and the teams traded points until CCS led 5-4. Faith began serving at this point and Ridgewood, after getting up the first couple, got overwhelmed with Faith's jump serves. In the run there were three aces and various kills and dinks. Coach finally subbed out Faith, and eventually the run ended at 14-5. Another mini-run started with Emily serving and soon it was 18-5. Ridgewood scored two of the next three on a couple of nice back row downball kills. Holly got things back on track with a nice kill, and the Rams got only one more point, and the result completed the set of 25-8 wins. (Get it? They completed the set, and had two 25-8 wins -  a matching set!!! OK it was a bad joke. Deal with it.)
 
The JV game preceded the varsity and the junior squad also came away with a straight set victory. They won easily in set 1, 25-7. Set two was more of challenge, with subs starting this game, and there was confusion in knowing where everyone was supposed to be. Also, the defense wasn't as sharp as it usually is, and Ridgewood's was much better. All of this resulted in a 21-17 deficit. It was still 23-20 Ridgewood when a bump on the second hit by CCS fell in. This seemed to spark the team. Ridgewood didn't score another and the girls avoided a third game, winning 25-23.
 
Tomorrow I'll be at Luther East most of the day, watching the JV girls play in a tournament early and watching the HSRC Patriots play flag football later. Should be fun.

And now, Saturday's recap

You knew I would get around to it eventually. And if the play on Saturday was more exciting, I would have been motivated to get to it sooner. So here it is.

As you recall, the girls finished undefeated in pool play on Friday, 10-0, so our first bracket play game was at noon on Saturday. Schaumburg and First Baptist of Mishawaka played to determine which would have the privilege of playing the Patriots, and it was Schaumburg winning 25-11, 25-21. Schaumburg was in the most competitive pool, the Red, and despite finishing 5-5 were only fourth in the pool. So they were better than their seed.

It was 3-3 after the Patriots scored three and gave Schaumburg three on unforced errors. Schaumburg then made a couple of their own errors (serving and hitting). After a Schaumburg kill, Emily matched it and Ally followed it with an ace. A few minutes later a Taylor kill made it 11-7. Rachel then put one down, and the game was effectively over. Ace by Taylor. Kill by Faith. After a well-placed Schaumburg dink, kill by Faith. Kill by Emily. Then consecutive errors by Schaumburg made it 18-8. The team played evenly until 23-13. A nice block by Holly was followed by a nice kill by Taylor and set one was history. Set two was the Faith set. By my computations, she had six kills, two aces and two blocks. Schaumburg really didn't have a chance and Calumet won the set 25-10 and the game.

Calumet's quarterfinal opponent was Indy Silver Lightning, one of Calumet's victims in pool play. Indy got there by upsetting Heritage Hall, the second seed from the yellow pool, winning 15-14 in the third set. I don't know if Calumet started out a bit overconfident. but Indy opened up a 7-5 lead. That seemed to get the Patriots' attention and they got down to business. Actually Indy started to fall apart. Ally got a dink kill, then Indy followed it up with three hitting errors. After an Indy point, it was Eizenga time. A kill by Rachel, then three consecutive aces by Emily. Then the teams exchanged errors until at 15-13 Calumet decided enough was enough. Dink kill by Holly. Ace by Ally. Block by Rachel. Ace by Taylor. Etc, etc. Emily's closing ace made the final score 25-17. Set two was anticlimactic. CCS jumped out to a 13-2 lead and kept it up. The result was convincing 25-8 win and a berth in the semifinals.

In the meantime, because basically I didn't know how good all these teams were, Heritage Christian was facing off against Crossroads in another quarterfinal game on the other side of the bracket. These were the two of the top three teams in the tournament, as far as I could tell (apologies to Quentin Road). But since I didn't know how good Crossroads was, and knowing that they were pretty weak last year, I put them in our pool instead of making them a top seed in another pool. The final score reflected the closeness of the two teams. I believe the scores of the games were 25-22, 20-25, 15-13, with Crossroads coming out the victor.

Calumet's opponent in the semis was Lakeland. Lakeland is coached by Gary Siebert, who has coached for many years against Coach Carr. The difference is that Gary has coached for at least three different organizations while Coach Carr, of course, has been the coach of Calumet. Well I guess you can say that she has coached for three different team names - Calumet Baptist, Calvary Christian and Calumet Christian. Anyway, Gary has an interesting coaching style - mainly that he scouts the opponents and exploits what he sees as their weakness. He uses a lot of dinks on offense (mostly to the setter) and different defensive schemes. Our girls really hadn't seen this, as he had not coached one year and we didn't play against him in another. Most of our girls weren't on the team yet when we played him last.  And one more thing, Coach Siebert's youngest daughter is an excellent defensive player. In the game, it took a while for the girls to get used to his team's play. We also made a lot of unforced errors. The result - a 17-12 lead for Lakeland in set one. However, one of the characteristics of this years' Patriots is long point runs, and that's what happened here. Usually it's either Taylor, Holly or Rachel serving when they get these runs, and in this case it was Taylor. She served twelve straight points after we got the serve back and on a nice kill by Holly on a Lakeland over-pass, Calumet ended set one winning 25-17.

CCS carried the momentum into game two. The Patriots never trailed in this game, leading early at 3-1 and 4-2, and then stretching it out to three, four, five. All the girls played well in this game; errors were reduced and everyone was getting kills. Faith especially started recognizing the defense and putting her spikes in different areas, but everyone got kills, and everyone got excited when Jenna closed out the set and game with a kill. Final score was 25-15.

On the other side of the curtain, Quentin Road was (surprisingly) eliminating Crossroads in three. Crossroads won set one 25-12 and it looked like it was going to be a two-game blowout. Quentin Road seems to be a very mentally strong team, not getting down when things were going against them, while Crossroads showed their youth a little, getting flustered and not handling adversity as well as they might. Quentin Road got it going in set two and won 25-14. The momentum flowed into set three and they took that as well, 15-10, to set up the championship match - Calumet vs. Quentin Road. We have a long history with QR. One of my memories of seasons past was that one of the three losses Calumet had in Rachel Kizer's senior year was against QR, the only regular-season loss they had that year. We also always play in their tournament.

The game itself was not exactly what you would expect for a championship game of a twenty-four team tournament. CCS scored the first three, but then QR scored four. Well, the Patriots gave them to QR. Four straight hitting errors by CCS was the source of those points. The girls settled down and scored the next five. From there they methodically increased the lead, with the final margin of thirteen (25-12) being the largest of the set. And, oh yes, the final point? A kill by Jenna, of course. Game two was a mirror of game one. Tie at 4, then Calumet steadily adding to the lead until it got to thirteen at 20-7, then maintaining a lead around there until a Faith kill (sorry, Jenna) closed out the set, game and tournament, 25-13.

This makes two consecutive Calumet Regional titles for the Patriots, and three out of the last five years. And, befitting a champion, individual honors were many for the girls. Taylor Lindbloom made second team all tournament and Rachel made first team, to the great delight of her family. And to no one's surprise, Faith also repeated as MVP.

The JV plays Grace's teams tomorrow at home and the teams go up against Ridgewood in Joliet on Friday. The JV also has a tournament at Luther East on Saturday. Come out and support your 25-3 Patriots when you are able.

Championship weekend recap

That was fun.

A bit anticlimactic, but fun.

Calumet successfully defended its title at the Calumet Region Volleyball Tournament this weekend, defeated Quentin Road Christian in the championship, 25-12, 25-13.

The weekend started out with a few glitches. We had made some last-minute changes to the program, line judging assignments and other things. Not all of these made it to all the places they were published, so there were some discrepancies. Oh well. We got through it and when the volleyball got going, most of these faded into the background.

The Patriots started out against Commumity Baptist at 12:45, a team they had defeated easily earlier in the season. The girls started out a bit slowly, as it seemed the girls remember this and weren't that into the game. Or it was just the first game and they needed to get warmed up. Whatever the case, at 8-7 the girls started to pull away with kills from Holly and Ally and aces from Emily and CCS pushed the lead to 14-7. After giving up a couple, the Calumet hitting, dinking, blocking and acing continued until CCS closed it out with a kill from Faith, 21-12. Game two was not as competitive. Calumet was hot early and late in this one, jumping out to a 8-1 lead, then running away from Community at the end and winning 21-7.

At 2:30 the girls played Indy Silver Lightning, a homeschool team from, you guessed it, Indy. Indy was at the tournament two years ago, but were not there last year. Calumet opened up an early lead of four, kept it around there to 11-7, then putting it away at the end with a 5-0 run to win 21-10. A highlight of the game was a BIG HIT from faith that made it 15-8. Game two was similar to game one - close early, then Calumet pulling away late. This game finished at 21-12 on an Ally kill.

The third game was against Crossroads. Crossroads is a homeschool program in the far western suburbs of Chicago. They came to the tournament for the first time last year, and were, well, a young program. Kind of scrappy, but not very impressive. This year was completely different. They have a freshman hitter that hits like a freshman. A college freshman. A college freshman guy. Wow. Some serious power resides in her shoulder. But they are also young. The Patriots moved out to a 14-4 lead in game one, but then Crossroads made a little move, mostly behind big hits from their freshman. A dink kill by Crossroads made it 17-12. Then Faith put on a little hitting show. Behind a couple of her kills and a nice double block by the Eizengas, The girls closed it out 21-14. Crossroads was a little stunned by the loss, it seemed, as Calumet jumped to a big early lead. Between great Calumet play and some hitting problems by Crossroads the lead got up to fourteen at 17-3. The girls made a few errors here, but just a few, but on a kill by Kassie Ballah - Yay!- the girls won 21-6.

First Baptist of Danville was next. When I put the pools together, I assumed this team would be our toughest competition in the pool. They played us pretty tough at Quentin Road last year and had their good middle hitter back. That didn't prove to be the case. Hitting by Taylor, Emily and Ally and a lot of FB errors made it 19-3. They seemed to lose their intensity at this point but eventually won it 21-8. FB got over their jitters or whatever it was in game two. After a "heifer", FB led 7-4. This sooned turned around. Hits by Taylor sandwiched around a hit by Rachel tied it up. With FB leading 10-9, two straight hits by Faith gave CCS back the lead. Then two kills by Rachel and another kill by Faith made it 14-10, CCS. The Patriots methodically pulled away and won 21-13.

The final game of the evening was against Fort Wayne Angels. The Angels took fourth last year, so in the seeding I expected them to play well this year. Not so much. They hadn't won a game yet when it became time to play us. And hadn't won a game when we finished. Not even close. I won't go into a lot of detail here, other than to say that we won 21-3, 21-5. Highlight of this match was the kill by Jenna (yes, Jenna!!_ to close out the game.

Well I'm exhausted and am having trouble keeping my eyes open, so I'll give you Saturday's results tomorrow.

Quick recap of Tuesday's game

We're getting ready for the big tournament this weekend. Kristi and Kara are getting ready to go to a women's conference in Indianapolis this weekend, so things are kinda hectic around here. Only a quick recap of the Westville game:

I thought game one was going to be indicative of the entire night. That wasn't to be. More on that later. CCS got the first three points, but then the girls started getting a little sloppy and, after an ace, Westville led 6-5. Which led us to Rachel time. Fourteen points and seven aces later, Coach Carr showed some mercy and subbed her out. The Patriots kept it up and won game one, 25-8.

Game 2 started like it was going to be the same as 1. After a couple of Westville hitting errors it was 7-2, CCS. Patriot error fest time then ensued. The girls muddled around until the lead was only one at 11-10. The game was one of little streaks until finally, after giving up three on game point, CCS won 25-18.

The girls were also not real sharp in game three. They did get the lead up to seven at 14-7 and kind of held it there to the end of the game. Coach Carr subbed some the the "new" girls in - Rebekah (sp?) and Jenna got some playing time here. I have to note here that Rachel got called for a carry on a bump set. A bump set. How can a bump be a carry? [head-scratching] The refs seem to have it out for her. Anyway, the girls ended up with winning the game 25-18 and the match.

Friday begins the big tourney. Calumet is the defending champ. Come on out and support the Patriots and see them repeat. Rumor has it that there will be college scouts there, but you didn't hear that from me. 12:45 against Community Baptist starts it off for Calumet. Go Patriots!!

8-1 against public schools

This morning, the surging Patriots went into Hebron High's beautiful gym and defeated the host Hawks in four games. This game was a late addition to the schedule, arising from contacts Coach Carr made at the Kankakee Valley tournament. Oh, and in case you're wondering, CCS's other two losses were against Catholic schools.

This was kind of a strange game, a game of streaks and momentum. The opening game began a kill by Taylor. Good start. An ace by Holly and three kills by Faith gave CCS a 6-2 lead. That didn't last long. A couple of kills, a couple of CCS errors and a nice block, and Hebron led 8-7. No team led by more than a point until CCS eked out a two point lead at 15-13 on a kill by Rachel. By 18, Hebron had caught up again. It was still even at 21 when Hebron scored on an ace, a couple of CCS errors, and closed it out with a dink kill.

So how do you explain what happed in game two? I have no explanation. There were some nice hits by our girls and some aces, but mostly there were errors. Hitting errors, serving errors , setting errors, defensive errors. Did I miss anything? Oh yes, net violations. And almost all of them by Hebron. CCS got the serve back leading 5-2, and when Rachel finally hit one into the net, it was 15-2. From there, other than two little three-point Hebron runs, Calumet dominated. Everyone contributed with hits, digs and other good plays. When the dust settled, Calumet had game two, 25-9.

The original Hebron team showed up for the third game. They cut way down on the errors from the previous game. We made a few more than we had, interspersed with with a lot of hitting. No team led by more than two (and that only once) until Hebron went ahead 13-10. A four-point run by Calumet ensued, capped off by a very nice block by Faith. It stayed very close throughout the remander of the game. The teams were even at 23. Faith then got a dink kill and Hebron messed up the serve to give CCS game three, 25-23.

Game four was similar to game two. Rachel's quick dink on the second hit stretched the the lead to 12-6. A couple of Hebron points later, the Patriots began a string of points. Taylor had a nice block, then a Holly kill and a Holly dink kill kept it going. Faith then finished strong with several kills. Holly had a nice kill and an ace as well in the run. At 24-12, Ally dinked the ball to an empty space, and Calumet had the victory.

Another quick note: the JV team rolled over Faith on Friday, 25-8, 25-13 and the junior high team won in three - I don't have the scores of that game.

Westville Tuesday. See you there.

Short post for a long night.

Tonight we went to Lafayatte - Faith Christian School, specifically - to play Clinton Christian and the host school in the second consecutive trimatch involving these three teams. Faith is a place we are quite familiar with, having traveled there approximately 73 times last year. Thanks, Keith. Anyway, Faith was our nemesis last year, having dealt us two of our five defeats. The last of the eight games played between these two teams was an intense hard fought win for Faith, 31-29.

This year was a totally different story. But I'll get to that in a minute. Our first game tonight was against Clinton. Last year Clinton played us pretty tough in the middle game, while Calumet beat Clinton somewhat more easily in games one and three. Clinton was a very good defensive team last year. This year they were pretty good on defense, but not great on offense. On to the game.

The Patriots started out pretty slowly. After a Faith dink kill and block made it 2-1 Calumet, the girls made a few errors and it was 4-4. Then the girls started getting untracked. A kill by Faith, then a couple of aces by Faith and a kill by Taylor and a Clinton error made it 9-4. Calumet slowly pulled away behind a flurry of kills and aces, mostly by Taylor and Faith. The game was capped off with a nice kill by Ally and the Patriots had game one, 25-16. 

Game two saw the Patriots run out to a 9-0 lead. Taylor's serving was supported by nice hitting all around, with kills by Rachel, Holly and Faith. After a "heifer" (inside joke), Holly got things headed back in the right direction with a kill. Clinton found their game and stayed with Calumet until it was 19-6. Then Taylor decided the game should be over. Holly had a kill and Clinton made a hitting error, then four consecutive aces by Taylor and her "new" jump serve finished it, 25-6.

Game three was similar to game two. Several errors by Clinton and kills by Rachel, Faith, Emily and Ally gave CCS an 11-3 lead. After giving up a couple of points, Emily got another kill and then it Faith ripped off a couple of aces. The lead stayed around there until Taylor put the match to bed with a kill. Final score of game three was 25-15.

Now it was time to play Faith (FCS so we don't get them confused with our Faith). Five of their starters from last year had graduated. Their JV team was very weak last year so we knew that they weren't going to get much help from there. So what did we do? Started out with three consecutive hitting errors. Finally Emily put one down to get CCS on the board. Further Calumet foundering occurred, then at 5-3 FCS, Faith crushed one. Then it was Holly serving fest. She served twelve consecutive points, including five aces. That made it 16-5. The lead was about ten or so until 20-10, when three straight CCS points moved the lead to thirteen. Some points were exchanged and Taylor finished it off with a kill - 25-13 CCS.

No slow start for game two. Kill by Faith, consecutive aces by Taylor, and a net violation on FCS made it 4-0. That set the tone for the game. Lots of kills pushed the lead out to 11-3. More kills and aces contributed to make it 17-5. FCS got their game working for a short time, scoring four in a row. An Ally kill interrupted that, but then FCS got two more to make it 18-12. We can always depend on Faith to stop the opponent's momentum and that's what she did here. Kill, Faith. The girls methodically stretched the lead until an Emily kill ended it at 25-15.

The girls started showing a little fatigue. They had a 7-2 lead early, but FCS kept hanging in there. After they pulled to within 11-8, CCS scored three in row. FCS kept hanging around and CCS started making some errors. FCS pulled to within three at 20-17 on a CCS error, but they would only score one more point. Holly put one down and then Ally finished it with an ace.

Quick turnaround tomorrow, as we take on Hebron at 9:30. Girls, let Coach get some sleep tonight.

Movin' on up

The Patriots, now that they entered the top ten, have begun to move up. In the most recent NWI Times poll, Calumet was ranked #9. The game they played Tuesday, however, probably won't have much effect on the poll. The Patriots downed the Covenant Christian Knights in three games, 25-8, 25-9, 25-10.

There's not a lot to say about the game. I think I used the word "perfunctory" to describe a victory last year. That's probably an appropriate term for this game as well. In game one, the tone was set early. Taylor started things off with a kill. After a point from a Covenant defensive error, Taylor hit one of her patented serves for an ace. Shortly thereafter Rachel got a couple of aces of her own. A little later it was Faith's turn. The Patriots ended up with eight aces by my count in the game. Appropriately, Taylor finished things off with two more aces.

Game 2 found Covenant with improved serve reception but not spike reception. By my count, we ended up with twelve kills in the game, including (but not showing up in the stats) a backrow kill by Amanda. And, appropriately again, the game ended by a dink kill by Holly.

The team relaxed a bit in game three, but Covenant really fell apart. Rachel got on a long run of serving, and Covenant got on a long run of defensive errors. It was 4-2 when Rachel began serving and it was 17-2 when Covenant broke the streak when the Patriots committed a defensive error. By that time Coach Carr had put in Cassie O. Shortly thereafter she put in Kaylie and moved Faith to setter. This kept things somewhat even until Covenant served one into the net to end it.

Friday is the trimatch against Faith and Clinton. Reports are that both teams are down, especially Faith who had the farthest to fall. But it's never smart to underestimate any opponent, so the girls should come ready to play. I will see you there.

Oh, and one more thing. The rant is coming.

Two best teams in the ICST tonight.

First of all, let me mention WE ARE #10!!!!! Here's the link (we're listed as Calvary Christian - Coach Carr is working on straightening that out): http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/high-school/girls-volleyball/article_6f1e2efd-dca7-5a30-a22f-dc2cbf73d30e.html

The two best volleyball teams in the Indiana Christian School Tournament series played tonight at Heritage Christian High's very nice gym in Dyer. Let me recap the JV game first.

The JV team has one loss this year, and that was to Heritage Christian this past weekend, in pool play at our tournament. The games were pretty close, but Heritage was the better team. We didn't get a chance at a rematch in bracket play when Heritage was upset by Quentin Road in the semifinals, but we got our chance tonight. (By the way, I try to avoid saying "we" this year when I refer to CCS, since I don't have any kids on the team, but since my daughter is coaching the JV, I think I can do it when I refer to them.). Game one began as if Heritage was going to put an exclamation point on the earlier game. CCS stayed even til three, then Heritage began hitting and we began making errors. 10-4, Heritage. The Defenders kept stretching the lead until it was 16-6, due largely to poor back row play by our girls. Granted, HCH is a talented offensive team, but our passing could have been better. Heritage had their biggest lead at 21-10 when things started to go CCS's way. They scored three in a row before a bad serve made it 22-13. Lauren and Rebecca started hitting and CCS was within five at 24-19 before HCH finished it off.

Game two was the opposite. CCS jumped out to the big early lead at 8-1. HCH got three, and the lead stayed around four or five until Heritage scored three in a row to make it 14-12. CCS went on a little run but Heritage matched it. 18-16, CCS. From there, CCS began pulling away. Rebecca had a nice kill in the run, and CCS took game two, 25-16.

Game three was very even. Heritage had a little early lead, as they were blocking and hitting well. We were serving pretty well, but Kaylie cranked it up another notch when she got her chance, scoring three aces in a row and putting us up 9-8. It was nip and tuck from there. Tie, CCS up one, Heritage up one, tie at 11. Three points in a row were scored by CCS at this point, capped by an ace by Cassie Obinger and the Patriots were one point from victory. But, to make it interesting, Heritage scored three in a row of their own, mainly on big hits, to tie it up at 14. CCS got the next point, which I failed to record and I don't remember how it was scored, because I forget that in JV play, the winning team doesn't need to win by two. It was over, and CCS got their sixteenth victory of the year.

Now it was varsity's turn. Heritage gave CCS some tough games last year, including the semifinal match in our tournament in which Heritage won a game, the only one CCS lost in the entire tournament. CCS eventually beat Heritage in three that game. In the other two meetings between these two teams, CCS won both in three, but all were tightly contested except the first game of the state tournament quarterfinal. Which brings me to hint once again at my impending rant. It looks like the way things are set up, there's no way for us to face each other in the state final. But I'll get to that in a later post. On to tonight's game recap.

The first game was notable for how few errors were made by both teams. Points were generally earned in this game, not given. And it was quite even, for a while, anyway. It was back-and-forth, and Heritage held the lead at 9-8 when things started going CCS's way. A nice block by Emily and Ally was followed by KAR (kill-Ally Rohn) then another block, this time by Taylor. Heritage got a couple back, but a KTL (you figure it out) was followed by a Heritage net call and it was 14-11. CCS led by two or three until it was 16-13, but then a KFR (again, I think you know what this is) and a hitting error by HCH made it 18-13. After a CCS serving error, Heritage scored a great point on a great dig, a great save, then a hard pass over the net that fell untouched. Faith quickly kept HCH from getting any momentum with a kill, and CCS rant the score up to 22-15. HCH then started making errors - three hitting errors in a row, and CCS had the first game, 25-15.

|After two Taylor aces (ATLs) to open game two, both teams started making errors. Our hitting was pretty good in this stretch, however, and kills by Taylor and Faith got CCS going. Faith kept it going with three consecutive aces and CCS led 11-6. An ace by Emily and kill by Holly made it 13-6, and the rout was on. Well, not really. Seven consecutive points by Heritage tied it up before a Heritage hitting error stopped the run. CCS then got control back at 19-14 by scoring four in a row, behind aces by Taylor and a KFR. Heritage got to within two at 21-19, but they stopped their own momentun with an error, then CCS completed game two with kills by Ally and Faith after an ace by Rachel, and game two was history, 25-20 CCS.

Game three was the most ragged game, by both teams. There were more errors, but they were spread evenly. The game was tied at 6,8, 10, 11, 13 and 14. Ally had a kill  and an error by Heritage gave CCS a two point lead, and after a HCH kill, the Patriots started putting some space between them and HCH. CCS maintained at least a three point lead until it was 24-21. Then Heritage scored a dink kill and CCS had a hitting error and it was a one point game. Heritage botched the next point defensively and CCS had a somewhat anticlimactic victory, 25-23.

All in all a very exciting night of volleyball, at least I thought so. We will probably see Heritage again, maybe twice (our tourney and state). JV plays the Lady Crusaders there on Friday (the Lady Crusaders beat our JV team last year, and apparently someone spread the word that they beat our varsity. Which was quite humorous.) Varsity, JV and JH at home against Covenant next Tuesday.

Varsity tournament championship

On Saturday, Calumet played in its second tournament in as many weeks. This one was in Wheatfield, IN, at Kankakee Valley High, a team that CCS had played (and beat) earlier in the year. The Patriots' first opponent of the day, however, was Winamac High, a team from just south of Wheatfield. Winamac lost their first game of the year, and then won eleven straight coming into this tourney, so this was going to be tough. And it was.

After a kill by Winamac to open the game, the Patriots went on a little streak. A dink kill by Taylor, blocks by Holly and Rachel and an ace by Taylor gave the girls a 4-1 lead. From there the girls kept a lead, which shrunk to one at 9-8, then again at 12-11. CCS then got four straight, which included two aces by Taylor. The lead stayed at three to five points until a Winamac dink made it 24-22. Faith then put one down to complete the game. The great thing about this game was the fire with which the girls played, and the great saves they pulled off. There wasn't a lot of errors by both teams but a lot of great plays.

This continued into the second game. Winamac started a little stronger and the game was even at the beginning. At 8-8, a couple of errors by Calumet contributed to seven consecutive points by Winamac. Finally Ally broke the streak by finding a hole. The team exchanged points, and after a serving error by Rachel, it was 20-15 Winamac. CCS would then give up only two more points, while scoring ten of their own. These were highlighted by blocks by Holly and Taylor and kills from several of the girls. It was an exciting, come-from-behind victory, and a match win.

Calumet then played Merrillville, a team CCS had beaten in four earlier in the year. The girls started out about even with Merrillville, but then Merrillville began to pull ahead. They stretched their lead to 17-11 when CCS started getting back into it. They got as close as one, but Merrillville ended up winning the game 25-22. CCS controlled things throughout game two. Their biggest lead in the game was seven, 22-15. It was 23-17 when, yes, you guessed it, the LGFS. Merrillville got to within 24-23 after a kill, but then followed it with an error to give CCS the game, 25-23. Game three was somewhat anticlimactic, as CCS ran out to a 10-3 lead. From there, the girls maintained the lead until an ace by Taylor finished off Merrillville 15-9.

Griffith was the last pool play opponent. CCS lead early, and had a seven point lead at 13-6. Then Griffith woke up with a lot of kills Soon it was 17-17. At 22-22 Calumet made a couple of errors, and then Griffith finished it off with a kill. Griffith was the dominating team to start game two, and CCS couldn't seem to do anything right. Griffith lead 8-1 when a Faith kill got CCS their second point. A dink by Ally got CCS to within 9-5, and there the lead stayed between two and five until it was 16-13, Griffith. Faith killing time. Quickly it was 17-17. A Griffith kill made it 21-20. And then they scored no more. Taylor killing time. An Ally ace ended it, 25-20..


Game three was very even to start. CCS was losing 8-7 when Emily aced a serve, and then Taylor got a kill. After a Griffith error, Emily scored another ace and it was 11-8. From there, CCS gave up one, then a block by Holly, an ace by Ally, a block by Taylor (the girls blocked very well on Saturday - much better than the previous Saturday). After a Griffith kill, Faith scored with back row kill and the girls had another win, and a place in the championship game. (The format was that the first place team in each pool would play each other for the championship).

Kankakee Valley was the other pool victor. In our first match, CCS won easily the first two games, and then the third game was much more competitve, as KV got their slide going. The championship game began, and the girls were a little off. The score was 4-1, KV, after a net violation, and KV kept the lead until Calumet caught them at 8-8. CCS then took the lead after an Emily ace, and never gave it back. They led 14-12 when it really started to go CCS's way. A kill by Faith, a KV hitting error, another Faith kill, KV hitting error, Faith kill, KV hitting error...er, no, Emily broke the streak with a dink kill, etc, etc, until it was 23-12. The usual loss of concentration, then the girls closed it out with an Ally kill, 25-16.

Game two also saw KV go out to an early lead. Again, CCS caught them a 8. Again it was 14-12. This time Calumet didn't go on a long run. A dink kill by Emily was followed by a KV block, then an Ally kill, then two points for KV and it was 16-15. CCS started to put some distance between KV and themselves at this point. A kill by Ally, a block by holly, and a dink by Taylor made it 19-15. After a KV kill, Taylor killed and KV netted. From there, CCS didn't get challenged, and two KV hitting errors gave CCS the game (25-19), match and tournament championship.

Since, as far a I know, CCS hasn't been in tournaments with IHSAA school until this year, this was the first tournament championship of this type in CCS's history. This would have been a great weekend with two tournament championships, but with both being firsts, it was especially sweet.

Heritage on Tuesday. Heritage will probably be our biggest challenger at state. The games are there, so see you there.

Big, big weekend for Calumet Volleyball

Wow.

Not just one tournament championship, but two. Yes, two. Wow.

Well, let's start on Friday, at Lake Hills Baptist. The JV tournament began at 1:00 PM with pool play. Calumet didn't play until 5, as the other pool did their Friday play first. Their first opponent was Schaumburg, who turned out to be tough. At least the first game. Calumet squeaked by 25-24 in the first game, but won easily in the second, 21-13. At seven the girls took on Heritage, who is becoming our biggest rival. Heritage won the tournament last year, and continue to be tough. Heritage turned out to be victorious in this one, 21-17, 21-18. This set things up for Saturday, with the possibility of there being three teams tied with 4-2 pool records in Calumet's pool.

I wasn't able to be there for Saturday's game, but got regular text updates from Kelsey and Kristi. Calumet took care of business in their Saturday pool play, defeating Southside twice, and then Heritage took the floor against Schaumburg. If Schaumburg defeated Heritage twice, it wouldn't look good for Calumet in the tie-breakers. Thankfully, Heritage took game one from Schaumburg, ensuring CCS of finishing second in their pool and qualifying for bracket play.

Calumet's opponent in the semi-finals was Grace, suprisingly to some. Quentin Road always has a tough JV team, winning the tournament two years ago and coming in second last year. But Grace topped them in their pool and finished first. Calumet dropped the first one in a close game, 21-19. The second game was quite different, with CCS winning easily 21-10. In the third there was a little controversy. One document indicated that the third game was supposed to be to 15, and in another place it said 21. So Calumet got to fifteen, while Grace was at nine or so, and Calumet began to celebrate. Not so fast. After some discussion, it was decided to play to 21. Grace then made a little run, but CCS held them off 21-17 to win. Again, kind of.

Quentin Road then deprived CCS the opporunity to avenge Friday's loss to Heritage by beating Heritage in three, which set up the final. For some reason I don't have the scores for this game, but I believe that the Patriots lost the first, then won two straight for the championship. We believe that this the first time CCS won their own tournament. I'll have to check this with Coach Carr. Also, we believe that this is the first time that CCS played in their JV tournament without Coach Carr on the bench.

On to the varsity. I'll post separately for that one.

Clean sweep

The Patriots traveled north to the East Chicago Central High gym last night and then returned home with three victories - seven games won, none lost. The JVB team played East Chicago's freshman team and were victorious, 25-14, 25-13. The JVA team played East Chicago's JV team and came away with 25-18, 25-8 win. And the varsity cleaned things up with a 25-15, 25-14, 25-12 win. Last year the girls defeated ECC 25-10, 25-20, and 25-16, so this year's game was a little better.

The girls started out as if they forgot how to play. Both teams were getting many of their points from their opponents' errors, but the Patriots were making more. Because Calumet was the more talented team, however, the score was even at 8. Then the wheels wobbled a little (didn't exactly come off) as ECC ran off five straight to make it 13-8. They didn't exactly run them off themselves, as Calumet committed four errors in that run. Apparently that woke up the girls, because they then went on a thirteen-point run. Six of those points came off Ally aces. Taylor had a dink kill and Holly put one down in the run as well, but the rest of the points were from ECC errors, as they began to unravel. After giving up a couple, Taylor served two aces which alternated with ECC errors, and game 1 was history.

Game 2 saw CCS gradually opening a lead after being tied 3-3. Faith got a kill, then moved to the serving position and got two aces. The lead remained around three until a Holly kill made it 10-6, and that seemed to get CCS going. A kill by Faith, another by Holly, and a Taylor ace preceded a ECC hitting error, before the Cardinals made a nice block to stop the run. Calumet then started another run to get it to 20-9, but then the LGFS reared its ugly head and ECC scored three straight. A dink by Emily followed by an Emily ace got CCS back on track, and they soon closed it out with a Taylor ace.

Game 3 was more of the same, with Calumet jumping out to a 6-0 lead. Calumet got a little soft at this point and made a few errors, but at 8-4 they took off again. Behind a flurry of aces, a couple of kills and several errors by ECC, Calumet opened up an 18-5 lead. Then another mini-LGFS (three straight points by ECC) was followed by alternating errors by both teams, before CCS closed it out with a 5-2 run capped by a Faith ace. 

Back to some stiffer competition this weekend with the Kankakee Valley tournament. Games at 10, 12, 2 and then either 3 or 4, depending on how the girls do in the first three games. The JV tournament takes place at Lake Hills beginning Friday at 1PM. Our first game is at 5, then 7 and 10AM on Saturday before bracket play begins.

Cumulative record of the JV and varsity is now 17-3. JVA is 6-0, JVB is 2-0, combined JVA and JVB is 3-0, and varsity is 6-3.