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.