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.