Saturday was a little different than Friday. OK, a lot different. A lot lot different. But we knew that going in. Lafayette Central Catholic, the host school, was ranked #7 in the state in 1A. Eastern Greene finished in the top 16 in 2A last year as a very young team. Andrean is on the way up since Naveed Nisam took over coaching. And Rockville was 28-5 and finished in the top eight in 1A last year.
The girls opened up against Eastern Greene at 10 local time. Kelsey and I got there just as play was starting. Both teams started out a little ragged, and neither team held more than a one-point lead until it was 8-8. Then Eastern Greene started pulling away. The Patriots were having trouble getting to the net for blocks and were often late getting up, while EG found their hitting rhythm. #7, who is a sophomore, really started hitting the ball hard, and quickly it was 16-10. Faith had a couple of kills in the next few points, but CCS couldn't get anything else going and EG stretched the lead to 20-12. The CCS scored three in a row, the last on a Taylor kill before EG scored three of their own - 24-15, EG. Game over, right? Not quite. Taylor got a dink down and Rachel got a kill before EG made two errors and it was 24-19. Then a Taylor kill, hitting error by EG, an ace by Ally and a setting error by EG made it 24-23. But that was it for CCS. EG crushed a spike and game 1 was over, 25-23, EG.
The second game started like the first. The Patriots jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a dink and an EG error, but from there to 11-10, there was only one lead of more than one point by either team. But then it was CCS's turn to start pulling away. A kill by Faith, an error by EG, then three consecutive aces by Taylor stretched the lead to 16-10. Then a bad pass by CCS was followed by two kill dinks, Faith and Rachel, and the Patriots led by 7. Then the wheels came off. Three kills, a bad pass, and block brought EG to within two. The teams traded points to 21-19; then it was a killfest by EG. They scored five of the next six points to make it 24-22 EG. Rachel then got a kill to make it a one-point, but alas, we had a mishit and the girls lost by the same score as game 1, 25-23.
Lafayette Central Catholic was the next opponent, immediately following. (BTW, each team had a bye. Ours was the last game of the day.) I don't know exactly what the problem was, but LCC led 7-0, mostly due to errors on our part. They still led 11-5 when the Patriots started to make their move. They outscored LCC 7-1 to tie it up. In that run, Ally and Taylor had a couple of kills and Emily had an ace. One thing to note about LCC - almost every player had a killer jump serve. Thankfully Emily played probably the best defensive game of her career and neutralized a lot of their serves with perfect passes. The teams traded points for a while, with CCS even holding a two-point lead at 17-15. A block and two kills and an CCS error gave LCC a 21-18 lead, which they maintained to the end of the game, scoring the winning point point off a quick-set kill, 25-22.
The girls started slowly again in the second game, with LCC getting some kills and dinks to give them a 10-4 lead. LCC made a few errors at this point, and CCS got back to within two at 11-9. Then the teams took turns scoring one or two points until it was 16-14, LCC, when we made an error, one of those jump serves found the floor and then another CCS error made it 19-14. The lead then ranged from two to four points until it was 24-20. Rachel got a kill on an overpass (not literally on a overpass, like on a highway. We were playing in a gym. Little volleyball humor there for ya.). Faith put one down. Then an ace. Then a LCC hitting error and it was tied at 24. Alas, that was the last CCS point of the game. A kill and a CCS setting error closed out the game and match - final score, 26-24.
Andrean was up right after that one. The girls had played and beaten Andrean twice in scrimmages before the season. So the possible mental effects of that were: 1) CCS had confidence and would play loose or, 2) Andrean would be out for revenge. Or maybe neither. I'm not a sports psychologist. The first game was tight throughout. Faith had several kills, and Andrean had their quick working. No team had more than a three-point lead in this one until CCS went up five at 24-19 following consecutive Ally aces. Andrean got three straight before Taylor got a dink to fall to close out CCS's first game win of the day, 25-22.
The second game stayed close until a couple of dinks and Calumet hitting error gave Andrean a 15-11 lead. Then streaky Calumet scored six in a row which included an Emily block and kill and a Faith kill and it was 17-15 CCS. Andrean got four of the next five and they were up by one. The teams were even until it was 22-21 Andrean. They scored two at that point, Ally got a kill to pull within two, but a net violation on Rachel was called, which none of us saw, and the game was Andrean's, 25-22.
The third game was to fifteen. The Patriots had early leads at 3-1 and 5-3. Andrean then had a four-point run before Faith got a dink to fall. After two more Andrean points, Ally got a dink kill, Andrean pounded one, Ally got another dink kill, and Andrean pounded two more down, which was followed by a CCS hitting error and it was 13-8. A service error by Andrean and an ace by Taylor brought CCS to within three, but then kill, kill, Andrean and the match was over.
Fifteen minutes and a quick bite later the girls' last game began, against Rockville. And even after playing all those games, the girls were sharp. They led 8-1, and not a single point they scored was unforced. Taylor had a kill, Holly had a kill and two aces, Faith had a kill and a dink kill, Emily had a kill and Rachel got a dink down. CCS let up a little from there, but they kept Rockville on their heels, made very few mistakes, and Rockville closed out the game with two hitting error. The final was 25-12.
Rockville got things together a little bit for the next game. Calumet made a couple of errors and Rockville started getting their offense together. Rockville had the early lead 6-4. Now it was Calumet's turn to get things together. In their 8-0 run, Faith had a couple of aces and Ally and Taylor had kills, but the rest of the points were from Rockville errors. Then the Patriots started making some errors. Rockville slowly crept back into the game, finally tying it at 15. Then it was CCS's turn for a run. A lift by Rockville, a Taylor ace, a dink kill by Holly, another ATL (ask Taylor), a kill by Faith and one more point (I can't read my notes for this one) and it was a 21-15 CCS lead. CCS led 22-18 when Rockville scored with a dink, but then a Rockville error was followed by a Rachel ace. Faith then put the exclamation point on the game with a nice kill, and CCS took the game and the match, 25-19.
Several random observations: Calumet represented itself well against some very, very good opposition. A few points here and there and the tournament could have been theirs. The game differential for the day was as follows: -2,-2,-3,-2, +3,-3,-5,+13,+6. Not one blowout; not one easy game win for the opponent. The defense started weak, but really came on later in the day and was their strength. The blocking was not good, but covering was. Hitting and setting were inconsistent. It's too bad these games couldn't have been spread out through the season, because after next week's tournament at Kankakee Valley, tought opposition will be rare. Eastern Greene won the tournament, but only after the tie-breakers were figured out, because they, Andrean, and Lafayettee Central Catholic all finished 3-1. CCS was 1-3 and Rockville was 0-4.
Tuesday at East Chicago. Last year we beat them handily; we will see if they have improved.
My rant is imminent.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
From the ridiculous to the sublime
This is a tale of two days of volleyball.
The first was Friday. It wasn't pretty. It was actually reminiscent of much of last year.
The opponent was Community Baptist. Community was not our worst opponent last year, but they certainly weren't the best. Or near the best. We beat them 25-10, 25-10, 25-19, indicating their relative weakness and also our tendency to lose focus toward the end of these blowouts. This year was not really different. I won't go into much detail because it was such a one-sided game, Coach did play the JV for game #2, which I'm not counting here - they lost, but just barely. Any way to make a short story very short, the scores were 25-4, 25-14,.25-15. The 14 and 15 points scored against us were due mainly to our girls relaxing.
More tomorrow - I can't stay awake anymore tonight.
The first was Friday. It wasn't pretty. It was actually reminiscent of much of last year.
The opponent was Community Baptist. Community was not our worst opponent last year, but they certainly weren't the best. Or near the best. We beat them 25-10, 25-10, 25-19, indicating their relative weakness and also our tendency to lose focus toward the end of these blowouts. This year was not really different. I won't go into much detail because it was such a one-sided game, Coach did play the JV for game #2, which I'm not counting here - they lost, but just barely. Any way to make a short story very short, the scores were 25-4, 25-14,.25-15. The 14 and 15 points scored against us were due mainly to our girls relaxing.
More tomorrow - I can't stay awake anymore tonight.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Yeah, I know, it's late
Sorry about the delay. I guess I'm not quite as excited about posting when I can't make the games.
I said last post that the Merrillville game would be the first one I missed completely since Kelsey's first varsity game. Well, I did manage to get over there between games that I was playing in Crown Point. I was able to see the last part of game three and all of game four. I really shouldn't have seen all of game four because I was late for my game, but so be it. I did miss the MCAC game, so that was the first one totally missed. Time to start a new streak.
From what I saw and from talking to Coaches Carr and Franklin, the play against Merrillville was sloppy at times but effective. As I mentioned, I only saw the second half of the third game and the fourth game, and the Patriots looked pretty good in that stretch. Faith was alternately pounding the ball and placing it, Ally was hitting around the blocks (except for one), serving was very good, setting was effective and the defense was adequate. Coach Carr said that the middle of the defense is still a concern. Hopefully Amanda can come back quickly from her broken finger and help out there. Nevertheless, the Patriots have two convincing wins against public school opponents.
Tuesday's game was another story. Coach Franklin gave me her notes from the game and I will try to relate them here. She didn't have detailed notes about the first game, but noted that MCAC got two points from an incorrect lineup submitted for Calumet...and still CCS won 25-9. We faced MCAC a few times last year, most notably in the NCSAA tournament in Erie, PA. They were not a strong team but they weren't horrible. Apparently they lost of a lot of their strength to graduation, because the reports were that they were weaker than last year.
Coach Franklin noted that Jenna was put in as libero in game #2. Early on, #3 (who reminded Kelsey very much of Jamie Fivecoate of Fulton County, for those of you who remember her) made a big block on Faith. This was part of some decent play early in the game by MCAC, who only trailed at one point 9-5. From there CCS went on a tear. When the streak finally ended with a mishit by Faith, Calumet let 18-5. The lead then was gradually extended, and the game ended as the first one did, 25-9.
Taylor served like she can to start game three, and soon it was 10-1. Calumet then maintained approximately that lead to 14-6, then went on a five-point run. After a couple of unforced Patriot errors, MCAC started passing the ball over the net, setting up easy kills for Taylor and Holly. An ace by Emily made the score 23-8, then the Patriots experienced their first LGFS-like stretch of the season (see last year's posts for what LGFS stands for). But a Holly kill finished off the overmatched Wildcats - final score: 25-11.
Tomorrow Community Baptist of South Bend, the the big, big test - the five-team round-robin at Lafayette Central Catholic on Saturday. Opponents are Lafayette Central Catholic, Andrean, Rockville (28-7 last year) and Eastern Greene (30-5). That will be fun.
And, just maybe, soon I'll have my first rant of the year. You know who/what the subject will be.
PS. The JV teams have been on a roll. They are 8-0 in matches and 17-2 in games. Their two game losses were against varsity teams, and one of those was played by the JVB team. They are 4-0 in matches against varsity squads. Most recently, the JVA team defeated MCAC 25-4, 25-8. Soon the JV information will be on the Maxpreps website. I will post a link when that info is published.
I said last post that the Merrillville game would be the first one I missed completely since Kelsey's first varsity game. Well, I did manage to get over there between games that I was playing in Crown Point. I was able to see the last part of game three and all of game four. I really shouldn't have seen all of game four because I was late for my game, but so be it. I did miss the MCAC game, so that was the first one totally missed. Time to start a new streak.
From what I saw and from talking to Coaches Carr and Franklin, the play against Merrillville was sloppy at times but effective. As I mentioned, I only saw the second half of the third game and the fourth game, and the Patriots looked pretty good in that stretch. Faith was alternately pounding the ball and placing it, Ally was hitting around the blocks (except for one), serving was very good, setting was effective and the defense was adequate. Coach Carr said that the middle of the defense is still a concern. Hopefully Amanda can come back quickly from her broken finger and help out there. Nevertheless, the Patriots have two convincing wins against public school opponents.
Tuesday's game was another story. Coach Franklin gave me her notes from the game and I will try to relate them here. She didn't have detailed notes about the first game, but noted that MCAC got two points from an incorrect lineup submitted for Calumet...and still CCS won 25-9. We faced MCAC a few times last year, most notably in the NCSAA tournament in Erie, PA. They were not a strong team but they weren't horrible. Apparently they lost of a lot of their strength to graduation, because the reports were that they were weaker than last year.
Coach Franklin noted that Jenna was put in as libero in game #2. Early on, #3 (who reminded Kelsey very much of Jamie Fivecoate of Fulton County, for those of you who remember her) made a big block on Faith. This was part of some decent play early in the game by MCAC, who only trailed at one point 9-5. From there CCS went on a tear. When the streak finally ended with a mishit by Faith, Calumet let 18-5. The lead then was gradually extended, and the game ended as the first one did, 25-9.
Taylor served like she can to start game three, and soon it was 10-1. Calumet then maintained approximately that lead to 14-6, then went on a five-point run. After a couple of unforced Patriot errors, MCAC started passing the ball over the net, setting up easy kills for Taylor and Holly. An ace by Emily made the score 23-8, then the Patriots experienced their first LGFS-like stretch of the season (see last year's posts for what LGFS stands for). But a Holly kill finished off the overmatched Wildcats - final score: 25-11.
Tomorrow Community Baptist of South Bend, the the big, big test - the five-team round-robin at Lafayette Central Catholic on Saturday. Opponents are Lafayette Central Catholic, Andrean, Rockville (28-7 last year) and Eastern Greene (30-5). That will be fun.
And, just maybe, soon I'll have my first rant of the year. You know who/what the subject will be.
PS. The JV teams have been on a roll. They are 8-0 in matches and 17-2 in games. Their two game losses were against varsity teams, and one of those was played by the JVB team. They are 4-0 in matches against varsity squads. Most recently, the JVA team defeated MCAC 25-4, 25-8. Soon the JV information will be on the Maxpreps website. I will post a link when that info is published.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
The post-Boss era begins
That was strange, going to a varsity game which didn't include one of my daughters.
Well, Kelsey was assistant coach, so that wasn't exactly right, but no Boss girls were wearing the uniform.
It was nice not having any obligations. I didn't miss the elevated blood pressure. But while I still feel a part of the program, since almost the whole varsity team were teammates of Kara, it was different. It will be even more different next week when I (gasp) miss a game, something I haven't done since the first game of Kelsey's varsity career four years ago. (And that was only because I didn't know that Lafayette was in the Eastern time zone.)
Anyway, on to the game.
Kankakee Valley was new to the schedule last year, the result of a lot of hard work by Coach Carr to get more public schools on the schedule. It was our opener last year, as this game was. I identify last year's game as the "broken wrist game"; the game in which Kara broke her wrist and missed half the year. Well, despite that we won last year, in three close games. KV has a new coach this year, and we heard that he had shuffled things around quite a bit, moving several freshman up to varsity. This meant that they didn't have a freshman team, which meant our JVB team didn't have a game tonight.
They still have a JV team, however, and the teams began playing at 5:30. I didn't arrive until well into the second game, but the little I saw showed me that, while the team has a lot of room for improvement, there's a lot of bright spots. Serving was strong, and the girls moved well. In a lot of other ways you could tell it was the first game of the year. But it was also the first game of the year for KV, so they also were pretty ragged. CCS won the match in two tightly contested games, 25-21 and 25-19. Coach Franklin (Franklin... that's another strange thing) said that she thought the play was a little sloppy. She mentioned specifically that Rebecca Thompson played well.
The varsity then took the floor. While it looked just like the JV, uniform-wise, I had assurances that yes, this was the varsity. Thanks to Coach Carr's little memory issue tonight, we can now stop talking about how Kelsey forgot the uniforms for the Faith game three years ago. The girls didn't play like a JV team, though. The score was 14-9 in the first game, advantage Calumet, when the girls went on an 11-1 run to close out KV, 25-10. The girls played well, but KV contributed a lot to the loss, with many hitting and serving errors.
The second game was different, in that Calumet jumped out to a 9-0 lead behind the great serving of Taylor and the continued hitting woes of KV. At this point, Calumet starting making the errors and KV pulled to within 12-7. Then a serving error and a hitting error by KV got Calumet back on track. Emily then served nine points in a row, including three aces, stretching the lead to 23-9. The teams traded points until another KV hitting error gave Calumet the second game win, 25-11.
The third game was completely different. KV stopped making all those hitting errors, and their defense got better. They also started to get their slide play working, where the setter back-sets to what appears to be an open spot, but the hitter slides behind the setter, following the ball, and then usually cuts the spike sharply across the net. KV pulled off this play successfully at least four times in the game. KV led at 9-6 and 13-10. They still led 16-14 when Holly made a big block. Then KV made a two hitting errors, Rachel got a back row kill and an ace, and suddenly it was 20-16, CCS. KV put a couple of hits down at this point, but Ally stopped the momentum with a backrow kill. After a Calumet defensive error, Faith put one down and KV made yet another hitting error. The teams exchanged points, with Faith finishing off the game with a nice dink kill. Final score: 25-21.
After the game, KV's new coach informed Coach Carr that they wouldn't be playing us next year. Something about only playing IHSAA schools. Sure.
Anyway, Merrillville on Monday, a new public school on the schedule. I probably won't be there, so let me say now, Go Patriots!
Well, Kelsey was assistant coach, so that wasn't exactly right, but no Boss girls were wearing the uniform.
It was nice not having any obligations. I didn't miss the elevated blood pressure. But while I still feel a part of the program, since almost the whole varsity team were teammates of Kara, it was different. It will be even more different next week when I (gasp) miss a game, something I haven't done since the first game of Kelsey's varsity career four years ago. (And that was only because I didn't know that Lafayette was in the Eastern time zone.)
Anyway, on to the game.
Kankakee Valley was new to the schedule last year, the result of a lot of hard work by Coach Carr to get more public schools on the schedule. It was our opener last year, as this game was. I identify last year's game as the "broken wrist game"; the game in which Kara broke her wrist and missed half the year. Well, despite that we won last year, in three close games. KV has a new coach this year, and we heard that he had shuffled things around quite a bit, moving several freshman up to varsity. This meant that they didn't have a freshman team, which meant our JVB team didn't have a game tonight.
They still have a JV team, however, and the teams began playing at 5:30. I didn't arrive until well into the second game, but the little I saw showed me that, while the team has a lot of room for improvement, there's a lot of bright spots. Serving was strong, and the girls moved well. In a lot of other ways you could tell it was the first game of the year. But it was also the first game of the year for KV, so they also were pretty ragged. CCS won the match in two tightly contested games, 25-21 and 25-19. Coach Franklin (Franklin... that's another strange thing) said that she thought the play was a little sloppy. She mentioned specifically that Rebecca Thompson played well.
The varsity then took the floor. While it looked just like the JV, uniform-wise, I had assurances that yes, this was the varsity. Thanks to Coach Carr's little memory issue tonight, we can now stop talking about how Kelsey forgot the uniforms for the Faith game three years ago. The girls didn't play like a JV team, though. The score was 14-9 in the first game, advantage Calumet, when the girls went on an 11-1 run to close out KV, 25-10. The girls played well, but KV contributed a lot to the loss, with many hitting and serving errors.
The second game was different, in that Calumet jumped out to a 9-0 lead behind the great serving of Taylor and the continued hitting woes of KV. At this point, Calumet starting making the errors and KV pulled to within 12-7. Then a serving error and a hitting error by KV got Calumet back on track. Emily then served nine points in a row, including three aces, stretching the lead to 23-9. The teams traded points until another KV hitting error gave Calumet the second game win, 25-11.
The third game was completely different. KV stopped making all those hitting errors, and their defense got better. They also started to get their slide play working, where the setter back-sets to what appears to be an open spot, but the hitter slides behind the setter, following the ball, and then usually cuts the spike sharply across the net. KV pulled off this play successfully at least four times in the game. KV led at 9-6 and 13-10. They still led 16-14 when Holly made a big block. Then KV made a two hitting errors, Rachel got a back row kill and an ace, and suddenly it was 20-16, CCS. KV put a couple of hits down at this point, but Ally stopped the momentum with a backrow kill. After a Calumet defensive error, Faith put one down and KV made yet another hitting error. The teams exchanged points, with Faith finishing off the game with a nice dink kill. Final score: 25-21.
After the game, KV's new coach informed Coach Carr that they wouldn't be playing us next year. Something about only playing IHSAA schools. Sure.
Anyway, Merrillville on Monday, a new public school on the schedule. I probably won't be there, so let me say now, Go Patriots!
Monday, August 16, 2010
This just in...
Preview of volleyball season from NWI Times: http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/high-school/girls-volleyball/article_4a0030b8-4cb7-5cc5-9d89-d8ab46c63129.html
Note our very own Faith Rohn listed in what serves as their preseason All-Region team.
Also note Calvary (I know, we're Calumet, we'll get that straightened out) listed in other teams getting votes, which means the Times has us listed in the top thirteen in the region.
Note our very own Faith Rohn listed in what serves as their preseason All-Region team.
Also note Calvary (I know, we're Calumet, we'll get that straightened out) listed in other teams getting votes, which means the Times has us listed in the top thirteen in the region.
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