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.