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.