It's hard to believe that it's over. Not the Calumet volleyball team of course, but the run of the most accomplished group of players that Calumet has ever seen. Not over because some team dethroned them, but over because of the inevitability of the passage of time. High school girls eventually graduate and move on.
It's normal but it's also a little sad.
However, this team didn't sully their legacy a bit on their way out, completing a successful defense of their Division I national championship at NACA, defeating Heritage Academy of Hagerstown, Maryland in the final. Since some time has past and most of you already now most of the NACA week's events, I won't go into as much detail as I usually do going over the game. You already got the
scores of the pool play matches. As last year, the format was the same to determine the divisions. Their were 24 teams signed up, so their were eight pools of three, with the top team of each moving on to Division I, second to Division II and third to Division III. I had the teams backwards - we actually played Santa Rosa first and Lancaster of Smyrna second. As I noted we easily defeated both and then spent the rest of the day cheering for the other teams to give the top teams good matches so we could seed number one for the third straight year. It came down to the last pool, and the the second place team needed to score 12 points in the last game of their match to give it to us. When it got to 11-10, we thought we had it. Sadly, the losing team decided to give up and that point and their coach apparently did too, never calling a timeout in a closing 14-1 run by the victorious team, relegating us to the second seed. This was more a blow to the pride than an actual obstacle to overcome, and it actually worked out better, allowing us to play different teams throughout bracket play and to play most of the best teams there.
Our first opponent was West Florida, one of whose best players was a seventh-grader. We later found out that she and her sixth-grade sister who played on the JV team were two of the highest ranked beach volleyball players in the age class in the country. This first game was tough on two levels for us; first, Faith was still hobbling from her sprained ankle, and CCS always has problems with early games. We did lead 12-9, but the team was definitely out of sorts, trying to work around Faith's lack of mobility on defense. The offense was still good, but medium-speed spikes that we usually pick up were hitting the floor. CCS had two points in a row that were due to confusion, which almost never happened during the season. There was a little light at the end of the game - at 24-18, WF served one into the net and Ally took over serving. She scored three aces in a row and then scored on a back row kill. A WF net violation and a kill by Taylor put CCS within one of winning. WF did score the next three to win but the momentum was back on the Patriots side. With Taylor serving, CCS ran out to a 7-0 lead in game two and never looked back. WF showed their youth with a lot of mistakes and all of our girls were hitting. This carried through both games two (25-11) and game three (15-4).
The big change for the second game was the tape job Faith received from the Rhea County High trainer. That was where both of our games were Thursday, and he was engaged to provide trainer services to the teams participating at NACA. He gave Faith some high-tech treatment, then taped her up more thoroughly than the nurse at NACA had done for the first game. Faith really noted the difference and it showed in her play. The rest of the team was feeling pretty good after their performance in the second and third games of the prior match, and they were ready for Evangel of Virginia, their second-round opponent. After a Lauren kill, however, they dropped the next four points. A Faith kill turned things around and the Patriots scored four in a row of their own. A little bit of point-exchanging, then the girls went on a 9-0 run, with kills from everyone. That was it for that game and the girls ended up winning 25-12. Game two was a little closer, but CCS got the early lead and maintained a comfortable margin throughout, winning 25-17. The highlight was a dramatic block by Lauren and Faith on Evangel's star hitter.
This put us into the semifinals, on Friday. A win here, then a defeat of the team coming out of the loser's bracket and the championship would be ours. The opponent was a homeschool team from Asheville called the Western Carolina Trailblazers. They had two strong players, sisters, one a sophomore and the other a freshman. The girls ended up winning in two straight, but both games were battles. We made more than our usual errors in the first game, and we couldn't pull away, at least early. Finally at 17-16, an Ally kill seemed to light a fire and the girls ran off seven straight, despite a nice kick "kill" by WC. We had seen a couple of kicked ball before, but this one was pretty good because it was a tough reach, and the girl kicked a nice ball over the net. The last point was a kill by Taylor that was set up by a beautiful dig by Faith. In game two, the girls trailed by as much as four (11-7) early, but then WC started making youthful errors and we scored six straight and twelve of the next fourteen. That gave us a six point lead which we maintained right to the end, finishing the 25-19 on a Taylor kill, assisted on a nice set by Holly.
Heritage, a team that came in undefeated, was our opponent in the championship. They had a bad game in the first round of the bracket play, but then had rolled right up to the championship game. They were very good defensively, but their best player was a powerful six-footer. She was complemented by another very good middle, but we had faced teams at least as formidable in the our games against the IHSAA schools. The first game was close throughout. The Patriots never led by more than one, and Heritage never led by more than three. Heritage led 22-20 when Taylor crushed one, then served an ace. After giving up a kill, Faith matched it and they they mishit a kill. 24-23, CCS. After a Heritage dink kill, Holly put one down. Game point again. Heritage then put a block and kill together, giving them game point. They put a serve into the net, we put a kill attempt there. 27-26, Heritage. Faith put one down from the back row and it was tied again. That was it for us, as Heritage tipped one around our block, then scored the game-winning point on a block. 29-27, Heritage.
Our offense was stronger in game two. Faith got loose and Taylor was on. Holly and Ally were ready when their number was called. Taylor started serving strongly and Faith and Holly scored on kills and it was 6-2 Patriots. The score was even for a stretch, as the Patriots alternated kills with errors. At 12-8 Heritage ran off a string of three straight blocks. The stopped themselves with a serving error, but followed that with a kill. Faith and Ally then began exchanging kills with their big hitter until they made a hitting mistage which pushed the Calumet lead to 17-14. Heritage then started creeping up with kills, aces and CCS errors. They took the lead 20-19 on a kill, which Faith matched, but then went back up by one on a dink kill. Faith answered again and then Heritage made a hitting error. Kills by Ally and Holly put Calumet within one of evening up the match, but the girls had to wait through a Heritage kill before Faith finished it on a beautiful left-handed kill on a ball set WAY outside.
That set up game three. If Calumet won, the championship would be ours. If Heritage won, the two teams would play another three game match. At first it wasn't clear which would be the outcome. A lot of errors were committed by both sides. A CCS setting error made it 5-4, but that was pretty much the end of the drama. Kill, Taylor - 6-4. Kill, Taylor - 7-4. Kill, Taylor - 8-4. Net violation, Heritage. 9-4. Crushing hit of an overpass, perhaps her kill of the year, Holly, 10-4. Kill, Taylor - 11-4. Finally Heritage broke the string with dink kill and another kill, but that only delayed the inevitable. Ally scored a kill. 12-6. Then a beautiful block by Taylor. She followed a, if I remember correctly, a poor set that went over the net, and block the ensuing kill attempt, a real heads-up play. Heritage hit one out, Ally got another kill. Appropriately, after the game she had, Taylor got the honor of scoring the last point on a half-kill, half block on tipped ball at the net. The ball hit the ground and it was over.
The awards were then announced, and Calumet scored nearly a clean sweep. Best offensive player - Faith Rohn. Best defensive player - tie, Heritage big star and Jenna Alderden, who played nearly flawless libero the whole week. Best setter - Ally Rohn. All tournament: Ally, Jenna, Faith, Holly and Tayor.
Joy-lief-ness was the sentiment of moment. Joy because the girls earned another championship. Relief because the competition was fierce. Sadness because it was over for Holly, Rebekah, Kassie, Faith, Taylor, Jenna and Katie, as well as Taylor Stas. There seemed to be a lot more tears after the victory this year than last; not as much screaming, but more big smiles. Lots of hugs, especially players with their parents. It was a good choice not to begin the trip back until Saturday, as all the participants seemed to want to linger of the floor, making the moment last as long as possible
A season, and a team, to remember.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Division 1, here we come
Calumet rolls to a 25-11 game two victory. They now place in Division 1. Where they seed depends on how few points the #1 teams in the other pools give up.
Game 1 win
25-9, CCS. Final point scored on a block by Holly. Seven of Santa Rosa's points were scored on Calumet unforced errors. Solid win.
Live blogging attempt
I am trying something new - live blogging. I'm sitting at the gym at Fort Bluff, waiting for Calumet's second match to begin. Match 1 was a CCS victory over Lancaster of Smyrna, TN 25-15, 25-13. CCS's opponent coming up is Santa Rosa Christian from FL.
To those who get these blog entries as emails, I apologize for filling up your mailboxes.
To those who get these blog entries as emails, I apologize for filling up your mailboxes.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Faithless
That was too easy. The title line, that is.
But we did find out how good this team is without her.
Pretty good.
In fact, very good. The Patriots rolled to their second consecutive ICST championship on Saturday, defeating the Goshen Blue Blazers 25-16, 25-21, 25-15 in the semifinals and in a display of dominance, crushing the Arthur Okaw Christian Riders in the championship, 25-16, 25-7, 25-14, all without their star player, Faith. Actually, the state championship was accomplished in the defeat of Goshen, as Arthur is an Illinois team. So I guess the girls are now either the champions of the IICST or you might call them bi-state champions.
As all of you know by know, Faith badly sprained her ankle at Thursday's practice. It was soon determined that she would definitely be out for the state tournament (Her status for NACA is uncertain at this time). Coach's answer to this was to move Ally into Faith's position, change to a 5-1 with Katie setting, and playing Bekah and Mandi in Ally's slot. The girls were a little out-of-sorts to begin the match, but considering that they had not played this formation all year, they played pretty well. Goshen didn't challenge very much either, so the girls had a chance to get comfortable. It was 6-5 CCS when the girls began a little streak. Points were achieved from blocks, hits, dinks, and the a Holly ace made it 13-6. A Goshen dink kill was only a momentary interruption, as the girls ran off another four. A little Goshen run made it 20-13. Mandi stopped that run with a block, then Taylor dominated the end of the game with two kills and a block to account for three of the last four points.
The Patriots seemed to have more trouble adjusting in the second game than the first. They fell behind 9-6, mostly because of their own errors, defensive and hitting. Holly got things going the right way with a kill. That started a run of five points to give CCS the lead. Goshen ran off three at 13-13 to give them the lead, but Calumet answered that with four. Goshen scored on a spike to tie it again, but Ally and Holly got kills, and CCS never relinquished the lead. Another Holly kill closed out game two.
In game three, the teams split the first four points. Ally put the Patriots into the lead with a kill, then Taylor got one from the back row. A little aside - the back row hitting was beautiful all day. A bit later a Katie ace was followed by back-to-back kills from Ally and the game was for all intents and purposes, over. Goshen got no closer than three as they began to make errors and our girls continued their stellar play. The lead got pushed out to 22-9 on a Kassie ace before, yes, a LGFS. Of the last six points scored by Goshen, four were from unforced errors by CCS. The game and match ended somewhat anticlimactically, on a Goshen hitting error.
Arthur had coasted past Horizon in the first semifinal. (I could put together a whole post on why Horizon has a trophy case full of fourth-place volleyball trophies, but I will refrain. I will try to be positive ;-). ) Arthur Okaw from Arthur, Illinois. We still are not sure what they were doing at the Indiana Christian School Tournament. I have a thought or two, but I'm keeping that to myself. (See parenthetical statement above.) However, we were thankful that we had what we thought would be a tough opponent in the final. We had faced Arthur in the semifinals of our tournament and in a one-game pool play match at Quentin Road. Both times it looked they were intimidated, and they didn't score more than fourteen in any game. But with Faith out, CCS would be playing short-handed and the intimidation factor would lessened, if not gone altogether.
We got the early lead at 5-3, but Arthur ran off four straight points. The good thing about that was three of the points were off unforced errors. That 7-5 lead turned out to be the highlight of Arthur's afternoon. We matched the four points, gave up one on a missed serve, then scored three more. Arthur scored two more to get within two, but that was as close as they would get. Except for the beginning of the next two games, that was as close as they would get all afternoon. A hitting error was followed by an ace by Mandi and a dink kill by Lauren. Shortly thereafter, an Arthur kill brought them to within three. That hope was quickly squashed by two Ally kills, a block by Holly and Ally and a kill by Holly. Taylor finished off that run with a back-row kill. Arthur scored three of the next four, but a Holly kill on an over pass was followed by an Arthur hitting error and Taylor finished with a kill.
Game two didn't look much different than game one. At least for a while. CCS had the same lead of 5-3, but this time they moved the lead out to 10-5. We hit one into the net on a kill attempt but that was the last point Arthur would score for a while. Holly began a serving streak in which her serving arm got so tired that Coach had to replace her. Just kidding. Arthur could not get any hits in to start with, then it was kills by Taylor, Lauren and Bekah, followed by blocks: first a solo by Lauren, then a double from Lauren and Holly, then a dink/block by Lauren. When the dust settled, the Patriots had run off fourteen in a row. Arthur dinked one down to delay the inevitable, but they followed that with a serving error to end it.
It seemed at this point that the outcome of the third game was a foregone conclusion. The play confirmed this. No long streaks, but Calumet established the early lead and never gave it up. A block by Ally and Lauren made it 4-1. An Ally kill made it 7-2. A back-row kill by Ally and it was 15-6. The biggest lead was twelve at 20-8 and 21-9. Arthur put together a little stretch of good play, getting as close as nine, but they ended with a mishit and the Patriots reigned again.
Two straight state titles. Three consecutive Calumet Invitational championships. Three straight Quentin Road titles. Back-to-back Kankakee Valley Tourney victories. Terre Haute tourney victors.
Reigning Division 1 NACA champions (I love writing that). A whisker away from adding a Lafayette Central Catholic tournament and another state title to all of that. The accomplishments of this senior class is astounding. Now they have the opportunity to add to all that with another NACA championship. And to get this last one without their captain and best player speaks volumes about their ability and character.
Congratulations, girls.
But we did find out how good this team is without her.
Pretty good.
In fact, very good. The Patriots rolled to their second consecutive ICST championship on Saturday, defeating the Goshen Blue Blazers 25-16, 25-21, 25-15 in the semifinals and in a display of dominance, crushing the Arthur Okaw Christian Riders in the championship, 25-16, 25-7, 25-14, all without their star player, Faith. Actually, the state championship was accomplished in the defeat of Goshen, as Arthur is an Illinois team. So I guess the girls are now either the champions of the IICST or you might call them bi-state champions.
As all of you know by know, Faith badly sprained her ankle at Thursday's practice. It was soon determined that she would definitely be out for the state tournament (Her status for NACA is uncertain at this time). Coach's answer to this was to move Ally into Faith's position, change to a 5-1 with Katie setting, and playing Bekah and Mandi in Ally's slot. The girls were a little out-of-sorts to begin the match, but considering that they had not played this formation all year, they played pretty well. Goshen didn't challenge very much either, so the girls had a chance to get comfortable. It was 6-5 CCS when the girls began a little streak. Points were achieved from blocks, hits, dinks, and the a Holly ace made it 13-6. A Goshen dink kill was only a momentary interruption, as the girls ran off another four. A little Goshen run made it 20-13. Mandi stopped that run with a block, then Taylor dominated the end of the game with two kills and a block to account for three of the last four points.
The Patriots seemed to have more trouble adjusting in the second game than the first. They fell behind 9-6, mostly because of their own errors, defensive and hitting. Holly got things going the right way with a kill. That started a run of five points to give CCS the lead. Goshen ran off three at 13-13 to give them the lead, but Calumet answered that with four. Goshen scored on a spike to tie it again, but Ally and Holly got kills, and CCS never relinquished the lead. Another Holly kill closed out game two.
In game three, the teams split the first four points. Ally put the Patriots into the lead with a kill, then Taylor got one from the back row. A little aside - the back row hitting was beautiful all day. A bit later a Katie ace was followed by back-to-back kills from Ally and the game was for all intents and purposes, over. Goshen got no closer than three as they began to make errors and our girls continued their stellar play. The lead got pushed out to 22-9 on a Kassie ace before, yes, a LGFS. Of the last six points scored by Goshen, four were from unforced errors by CCS. The game and match ended somewhat anticlimactically, on a Goshen hitting error.
Arthur had coasted past Horizon in the first semifinal. (I could put together a whole post on why Horizon has a trophy case full of fourth-place volleyball trophies, but I will refrain. I will try to be positive ;-). ) Arthur Okaw from Arthur, Illinois. We still are not sure what they were doing at the Indiana Christian School Tournament. I have a thought or two, but I'm keeping that to myself. (See parenthetical statement above.) However, we were thankful that we had what we thought would be a tough opponent in the final. We had faced Arthur in the semifinals of our tournament and in a one-game pool play match at Quentin Road. Both times it looked they were intimidated, and they didn't score more than fourteen in any game. But with Faith out, CCS would be playing short-handed and the intimidation factor would lessened, if not gone altogether.
We got the early lead at 5-3, but Arthur ran off four straight points. The good thing about that was three of the points were off unforced errors. That 7-5 lead turned out to be the highlight of Arthur's afternoon. We matched the four points, gave up one on a missed serve, then scored three more. Arthur scored two more to get within two, but that was as close as they would get. Except for the beginning of the next two games, that was as close as they would get all afternoon. A hitting error was followed by an ace by Mandi and a dink kill by Lauren. Shortly thereafter, an Arthur kill brought them to within three. That hope was quickly squashed by two Ally kills, a block by Holly and Ally and a kill by Holly. Taylor finished off that run with a back-row kill. Arthur scored three of the next four, but a Holly kill on an over pass was followed by an Arthur hitting error and Taylor finished with a kill.
Game two didn't look much different than game one. At least for a while. CCS had the same lead of 5-3, but this time they moved the lead out to 10-5. We hit one into the net on a kill attempt but that was the last point Arthur would score for a while. Holly began a serving streak in which her serving arm got so tired that Coach had to replace her. Just kidding. Arthur could not get any hits in to start with, then it was kills by Taylor, Lauren and Bekah, followed by blocks: first a solo by Lauren, then a double from Lauren and Holly, then a dink/block by Lauren. When the dust settled, the Patriots had run off fourteen in a row. Arthur dinked one down to delay the inevitable, but they followed that with a serving error to end it.
It seemed at this point that the outcome of the third game was a foregone conclusion. The play confirmed this. No long streaks, but Calumet established the early lead and never gave it up. A block by Ally and Lauren made it 4-1. An Ally kill made it 7-2. A back-row kill by Ally and it was 15-6. The biggest lead was twelve at 20-8 and 21-9. Arthur put together a little stretch of good play, getting as close as nine, but they ended with a mishit and the Patriots reigned again.
Two straight state titles. Three consecutive Calumet Invitational championships. Three straight Quentin Road titles. Back-to-back Kankakee Valley Tourney victories. Terre Haute tourney victors.
Reigning Division 1 NACA champions (I love writing that). A whisker away from adding a Lafayette Central Catholic tournament and another state title to all of that. The accomplishments of this senior class is astounding. Now they have the opportunity to add to all that with another NACA championship. And to get this last one without their captain and best player speaks volumes about their ability and character.
Congratulations, girls.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Perspective
So, CCS lost to Munster. The fact that the team, families and fans were so disappointed about the outcome says a lot about the program and this team specifically. Five years ago, if you said that Calumet would be 18-2 against IHSAA and IHSA teams, with victories over some of the best teams in the region, would that have been reason for regret? Absolutely not. It would have been occassion for wild celebration. Now we expect to beat everybody. And that's a good thing.
Sometimes extremely high expectations are difficult to live up to. Sometimes teams have an off night, don't play their absolute best. It happens to everyone. Considering that the girls started off tight, and never really got into their game, the fact they lost in four, every game close, tells you that this is a pretty good team. A really good team. A team good enough to get to #2 in the region, with a cast that could have been made that they should have been number one. If the rankings remain as they are, this team will have beaten four of the top twelve teams in the region - Andrean, Kankakee Valley, Crown Point and Griffith. They beat the #3 team in 2A in the state, Eastern Greene. It wasn't that long ago that we were excited about beating Westville.
It looked like it was going to be a long night, the way game one started. A shanked pass, a mishit, and a setting error gave Munster the early 3-0 lead. A serving error by Munster broke up the streak, but Munster retained the lead until two Munster errors followed by two Faith kills made it 8-7, CCS. Munster then went on a 7-1 run, with kills, blocks and a lot of Patriot errors. From there, Taylor, Faith and Lauren did their best to keep us in it with kills, but the errors kept piling up and soon it was 23-15, Munster. Calumet made one last surge - Holly got a kill and two blocks in the streak - which ended on a net violation. Faith put down one more ball before the next Calumet spike attempt went out to make the final score 25-22. Game two started with kills from both teams, but at 5-5 Munster ran off five straight, all but one of which came from an error from our side. We then ran off four, but they ran off five more and CCS trailed by six. CCS still trailed by five when they scored three but the girls never got closer than two the rest of the way and lost by the same score, 25-22.
There were somewhat fewer errors in game three, but there still were too many. Faith started dinking and finding the holes, but we either trailed or the game was tied until Ally put one down when the ball popped up after she blocked it. Katie followed with an ace and tbe Patriots led 15-13. The girls continued their strong play, stretching the lead to 23-16 at one point. Munster made a little run but a dink by Faith finished it with CCS winning 25-21. Game four didn't follow the script of the first three. CCS, after falling behind 4-2, went on an 8-2 run to go up 10-6. Faith, Ally and Taylor made the kills and Holly added a nice block. But things went south quickly from there. Munster made a couple of nice kills and a block which seemed to unnerve our girls. We started making a lot of errors. Munster did as well for a while, so the score remained close until at 15-14 CCS, Munster stopped making errors and we did not. Except for consecutive Taylor kills to make it 21-18, it was all Munster from there. A block and a kill closed out the game and match, 25-19.
The night before the girls defeated Illinois Lutheran, but the first game had an inexplicable breakdown by the girls which resulted in a loss in that game, 26-24, and this was after CCS had a 17-7 lead at one point. The Patriots got down to business in games two and three, winning easily 25-12 in each, but that first game showed that we have to be sharp in all our games, which was of course very evident in last night's match. I wasn't able to attend the games on Tuesday, which the girls won each in two straight, but the report is that they didn't play their best there either, but just good enough to win.
Regionals begin on Monday, with a game against Heritage at Heritage at 6:00. If the girls play well, it should mean back-to-back state championships. The only teams that can push us are Goshen, Arthur, and possibly Heritage. The goofy way the tournament is set up means that if we beat Heritage, we play on Tuesday against a significantly weaker team, from the area, at Granger. Then we travel to Indianapolis eleven days later to play another team from the north in the semifinals. I think the tournament should be renamed the ICST - the Illogical Christian State Tournament. Thursday we play both Goshen and Heritage in a tri-match at Heritage, and Friday is a last-minute addition to the schedule as we play Illinois Lutheran again.
Sometimes extremely high expectations are difficult to live up to. Sometimes teams have an off night, don't play their absolute best. It happens to everyone. Considering that the girls started off tight, and never really got into their game, the fact they lost in four, every game close, tells you that this is a pretty good team. A really good team. A team good enough to get to #2 in the region, with a cast that could have been made that they should have been number one. If the rankings remain as they are, this team will have beaten four of the top twelve teams in the region - Andrean, Kankakee Valley, Crown Point and Griffith. They beat the #3 team in 2A in the state, Eastern Greene. It wasn't that long ago that we were excited about beating Westville.
It looked like it was going to be a long night, the way game one started. A shanked pass, a mishit, and a setting error gave Munster the early 3-0 lead. A serving error by Munster broke up the streak, but Munster retained the lead until two Munster errors followed by two Faith kills made it 8-7, CCS. Munster then went on a 7-1 run, with kills, blocks and a lot of Patriot errors. From there, Taylor, Faith and Lauren did their best to keep us in it with kills, but the errors kept piling up and soon it was 23-15, Munster. Calumet made one last surge - Holly got a kill and two blocks in the streak - which ended on a net violation. Faith put down one more ball before the next Calumet spike attempt went out to make the final score 25-22. Game two started with kills from both teams, but at 5-5 Munster ran off five straight, all but one of which came from an error from our side. We then ran off four, but they ran off five more and CCS trailed by six. CCS still trailed by five when they scored three but the girls never got closer than two the rest of the way and lost by the same score, 25-22.
There were somewhat fewer errors in game three, but there still were too many. Faith started dinking and finding the holes, but we either trailed or the game was tied until Ally put one down when the ball popped up after she blocked it. Katie followed with an ace and tbe Patriots led 15-13. The girls continued their strong play, stretching the lead to 23-16 at one point. Munster made a little run but a dink by Faith finished it with CCS winning 25-21. Game four didn't follow the script of the first three. CCS, after falling behind 4-2, went on an 8-2 run to go up 10-6. Faith, Ally and Taylor made the kills and Holly added a nice block. But things went south quickly from there. Munster made a couple of nice kills and a block which seemed to unnerve our girls. We started making a lot of errors. Munster did as well for a while, so the score remained close until at 15-14 CCS, Munster stopped making errors and we did not. Except for consecutive Taylor kills to make it 21-18, it was all Munster from there. A block and a kill closed out the game and match, 25-19.
The night before the girls defeated Illinois Lutheran, but the first game had an inexplicable breakdown by the girls which resulted in a loss in that game, 26-24, and this was after CCS had a 17-7 lead at one point. The Patriots got down to business in games two and three, winning easily 25-12 in each, but that first game showed that we have to be sharp in all our games, which was of course very evident in last night's match. I wasn't able to attend the games on Tuesday, which the girls won each in two straight, but the report is that they didn't play their best there either, but just good enough to win.
Regionals begin on Monday, with a game against Heritage at Heritage at 6:00. If the girls play well, it should mean back-to-back state championships. The only teams that can push us are Goshen, Arthur, and possibly Heritage. The goofy way the tournament is set up means that if we beat Heritage, we play on Tuesday against a significantly weaker team, from the area, at Granger. Then we travel to Indianapolis eleven days later to play another team from the north in the semifinals. I think the tournament should be renamed the ICST - the Illogical Christian State Tournament. Thursday we play both Goshen and Heritage in a tri-match at Heritage, and Friday is a last-minute addition to the schedule as we play Illinois Lutheran again.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Oh yeah, the Quentin Road tournament...
Hopefully this will be worth the wait.
By this time, of course, everyone has read the newspaper accounts of the big tournament victory this past Saturday...oh wait. I guess I'll have to fill you in. You've heard that we, once again, went through pool play unscathed, which meant we were our pool's number 1 seed, earning a late start on Saturday. Our first round opponent for the 10:30 match was Pathway, a team CCS dispatched easily on Friday. One day did not make much of a difference. Early on, Pathway couldn't handle Taylor's serves. A bit later, Faith, Ally and Taylor scored on kills. Then Pathway found Faith's serves unreturnable. A Kassie ace made it 23-7, then the LGFS, then Faith said enough with a spike for the 25-12 first game win. Game two was even less eventful. A Lauren kill made it 23-7 in this game; however, there was no LGFS in this one. Katie put one down (yes, Katie got the opportunity to pound the ball) and Pathway moved into the consolation bracket by serving into the net.
Calumet's quarterfinal opponent was their old Quentin Road rival, Saline Christian of Somerset, KY. The last loss CCS suffered in this tournament was against Saline in the championship game of the 2008 tournament. The next year the Patriots beat them in the semifinals, and last year Saline was the finals opponent. Saline is one of the best defensive teams we face, and today they offset the loss of their star player of last year, Sarah Mills, by great serving. We seemed to be on our heels all match, rarely getting a clean pass off the serve. We started off this match by making a lot of errors. A serving error put us in a 4-2 hole. The girls turned things around, scoring five of the next six points. Saline tied it up and it remained a one- or two-point game until the girls started stringing together kills capped off by a big hit off an overpass by Holly and the Patriots led 18-12. However, the Saints scored the next seven, mostly on our errors, to take the lead. A kill by Faith, a nice block by Holly, a Saline hitting error and a kill by Holly put CCS back up by three, and shortly thereafter a kill by Ally and a block by Holly and Ally closed out game 1, 25-20. It looked like we would have an easy time of it in game two. A Katie kill put us up 8-2 and a short time later a Taylor/Holly block made it 13-5. This time it was an eight-point Saline run which included three aces. Two kills by Taylor and two by Ally restored the lead to four. From there, our big kills were offset by our unforced mistakes but they girls maintained at least a three-point lead until a Faith kill, a Holly/Taylor block and a Taylor kill put the Patriots into the semis, 25-19.
Freedom Farm, a surprise quarterfinal winner over the host team was up next. They were no match for the girls, especially in game 1. Aces and kills came from everyone, and many of Freedom Farm's points came from our errors. Even an infamous bump kill was seen. The girls had three kills in a row from three different players to make it 24-9, and after a CCS service error, Freedom Farm matched it to end it. The girls ran out the lead to 20-10 in game two, this time from a lot of Freedom Farm errors, as our girls seemed to have lost the edge a little so the big hits weren't as frequent. FF made a little run, getting as close as six a couple of times, but an unforced error by FF followed by a Faith ace ended it at 25-17. On to yet another championship match.
The finals victim, er, opponent was Schaumburg, a 25-9 loser to the Patriots in the pool play. The errors evident in the Freedom Farm game continued in the early part of the first game. Kills and aces were mixed in, but because of the errors the girls couldn't pull away. Until this point in the game. The kill conga line was started by Holly, Taylor followed and the Ally took two turns. One missed kill and the streak was back on, Taylor again then Lauren. The lead was seven and stayed about there until at 20-12, there was the opposite of a LGFS. A Schaumburg hitting error was followed by three straight kills, the last from the back row by Faith, and an Faith ace completed the five-point run to end the game, 25-12. Faith really dominated the last game, both with kills and aces. Schaumburg really had no chance in this one. Amanda F. got in on the fun with a kill to make it 20-7. Schaumburg got one to hit the ground, but Taylor, Lauren, Faith and Ally ran off a string of kills. Schaumburg scored two to get to double-digits, but fittingly Faith completed the championship with a kill. Calumet had the three-peat.
I just got word that the girls played sluggishly tonight but were still able to defeat both Quentin Road and Schaumburg, both in two games. If you count all the pool play games, that gives Calumet a 48-1 record on the year. I will blog later about the records and rankings and stats. In the meantime, we have Illinois Lutheran and Munster yet this week, which should give me plenty to blog about.
By this time, of course, everyone has read the newspaper accounts of the big tournament victory this past Saturday...oh wait. I guess I'll have to fill you in. You've heard that we, once again, went through pool play unscathed, which meant we were our pool's number 1 seed, earning a late start on Saturday. Our first round opponent for the 10:30 match was Pathway, a team CCS dispatched easily on Friday. One day did not make much of a difference. Early on, Pathway couldn't handle Taylor's serves. A bit later, Faith, Ally and Taylor scored on kills. Then Pathway found Faith's serves unreturnable. A Kassie ace made it 23-7, then the LGFS, then Faith said enough with a spike for the 25-12 first game win. Game two was even less eventful. A Lauren kill made it 23-7 in this game; however, there was no LGFS in this one. Katie put one down (yes, Katie got the opportunity to pound the ball) and Pathway moved into the consolation bracket by serving into the net.
Calumet's quarterfinal opponent was their old Quentin Road rival, Saline Christian of Somerset, KY. The last loss CCS suffered in this tournament was against Saline in the championship game of the 2008 tournament. The next year the Patriots beat them in the semifinals, and last year Saline was the finals opponent. Saline is one of the best defensive teams we face, and today they offset the loss of their star player of last year, Sarah Mills, by great serving. We seemed to be on our heels all match, rarely getting a clean pass off the serve. We started off this match by making a lot of errors. A serving error put us in a 4-2 hole. The girls turned things around, scoring five of the next six points. Saline tied it up and it remained a one- or two-point game until the girls started stringing together kills capped off by a big hit off an overpass by Holly and the Patriots led 18-12. However, the Saints scored the next seven, mostly on our errors, to take the lead. A kill by Faith, a nice block by Holly, a Saline hitting error and a kill by Holly put CCS back up by three, and shortly thereafter a kill by Ally and a block by Holly and Ally closed out game 1, 25-20. It looked like we would have an easy time of it in game two. A Katie kill put us up 8-2 and a short time later a Taylor/Holly block made it 13-5. This time it was an eight-point Saline run which included three aces. Two kills by Taylor and two by Ally restored the lead to four. From there, our big kills were offset by our unforced mistakes but they girls maintained at least a three-point lead until a Faith kill, a Holly/Taylor block and a Taylor kill put the Patriots into the semis, 25-19.
Freedom Farm, a surprise quarterfinal winner over the host team was up next. They were no match for the girls, especially in game 1. Aces and kills came from everyone, and many of Freedom Farm's points came from our errors. Even an infamous bump kill was seen. The girls had three kills in a row from three different players to make it 24-9, and after a CCS service error, Freedom Farm matched it to end it. The girls ran out the lead to 20-10 in game two, this time from a lot of Freedom Farm errors, as our girls seemed to have lost the edge a little so the big hits weren't as frequent. FF made a little run, getting as close as six a couple of times, but an unforced error by FF followed by a Faith ace ended it at 25-17. On to yet another championship match.
The finals victim, er, opponent was Schaumburg, a 25-9 loser to the Patriots in the pool play. The errors evident in the Freedom Farm game continued in the early part of the first game. Kills and aces were mixed in, but because of the errors the girls couldn't pull away. Until this point in the game. The kill conga line was started by Holly, Taylor followed and the Ally took two turns. One missed kill and the streak was back on, Taylor again then Lauren. The lead was seven and stayed about there until at 20-12, there was the opposite of a LGFS. A Schaumburg hitting error was followed by three straight kills, the last from the back row by Faith, and an Faith ace completed the five-point run to end the game, 25-12. Faith really dominated the last game, both with kills and aces. Schaumburg really had no chance in this one. Amanda F. got in on the fun with a kill to make it 20-7. Schaumburg got one to hit the ground, but Taylor, Lauren, Faith and Ally ran off a string of kills. Schaumburg scored two to get to double-digits, but fittingly Faith completed the championship with a kill. Calumet had the three-peat.
I just got word that the girls played sluggishly tonight but were still able to defeat both Quentin Road and Schaumburg, both in two games. If you count all the pool play games, that gives Calumet a 48-1 record on the year. I will blog later about the records and rankings and stats. In the meantime, we have Illinois Lutheran and Munster yet this week, which should give me plenty to blog about.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Well, that was different
No, not the outcome of the pool play. THAT was pretty much the same thing. It was the drawing of blood that was different. Volleyball isn't really a violent game. There is very little contact between the opponents. Tonight, though, Taylor made an opposing player bleed so much that she had to be taken out of the game.
Wow, did she hit that ball hard. So hard that the poor girl on the other side of the net couldn't get her hands up fast enough to protect her face. The ensuing bloody nose ended her play in the game. I talked to Taylor. She pretended to be sorry for a second then asked, "Are you going to write about it in your blog?".
There you go, Taylor.
The volleyball play was pretty soporific. (You're going to have to look that one up.) Our opponents scored between nine and fourteen points in every game. Since the level of intensity and focus was inversely proportionate to the ability of the opponent, some of the higher point totals were scored by the lesser opponents. I missed the first three games, the opponents being Ravenswood (14), First Baptist of Danville (11) and Community (10). Schaumburg was CCS's opponent for the first game I witnessed. Schaumburg had taken fourth in our tournament and I thought they might give us a game. Of course, I didn't know that the Patriots were going be at the top of their game. Schaumburg played well, but our girls were on fire, especially Taylor. In the middle of the game in a stretch in which CCS outscored Schaumburg 17-2, Taylor had five kills by my count. Everyone was joining in the fun, however, as there were remarkably few errors. Almost all the points were earned. All a little LGFS did was make the final 25-9 after the Patriots had been up 24-6.
The next game was against North Love. The girls' intensity dropped sharply until at 17-13 they decided to pull it together. Six of the eight straight points they scored from here were on kills, three each from Faith and from Holly. 25-13, Patriots.
Pathway of Iowa was next on the menu. They used to be pretty decent, but not any more. The level of concentration by Calumet was about equivalent to the level in the previous game, which enough to secure the 25-12 win against a team that should have been dispatched with them scoring about half what they did. Ally was really big in this game, with four kills and an ace. Taylor had a similar number of kills. Jenna got one from the back row, and Lauren added a kill and an ace.
Faith, the school from Ohio, was our 7:00 appointment. Faith looked decent from what we saw of them, so the girls were pretty sharp. Taylor was razor sharp on her serves, scoring six aces in the 9-0 run CCS had to open the game. Faith and Taylor carried the hitting load in this one, but the kill the got us the fourteenth point was the memorable one. Taylor crushed one right past the block directly into the face of the poor girl setting up to cover. It was painful to see, and I'm quite sure more painful for her. The hitting and acing continued from that point, and Lauren contributed a nice block After a nice dink from Jenna, Faith Christian hit one into the net to close it out, 25-9.
Maranatha was the final pool play victim. They were playing well all day and came into the game as undefeated, as were we. But the play was reminiscent of the last time we played them, which was in the Calumet Invitational semifinal. Their one big hitter got a little flustered and the whole team followed suit. The girls built the lead slowly throughout the game. Holly came up big in this one, with at least three kills and an ace. Amanda F. got a kill early and Kassie closed it out with an ace
On to bracket play tomorrow, to see if we can extend the streak of winning this one to three years in a row.
Wow, did she hit that ball hard. So hard that the poor girl on the other side of the net couldn't get her hands up fast enough to protect her face. The ensuing bloody nose ended her play in the game. I talked to Taylor. She pretended to be sorry for a second then asked, "Are you going to write about it in your blog?".
There you go, Taylor.
The volleyball play was pretty soporific. (You're going to have to look that one up.) Our opponents scored between nine and fourteen points in every game. Since the level of intensity and focus was inversely proportionate to the ability of the opponent, some of the higher point totals were scored by the lesser opponents. I missed the first three games, the opponents being Ravenswood (14), First Baptist of Danville (11) and Community (10). Schaumburg was CCS's opponent for the first game I witnessed. Schaumburg had taken fourth in our tournament and I thought they might give us a game. Of course, I didn't know that the Patriots were going be at the top of their game. Schaumburg played well, but our girls were on fire, especially Taylor. In the middle of the game in a stretch in which CCS outscored Schaumburg 17-2, Taylor had five kills by my count. Everyone was joining in the fun, however, as there were remarkably few errors. Almost all the points were earned. All a little LGFS did was make the final 25-9 after the Patriots had been up 24-6.
The next game was against North Love. The girls' intensity dropped sharply until at 17-13 they decided to pull it together. Six of the eight straight points they scored from here were on kills, three each from Faith and from Holly. 25-13, Patriots.
Pathway of Iowa was next on the menu. They used to be pretty decent, but not any more. The level of concentration by Calumet was about equivalent to the level in the previous game, which enough to secure the 25-12 win against a team that should have been dispatched with them scoring about half what they did. Ally was really big in this game, with four kills and an ace. Taylor had a similar number of kills. Jenna got one from the back row, and Lauren added a kill and an ace.
Faith, the school from Ohio, was our 7:00 appointment. Faith looked decent from what we saw of them, so the girls were pretty sharp. Taylor was razor sharp on her serves, scoring six aces in the 9-0 run CCS had to open the game. Faith and Taylor carried the hitting load in this one, but the kill the got us the fourteenth point was the memorable one. Taylor crushed one right past the block directly into the face of the poor girl setting up to cover. It was painful to see, and I'm quite sure more painful for her. The hitting and acing continued from that point, and Lauren contributed a nice block After a nice dink from Jenna, Faith Christian hit one into the net to close it out, 25-9.
Maranatha was the final pool play victim. They were playing well all day and came into the game as undefeated, as were we. But the play was reminiscent of the last time we played them, which was in the Calumet Invitational semifinal. Their one big hitter got a little flustered and the whole team followed suit. The girls built the lead slowly throughout the game. Holly came up big in this one, with at least three kills and an ace. Amanda F. got a kill early and Kassie closed it out with an ace
On to bracket play tomorrow, to see if we can extend the streak of winning this one to three years in a row.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Another tough one
The girls traveled north to Crossroads' home gym for the third meeting between the Crusaders and the Patriots on Friday night, and while the outcome was the same, this game was different than the first two. The Patriots controlled the first meeting between the two teams. In the second match, the championship game of the Calumet Invitational, was tightly contested and extremely well played, with some spectacular play, especially defensively. This most recent contest was more signified by mistakes. Neither team played as well as they did the week before. There certainly were some excellent play, but there was less of that and more unforced errors that the previous meeting. This game was also one of streaks. Momentum was the name of the game on this night.
As the game was played in Illinois, the game was best-of-three, all three played to twenty-five. The first game was completely controlled by CCS. Early on it was Calumet kills, but our fifth point was from a Crossroads hitting error, which was the first of many in that game. By the time it was 18-5, Crossroads had hit six balls into the net. They finally started hitting it over at 22-6 and scored five in a row, but Faith got a dink down, and then after one more Crossroads kill, Taylor put one down and Crossroads hit their eighth one into the net, giving CCS the game 25-12.
Game two seemed to be more of the same, though Crossroads' setter started throwing over the second hit to great effect. Despite several balls hitting the floor in the middle of the defense, the Patriots gradually built the lead, and after an Ally ace the lead was 20-12. What ensued wasn't a LGFS; it was more a LGM (late-game meltdown). Actually the teams traded points and after a Rebekah kill it was 21-13. THEN things really fell apart. Kill, hitting error, dink, hitting error (out as we were trying to hit around their block), block, hitting error, dink, ace. 21-21. On a scramble, Ally pushed a ball back to the corner which Crossroads couldn't return. This did NOT turn things around. Three straight sloppy defensive plays put Crossroads one point away from an amazing comeback, and they finished it on the next point with an ace that we should have gotten up, but we seemed to be shell-shocked at this point. 25-22 Crossroads.
Early in game three the two big hitters, Annika from Crossroads and Faith, began trading kills. The teams also traded errors and so the game was close. Crossroads hit one out which gave us our first two-point lead at 10-8. We scored another to make it three; shortly thereafter, we made three unforced errors in a row and it was 12-12. We got the next three, capped by a big hit by Faith on an overpass. At 18-15 CCS committed four errors in a row, three on bad hits, and Crossroads led by one. Ally got us back on track with a kill, which Holly followed with an ace. Lauren followed with a beautiful block, then Crossroads hit one out in a volley in which we blocked a huge hit by Annika. Taylor joined in the fun with a block of her own, and it was 23-19. A CCS hitting error was followed by a dink kill by Ally, then one more big hit by Annika and Lauren finally ended it with a kill.
Because of the errors, this game wasn't as entertaining as the last time we met. There weren't the incredible defensive plays that we saw in the previous game. But it was exciting and tense, and I think we're a little bit thankful that we won't see them again this year. Tuesday we visit Community (formerly Ridgewood) in their new home, and then the Quentin Road tournament this upcoming weekend. Maranatha, Arthur, Saline and a new team, Faith Christian from Wilmot, Ohio should be our toughest competition.
As the game was played in Illinois, the game was best-of-three, all three played to twenty-five. The first game was completely controlled by CCS. Early on it was Calumet kills, but our fifth point was from a Crossroads hitting error, which was the first of many in that game. By the time it was 18-5, Crossroads had hit six balls into the net. They finally started hitting it over at 22-6 and scored five in a row, but Faith got a dink down, and then after one more Crossroads kill, Taylor put one down and Crossroads hit their eighth one into the net, giving CCS the game 25-12.
Game two seemed to be more of the same, though Crossroads' setter started throwing over the second hit to great effect. Despite several balls hitting the floor in the middle of the defense, the Patriots gradually built the lead, and after an Ally ace the lead was 20-12. What ensued wasn't a LGFS; it was more a LGM (late-game meltdown). Actually the teams traded points and after a Rebekah kill it was 21-13. THEN things really fell apart. Kill, hitting error, dink, hitting error (out as we were trying to hit around their block), block, hitting error, dink, ace. 21-21. On a scramble, Ally pushed a ball back to the corner which Crossroads couldn't return. This did NOT turn things around. Three straight sloppy defensive plays put Crossroads one point away from an amazing comeback, and they finished it on the next point with an ace that we should have gotten up, but we seemed to be shell-shocked at this point. 25-22 Crossroads.
Early in game three the two big hitters, Annika from Crossroads and Faith, began trading kills. The teams also traded errors and so the game was close. Crossroads hit one out which gave us our first two-point lead at 10-8. We scored another to make it three; shortly thereafter, we made three unforced errors in a row and it was 12-12. We got the next three, capped by a big hit by Faith on an overpass. At 18-15 CCS committed four errors in a row, three on bad hits, and Crossroads led by one. Ally got us back on track with a kill, which Holly followed with an ace. Lauren followed with a beautiful block, then Crossroads hit one out in a volley in which we blocked a huge hit by Annika. Taylor joined in the fun with a block of her own, and it was 23-19. A CCS hitting error was followed by a dink kill by Ally, then one more big hit by Annika and Lauren finally ended it with a kill.
Because of the errors, this game wasn't as entertaining as the last time we met. There weren't the incredible defensive plays that we saw in the previous game. But it was exciting and tense, and I think we're a little bit thankful that we won't see them again this year. Tuesday we visit Community (formerly Ridgewood) in their new home, and then the Quentin Road tournament this upcoming weekend. Maranatha, Arthur, Saline and a new team, Faith Christian from Wilmot, Ohio should be our toughest competition.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
500 is a lot of wins
Coach Carr's teams now have won five hundred games.
500.
D, as the Romans would write.
And that doesn't include all the JV wins.
I don't know how many other volleyball coaches have won 500 games in Indiana. Probably not very many. Sustained excellence is very difficult to achieve. And even though the schedule was upgraded dramatically the last couple of years, she is piling up victories as fast as she ever was. Last year was her best year for winning percentage in her career, and the schedule was the toughest the team has ever played. This year it's even tougher and so far the team has a higher winning percentage than even last year. Obviously this wouldn't be happening if she didn't have the players. Of course, if she wasn't such a good coach, these players might not want to play for her.
How did the game go that got her there, you ask? Well, let me tell you. The opponent was Bishop Noll, an IHSAA school that we have not played before. They are not a great team, but like most public/Catholic schools we've played, are pretty good. On Monday, though the girls had to overcome the hangover from playing so many games this past weekend plus some unfavorable line judging. Despite all that the girls were victorious, winning 25-20, 25-17, 25-17.
The girls started slowly in the first game. After falling behind 4-2, the Patriots scored three in a row, the last on a Taylor ace. They fell behind again, but thankfully they were able stay close due to a lot of Noll service errors. Still, after a dink kill they trailed 10-7. Another three point run tied it up, and then after a Noll point, the girls scored three more on yet another Noll serving error and kills from Taylor and Rebekah to take a two point lead. The lead stayed at one or two points until a Noll net violation and a nice Holly/Ally block put CCS up 18-14. The team gradually pushed up the lead to as many as six before a BIG Faith kill closed out game one.
Game two saw the girls jump out to the early lead at 5-1 before a series of unforced errors by the Patriots let Noll right back into it. A string of five errors gave Noll a 7-5 lead. A bit later a Noll ace pushed the lead to 12-8. After Noll committed their seventh serve error, a block by Taylor and Lauren seemed to spark the team. CCS eventually got the lead, but only lead by one after a Noll kill at 17-16, but from this point, Calumet outscored Noll 8-1 down the stretch. Faith had four kills in this sequence. Taylor also had a kill, and the last point was scored on an Ally ace.
The Patriots had the lead through most of game three, trailing only at 6-5 and 7-6. Faith started dinking to the open spot and soon Calumet led 10-7. Noll caught us again at 11, but then five straight points, highlighted by a nice block by Taylor and a couple of Ally aces, put CCS in control of the game. Noll did score the next three, but Calumet never trailed by less than two after that. At 18-16, a kill by Faith and an ace by Lauren gave the Patriots a cushion, and they rolled from their, scoring the last five points - Faith kill, Ally block, Faith kill, Lauren ace, and finally a Noll mishit on a spike and the game and Coach's milestone was in the books.
Now only 570 wins to catch Steve Shondell.
500.
D, as the Romans would write.
And that doesn't include all the JV wins.
I don't know how many other volleyball coaches have won 500 games in Indiana. Probably not very many. Sustained excellence is very difficult to achieve. And even though the schedule was upgraded dramatically the last couple of years, she is piling up victories as fast as she ever was. Last year was her best year for winning percentage in her career, and the schedule was the toughest the team has ever played. This year it's even tougher and so far the team has a higher winning percentage than even last year. Obviously this wouldn't be happening if she didn't have the players. Of course, if she wasn't such a good coach, these players might not want to play for her.
How did the game go that got her there, you ask? Well, let me tell you. The opponent was Bishop Noll, an IHSAA school that we have not played before. They are not a great team, but like most public/Catholic schools we've played, are pretty good. On Monday, though the girls had to overcome the hangover from playing so many games this past weekend plus some unfavorable line judging. Despite all that the girls were victorious, winning 25-20, 25-17, 25-17.
The girls started slowly in the first game. After falling behind 4-2, the Patriots scored three in a row, the last on a Taylor ace. They fell behind again, but thankfully they were able stay close due to a lot of Noll service errors. Still, after a dink kill they trailed 10-7. Another three point run tied it up, and then after a Noll point, the girls scored three more on yet another Noll serving error and kills from Taylor and Rebekah to take a two point lead. The lead stayed at one or two points until a Noll net violation and a nice Holly/Ally block put CCS up 18-14. The team gradually pushed up the lead to as many as six before a BIG Faith kill closed out game one.
Game two saw the girls jump out to the early lead at 5-1 before a series of unforced errors by the Patriots let Noll right back into it. A string of five errors gave Noll a 7-5 lead. A bit later a Noll ace pushed the lead to 12-8. After Noll committed their seventh serve error, a block by Taylor and Lauren seemed to spark the team. CCS eventually got the lead, but only lead by one after a Noll kill at 17-16, but from this point, Calumet outscored Noll 8-1 down the stretch. Faith had four kills in this sequence. Taylor also had a kill, and the last point was scored on an Ally ace.
The Patriots had the lead through most of game three, trailing only at 6-5 and 7-6. Faith started dinking to the open spot and soon Calumet led 10-7. Noll caught us again at 11, but then five straight points, highlighted by a nice block by Taylor and a couple of Ally aces, put CCS in control of the game. Noll did score the next three, but Calumet never trailed by less than two after that. At 18-16, a kill by Faith and an ace by Lauren gave the Patriots a cushion, and they rolled from their, scoring the last five points - Faith kill, Ally block, Faith kill, Lauren ace, and finally a Noll mishit on a spike and the game and Coach's milestone was in the books.
Now only 570 wins to catch Steve Shondell.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
A power rises in the west....
Finally, some non-IHSAA competition. Yes, the Patriots three-peated as Calumet Invitational champs, but it wasn't easy. Well, except for some lateness-induced struggle in our first game Saturday and until the final, it was pretty easy. In what turned out to be an incredibly entertaining final match, the Patriots retained the trophy with a 25-18, 20-25, 15-13 victory over the Crossroads Crusaders, a home-school team from the far western Chicago suburbs. More on that later.
As has been the case in the previous two Calumet Invitationals, CCS swept through pool play. This year it seemed even easier that it has been. The girls didn't have to concentrate much to beat their first four opponents. Their fifth, Indy Silver Lightning, had been very successful from what I gathered, beating some teams with winning records. So the girls dialed up the intensity for that one, and it wasn't close.
The first opponent was Crosspointe, a perennially weak team from Indianapolis. That hasn't changed. Taylor had five aces in the first eight points, all scored by Calumet. At 9-0, Crosspoint scored their first two points, then it was spiking practice. A Crosspointe serve into the net mercifully ended game one, 21-6. I wasn't paying as close attention in game two; other stuff was going on and it wasn't really necessary for me to focus on the game. Apparently the girls didn't think it was that important either, as they gave up more points that probably they should have, but the outcome was never in doubt. 21-11, CCS.
Opponent #2 was a new team to the tournament, a home school team called the Noblesville Lions from Noblesville, Indiana. They had nice uniforms. (I'm looking for positive things to say.) Seriously, they had one decent player, Juli Hall, but not much after that. They scored the first point of the first game, then CCS scored ten in a row. We had a lot of kills and they made a lot of mistakes. Taylor's dink found the floor to end a 21-5 cruise. Focus was completely lost in the second game. Noblesville led 7-4 at one point, or should I say CCS trailed 7-4, because most of Noblesville's points came from our errors. The Ally started serving and Noblesville started avoiding returning it. We led 10-9 when Taylor started hitting it. The game ended on back-to-back Taylor aces, 21-11.
First Baptist of Danville was the 4:30 opponent. More of the same. FBD did have a nice middle hitter, but not much else. The girls, at about three-quarter speed, had a pretty easy go of it. Again a slow start, but then again a strong middle and end. The Patriots only led 7-5 when, after a FBD serving error, the girls played crisply, and that usually means kills. Ally scored two, then Taylor got one. Faith aced a serve and the game was in hand. The girls finished strong with a Lauren block, Faith's first really big kill of the day, and then a Lauren ace. Game two saw our first LGFS. The Patriots powered out to a 19-3 behind kills from everyone - Rebekah, Faith, Lauren, Taylor, Holly and Jenna all joined in the fun. Then FBD scored eight straight points, mostly because of our errors, before they missed on a spike. 21-11 was the final after Katie nailed the game down with an ace.
Heritage Hall was our after-dinner foe. They were good back in the days of the Luke girls, less so now. We should have beaten them as we did the opponents earlier in the day, but we made a lot of errors, hitting, serving and defensive,. At 15-11 the girls picked up their play a little and scored six of the last seven points with a kill from Faith on an over pass the final point in the 21-12 win. The girls were a little more consistent in game two - not much more focused, but they maintained the same level of disinterestedness throughout the set. The lead grew gradually throughout until at 20-12, Amanda got a the clinching point on a kill.
We thought that the Indy Silver Lightning would be our toughest competition, from what we knew about their scores and from their 6-0 pool record. This was not a good thing for Indy. CCS came out ready to play in their final pool match. Kill, Lauren. Kill, Faith, Error, ISL, Kill Faith. Error ISL. Block, Lauren and Faith. 6-0, Patriots. Later, after three ISL points in a row, the girls put together another strong streak, made up of aces, blocks and kills. Taylor put one down, then ISL went into the net and the 21-10 first game win was complete. ISL really had no chance in the second. They were discouraged and seemed to have lost the ability to returns serves. CCS had eight aces in the 21-5 Patriot win.
Saturday morning was nice sleep-in morning for the girls. With the new gold/silver division format, the first game for the top seed from the blue pool was scheduled for 1:15. Apparently some took too much advantage. A couple of girls were late, sisters coincidentally, so they were not in the starting lineup for our first bracket play game. The opponent was WMCAA, who had played and won earlier in the day (Calumet had a bye). They were warmed up and ready to play. Our girls were a little disoriented without two starters on the floor. The game was tied at 10-10 when we started making a lot of defensive errors. WMCAA scored seven in a row when coach subbed the starters back in, just in time it seemed. WMCAA scored one more to make it 18-10. Faith pounded a few, Taylor aced a few more and we had eleven in a row and a three-point lead. A hitting error and two defensive lapses by the Patriots, plus a kill gave WMCAA a one-point lead. That was enough for Faith, and three kills out of the last four points helped CCS squeak out a 25-23 win. The Patriots made up for lost time in game, two, hitting (everyone), blocking(Holly especially) and acing (mostly Taylor) at a high rate. A Holly kill, a Lauren block and a Taylor kill were the final three points of the 25-8 win.
The Arthur Christian team was the semi-final opponent, a team with some talent but not much depth. Their star was tall middle hitter with some ability. We seemed to play at a level good enough to stay ahead but not pull away, at least until it was 17-13. Then Holly put one down, Ally followed, then it was Holly's turn again. Arthur got a kill, but Faith followed a kill with two aces. Ally got the last point in the 25-14 win on a dink. The Patriots established themselves early in game two, leading 5-1, 11-3, and 18-8. Amanda got a kill in there, and Katie scorched two aces and a kill. Faith got her share, and Holly and Ally got a block. After a CCS hitting error, Arthur served into the net and CCS was in the final, winning 25-12.
Crossroads also had not lost a game, but they had been tested a little more. I'm not sure if they played below their ability (probably), or their competition was stronger (not likely), but they were all that we could handle in the championship match. I didn't think anyone could match our defense, but they did. The fact that we were deeper offensively offset their great hitting from their setter on second touches. On to the games. We started slowly, trailing 3-0. CCS got a couple back with a Crossroads serving error and a Faith kill. At 6-5 Crossroads, the Patriots went on a little tear, outscoring Crossroads 8-1 mostly on dinks and Faith aces. The game was full of great defensive plays. I only note how points are scored, so the great defensive plays are often neglected. Faith's defense was so phenomenal in this game that I have to mention it. Time after time, she came flying from nowhere to make a great save. On one play at 13-9, she made a great dig and her momentum carried her well off the court. The next hit was popped up, and Faith leaped to her feet and, moving away from the net, got her hands on the ball and punched it back over her head into Crossroad's court. (CCS ended up taking that point on a hitting error.) That was one example of her stellar defensive play. From this point Calumet kept the lead about seven until Crossroads tried to tip up a ball at the net and were called for a lift. 25-18, Patriots.
Game two saw a first for us. We seemed to lose composure. To start the game, the Patriots made a lot of errors, but played well enough offensively to trail only 7-5. After that, however, the girls fell apart. Equally from our errors, their hits and their blocks, the went on a 12-3 run and lead 19-8. Faith ended that streak with a couple of kills but we gave them right back on errors. Another Faith kill, a lift on a Crossroads set and a big block from Faith and Holly followed. One more error by CCS (22-13) was followed by another Faith kill and a block from Holly and Taylor. Two Crossroads hitting errors ensued, then a Holly kill made it a four-point game. They crushed on which Taylor answered with a dink. We followed that with a hitting error, putting Crossroads one point away. Lauren got a kill, but we couldn't dig up a dink from Crossroads and they got the second game 25-20.
Game three was strange it its own way. This time we started out strong - well, Crossroads started out weak, with a service error, hitting error and a net violation around a Taylor ace and the lead was 4-0. We had a service receive error, then the craziness began. There was furious flurry at the net, which the ref ruled, I think, as an out ball last touched by Calumet. That didn't seem to be what actually happened, but hey, he's the ref. Then the line judge came and talked to the ref, but nothing was changed. What did change was the momentum. We seemed to be a little confused and gave up two more points on errors. Faith put things aright with a kill which they matched. Another by Faith was followed by a CCS serving error. They lifted the ball on a block attempt. They seemed to do the same on the next point, but no lift was called, the play went on, and finally a spike attempt by CCS went into the net. They then had a big block, we made a defensive error and we trailed 9-7. Coach Carr called a timeout. We responded kill Taylor, kill Ally, kill Taylor. Timeout, Crossroads. We went into the net, they served into the the net. Katie then got a kill, then Lauren did the same. We messed up a serve, they went into the net. 14-11, Patriots. We then, showing our fatigue, spiked one into the net and then botched a dig. 14-13. Faith then came up big as she often has. A spike found a hole in the block, hit the ground, and Calumet was champion again.
The awards were as follows:
Second team all tourney:
As has been the case in the previous two Calumet Invitationals, CCS swept through pool play. This year it seemed even easier that it has been. The girls didn't have to concentrate much to beat their first four opponents. Their fifth, Indy Silver Lightning, had been very successful from what I gathered, beating some teams with winning records. So the girls dialed up the intensity for that one, and it wasn't close.
The first opponent was Crosspointe, a perennially weak team from Indianapolis. That hasn't changed. Taylor had five aces in the first eight points, all scored by Calumet. At 9-0, Crosspoint scored their first two points, then it was spiking practice. A Crosspointe serve into the net mercifully ended game one, 21-6. I wasn't paying as close attention in game two; other stuff was going on and it wasn't really necessary for me to focus on the game. Apparently the girls didn't think it was that important either, as they gave up more points that probably they should have, but the outcome was never in doubt. 21-11, CCS.
Opponent #2 was a new team to the tournament, a home school team called the Noblesville Lions from Noblesville, Indiana. They had nice uniforms. (I'm looking for positive things to say.) Seriously, they had one decent player, Juli Hall, but not much after that. They scored the first point of the first game, then CCS scored ten in a row. We had a lot of kills and they made a lot of mistakes. Taylor's dink found the floor to end a 21-5 cruise. Focus was completely lost in the second game. Noblesville led 7-4 at one point, or should I say CCS trailed 7-4, because most of Noblesville's points came from our errors. The Ally started serving and Noblesville started avoiding returning it. We led 10-9 when Taylor started hitting it. The game ended on back-to-back Taylor aces, 21-11.
First Baptist of Danville was the 4:30 opponent. More of the same. FBD did have a nice middle hitter, but not much else. The girls, at about three-quarter speed, had a pretty easy go of it. Again a slow start, but then again a strong middle and end. The Patriots only led 7-5 when, after a FBD serving error, the girls played crisply, and that usually means kills. Ally scored two, then Taylor got one. Faith aced a serve and the game was in hand. The girls finished strong with a Lauren block, Faith's first really big kill of the day, and then a Lauren ace. Game two saw our first LGFS. The Patriots powered out to a 19-3 behind kills from everyone - Rebekah, Faith, Lauren, Taylor, Holly and Jenna all joined in the fun. Then FBD scored eight straight points, mostly because of our errors, before they missed on a spike. 21-11 was the final after Katie nailed the game down with an ace.
Heritage Hall was our after-dinner foe. They were good back in the days of the Luke girls, less so now. We should have beaten them as we did the opponents earlier in the day, but we made a lot of errors, hitting, serving and defensive,. At 15-11 the girls picked up their play a little and scored six of the last seven points with a kill from Faith on an over pass the final point in the 21-12 win. The girls were a little more consistent in game two - not much more focused, but they maintained the same level of disinterestedness throughout the set. The lead grew gradually throughout until at 20-12, Amanda got a the clinching point on a kill.
We thought that the Indy Silver Lightning would be our toughest competition, from what we knew about their scores and from their 6-0 pool record. This was not a good thing for Indy. CCS came out ready to play in their final pool match. Kill, Lauren. Kill, Faith, Error, ISL, Kill Faith. Error ISL. Block, Lauren and Faith. 6-0, Patriots. Later, after three ISL points in a row, the girls put together another strong streak, made up of aces, blocks and kills. Taylor put one down, then ISL went into the net and the 21-10 first game win was complete. ISL really had no chance in the second. They were discouraged and seemed to have lost the ability to returns serves. CCS had eight aces in the 21-5 Patriot win.
Saturday morning was nice sleep-in morning for the girls. With the new gold/silver division format, the first game for the top seed from the blue pool was scheduled for 1:15. Apparently some took too much advantage. A couple of girls were late, sisters coincidentally, so they were not in the starting lineup for our first bracket play game. The opponent was WMCAA, who had played and won earlier in the day (Calumet had a bye). They were warmed up and ready to play. Our girls were a little disoriented without two starters on the floor. The game was tied at 10-10 when we started making a lot of defensive errors. WMCAA scored seven in a row when coach subbed the starters back in, just in time it seemed. WMCAA scored one more to make it 18-10. Faith pounded a few, Taylor aced a few more and we had eleven in a row and a three-point lead. A hitting error and two defensive lapses by the Patriots, plus a kill gave WMCAA a one-point lead. That was enough for Faith, and three kills out of the last four points helped CCS squeak out a 25-23 win. The Patriots made up for lost time in game, two, hitting (everyone), blocking(Holly especially) and acing (mostly Taylor) at a high rate. A Holly kill, a Lauren block and a Taylor kill were the final three points of the 25-8 win.
The Arthur Christian team was the semi-final opponent, a team with some talent but not much depth. Their star was tall middle hitter with some ability. We seemed to play at a level good enough to stay ahead but not pull away, at least until it was 17-13. Then Holly put one down, Ally followed, then it was Holly's turn again. Arthur got a kill, but Faith followed a kill with two aces. Ally got the last point in the 25-14 win on a dink. The Patriots established themselves early in game two, leading 5-1, 11-3, and 18-8. Amanda got a kill in there, and Katie scorched two aces and a kill. Faith got her share, and Holly and Ally got a block. After a CCS hitting error, Arthur served into the net and CCS was in the final, winning 25-12.
Crossroads also had not lost a game, but they had been tested a little more. I'm not sure if they played below their ability (probably), or their competition was stronger (not likely), but they were all that we could handle in the championship match. I didn't think anyone could match our defense, but they did. The fact that we were deeper offensively offset their great hitting from their setter on second touches. On to the games. We started slowly, trailing 3-0. CCS got a couple back with a Crossroads serving error and a Faith kill. At 6-5 Crossroads, the Patriots went on a little tear, outscoring Crossroads 8-1 mostly on dinks and Faith aces. The game was full of great defensive plays. I only note how points are scored, so the great defensive plays are often neglected. Faith's defense was so phenomenal in this game that I have to mention it. Time after time, she came flying from nowhere to make a great save. On one play at 13-9, she made a great dig and her momentum carried her well off the court. The next hit was popped up, and Faith leaped to her feet and, moving away from the net, got her hands on the ball and punched it back over her head into Crossroad's court. (CCS ended up taking that point on a hitting error.) That was one example of her stellar defensive play. From this point Calumet kept the lead about seven until Crossroads tried to tip up a ball at the net and were called for a lift. 25-18, Patriots.
Game two saw a first for us. We seemed to lose composure. To start the game, the Patriots made a lot of errors, but played well enough offensively to trail only 7-5. After that, however, the girls fell apart. Equally from our errors, their hits and their blocks, the went on a 12-3 run and lead 19-8. Faith ended that streak with a couple of kills but we gave them right back on errors. Another Faith kill, a lift on a Crossroads set and a big block from Faith and Holly followed. One more error by CCS (22-13) was followed by another Faith kill and a block from Holly and Taylor. Two Crossroads hitting errors ensued, then a Holly kill made it a four-point game. They crushed on which Taylor answered with a dink. We followed that with a hitting error, putting Crossroads one point away. Lauren got a kill, but we couldn't dig up a dink from Crossroads and they got the second game 25-20.
Game three was strange it its own way. This time we started out strong - well, Crossroads started out weak, with a service error, hitting error and a net violation around a Taylor ace and the lead was 4-0. We had a service receive error, then the craziness began. There was furious flurry at the net, which the ref ruled, I think, as an out ball last touched by Calumet. That didn't seem to be what actually happened, but hey, he's the ref. Then the line judge came and talked to the ref, but nothing was changed. What did change was the momentum. We seemed to be a little confused and gave up two more points on errors. Faith put things aright with a kill which they matched. Another by Faith was followed by a CCS serving error. They lifted the ball on a block attempt. They seemed to do the same on the next point, but no lift was called, the play went on, and finally a spike attempt by CCS went into the net. They then had a big block, we made a defensive error and we trailed 9-7. Coach Carr called a timeout. We responded kill Taylor, kill Ally, kill Taylor. Timeout, Crossroads. We went into the net, they served into the the net. Katie then got a kill, then Lauren did the same. We messed up a serve, they went into the net. 14-11, Patriots. We then, showing our fatigue, spiked one into the net and then botched a dig. 14-13. Faith then came up big as she often has. A spike found a hole in the block, hit the ground, and Calumet was champion again.
The awards were as follows:
Second team all tourney:
- Juli Hall, Noblesville
- Paetyn Cummings, Schaumburg
- Meagan Isola, Schaumburg
- Emma Surface, Indy Silver Lightning
- Carrie Power, Grace
- Jessica Greer, First Baptist of Danville
- Whitney Stieglitz, Fort Wayne Falcons
- Caitlyn Bruinsma, Heritage Christian
- Ally Rohn, Calumet Christian
- Annika Albrecht, Crossroads
- Hannah Matillano, Quentin Road
- Taylor Lindbloom, Calumet Christian
- Savannah Atsma, WMCAA
- Meghan Lowry, Arthur Okaw
- Faith Rohn
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Short entry for a nondescript game
Yes, I have another word to describe a bad game! Nondescript! Not sure if it really fits well, but it's kind of long! I don't think I've used this many exclamation points to end sentences in a row ever!
Enough silliness. Nondescript is a pretty apt term for last nights snooze fest. Per Dictionary.com, the definition is: "Adjective: Lacking distinctive or interesting features or characteristics." The game certainly was lacking. And to think that this was a measuring stick for our team five years ago, and the turning point of our season four years ago. In 2006, Rachel Kizer's senior season, Calumet beat Westville in five tough games. At that time, Westville was the only public school on the schedule, and so it was really the only way for us to know how we might fare in the IHSAA realm. Westville was very tall and, if I remember correctly, better than .500, so beating them was an accomplishment. The next year, the team started the season off very slowly, and had a losing record (4-6) when we faced Westville. We ended up losing that game in five, but we played very well and that seemed to be what turned around our season. But now, for the last three years, the games with Westville have been such that, if they weren't a public IHSAA school, we would probably send our JV to play them. The scores tonight, 25-7, 25-16, and 25-12 really weren't an indication of how thoroughly Calumet dominated. The girls played their usual rotations in the first game. In between a slow start and a LGFS finish, the Patriots outscored the Blackhawks 18-2. Games two and three saw liberal substitutions and position switches (Faith set most of those two games), so the games were a bit closer.
The varsity tournament is this weekend at the Lincoln Center. We are the two-time defending champions and hope to defend the title. First Calumet game is at 12:45. See you there.
Enough silliness. Nondescript is a pretty apt term for last nights snooze fest. Per Dictionary.com, the definition is: "Adjective: Lacking distinctive or interesting features or characteristics." The game certainly was lacking. And to think that this was a measuring stick for our team five years ago, and the turning point of our season four years ago. In 2006, Rachel Kizer's senior season, Calumet beat Westville in five tough games. At that time, Westville was the only public school on the schedule, and so it was really the only way for us to know how we might fare in the IHSAA realm. Westville was very tall and, if I remember correctly, better than .500, so beating them was an accomplishment. The next year, the team started the season off very slowly, and had a losing record (4-6) when we faced Westville. We ended up losing that game in five, but we played very well and that seemed to be what turned around our season. But now, for the last three years, the games with Westville have been such that, if they weren't a public IHSAA school, we would probably send our JV to play them. The scores tonight, 25-7, 25-16, and 25-12 really weren't an indication of how thoroughly Calumet dominated. The girls played their usual rotations in the first game. In between a slow start and a LGFS finish, the Patriots outscored the Blackhawks 18-2. Games two and three saw liberal substitutions and position switches (Faith set most of those two games), so the games were a bit closer.
The varsity tournament is this weekend at the Lincoln Center. We are the two-time defending champions and hope to defend the title. First Calumet game is at 12:45. See you there.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
I guess I didn't miss much
And if I had skipped last night's games, I still probably wouldn't have missed much.
How the mighty have fallen.
I referred in an earlier post to a 31-29 loss in fourth game of the state final to Faith in 2009. At one point in that season we were 43-2, with our only two losses to Faith. In 2007, Clinton Christian finished in the top four of our tournament. The teams we played tonight were NOT those teams.
Quick recap of the week's earlier games: two no-contests, with walk-overs against Covenant Christian, 25-11, 25-12, 25-16 and Hebron, 25-6. 25-11, 25-15, with liberal substitutions and position-switching. We kind of expected that against Covenant, but Hebron had taken one game in our match last year, so we were expecting a little more out of them.
Last night we started off against Clinton Christian, a Mennonite school out of Goshen. As I mentioned, they historically have been a pretty strong program. I have no idea what happened to them. Even as recently as two years ago, they took us to 28-26 in one game (albeit in a three-game sweep). This year's edition complemented a complete lack of ability to hit with horrible setting and mediocre defense. I counted two kills the entire match for Clinton and both might have been called defensive errors on us. The scoreboard operators did their best to help Clinton, giving them one of our points, but even with that the final of game one 25-9. After a bumpy start, we settled down and at one point, ran off thirteen straight points (even though the scoreboard operator disagreed with me). We made a few errors toward the end, but still finished with the decisive victory. We had the same kind of start in game two, leading only 4-3 at one point. Jenna, who doesn't usually serve, started doing her Taylor/Faith impersonation, scoring three aces out of six points. CCS ran off nine in a row, traded points to 15-5, then ran off ten more to finish the game. In that stretch were three aces by Katie, a kill by Kassie, a kill by Holly and two by Ally. The third game was goof-around time. Faith had a few kills early, then took over setting responsibilities. Top performers in the game included Kassie, who contributed two aces and a kill; Taylor, with three or four kills; and Holly, with a couple kills and an ace. Final was 25-12.
Faith gave us a decent game last year, scoring 13, 15, and 18. The started four seniors, so they had some experience. However, they too had little offense and even with significantly better setting and defense than Clinton, were no match for the Patriots. A little aside here: I wonder how many teams like Faith that we play say to themselves, We're close. If we clean up this, or improve that, we could play with CCS. Those of us who have witnessed enough games and know that the girls often play to the level of their competition would respond with, You should have seen them play Andrean/Loogootee/Kankakee Valley/Crown Point. You're not close. Back to the match. The girls seemed to have a little Clinton hangover to start. We made some really uncharacteristic errors which led to a 6-2 Faith lead. As has often happened, the momentum changer was a nice Faith kill. Lauren, whose serves are beginning to resemble Taylor's, score two aces around a Faith out-of-rotation (another aside, the down ref's mission in life seemed to be to call every early switch - he called at least four of those in the match) to tie it up. FCS scored two (including an OOR call on us) before the Patriots took command. They scored eleven of the next twelve points to make it a 17-9 game. In that stretch Holly had a nice block to go with the various kills and aces. FCS scored two again, but that was the last time they scored two in a row. Holly contributed a dink kill and an ace, Ally had a couple of aces, and Taylor finished off the game one 25-13 victory with a smash.
Our girls got the early lead in game two, 3-0, but FCS tied it up quickly on our errors, then took the lead on a dink kill. Lauren stopped that run with a kill, and Taylor followed it up with two aces. Faith then scored two kills and the game was in hand. Faith kept the lead at only five until at 14-9, CCS scored five in a row with Faith's great jump serves and timely hitting by Holly, and put the game out of reach. The lead stayed around ten until the end, which was scored on another Jenna ace. 25-15, CCS. The Patriots established themselves early in game three. Faith and Lauren started out the hitting, then Taylor picked it up, followed by Holly firing aces. After a Lauren block, who played excellent defense at the net all night, the lead was 16-4. The girls completely lost focus (they started GAT in other words - that's goof-around time - we need another acronym), allowing Faith to score six in a row, making the score 21-15. They then committed a service error, which seemed to get our girls back on track. Taylor followed that up with a nice block, FCS couldn't handle a Faith jump serve, and it was in hand. 25-16 was the final in game three.
We are now 22-1 on the season. The Patriots have won 55 games while losing 6, and have scored 1477 points while giving up 976. Last year after 23 matches we were 20-3, winning 52 games, losing 10. Westville is on the agenda for next Tuesday, a team we have easily defeated the last two years, but who have new coach that Coach Carr is familiar with, and that may make a difference for them, but after checking their record, that may not occur for a while. We then have opportunity to stretch our Calumet Invitational championship streak to three. I am really looking forward to that.
How the mighty have fallen.
I referred in an earlier post to a 31-29 loss in fourth game of the state final to Faith in 2009. At one point in that season we were 43-2, with our only two losses to Faith. In 2007, Clinton Christian finished in the top four of our tournament. The teams we played tonight were NOT those teams.
Quick recap of the week's earlier games: two no-contests, with walk-overs against Covenant Christian, 25-11, 25-12, 25-16 and Hebron, 25-6. 25-11, 25-15, with liberal substitutions and position-switching. We kind of expected that against Covenant, but Hebron had taken one game in our match last year, so we were expecting a little more out of them.
Last night we started off against Clinton Christian, a Mennonite school out of Goshen. As I mentioned, they historically have been a pretty strong program. I have no idea what happened to them. Even as recently as two years ago, they took us to 28-26 in one game (albeit in a three-game sweep). This year's edition complemented a complete lack of ability to hit with horrible setting and mediocre defense. I counted two kills the entire match for Clinton and both might have been called defensive errors on us. The scoreboard operators did their best to help Clinton, giving them one of our points, but even with that the final of game one 25-9. After a bumpy start, we settled down and at one point, ran off thirteen straight points (even though the scoreboard operator disagreed with me). We made a few errors toward the end, but still finished with the decisive victory. We had the same kind of start in game two, leading only 4-3 at one point. Jenna, who doesn't usually serve, started doing her Taylor/Faith impersonation, scoring three aces out of six points. CCS ran off nine in a row, traded points to 15-5, then ran off ten more to finish the game. In that stretch were three aces by Katie, a kill by Kassie, a kill by Holly and two by Ally. The third game was goof-around time. Faith had a few kills early, then took over setting responsibilities. Top performers in the game included Kassie, who contributed two aces and a kill; Taylor, with three or four kills; and Holly, with a couple kills and an ace. Final was 25-12.
Faith gave us a decent game last year, scoring 13, 15, and 18. The started four seniors, so they had some experience. However, they too had little offense and even with significantly better setting and defense than Clinton, were no match for the Patriots. A little aside here: I wonder how many teams like Faith that we play say to themselves, We're close. If we clean up this, or improve that, we could play with CCS. Those of us who have witnessed enough games and know that the girls often play to the level of their competition would respond with, You should have seen them play Andrean/Loogootee/Kankakee Valley/Crown Point. You're not close. Back to the match. The girls seemed to have a little Clinton hangover to start. We made some really uncharacteristic errors which led to a 6-2 Faith lead. As has often happened, the momentum changer was a nice Faith kill. Lauren, whose serves are beginning to resemble Taylor's, score two aces around a Faith out-of-rotation (another aside, the down ref's mission in life seemed to be to call every early switch - he called at least four of those in the match) to tie it up. FCS scored two (including an OOR call on us) before the Patriots took command. They scored eleven of the next twelve points to make it a 17-9 game. In that stretch Holly had a nice block to go with the various kills and aces. FCS scored two again, but that was the last time they scored two in a row. Holly contributed a dink kill and an ace, Ally had a couple of aces, and Taylor finished off the game one 25-13 victory with a smash.
Our girls got the early lead in game two, 3-0, but FCS tied it up quickly on our errors, then took the lead on a dink kill. Lauren stopped that run with a kill, and Taylor followed it up with two aces. Faith then scored two kills and the game was in hand. Faith kept the lead at only five until at 14-9, CCS scored five in a row with Faith's great jump serves and timely hitting by Holly, and put the game out of reach. The lead stayed around ten until the end, which was scored on another Jenna ace. 25-15, CCS. The Patriots established themselves early in game three. Faith and Lauren started out the hitting, then Taylor picked it up, followed by Holly firing aces. After a Lauren block, who played excellent defense at the net all night, the lead was 16-4. The girls completely lost focus (they started GAT in other words - that's goof-around time - we need another acronym), allowing Faith to score six in a row, making the score 21-15. They then committed a service error, which seemed to get our girls back on track. Taylor followed that up with a nice block, FCS couldn't handle a Faith jump serve, and it was in hand. 25-16 was the final in game three.
We are now 22-1 on the season. The Patriots have won 55 games while losing 6, and have scored 1477 points while giving up 976. Last year after 23 matches we were 20-3, winning 52 games, losing 10. Westville is on the agenda for next Tuesday, a team we have easily defeated the last two years, but who have new coach that Coach Carr is familiar with, and that may make a difference for them, but after checking their record, that may not occur for a while. We then have opportunity to stretch our Calumet Invitational championship streak to three. I am really looking forward to that.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Yawn. Another tournament championship.
So we win again. The regularity of the trophy-hoisting might seem to be getting tedious, but it really isn't. Each of these last two tournament victories has been very hard fought, which of course makes the winning even sweeter. This time it was in Terre Haute, Coach was scouring the IHSAA website when she came upon this request for teams to participate in a tournament at Terre Haute South. I did a little research, found out the teams in Terre Haute were pretty good, so she signed up. This was THS's first time hosting a tournament, so they were only able to round up only three other teams - us, TH North, and Crown Point. Three huge schools, two with winning records. I want to note here that, unlike Illinois, the volleyball powerhouses in Indiana are not concentrated in the Chicago area. They are pretty well distributed around the state. The #1 4A team is Avon, from the western suburbs of Indy. Brebeuf, the #1 team in 3A is also from Indy, but the 2A top-ranked team is Muncie Burris and the top 1A team is in Montgomery, IN, roughly half-way between Indy and Evansville. So traveling far from home certainly doesn't mean a drop-off in the competition level - it could even mean the opposite.
Right off, we were matched against TH North. They had only one loss to-date, and looked to be a very tough start for our girls. And it was an 8AM CDT start - a little bit early for the Lady Patriots. Sure enough, before we had settled in our seats, it was 4-0, THN. THN committed two error to which Faith added a kill and it looked like we had awakened. THN was a very strong hitting team, but so are we. The teams traded kills for a while, with some errors thrown in, and it stayed close throughout. A Taylor kill followed by a THN hitting error gave us our first lead at 13-12. Neither team had more than a one point lead until an Ally dink kill and a THN hitting error made it 21-19. Taylor served an ace and Faith dinked one home to make it a four-point game. One more THN kill, then Faith smash, Faith smash, and game one was in the books, 25-20. Game two followed a similar track, at least at first. A Holly ace gave us our first two-point lead at 10-8, and then CCS began to take control. Ally and Faith scored on kills, and then after a dink kill by THN, CCS ran off seven straight, with everyone contributing, including the opponent. They absorbed a minor LGFS, but Ally finished the 25-18 game two win with a kill.
Now it was South. South had a below-.500 record, but had played a pretty tough schedule. We soon found out that they also were a team to be reckoned with. They played extremely good defense and had a solid offense. The scored stayed close in game one until THS scored five in a row. After we were called in the net for the second time in a row to make it 14-9, Coach called a time out. That seemed to work. We crept back in to the game, and after a beautiful Lauren/Ally block and THS hitting error we took our first lead, 21-20. Back and forth it went from there. We led 24-23 after a Taylor ace; they answered with a kill. Faith matched that, but then they came back with one of their own. Holly then put on down, and their next kill attempt was into the net, and we squeaked out the game, 27-25. CCS got their bad play out of the way early in the next game. THS was killing it early and we had no answer. The Braves led 6-1, 7-2, 9-3 and 10-4. Taylor then started turning the tide, with kills sandwiched around a Lauren kill. THS scored one, but then the Patriots really took control, outscoring THS 18-6 the rest of the way. Kills from Faith, Rebekah, Ally and Holly, aces from Taylor and a nice double block by Holly and Ally set up the game winner, a dink by Ally to make the final 25-16.
Our last game was against Crown Point, and it was for the championship. Yes, the team traveled almost 200 miles to play a school that is about 14 miles from Calumet. But it did give us an opportunity to play another public school from our area. CP is a very talented but young team. They had played top-ranked teams tough but had lost to teams they should have beaten. They are tall and very strong offensively. CCS got the early lead and held it for most of the game, but the lead never got above three until Faith hurt one to make it 14-10. A CP hitting error made it a five-point game, and after a CP kill, Holly and Faith combined on a block to put it back to five. We led 18-15 when CP ran off four straight. We scored three to answer and then kept a one or two-point lead until the end. A Faith dinked capped off the 25-23 game one win. Game two started well, with Taylor killing two early, Rebekah with a block and it was 4-2. CP slowly caught up, and a CCS hitting error gave them a 9-8 lead. Ally got that one back on a kill, but CP answered strongly with three kills and a stuff block. From there the story was Calumet errors and CP kills. We fell farther and farther behind, and CP closed it out with a dink, 25-17.
The third game, played to twenty-five, not fifteen, which made Coach Casey happy, was a mirror image of the second game as far as the score trends went. It was tied at 5 when Taylor pounded one. I don't know if CP was tired here or what, but they reeled off three straight hitting errors. They then got their act together enough to score a couple. CCS pushed the lead to five after a Taylor kill and ace, which CP matched with two blocks. Holly and Rebekah returned the favor with a very nice block. We only led by three, 19-16, when they committed a service error, followed by a hitting error. Taylor tattooed one, then Lauren and Rebekah went way up, with perfect timing, and rejected a big CP hit. 23-16 CCS. CP was pretty much done at this point. Ally served an ace. Then, in a fitting finish to a break-out blocking game for our girls, Lauren made like a wall and rejected CP's last hit. 25-16, CCS. Championship #2 on the season.
Look, a video!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
What a difference a year (and a player) make
Last year the Patriot defeated the Defenders of Heritage Christian High twice, but both matches were competitive even though CCS won in three straight both times. The second time, in the state regionals, Heritage scored 20 or more in all three games. Tonight the two teams met and it was a different story.
It's interesting all the different ways one player can influence a team. Heritage no longer has Danielle Zandstra, who has graduated and gone on to college basketball. Danielle stood about 6'1" or so, and if someone had not seen her play, would have figured that she was a dominant front row player. But while she did play great defense at the net, she did not hit the ball very hard - her offense wasn't really her strength. Her impact on her team was a little more subtle. She hustled as much or more than anyone. Her defense in the back row was as good as anyone else on the team. From my observation, though, it was her leadership that this years' team missed the most. She was calm and encouraging, and she made her teammates play better. This season Heritage seemed to have some talent, but had trouble putting it all together. Their defense was lax on the medium-speed hits and serves, but the flashed some real digging ability on the smashes and especially against Faith's plunging jump serves. They had a couple of crushing hits, but put a lot of balls into the net and past the end line.
There wasn't much drama in any of tonight's games, so I won't go into a blow-by-blow description of each game. At 1-1 in game one, Taylor dropped three aces in a row, and the game was for all intents and purposes over. Heritage hung around to 8-5, but quickly it was 19-8. The Patriots played with varying levels of intensity, often slipping into a less-than-focused effort, but they really didn't need that intensity to put away the Defenders. CCS played even with Heritage until an Ally spike closed out the 25-14 game one win. Game two was a little closer but never in doubt. Heritage's defense got better but their offense seemed to slip. We made a few of our own errors and Heritage hung around, trailing only 21-15 at one point. Holly, Faith and Ally each got kills in the home stretch and soon game two was in the books, 25-16. All the starch was out of Heritage by this point, and game three was a blowout. Calumet had a lot of kills and aces to open this game, each from several different players. Even with a substitutions, following a Jenna ace the Patriots led 16-4. The girls relaxed just a bit but all that did was keep the lead from growing as fast as it had. The Heritage errors began piling up, and the game finished on three straight Heritage mishits. Final score: 25-9.
On to what could be the girls' last real challenge until NACA. Crossroads, Goshen and perhaps Hebron lurk somewhere down the road, but we should still be favored in any of those matchups. Maybe there will be a new team at Quentin Road. We'll have to see. In the meantime, both Terre Haute South and North, and Crown Point await us this Saturday, and all three will be tough.
It's interesting all the different ways one player can influence a team. Heritage no longer has Danielle Zandstra, who has graduated and gone on to college basketball. Danielle stood about 6'1" or so, and if someone had not seen her play, would have figured that she was a dominant front row player. But while she did play great defense at the net, she did not hit the ball very hard - her offense wasn't really her strength. Her impact on her team was a little more subtle. She hustled as much or more than anyone. Her defense in the back row was as good as anyone else on the team. From my observation, though, it was her leadership that this years' team missed the most. She was calm and encouraging, and she made her teammates play better. This season Heritage seemed to have some talent, but had trouble putting it all together. Their defense was lax on the medium-speed hits and serves, but the flashed some real digging ability on the smashes and especially against Faith's plunging jump serves. They had a couple of crushing hits, but put a lot of balls into the net and past the end line.
There wasn't much drama in any of tonight's games, so I won't go into a blow-by-blow description of each game. At 1-1 in game one, Taylor dropped three aces in a row, and the game was for all intents and purposes over. Heritage hung around to 8-5, but quickly it was 19-8. The Patriots played with varying levels of intensity, often slipping into a less-than-focused effort, but they really didn't need that intensity to put away the Defenders. CCS played even with Heritage until an Ally spike closed out the 25-14 game one win. Game two was a little closer but never in doubt. Heritage's defense got better but their offense seemed to slip. We made a few of our own errors and Heritage hung around, trailing only 21-15 at one point. Holly, Faith and Ally each got kills in the home stretch and soon game two was in the books, 25-16. All the starch was out of Heritage by this point, and game three was a blowout. Calumet had a lot of kills and aces to open this game, each from several different players. Even with a substitutions, following a Jenna ace the Patriots led 16-4. The girls relaxed just a bit but all that did was keep the lead from growing as fast as it had. The Heritage errors began piling up, and the game finished on three straight Heritage mishits. Final score: 25-9.
On to what could be the girls' last real challenge until NACA. Crossroads, Goshen and perhaps Hebron lurk somewhere down the road, but we should still be favored in any of those matchups. Maybe there will be a new team at Quentin Road. We'll have to see. In the meantime, both Terre Haute South and North, and Crown Point await us this Saturday, and all three will be tough.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Well, that was fun
Who would have predicted that both the JV and the varsity would come from way back in the third games of the championship matches of their respective tournaments to win, with each ripping off long strings of points to do so. That never-say-attitude says a lot about the girls and a lot about the program. And this isn't the first time this season the varsity has done this, trailing Andrean 11-5 in game three at the Lafayette Central Catholic tournament before pulling out the victory.
Since I was at the varsity tournament, this story will be about that team. As many of you remember, we won this tournament last year, defeating three tough teams - Griffith, Merrillville and Winamac - before having a little easier time with the host team in the championship. This year Griffith and Merrillville were in our pool again, with North Judson replacing Winamac. First up was Merrillville, a team we had defeated earlier this year in three straight, two of which were very close. This time, not so much. We got on a roll, and Merrillville really didn't know how to stop it. The girls actually trailed in the first game 4-3. Faith's jump serve was working and Merrillville really couldn't handle it. Four aces, a couple of Taylor kills, a nice block by Lauren, and soon it was 13-4. Taylor's serve was also working, and when it was her turn, she also ripped off four aces in an eight-point run. Game 1: 25-8, CCS. Game two wasn't quite as dominant, but only because the girls took a bit to get going. This time the Patriots trailed 8-6 before things turned around. This time the girls's surged behind kills rather than aces, Taylor especially. On consecutive points, the girls stuffed Merrillville spikes, Lauren being involved in both. Ally placed a dink perfectly, and game two was in the books, 25-13.
North Judson was CCS's next opponent. They gave the girls a little more of a game, but not enough to make anyone nervous. NJ actually was hitting the ball pretty well in game 1. Neither team committed a lot of errors. We continued to block pretty well, better than we have recently. As late as 12-10 we led by only two, but then we began to pull away. Taylor, Faith and Ally had kills, a couple more blocks, and after a NJ hitting error, the lead was 23-13. A tiny LGFS, then Holly got the clinching kill in a 25-16 game 1 win. Game 2 saw the girls get going a little earlier, as NJ started to make some hitting errors while our girls kept up their high level of play. The lead got up to 19-8. From there the girls kind of maintained the lead and the final was the same as game 1, 25-16.
I had done a little research on our next opponent, Griffith. The Times did a feature on their 6' hitter, Kelsey Bonewits, and she was putting up some big numbers. The Post-Tribune had them ranked in the top ten in the region. We figured they would be our biggest challenge in the pool play and that turned out to be the case. Because one of the teams' bus broke down, the schedule had to be shuffled. This resulted in very long wait, over three hours, between games. So when a lot of the trouble we had in the first game was self-inflicted, it was understandable. Missed serves, net violations and hitting errors plagued us through the first half of the game, and we trailed at one point 15-11. We were still trailing 17-15 when Taylor put one down. The girls really started getting things working here. Kills by Taylor, aces by Ally, and blocks by Lauren. This resulted in ten straight points and a game 1 25-17 victory. Game two was one of streaks, as we trailed 6-3. Faith's jump serve was really dropping and CCS scored nine of the next ten points. A little later, a Faith kill made the lead five, 16-11. From there the lead eroded to one after a hitting error, 20-19. Taylor put on down which Griffith matched. Taylor didn't think they got the message so she put another one down. Faith them moved back to the front row and she got two kills and then a Griffith hitting error ended it, 25-20.
On to the championship game. Again. I think this made seven consecutive finals appearances for the Patriots. Of the previous six, five were victories. And our opponent was the same as last year, the host school, Kankakee Valley. Last year this was our easiest game of the day. Not so this year. KV played two six-foot middles, both sophomores, and had at least two other good hitters. They looked very impressive, certainly offensively, in the pool play we were able to see. At first it looked like it might be like last year. KV made a few errors, Taylor and Faith made kills and and ace by Katie gave CCS a 6-2 lead. Four errors by the Patriots plus a KV kill and it was game on, to use a cliche. Faith now began to find her hitting rhythm and KV kept going into the net and soon the Patriots had a four-point lead again, 12-8. The team went into another funk, committing a lot of errors and KV scored eight of the next nine points. And then things turned around again. Faith started finding the floor with her hits, pushing the Patriots back into the lead at 20-18. The teams traded points until it was 23-21. Then it got really interesting. After we dinked one out, KV crushed a couple and they were one point away from winning game one. Lauren kept things going with a nice block. Taylor moved into the serving position and smoked an ace. Now we were one point away. Two KV kills game them a one point lead, 26-25. It looked like we lost in on the next point, but KV was called for going into the net. Faith put one down. KV blocked the next one. 27-27. KV put the next serve into the net but then got it back with a kill. KV went into the net again and offset it with another kill. 29-29. Yet another service error followed but this time KV missed on their kill attempt. 31-29 Patriots. 31-29. The score of the final game in the state finals against Faith in 2009. Except we were on the wrong side of that one. Not that I'm bitter about that.
We were fast out of the blocks in the second game. KV had a lot of trouble with Ally's serves (which I noticed were harder and harder as the day went on) to start the game and CCS led 4-0. That didn't last long. Two kills, an ace, and three errors by the Patriots and they were trailing. A Taylor hit followed by a Taylor ace and it was tied. Back and forth the two teams went. Another Taylor kill followed by an Ally dink and a Faith dink gave the Patriots a 15-11 lead. KV scored four straight to tie it up. Faith put one down, but that was the only highlight in a 9-2 KV run behind their hitting and blocking. CCS tied it up at 21 after a Faith ace, but KV was really in a hitting rhythm. Three of the next four points were on KV kills. Taylor got one more kill to bring the Patriots back to within one, but then a setting error ended game two. Two games, two neck-and-neck battles.
Game three was looking really bad. With every point precious because the third game is only to 15, they fell behind 5-2. KV was really hitting and blocking well. They were really using their height to their advantage. The Rohn sisters then wrapped kills around a hitting error by KV and it was tied. The teams traded points before KV strung three kills together after a CCS serving error and it was looking really bleak at 10-6. Taylor decided that it was now Taylor Time. A kill, dink and a block with Lauren brought the Patriots to within one. After a KV hitting error tied it up, it turned into Ally time. Two kills were followed by what I wrote down as a dink, but that doesn't do what she did justice. A big KV hit was dug by Faith, but she barely was able to get a hand on it and she kind of lined it toward the right side of the net. It looked like it was going into the net, but Ally somehow got over to it. Even though it was almost just a reaction, she was able to redirect the ball over the net to an open spot. All right, I just read my description, and it just doesn't describe how cool a play it was. Maybe someone has it on video. As they say, you gotta see it to believe it. That seemed to throw KV off a bit and and they hit one into the net. Such an epic match needed an exclamation point to end on, and Taylor didn't disappoint. A smash just beyond the ten foot line, right down the line. Game, match and tournament, Calumet Christian Patriots. Reigning and defending champions of the Kankakee Valley Invite.
The fun doesn't end. Heritage, our rivals of the last few years are the opponents on Tuesday, then another tough public school tournament in Terre Haute next Saturday, against three 4A schools. As always, should be fun.
Since I was at the varsity tournament, this story will be about that team. As many of you remember, we won this tournament last year, defeating three tough teams - Griffith, Merrillville and Winamac - before having a little easier time with the host team in the championship. This year Griffith and Merrillville were in our pool again, with North Judson replacing Winamac. First up was Merrillville, a team we had defeated earlier this year in three straight, two of which were very close. This time, not so much. We got on a roll, and Merrillville really didn't know how to stop it. The girls actually trailed in the first game 4-3. Faith's jump serve was working and Merrillville really couldn't handle it. Four aces, a couple of Taylor kills, a nice block by Lauren, and soon it was 13-4. Taylor's serve was also working, and when it was her turn, she also ripped off four aces in an eight-point run. Game 1: 25-8, CCS. Game two wasn't quite as dominant, but only because the girls took a bit to get going. This time the Patriots trailed 8-6 before things turned around. This time the girls's surged behind kills rather than aces, Taylor especially. On consecutive points, the girls stuffed Merrillville spikes, Lauren being involved in both. Ally placed a dink perfectly, and game two was in the books, 25-13.
North Judson was CCS's next opponent. They gave the girls a little more of a game, but not enough to make anyone nervous. NJ actually was hitting the ball pretty well in game 1. Neither team committed a lot of errors. We continued to block pretty well, better than we have recently. As late as 12-10 we led by only two, but then we began to pull away. Taylor, Faith and Ally had kills, a couple more blocks, and after a NJ hitting error, the lead was 23-13. A tiny LGFS, then Holly got the clinching kill in a 25-16 game 1 win. Game 2 saw the girls get going a little earlier, as NJ started to make some hitting errors while our girls kept up their high level of play. The lead got up to 19-8. From there the girls kind of maintained the lead and the final was the same as game 1, 25-16.
I had done a little research on our next opponent, Griffith. The Times did a feature on their 6' hitter, Kelsey Bonewits, and she was putting up some big numbers. The Post-Tribune had them ranked in the top ten in the region. We figured they would be our biggest challenge in the pool play and that turned out to be the case. Because one of the teams' bus broke down, the schedule had to be shuffled. This resulted in very long wait, over three hours, between games. So when a lot of the trouble we had in the first game was self-inflicted, it was understandable. Missed serves, net violations and hitting errors plagued us through the first half of the game, and we trailed at one point 15-11. We were still trailing 17-15 when Taylor put one down. The girls really started getting things working here. Kills by Taylor, aces by Ally, and blocks by Lauren. This resulted in ten straight points and a game 1 25-17 victory. Game two was one of streaks, as we trailed 6-3. Faith's jump serve was really dropping and CCS scored nine of the next ten points. A little later, a Faith kill made the lead five, 16-11. From there the lead eroded to one after a hitting error, 20-19. Taylor put on down which Griffith matched. Taylor didn't think they got the message so she put another one down. Faith them moved back to the front row and she got two kills and then a Griffith hitting error ended it, 25-20.
On to the championship game. Again. I think this made seven consecutive finals appearances for the Patriots. Of the previous six, five were victories. And our opponent was the same as last year, the host school, Kankakee Valley. Last year this was our easiest game of the day. Not so this year. KV played two six-foot middles, both sophomores, and had at least two other good hitters. They looked very impressive, certainly offensively, in the pool play we were able to see. At first it looked like it might be like last year. KV made a few errors, Taylor and Faith made kills and and ace by Katie gave CCS a 6-2 lead. Four errors by the Patriots plus a KV kill and it was game on, to use a cliche. Faith now began to find her hitting rhythm and KV kept going into the net and soon the Patriots had a four-point lead again, 12-8. The team went into another funk, committing a lot of errors and KV scored eight of the next nine points. And then things turned around again. Faith started finding the floor with her hits, pushing the Patriots back into the lead at 20-18. The teams traded points until it was 23-21. Then it got really interesting. After we dinked one out, KV crushed a couple and they were one point away from winning game one. Lauren kept things going with a nice block. Taylor moved into the serving position and smoked an ace. Now we were one point away. Two KV kills game them a one point lead, 26-25. It looked like we lost in on the next point, but KV was called for going into the net. Faith put one down. KV blocked the next one. 27-27. KV put the next serve into the net but then got it back with a kill. KV went into the net again and offset it with another kill. 29-29. Yet another service error followed but this time KV missed on their kill attempt. 31-29 Patriots. 31-29. The score of the final game in the state finals against Faith in 2009. Except we were on the wrong side of that one. Not that I'm bitter about that.
We were fast out of the blocks in the second game. KV had a lot of trouble with Ally's serves (which I noticed were harder and harder as the day went on) to start the game and CCS led 4-0. That didn't last long. Two kills, an ace, and three errors by the Patriots and they were trailing. A Taylor hit followed by a Taylor ace and it was tied. Back and forth the two teams went. Another Taylor kill followed by an Ally dink and a Faith dink gave the Patriots a 15-11 lead. KV scored four straight to tie it up. Faith put one down, but that was the only highlight in a 9-2 KV run behind their hitting and blocking. CCS tied it up at 21 after a Faith ace, but KV was really in a hitting rhythm. Three of the next four points were on KV kills. Taylor got one more kill to bring the Patriots back to within one, but then a setting error ended game two. Two games, two neck-and-neck battles.
Game three was looking really bad. With every point precious because the third game is only to 15, they fell behind 5-2. KV was really hitting and blocking well. They were really using their height to their advantage. The Rohn sisters then wrapped kills around a hitting error by KV and it was tied. The teams traded points before KV strung three kills together after a CCS serving error and it was looking really bleak at 10-6. Taylor decided that it was now Taylor Time. A kill, dink and a block with Lauren brought the Patriots to within one. After a KV hitting error tied it up, it turned into Ally time. Two kills were followed by what I wrote down as a dink, but that doesn't do what she did justice. A big KV hit was dug by Faith, but she barely was able to get a hand on it and she kind of lined it toward the right side of the net. It looked like it was going into the net, but Ally somehow got over to it. Even though it was almost just a reaction, she was able to redirect the ball over the net to an open spot. All right, I just read my description, and it just doesn't describe how cool a play it was. Maybe someone has it on video. As they say, you gotta see it to believe it. That seemed to throw KV off a bit and and they hit one into the net. Such an epic match needed an exclamation point to end on, and Taylor didn't disappoint. A smash just beyond the ten foot line, right down the line. Game, match and tournament, Calumet Christian Patriots. Reigning and defending champions of the Kankakee Valley Invite.
The fun doesn't end. Heritage, our rivals of the last few years are the opponents on Tuesday, then another tough public school tournament in Terre Haute next Saturday, against three 4A schools. As always, should be fun.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Another IHSAA foe down
East Chicago Central has not been one of our toughest IHSAA opponents since we began playing them a couple years ago, and this year's match was no exception. I have used the word "perfunctory" to describe some wins in prior seasons, and was trying to come up with a new one for this game, but perfunctory just fits too well.
The first game might have got you thinking otherwise, however. Faith got us out in front 8-4 with three aces wrapped around a Taylor kill, and it looked like we were on our way to a rout. Not so fast. We didn't seem to want it too badly, as the girls made three unforced errors in a row. After an ECC dink, it was tied. From there we just seemed to keep shooting ourselves in the foot (feet?) with more errors. Finally Taylor snapped off a couple of ace serves to give the Patriots a three-point lead, and NOW it looked like a blowout. The lead was 19-13 when ECC called a timeout. The lead then eroded back down to two at 22-20, but CCS finished the game with a crescendo. First a Taylor hit. Then a big Faith hit. Then a CONCUSSIVE Faith hit - there, I did get to use a new big word. 25-20, Patriots.
Game two fit the description more aptly. The girls errored (verbification of error) their way to a 3-1 deficit, before the Taylor serving machine was fired up. Twelve points later, including two aces, the lead was at 10. Taylor missed a server here because I think she was tired. That was just a temporary glitch, as ECC seemed to lose any intensity they might have had in Game 1, and CCS soon had a 22-5 lead. A mini-LGFS ensued, but just a mini one, and the girls closed out a 25-8 Game 2 win on an Ally kill.
Coach substituted liberally in game three. By the time the game was about half over, Taylor, Faith and Ally were on the bench. The subs played very well for a while, but then they proved that they weren't immune to the LGFS virus. The Patriots held leads of 15-3 and 19-7, and still led 20-9 when the wheels came off. Maybe just one wheel. Lots of errors followed, but the girls finally closed it out. Taylor was subbed back in and she got the honors of making the clinching kill in the 25-18 win.
The girls are now 9-1 on the season. Maxpreps will show us as 11-1, as MCAC uses Maxpreps and listed their loss to our JV team as a varsity game. This is OK as long as the JV keeps on beating those varsity teams - no pressure, girls :-). The team will be making the long, very long, trek down to the Indianapolis area for a Thursday game against Bethesda Christian. I will not be making that trek. Just a bit too far to go for a weekday game. But I will be there for the Kankakee Valley tournament on Saturday. That will likely be even tougher than Lafayette Central Catholic last week, but our girls are pretty good. It should be fun.
The first game might have got you thinking otherwise, however. Faith got us out in front 8-4 with three aces wrapped around a Taylor kill, and it looked like we were on our way to a rout. Not so fast. We didn't seem to want it too badly, as the girls made three unforced errors in a row. After an ECC dink, it was tied. From there we just seemed to keep shooting ourselves in the foot (feet?) with more errors. Finally Taylor snapped off a couple of ace serves to give the Patriots a three-point lead, and NOW it looked like a blowout. The lead was 19-13 when ECC called a timeout. The lead then eroded back down to two at 22-20, but CCS finished the game with a crescendo. First a Taylor hit. Then a big Faith hit. Then a CONCUSSIVE Faith hit - there, I did get to use a new big word. 25-20, Patriots.
Game two fit the description more aptly. The girls errored (verbification of error) their way to a 3-1 deficit, before the Taylor serving machine was fired up. Twelve points later, including two aces, the lead was at 10. Taylor missed a server here because I think she was tired. That was just a temporary glitch, as ECC seemed to lose any intensity they might have had in Game 1, and CCS soon had a 22-5 lead. A mini-LGFS ensued, but just a mini one, and the girls closed out a 25-8 Game 2 win on an Ally kill.
Coach substituted liberally in game three. By the time the game was about half over, Taylor, Faith and Ally were on the bench. The subs played very well for a while, but then they proved that they weren't immune to the LGFS virus. The Patriots held leads of 15-3 and 19-7, and still led 20-9 when the wheels came off. Maybe just one wheel. Lots of errors followed, but the girls finally closed it out. Taylor was subbed back in and she got the honors of making the clinching kill in the 25-18 win.
The girls are now 9-1 on the season. Maxpreps will show us as 11-1, as MCAC uses Maxpreps and listed their loss to our JV team as a varsity game. This is OK as long as the JV keeps on beating those varsity teams - no pressure, girls :-). The team will be making the long, very long, trek down to the Indianapolis area for a Thursday game against Bethesda Christian. I will not be making that trek. Just a bit too far to go for a weekday game. But I will be there for the Kankakee Valley tournament on Saturday. That will likely be even tougher than Lafayette Central Catholic last week, but our girls are pretty good. It should be fun.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
The final
Our first-place finish in our pool earned us a spot in the championship game against Loogootee (pronounced lew-GO-tee, I think), a team from southeast Indiana about halfway between Indianapolis and Evansville. Loogootee is a very tall team, with two middles, one about six feet tall and the other about six-two. From watching some of their pool play, we saw that they ran most of their offense through these two, but they also had a couple of capable outside hitters. If that wasn't enough, their setting was very good and their defense was good. Hmmm. Where's the weakness? But, of course we're pretty good too.
The match began with no team scoring two points in a row until CCS scored three on a Loogootee hitting error and consecutive Faith aces. 6-4, Patriots. Loogootee put two hits together, which we answered with a Taylor kill and an ace by Lauren. Calumet started putting some distance between the two teams as Taylor was scoring on some hits and Loogootee committed a couple of errors. The lead reached six at 14-8 after a nice kill by Faith. The teams essentially traded kills for a while, but with CCS leading 19-13, we started making errors while Loogootee made kills, aces and blocks. Loogootee tied it at 21 on a Patriot hitting error and took the lead on a kill. As has happened countless times over the last two or three years, Faith took over. Kill. Kill. Block. 24-22, CCS. Not over yet. Kill by Loogootee, We muff a serve receive. Tie game. Faith put another down and Loogootee missed on a kill and game 1 went to Calumet, 26-24.
Game 2 was similar. Only in this game the lead never got to six. This game was more of a dink fest than game one, but both teams were putting the ball down one way or another. Rebekah put one down the line to give us a 3-0 lead. Loogootee caught us at 4. We pushed the lead up to four at 9-5 on an Ally block, and for a while we kept the lead between two and four points until a CCS hitting error and a Loogootee kill make it 15-15. Faith broke the string with a kill, but Loogootee was on a roll. They went up 19-16 on a series of kills. Behind a kill and block by Ally we got back to within one, but we seemed to be tiring. After getting out muscled at the net for a point, consecutive bad hits by CCS were the final points in a 25-21 set win for Loogootee.
Once again in game three we started out with a lead. At 7-5 Loogootee called a time-out. We then committed a service error. Loogootee answered with a service error of their own. They scored the next two on a dink kill and a spike, which we answered with a dink kill by Ally. We were slow getting the block over and Loogootee powered one down. A block, a dink kill and another big kill made it 12-9. Faith pulled us back to within two, then did it a point later with another kill. Loogootee then smashed another and the final point was a tough serve we couldn't handle. 15-11, set, match and tournament to Loogootee.
Overall, the girls played very well all day. I'm going with the excuse that we had to play in an un-air-conditioned gym all day until the final while Loogootee played in the cool gym. Or maybe Loogootee was just better than our girls today. Either way, it was a lot of fun. Tuesday we continue the IHSAA stretch of the schedule with a match at East Chicago and then this weekend we have our second eight-team tournament at Kankakee Valley. We have Merrillville, Griffith and North Judson in our pool. See you there.
The match began with no team scoring two points in a row until CCS scored three on a Loogootee hitting error and consecutive Faith aces. 6-4, Patriots. Loogootee put two hits together, which we answered with a Taylor kill and an ace by Lauren. Calumet started putting some distance between the two teams as Taylor was scoring on some hits and Loogootee committed a couple of errors. The lead reached six at 14-8 after a nice kill by Faith. The teams essentially traded kills for a while, but with CCS leading 19-13, we started making errors while Loogootee made kills, aces and blocks. Loogootee tied it at 21 on a Patriot hitting error and took the lead on a kill. As has happened countless times over the last two or three years, Faith took over. Kill. Kill. Block. 24-22, CCS. Not over yet. Kill by Loogootee, We muff a serve receive. Tie game. Faith put another down and Loogootee missed on a kill and game 1 went to Calumet, 26-24.
Game 2 was similar. Only in this game the lead never got to six. This game was more of a dink fest than game one, but both teams were putting the ball down one way or another. Rebekah put one down the line to give us a 3-0 lead. Loogootee caught us at 4. We pushed the lead up to four at 9-5 on an Ally block, and for a while we kept the lead between two and four points until a CCS hitting error and a Loogootee kill make it 15-15. Faith broke the string with a kill, but Loogootee was on a roll. They went up 19-16 on a series of kills. Behind a kill and block by Ally we got back to within one, but we seemed to be tiring. After getting out muscled at the net for a point, consecutive bad hits by CCS were the final points in a 25-21 set win for Loogootee.
Once again in game three we started out with a lead. At 7-5 Loogootee called a time-out. We then committed a service error. Loogootee answered with a service error of their own. They scored the next two on a dink kill and a spike, which we answered with a dink kill by Ally. We were slow getting the block over and Loogootee powered one down. A block, a dink kill and another big kill made it 12-9. Faith pulled us back to within two, then did it a point later with another kill. Loogootee then smashed another and the final point was a tough serve we couldn't handle. 15-11, set, match and tournament to Loogootee.
Overall, the girls played very well all day. I'm going with the excuse that we had to play in an un-air-conditioned gym all day until the final while Loogootee played in the cool gym. Or maybe Loogootee was just better than our girls today. Either way, it was a lot of fun. Tuesday we continue the IHSAA stretch of the schedule with a match at East Chicago and then this weekend we have our second eight-team tournament at Kankakee Valley. We have Merrillville, Griffith and North Judson in our pool. See you there.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Last year seventh; this year second
Quite the improvement. To be fair to last year's team, the competition was a bit better last year, and we were thisclose in all three of the losses we had last year (which were all of the losses we had all year).
This tournament starts with pool play. The eight teams are divided into two pools of four. Each team plays the other three teams in its pool and then the first, second, third and fourth place teams play each other. Our pool included Andrean, Eastern Greene, and Rockville. Eastern Greene and Andrean were in our pool last year, and were two of the teams that barely beat us. We also faced Rockville last year in the final game and defeated them. First up was Eastern Green, 32-5 and a class 2A quarterfinalist last year. Their big hitter was back. Their setter, apparently was not. EG's setter was called for doubling at least eight times during our match. We fell behind in each of our two games, but at 7-7 in the first game we took off, with hits spread around among all our hitters. The Patriots moved to a 17-12 point lead and never lead by less than four in the 25-16 win. Game two was quite the same; the tie this time was at 8. Calumet gradually opened up the lead to nine at 22-13 behind good hitting, especially a big one by Rebekah, and they soon closed out the win at 25-17.
Andrean, the big Catholic school in Merrillville was our next opponent. Andrean was ranked one behind us in the preseason Times poll and had beaten us in three last year. Our game today with them started with sloppy play from both teams. We led 7-6 when Andrean cleaned things up, while we didn't. The 59ers went on a 10-2 run with some help from us, but mostly big hits on their part. We made a mini-run and got to within three, but that was it and Andrean took game one, 25-19. Game two was much cleaner. There was no lead greater than one until a Taylor kill made it 8-6. Three points were added to make it a five point game, but Andrean came back to tie it. Calumet went on a 8-2 run and didn't trail again. A Taylor dink finished the game at 25-21. Game three saw a great comeback from CCS. The girls went on a streak of errors. Andrean augmented those with a couple of kill. 11-5, Andrean. In a fifteen-point game, that score usually means the game is over. Not so fast. Kill, Taylor. Hitting error, Andrean, Kill, Ally. Hitting error, Andrean. Time out, Andrean. We had a serving error coming out of the timeout. 12-9, Andrean, but consecutive dink kills by Holly and Taylor, an Andrean hitting error and a back row kill by Ally gave us the lead. Andrean dinked one in to tie it at 13. Faith then put one down and Taylor finished off the amazing comeback with an ace. What a game.
Game three was against Rockville. They had lost a lot of their team from last year to graduation, and were the weakest team in the pool. Coach Carr put in all the subs, and the girls relaxed a bit, playing down to their competition. The did open up a nine-point lead in set one, but then they let Rockville back into it and ended winning 25-19. Set two was more of a struggle to find rhythm from the beginning. Finally the girls got it together, and after trailing 16-15, stretched it out to a 25-18 win to put us into the championship game. More about that tomorrow.
This tournament starts with pool play. The eight teams are divided into two pools of four. Each team plays the other three teams in its pool and then the first, second, third and fourth place teams play each other. Our pool included Andrean, Eastern Greene, and Rockville. Eastern Greene and Andrean were in our pool last year, and were two of the teams that barely beat us. We also faced Rockville last year in the final game and defeated them. First up was Eastern Green, 32-5 and a class 2A quarterfinalist last year. Their big hitter was back. Their setter, apparently was not. EG's setter was called for doubling at least eight times during our match. We fell behind in each of our two games, but at 7-7 in the first game we took off, with hits spread around among all our hitters. The Patriots moved to a 17-12 point lead and never lead by less than four in the 25-16 win. Game two was quite the same; the tie this time was at 8. Calumet gradually opened up the lead to nine at 22-13 behind good hitting, especially a big one by Rebekah, and they soon closed out the win at 25-17.
Andrean, the big Catholic school in Merrillville was our next opponent. Andrean was ranked one behind us in the preseason Times poll and had beaten us in three last year. Our game today with them started with sloppy play from both teams. We led 7-6 when Andrean cleaned things up, while we didn't. The 59ers went on a 10-2 run with some help from us, but mostly big hits on their part. We made a mini-run and got to within three, but that was it and Andrean took game one, 25-19. Game two was much cleaner. There was no lead greater than one until a Taylor kill made it 8-6. Three points were added to make it a five point game, but Andrean came back to tie it. Calumet went on a 8-2 run and didn't trail again. A Taylor dink finished the game at 25-21. Game three saw a great comeback from CCS. The girls went on a streak of errors. Andrean augmented those with a couple of kill. 11-5, Andrean. In a fifteen-point game, that score usually means the game is over. Not so fast. Kill, Taylor. Hitting error, Andrean, Kill, Ally. Hitting error, Andrean. Time out, Andrean. We had a serving error coming out of the timeout. 12-9, Andrean, but consecutive dink kills by Holly and Taylor, an Andrean hitting error and a back row kill by Ally gave us the lead. Andrean dinked one in to tie it at 13. Faith then put one down and Taylor finished off the amazing comeback with an ace. What a game.
Game three was against Rockville. They had lost a lot of their team from last year to graduation, and were the weakest team in the pool. Coach Carr put in all the subs, and the girls relaxed a bit, playing down to their competition. The did open up a nine-point lead in set one, but then they let Rockville back into it and ended winning 25-19. Set two was more of a struggle to find rhythm from the beginning. Finally the girls got it together, and after trailing 16-15, stretched it out to a 25-18 win to put us into the championship game. More about that tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Second IHSAA opponent; second win
Arrggghhhh!!!
Thought I ought to start with that, since we played the Pirates tonight.
Yes, we traveled to Merrillville tonight to play the Pirates and came a away with one of the following: 1)their first win; 2) their third win or 3) their fourth win. It was their first regular season win if you count Saturday's games as a tournament. It was their third win if you count Saturday's games as regular games. It was their fourth if you look at Maxpreps. Victory included the game against our JV as a varsity game, so it shows up as as a varsity game for us as well.
We beat Merrillville twice last year, once 3-1 in a a regular season match and 2-1 in the Kankakee Valley tournament. As I remember, they were a somewhat disorganized team with some good offense. This year they were quite different - very good defense and not much offense. Their offense was the disorganized part of their game, but their digging was good. We jumped out to an early lead behind hits by Taylor and Faith and a defensive error, but Merrillville tied it at three. We continued the good hitting but were making a lot of errors and Merrillville stayed even for a while. At 6-6 Lauren got a kill followed by a nice dink by Ally. Calumet added to the lead from there, pushing it to five at 13-8. After three consecutive errors by our girls, they got it back together and stretched the lead to 18-11. A nice tandem block by Faith and Lauren made it 23-13, we made an error and Lauren got a kill. 24-14, game point. And then a LGFS. Six straight from Merrilleville before they served one out and the first game was finally ours, 25-20.
Game 2 was a mirror image of game 1, at least for a while. The Patriots opened up a little lead, Merrillville brought it back to even. This time, however, MHS kept it going. A dink followed by a two nice blocks gave them a three point lead. We tied it at 11, and it stayed a one or two point game until a MHS ace and dink kill put them ahead 20-17. We evened it up again at 22 with kills from Lauren and Taylor sandwiched around a Faith ace. The teams traded points to 25, then Taylor decided it was time be done, finishing it with consecutive kills.
The third game saw MHS get the first two points, and then it was even for a while. Two MHS errors plus a dink kill by Ally made it 12-9. A little bit later two Calumet errors brought MHS to within 1, but from there it was all Patriots. Four Faith kills, including the clincher, gave Calumet the game, 25-16.
My reports were that the girls won both games tonight, easily defeating Lakeshore Thunder 25-5, 25-9 and 25-13. The match against Crossroads was tough as expected, with the girls needing four games to defeat them. The scores, I believe, were 25-13, 25-18, 20-25, and 25-14. I'm not sure about the last game. However, they did win and their record is now 5-0. Or 3-0. Or 6-0.
Thought I ought to start with that, since we played the Pirates tonight.
Yes, we traveled to Merrillville tonight to play the Pirates and came a away with one of the following: 1)their first win; 2) their third win or 3) their fourth win. It was their first regular season win if you count Saturday's games as a tournament. It was their third win if you count Saturday's games as regular games. It was their fourth if you look at Maxpreps. Victory included the game against our JV as a varsity game, so it shows up as as a varsity game for us as well.
We beat Merrillville twice last year, once 3-1 in a a regular season match and 2-1 in the Kankakee Valley tournament. As I remember, they were a somewhat disorganized team with some good offense. This year they were quite different - very good defense and not much offense. Their offense was the disorganized part of their game, but their digging was good. We jumped out to an early lead behind hits by Taylor and Faith and a defensive error, but Merrillville tied it at three. We continued the good hitting but were making a lot of errors and Merrillville stayed even for a while. At 6-6 Lauren got a kill followed by a nice dink by Ally. Calumet added to the lead from there, pushing it to five at 13-8. After three consecutive errors by our girls, they got it back together and stretched the lead to 18-11. A nice tandem block by Faith and Lauren made it 23-13, we made an error and Lauren got a kill. 24-14, game point. And then a LGFS. Six straight from Merrilleville before they served one out and the first game was finally ours, 25-20.
Game 2 was a mirror image of game 1, at least for a while. The Patriots opened up a little lead, Merrillville brought it back to even. This time, however, MHS kept it going. A dink followed by a two nice blocks gave them a three point lead. We tied it at 11, and it stayed a one or two point game until a MHS ace and dink kill put them ahead 20-17. We evened it up again at 22 with kills from Lauren and Taylor sandwiched around a Faith ace. The teams traded points to 25, then Taylor decided it was time be done, finishing it with consecutive kills.
The third game saw MHS get the first two points, and then it was even for a while. Two MHS errors plus a dink kill by Ally made it 12-9. A little bit later two Calumet errors brought MHS to within 1, but from there it was all Patriots. Four Faith kills, including the clincher, gave Calumet the game, 25-16.
My reports were that the girls won both games tonight, easily defeating Lakeshore Thunder 25-5, 25-9 and 25-13. The match against Crossroads was tough as expected, with the girls needing four games to defeat them. The scores, I believe, were 25-13, 25-18, 20-25, and 25-14. I'm not sure about the last game. However, they did win and their record is now 5-0. Or 3-0. Or 6-0.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Strange but good opening to the season
The girls traveled to someplace in the middle of Indiana today to play what originally was to be a tournament, but turned out to be a tri-match. The first opponent was the Goshen Blue Blazers, a team that we may play three or four times this season, depending on what happens in a couple of tournaments. As I mentioned in my last post, Goshen took a game from us in the ICST semi-final last year, the only set we lost to a non-IHSAA school all year, including NACA. The team has scrimmaged Goshen last week, and Coach Carr thought that Goshen was not as good as they usually are. Goshen and the host school, Argos. Argos, as we all know, was Odysseus' dog and was also the name of Cerberus' brother - Cerberus, of course, being the three-headed dog that guarded the Underworld. What this has to do with volleyball, I'm not sure.
Anyway, back to the match.
Goshen looked much better that than they had in the scrimmage, according to Coach Carr. And the our game with them proved it. After it went to 2-0 Calumet on a Faith kill, things started going a little sideways. Goshen ran off three straight to go ahead. It went back and forth from there, with both teams making mistakes and both teams making some good plays. CCS went up 10-7, then made a series of consecutive errors. Hitting errors, net violations, balls dropping. Finally Taylor got a kill, but Calumet was still down 13-11. A couple of Goshen errors and an Ally kill later, and CCS regained the lead. Behind a Faith kill and a Holly ace Calumet went up three again, and they held it there. Finally a Taylor kill gave the girls a 25-22 win.
Game two saw the girls go out to a 6-1 lead. In that run there was nice kill by Holly and a block by Lauren and Mandi. Then the errors came right back and it was 6-5. It was then Goshen's turn to make some errors and the lead went up to six at 13-7. Calumet didn't let them get any closer than three, and Faith closed out the match and the 25-19 game win with a kill.
The less said about the match against Argo, the better. The only thing worth mentioning, and the reason that both games weren't single-digit points was the first appearance of the season of the dreaded LGFS, which occurred in the first game. For the uninitiated, LGFS stands for "late-game flat spot", a trademark of Calumet over the last few seasons. CCS was up 21-7 when it struck. Six Dragon points later CCS finally broke the streak. (Yes, they are the Argos Dragons.) All but one of the six points were from our errors, including an out-of-rotation. CCS then woke up and put the Dragons away, 25-13. Game two was more or less serving practice with Calumet scoring at least eight aces, including four by Ally to open the match. The Patriots ended up scoring the last thirteen points to win 25-2. Yes, 2.
It was good to get the first games of the year under our belt. This week: Merrillville on Monday, and Crossroads and a new team, Lakeshore Thunder, on Tuesday in a trimatch at Lake Hills. We know Merrillville and Crossroads will be tough, and we've heard that Lakeshore is pretty good as well. Should be a good, tough week, climaxing on Saturday in Lafayette at the Lafayette Central Catholic Tourney. See you there
Anyway, back to the match.
Goshen looked much better that than they had in the scrimmage, according to Coach Carr. And the our game with them proved it. After it went to 2-0 Calumet on a Faith kill, things started going a little sideways. Goshen ran off three straight to go ahead. It went back and forth from there, with both teams making mistakes and both teams making some good plays. CCS went up 10-7, then made a series of consecutive errors. Hitting errors, net violations, balls dropping. Finally Taylor got a kill, but Calumet was still down 13-11. A couple of Goshen errors and an Ally kill later, and CCS regained the lead. Behind a Faith kill and a Holly ace Calumet went up three again, and they held it there. Finally a Taylor kill gave the girls a 25-22 win.
Game two saw the girls go out to a 6-1 lead. In that run there was nice kill by Holly and a block by Lauren and Mandi. Then the errors came right back and it was 6-5. It was then Goshen's turn to make some errors and the lead went up to six at 13-7. Calumet didn't let them get any closer than three, and Faith closed out the match and the 25-19 game win with a kill.
The less said about the match against Argo, the better. The only thing worth mentioning, and the reason that both games weren't single-digit points was the first appearance of the season of the dreaded LGFS, which occurred in the first game. For the uninitiated, LGFS stands for "late-game flat spot", a trademark of Calumet over the last few seasons. CCS was up 21-7 when it struck. Six Dragon points later CCS finally broke the streak. (Yes, they are the Argos Dragons.) All but one of the six points were from our errors, including an out-of-rotation. CCS then woke up and put the Dragons away, 25-13. Game two was more or less serving practice with Calumet scoring at least eight aces, including four by Ally to open the match. The Patriots ended up scoring the last thirteen points to win 25-2. Yes, 2.
It was good to get the first games of the year under our belt. This week: Merrillville on Monday, and Crossroads and a new team, Lakeshore Thunder, on Tuesday in a trimatch at Lake Hills. We know Merrillville and Crossroads will be tough, and we've heard that Lakeshore is pretty good as well. Should be a good, tough week, climaxing on Saturday in Lafayette at the Lafayette Central Catholic Tourney. See you there
Thursday, August 18, 2011
More preseason stuff, recap of scrimmage
So, apparently the varsity is afraid of the parents. That's the only reason I can come up with that they didn't play us Tuesday night. I guess they will retain their pride this way, losing to the alumni instead of us creaky old parents. Because we would have beaten them as well, as we did the JV.
And another season begins. A spirited night of scrimmaging kicked it off Tuesday night. The junior high played an inter-squad game, followed by the parents (not necessarily players' parents, but I do believe all those playing were, in fact, parents). The varsity/alumni game finished things up for the evening. I do believe the alumni game had been a fixture up until a couple of years ago. Coach had a little trouble rounding up enough alumni, so the parents stepped in. The alumni, plus a couple, were able to form a team this year, so things were back to normal. Oh, and by the way, a hearty welcome to the newest member of the Calumet volleyball family, Katie Welman, formerly of Highland High and a junior, I believe.
Jesse Tucker will be filing reports on the JV games, so you will be able to read recaps of those games as well. Hopefully she will be able to step in for me when I am not able to attend games as well. I think Jesse will have a lot to write about, because the JV team looks very good this year. As usual.
The Times had their season preview of the area high school volleyball season. The good news is that Calumet is the #7 team in the preseason rankings and Faith was named as a preseason all-region player. The bad news is that first, Faith is listed as playing for Calvary Christian, and secondly, there is no scouting report for the Patriots. Not sure what happened there. But it is still pretty exciting to be ranked, and to have Faith get a little more recognition.
Finally, the season opens up with what will now be a tri-match at Argos High, with the host school, Calumet and the Goshen Blue Blazers participating this Saturday. Goshen should be pretty tough, as they were the only team to win a set from Calumet last year that wasn't an IHSAA school. Argos has not been very strong recently, but you never know. I'm looking forward to another great Calumet volleyball season.
And another season begins. A spirited night of scrimmaging kicked it off Tuesday night. The junior high played an inter-squad game, followed by the parents (not necessarily players' parents, but I do believe all those playing were, in fact, parents). The varsity/alumni game finished things up for the evening. I do believe the alumni game had been a fixture up until a couple of years ago. Coach had a little trouble rounding up enough alumni, so the parents stepped in. The alumni, plus a couple, were able to form a team this year, so things were back to normal. Oh, and by the way, a hearty welcome to the newest member of the Calumet volleyball family, Katie Welman, formerly of Highland High and a junior, I believe.
Jesse Tucker will be filing reports on the JV games, so you will be able to read recaps of those games as well. Hopefully she will be able to step in for me when I am not able to attend games as well. I think Jesse will have a lot to write about, because the JV team looks very good this year. As usual.
The Times had their season preview of the area high school volleyball season. The good news is that Calumet is the #7 team in the preseason rankings and Faith was named as a preseason all-region player. The bad news is that first, Faith is listed as playing for Calvary Christian, and secondly, there is no scouting report for the Patriots. Not sure what happened there. But it is still pretty exciting to be ranked, and to have Faith get a little more recognition.
Finally, the season opens up with what will now be a tri-match at Argos High, with the host school, Calumet and the Goshen Blue Blazers participating this Saturday. Goshen should be pretty tough, as they were the only team to win a set from Calumet last year that wasn't an IHSAA school. Argos has not been very strong recently, but you never know. I'm looking forward to another great Calumet volleyball season.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Latest first-post-of-the-season in a while
Hey, look! Another volleyball season!
Here we are, August 10, and I haven't done a volleyball post yet this year. What is wrong with me? And with all this summer activity, too, no less.
Seriously, this off-season has been full of news. The saddest, of course, was the news that Amanda had leukemia. Most of you know about that; we are cautiously thankful of the progress so far in her treatments and pray that soon we will hear the news that she is in remission, and that she can participate in some part of this season.
The trip to Cedarville for a summer tournament was also something different. Seven teams from public schools, Shekinah Christian and Calumet were the teams involved in this, which took place the weekend after the Fourth of July. This started out on a Thursday. Kelsey and I were able to head out there Friday morning, so we were able to witness most of the games. As it turned out, there were two teams that were quite a bit above the rest: Shekinah Christian and us. Both teams mowed through the pool play schedule without being tested much. Our pool game was tightly contested, with Calumet coming out on top in two. The bracket part of the tournament was double elimination, and we both waltzed through our respective sides of the bracket to get to the first rematch. This match was quite different than the pool match. In the first game, we stayed close for quite a while. A Holly kill made it 14-12, Shekinah. A few kills and Calumet errors later it was 19-12. The teams traded points until a Shekinah block closed it out, 25-17. It was 4-2 Calumet, then 5-4 after a Faith kill, and 6-6 after a Shekinah serving error. We were still in it when another Shekinah error made it 10-8 in favor of Shekinah. But Shekinah scored eight of the next nine points, mostly on kills, and the game was essentially over. A back row kill ended it 25-13. On to the losers bracket. Another cakewalk led to the rematch with SCC. The first game of this match started very slow, with the girls down 6-1. Dinks and kills contributed to five straight points and it was tied. We stayed even, but at 11-11 SCC began to open up some room, and went on to win 25-19. Game 2 was very even. No team had more than a two-point lead after SCC opened up 3-0 until a double block by Faith and Lauren gave the second game to Calumet, 25-22. An avalanche of kills by SCC in game three made sure we didn't really have a chance. I counted ten kills in the 15-5 wipeout.
Shekinah's team was made up of juniors that had been playing together for several years (very similar to CCS last year), and were within a whisker of going to Ohio's final four last season. We were trying a working in a lot new players and the team had stretches of very ragged play. Of course, that's what these games are for, to get the less experienced players some playing time and to work on getting the new girls worked in. From what I heard about camp, much improvement was made in integrating the new players.
I mentioned some of the awards received by our players for their play last season, but I neglected to mention that Ally's club team finished second at the AAU national volleyball tournament in Orlando in June, and Ally was named to the U14 All-American team. Congrats to Ally!!
Just a few notes about former players and opponents. Danielle Zandstra will be playing basketball for Prairie State this upcoming season - no volleyball for her, apparently. Emma Kile (Calvary-Butler, PA) will be entering her senior season at Clearwater Christian this fall. Last year she was named the 2010 AVCA/NCCAA National Player of the Year. Rachel Eizenga will be playing for South Suburban College this fall. . And Kara Boss received recognition in another sport.
Scrimmages next Tuesday, then the season opens at the Argos Tournament on either Friday or Saturday. It will be very hard to even match last year, but I'm looking forward to see how the team works to reach that level again. Keep checking on the blog for updates and on Maxpreps for stats and other team info.
Go Patriots!!!
Here we are, August 10, and I haven't done a volleyball post yet this year. What is wrong with me? And with all this summer activity, too, no less.
Seriously, this off-season has been full of news. The saddest, of course, was the news that Amanda had leukemia. Most of you know about that; we are cautiously thankful of the progress so far in her treatments and pray that soon we will hear the news that she is in remission, and that she can participate in some part of this season.
The trip to Cedarville for a summer tournament was also something different. Seven teams from public schools, Shekinah Christian and Calumet were the teams involved in this, which took place the weekend after the Fourth of July. This started out on a Thursday. Kelsey and I were able to head out there Friday morning, so we were able to witness most of the games. As it turned out, there were two teams that were quite a bit above the rest: Shekinah Christian and us. Both teams mowed through the pool play schedule without being tested much. Our pool game was tightly contested, with Calumet coming out on top in two. The bracket part of the tournament was double elimination, and we both waltzed through our respective sides of the bracket to get to the first rematch. This match was quite different than the pool match. In the first game, we stayed close for quite a while. A Holly kill made it 14-12, Shekinah. A few kills and Calumet errors later it was 19-12. The teams traded points until a Shekinah block closed it out, 25-17. It was 4-2 Calumet, then 5-4 after a Faith kill, and 6-6 after a Shekinah serving error. We were still in it when another Shekinah error made it 10-8 in favor of Shekinah. But Shekinah scored eight of the next nine points, mostly on kills, and the game was essentially over. A back row kill ended it 25-13. On to the losers bracket. Another cakewalk led to the rematch with SCC. The first game of this match started very slow, with the girls down 6-1. Dinks and kills contributed to five straight points and it was tied. We stayed even, but at 11-11 SCC began to open up some room, and went on to win 25-19. Game 2 was very even. No team had more than a two-point lead after SCC opened up 3-0 until a double block by Faith and Lauren gave the second game to Calumet, 25-22. An avalanche of kills by SCC in game three made sure we didn't really have a chance. I counted ten kills in the 15-5 wipeout.
Shekinah's team was made up of juniors that had been playing together for several years (very similar to CCS last year), and were within a whisker of going to Ohio's final four last season. We were trying a working in a lot new players and the team had stretches of very ragged play. Of course, that's what these games are for, to get the less experienced players some playing time and to work on getting the new girls worked in. From what I heard about camp, much improvement was made in integrating the new players.
I mentioned some of the awards received by our players for their play last season, but I neglected to mention that Ally's club team finished second at the AAU national volleyball tournament in Orlando in June, and Ally was named to the U14 All-American team. Congrats to Ally!!
Just a few notes about former players and opponents. Danielle Zandstra will be playing basketball for Prairie State this upcoming season - no volleyball for her, apparently. Emma Kile (Calvary-Butler, PA) will be entering her senior season at Clearwater Christian this fall. Last year she was named the 2010 AVCA/NCCAA National Player of the Year. Rachel Eizenga will be playing for South Suburban College this fall. . And Kara Boss received recognition in another sport.
Scrimmages next Tuesday, then the season opens at the Argos Tournament on either Friday or Saturday. It will be very hard to even match last year, but I'm looking forward to see how the team works to reach that level again. Keep checking on the blog for updates and on Maxpreps for stats and other team info.
Go Patriots!!!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
More post- (very post-) season awards
NCSAA finally got around to posting their volleyball awards for the 2010 season.
It was worth the wait.
Faith Rohn was named small school PLAYER OF THE YEAR! Congrats to her - one more award to put on the ever-growing pile, all well-deserved.
Both Faith and Rachel were named first-team All-Americans, and Taylor made second-team. In addition, all three girls were named to the Northeast All-Region team, which includes the large schools as well. The large school group includes some powerhouse programs that play in their states' athletic organizations (e.g, IHSAA).
It was worth the wait.
Faith Rohn was named small school PLAYER OF THE YEAR! Congrats to her - one more award to put on the ever-growing pile, all well-deserved.
Both Faith and Rachel were named first-team All-Americans, and Taylor made second-team. In addition, all three girls were named to the Northeast All-Region team, which includes the large schools as well. The large school group includes some powerhouse programs that play in their states' athletic organizations (e.g, IHSAA).
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