Wasn't this supposed to be the year which we looked back fondly on the past two years, enjoying the memories of 2010 and 2011 (and perhaps 2009), while we watched the 2012 version struggle with the schedule which was upgraded for the powerhouse of the last year or two or three? Sure, we knew they were going to be good, but good like earlier teams, playing well, finishing in the top three or four of the tournaments in which we played, but not getting the first-place trpphy seemingly just for showing up. Not this.
What just happened here? Did we pass through some sort of time portal, transporting us back a year or two?
No. This was real. This was unexpected. This was great. This was very, very, very satisfying. About the only disappointment was that Heritage of Maryland wasn't there (see my last post).
Ladies and gentlemen, the three-time defending National Association of Christian Athletes Division 1 Volleyball National Champions, your Calumet Christian Patriots [wild applause].
Before the national tournament, there was also this little thing called the ICST state tournament that also occurred since I last posted. And, unfortunately, it was a little thing. It was nice to win, but the girls were never really tested in the four matches that led to the championship. That trophy is pretty cool, though. I have in prior years blogged about the crazy and sometimes unfair structure of this tournament. Some things have been cleared up, but the schedule is still problematic. That, and the huge difference in ability between the top teams and the bottom. The result of that was a cakewalk in Calumet's first game on Friday night. Indianopolis Lighthouse is a new charter school and their team was very poor. CCS won that one 25-4, 25-7. Next up was Granger, very early the next day. Our JV team played and beat Granger during the season, and the 25-11, 25-12 victory was expected. Several hours later (I sure hope the girls weren't too tired), it was Horizon, the hosts in the semis. They were better than what they looked like in the quarters, but the Patriots still won comfortably, 25-15, 25-17, 25-15. Finally, at 6:00 the championship game took place. Indy Silver Lightning, who the Patriots had defeated in the semifinals of the Calumet Invitational was the opponent. They had won a tough five-set victory over Heritage to get there. Not that they should have been tired as the final was many hours after the semis (did I mention that already?). Lots of dead time between matches. Anyway, they didn't put up much of a fight and CCS handled them pretty easily, 25-12, 25-18, 25-14, and the girls got another of those cool trophies shaped like a volleyball.
On to the big one. NACA. Dayton, Tennessee. Nine hours in the van and there we were, back on the mountain. As it has been the last two years, teams seeded to their division by play within their three-team pool. First place meant Division 1, second Division 2 and third division 3. Calumet had no trouble beating both of their pool opponents, perhaps too little trouble. After dispatching "The Rock" 25-12, 25-8, the girls had to play West Florida. Baptist. Little confusing as the West Florida Christian team last year was quite good. This was a different school, quite different. After winning the first 25-4, the girls got a little goofy and won the second 25-11. This made a big difference in the seeding, as the seeding within the divisions was determined by point differential After getting over some perceived unfairness in that system, we accepted it and tried to figure out where we would end up. Since NACA didn't post the scores, we didn't know where we would end up. When we finished the seeding was announced. We were third. We were disappointed, especially when we found out that Hearts for Jesus was the first-round opponent for the third seed. Chatting with the coach of the second seeded team right after the seedings were announced, we found out that we had the same differential. We talked to the tournament organizers who rechecked their numbers. Sure enough, they had made an error. This meant that we had to do a coin toss. We scrounged up the AD of the other team to witness the toss, and we won. Second seed. Much better. Aaron Academy would be our first round opponent.
Thursday at 10:30 we faced Aaron, a homeschool team from Tennessee. From conversations their people had with Coach Carr, it sounded like they thought they were very good. Maybe they are. Just not as good as Calumet. I'm sure they hadn't seen anyone like Ally, who was dominant in this match. She had eighteen kills, mostly big hits but some dinks. Aaron made their share of error, and after staying with the Patriots for a while in the first set, never challenged. Three straight kills by Ally in the second set closed out a 25-15, 25-14 victory for CCS.
Interspersed with the volleyball was some soccer-watching. CCS's soccer team was also at NACA and the girls supported the boys every chance they could. In addition, the girls followed the Hearts for Jesus soccer team, who defeated Calumet and pool play and would go on to win their seventh Divison 1 championship in the last eight years. This would pay off for the girls later on. Read on to find out how.
At 2:00 we faced Hearts. We lost to Hearts three years ago (who won the tournament that year) and defeated them in the championship two years ago when the Patriots won their first D1 crown. They were tough again this year. Just not tough enough. To be fair, our girls really stepped it up in this match, playing their best volleyball in a few weeks, and defeated Hearts 25-17, 25-17. Both games were close early with the Patriots slowly pulling away late. Ally had another huge game, scoring nineteen kills, but she got a lot of support from her teammates. That put the girls into the finals of the winner's bracket, Carroll Christian.
Carroll didn't look that strong in the game in which we scouted them, and played below that level in our match, which took place 12:30 Friday afternoon. They didn't make a lot of mistakes, but couldn't handle our hitting or our serving. We eased out to a 9-3 lead in the first set and sort of held that advantage throughout, eventually winning 25-16. The girls dominated in the second set, even to the point of having a LGFS. They led at one point 22-7, but then gave up six straight points due mainly to sloppy play - a classic LGFS. Ally got the team back on track with two kills and a net violation by Carroll ended it at 25-13.
We figured to see West Carolina in the championship, but in the loser's bracket final, Carroll really stepped up their game and defeated the Trailblazer, which meant that we would see Carroll again, the time in the championship match. The gym was full, including the Hearts teams who Calumet had connected with and with supporting the Patriots. The match began a little after the scheduled time of 9PM. It looked like it would be a repeat of the afternoon game, as after an Amanda ace (wow, five words in a row beginning with "a" - whoops, back to the game) the Patriots led 19-13. Carroll started showing some guile, scoring several off of well-placed dinks and while they lost 25-20, they were playing much better. We led 11-5 in game two when the wheels started coming off. A couple of errors by the Patriots followed by a dink kill and an ace by Carroll and they were back in the game. Their big hitter really started firing, our serve receive got a little shaky, and Carroll eventually pulled into the lead at 15-14. They were really firing and blocking at this point, while our blocking was generally late, and shut down CCS, eventually winning the set 25-18. CCS again got the early lead. At 11-8, Carroll gave us some of our own medicine, pushing the ball to the corner twice in a row. They followed this with a dink and a big hit to give them the lead. A hitting error tied it up, but another dink followed by a stuff of Ally made it 14-12. They made an error but a CCS net violation caused by a bad pass ended the set and the match.
Since this was our first loss, it meant that these two teams would immediately play each other again, this time for the banner. The first set was close early, and was tied at 8. CCS then had two hitting errors and it looked like CCS might lose the momentum again. Olivia dinked the next won for a kill to pull the Patriots back to within one and Mandi followed with a kill to tie it. It stayed close until, at 13-13, as the announcer said, it seemed like Ally (and the team) said enough was enough and it was time to end it. Calumet scored ten of the next eleven points, seven on kills by Ally and an eighth on a block by Ally and Faith. Carroll made a little rally but Stephanie put one down to win the set 25-19. Calumet rode the momentum right into the second set. The breaks and the good play were going CCS's way. Olivia dropped in a saving bump for a point after the girls made a couple of amazing digs. Ally managed to get her finger on a shoot set that was a little off to tip in a dink kill. Eventually the girls went up 12-3 and it looked like Carroll was done. Not quite. Carroll scrapped and fought to trim the lead to five, 16-11, but that really was their last gasp. They put on in the net on a scamble, which was caused by Ally's well-placed push. After an Ally dink, Carroll crushed their last kill to make it 18-12. They gave the point back by putting the next serve into the net. Mandi's serve then fell in, Ally killed one, then stuffed their big hitter. Their attempt at a kill off an CCS overpass went into the net to make it 23-12. The inevitable was delayed a bit when the next serve attempt went long. On the next volley, Carroll was called for a back row attack and then, on championship point, Carroll's kill attempt went into the net and Calumet Christian School is now the three-time defending champion of NACA Division 1, only the second team ever to do that.
I can only shake my head. What an unexpected championship. What a deserved one.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
I haven't forgotten about this blog
Did you miss me?
I knew I hadn't posted on the blog in a while, but I didn't realize it has been almost three weeks. Yikes. To give you an idea of how long that is, the Patriots lost twice since I posted last. That is a long time.
I left off after summing up our tournament and the exciting run to the championship. The girls had a quick turn-around after the big victory with a game against Bishop Noll on the following Monday. Bishop Noll is a good-size IHSAA school with a pretty good volleyball team. I think the effects of the draining weekend showed in the first set. They had a hard time getting their offense going, which set up their big hitter. The score was even early, but BN got rolling behind their hitter, outscoring the Patriots 6-1 to take a 19-13 lead. As quickly as they got behind, CCS tied it up, scoring six straight by three kills by Ally and three unforced errors by BN. It stayed very close but at 25-25, Mandi put on down. BN followed with a kill attempt that went into the net and the nailbiter was Calumet's, 27-25. Set two was no contest, with the Patriots jumping out to a 8-1 lead and never looking back in the 25-8 victory. Set three, as predicted by Ted, was in between the first two. CCS had a small early lead, kept it and eventually secured the set and the match, winning 25-20.
Crossroad Crusaders came out to Lake Hills that Friday. We hadn't lost to them, but the last two years the games have been very competitive. Calumet beat them 25-22, 25-21 in the championship game of our tournament, which was the last time we faced them. In the first two sets, CCS had the lead late but couldn't hold it. In the first set the lead was 20-19. Crossroads scored five of the next six. Ally kept us alive with a kill, but their big hitter crushed one to end it, 25-22. The lead late in set two was 22-20. Crossroads exploited the holes with dink kills as well as one big kill, and agains scored five of the next six, finishing the 25-23 set win with another dink. The Calumet serve received just fell apart in the third set. Crossroads also started going outside to their other hitter as we were having some success blocking their star, and we had trouble getting the block outside in time. We were in the game until at 12-12, but the Crusaders really got on a roll, outscoring the Patriots 10-1. Toward the end of the run our girls were really on their heels as they hit consecutive kill attempts into the net. Finally Olivia and Lee stopped the run with a block, which Ally and Olivia followed with kills and it was 22-16. But Crossroads scored twice, and then after two hitting errors, the star clinched it with a big kill and the girls had lost their first three-set sweep all year.
It may be uncharitable to say CCS went from the sublime to the ridiculous, to paraphrase Thomas Paine, but it fits so I'm sticking with it. I wasn't there, and the reports are that they were very nice girls, but the Gary West Side players were not very good and CCS rolled to an easy 25-8, 25-9, 25-4 victory on the following Monday. At least it was a workout before the Dayspring Classic, more commonly known as the Quentin Road tournament.
Ah yes, the QR tournament. After the requisite arm-in-arm skipping up the driveway (When did that start? Does anyone know?), the girls got down to business. I will summarize here because there was a lot of play to recap. Romeoville was the first opponent and they didn't last long, going down 25-4, 25-10. Another IACS team was up next, Berean of Rockford and they also went down with much of a fight, losing 25-9, 25-10. A couple of highlights: on one blast from Ally, the Berean player just ducked. I don't know if I blame her. Also, the girls felt confident enough to try some new stuff. Ally pounded one down on a slide. I don't know if Coach saw it - don't tell her! She thinks they're dangerous. Mandi also had a huge hit in this match. Grace gave us a good set to open the next pool play match. Grace stay right with the Patriots, pulling to within 21-19 on a kill. Two error followed by two kills by Ally ended their upset hopes and they went down somewhat weakly in the second, 25-9. Beth Haven of Michigan was the last pool play opponent. I was talking to one of the dads and found they had lost only one game before the tournament. They weren't bad, just not in Calumet's class and never threatened CCS, losing 25-14, 25-10. That made the fourth straight year of perfect pool play at QR by the Patriots, matching their record at their own tournament.
Saturday's first opponent in bracket play was the hosts, the Quentin Road Christian Eagles. As has been their pattern, the girls were sluggish in the (relatively) early morning match, but they methodically built leads in both sets and won both by the same score, 25-15. Our old friends, the Minutemen (Minutewomen?) of Calvary Academy out of Butler, PA was our next opponent. Six years ago they beat Calumet in the championship of this tournament. We had seen them once or twice since then, but they have never had a team since to compete with that one. This year was not an exception. They had one middle hitter that was very good and one that was pretty good, but they had a couple of fifth-graders that got significant playing time, who were in over their heads. Calvary committed a lot of errors to enable CCS to eventually build a 20-10 lead, and they cruised to a 25-16 set one win. Set two started similarly with Calumet going out to an 18-11 lead, but Calvary scored nine of ten to take the lead at 20-19. Olivia decided enough was enough, and she scored four kills in the Patriot six-point run to finish the set and match. Maranatha Baptist was our semifinal opponent. They were very tall and looked imposing. Calumet started very strongly, eventually going up 19-8 behind solid hitting from everyone. Maranatha made a little run, mainly because we had trouble with serve receive again. They got to with five, but Calumet scored the last four, the last on an ace from Ally to win set one 25-16. We committed more errors than usual to open set two - bad serves, hitting into the net, etc. - and could not pull away. At 12-12 Mandi scored two straight aces and it looked like the Patriots were back in control. An Olivia kill made it 20-16, but serve receive just fell apart again. Maranatha scored eight straight because of that and CCS hitting woes. They muffed one, but then the Patriots again couldn't handle a down ball, so we went to the third set. Maranatha's tall girls opened up hitting strong and a couple of hitting errors hurt CCS as well, but they were only down 7-6 when the Patriots really dialed up their intensity. A couple of Olivia aces contributed early in the run, then consecutive kills by Ally, Mandi, Faith and Stephanie ended it at 15-7, and the Patriots were in the finals again, for the seventh time in the last eight years. A chance to match the record in the Calumet tournament of four straight wins. Also a chance to become the first team to win four straight at QR ever in its 20-year history.
Nazareth Academy, a team from downstate Indiana would be the opponent. By this time, it wasn't a surprise, since we had watched most of the teams over the two days of the tournament. But if you would have told me before the tournament that Nazareth would have been our opponent in the finals, I would have asked you if the other teams had gotten food poisoning. In other words, they have not been very good in prior years, in fact, quite weak. This year they had two smaller girls that could really play. Their defense was solid and the fact that they had two go-to hitters separated them from most of the teams at the tournament. However, it was evident that they were not used to playing on such a big stage in front of so many people. The match started with four straight hitting errros by NA, three too long and one into the net. Ally tipped an overpass, then Nazareth put another ball into the net. Mandi then stuffed one. 7-0, CCS. Nazareth decided to try to settle down by dinking and it was effective. Later, following a huge Ally hit, we put one into the net and NA was within four at 11-7. They tried hitting again and it still wasn't working, as they hit three straight out at one point and CCS stretched out the lead to 18-8. Our girls started having some hitting troubles at this point, but NA couldn't take advantage. The score was 22-14 when Ally put two down. They did get a kill, but fittingly, they hit one out on set point, and CCS was one set from the championship. Both teams played better in the second, but as NA's hitting got better, so did our blocking. Olivia and Stephanie combined on a block to tie it up at 6. Two dink kills and an ace (serve receive issues again) and Nazareth led by three, but that was the last time they would lead. Kills by Ally and Olivia followed a serving and hitting error by Nazareth to give CCS the lead. We hit one long to let NA tie it up again. The lead was one or two until at 13-12 CCS, Nazareth's hitting woes returned, hitting two out. Ally followed with a kill to make the lead four. We hit one wide, but that was momentary glitch, because we followed it with a Faith kill, an ace by Mandi, and two kills by Ally, the second a thunderous one. (Thunderous - I don't think I ever used that term to describe a kill by her sister. So Ally's got that one on her.) After some back and forth play, Lee and Ally got kills to make it 24-16. We hit one out. Olivia then completed the championship run with a well-placed dink and CCS was champ for the fourth straight year (and fifth overall) of the Dayspring Classic.
Again, the Patriots follow a strong opponent with one at the other end of the spectrum. Last year the JV played Bowman Academy but this year the varsity had a hole in their schedule and so Coach scheduled the varsity to play. To use a favorite term of mine, Yikes. 25-3, 25-4, 25-7. Enough said.
The next four matches I was not able to attend. The first one was against Munster. Last year's match against Munster was the most frustrating of the year, not just because it was one of our two losses, but because we played about as poorly as we had all year and lost a close one. This year was different. Reports are that it was never in doubt, that Munster was the superior team and ended up taking the match 25-13, 25-16, 25-18. I'm especially sad I couldn't make the next one, as Coach told the girls played as good as they have all year, at least after the first set, and defeated Crossroads on their home court in five, 19-25, 25-22, 26-28, 25-22, 15-11. The next night was a trimatch with Goshen Blue Blazers and Heritage Christian. The girls won both in three straight, beating Goshen 25-16, 25-12, 25-15 and Heritage 25-10, 25-13, 26-24. Last night was the last home game and last regular-season match of the year. Before the match, seniors Stephanie and Lee were recognized and given flowers. The Chargers of Illinois Lutheran were the opponents. They were pretty strong last year, but lost many of their hitters and are in a little bit of a rebuilding year. The Patriots won pretty easily, even though they seemed a little sluggish at times. The significant element of this match was the number of blocks we had. I'm not absolutely sure, but this must have the most blocks we had in a match all year. The stats show we had eight which sounds about right. Everyone hit pretty well as well, and Illinois Lutheran had a lot of hitting errors. All three sets were pretty tight early - scores of 9-7 in the first, 9-8 in the second and 11-10 in the third - with CCS pulling away late.
44-5. Fifth straight year with forty or more wins and seventh in the last eight. I have been blessed to witness the last seven seasons For a volleyball fan to be a part of such a successful program, both in wins and losses and lives touched, it has been a real privilege.
Now we have a week off until the state tournament next weekend. Indy Silver Lightning looks to be the toughest potential opponent there. Then NACA. I hope we play Heritage of Maryland again. Here's why, from the Hagerstown Herald Mail:
"I am very proud of the whole team. They had to fight all the way through the tournament and they represented Washington County well,” Eagles coach Young-Sook Anderson said. “We were the newcomer, we’d never been there before, so nobody knew about us. All the coaches and parents there were shocked, they were all wondering where we were from. So it was neat because everybody was curious about us.”
“All the coaches came to me and told me Kara was the No. 1 player there,” Anderson said. “She mostly got defensive MVP because the offensive MVP went to a player on the winning team (Calumet), but she wasn’t as powerful as Kara.”
“The losers’ bracket tired our girls out because we had to play more games,” Anderson said. “Calumet had an easy road to the final, had to play less games and had more rest than us. They scouted us a lot, but we didn’t have the time to prepare for them.”
They seem to like sour grapes. Maybe we can give them some more :-)
I knew I hadn't posted on the blog in a while, but I didn't realize it has been almost three weeks. Yikes. To give you an idea of how long that is, the Patriots lost twice since I posted last. That is a long time.
I left off after summing up our tournament and the exciting run to the championship. The girls had a quick turn-around after the big victory with a game against Bishop Noll on the following Monday. Bishop Noll is a good-size IHSAA school with a pretty good volleyball team. I think the effects of the draining weekend showed in the first set. They had a hard time getting their offense going, which set up their big hitter. The score was even early, but BN got rolling behind their hitter, outscoring the Patriots 6-1 to take a 19-13 lead. As quickly as they got behind, CCS tied it up, scoring six straight by three kills by Ally and three unforced errors by BN. It stayed very close but at 25-25, Mandi put on down. BN followed with a kill attempt that went into the net and the nailbiter was Calumet's, 27-25. Set two was no contest, with the Patriots jumping out to a 8-1 lead and never looking back in the 25-8 victory. Set three, as predicted by Ted, was in between the first two. CCS had a small early lead, kept it and eventually secured the set and the match, winning 25-20.
Crossroad Crusaders came out to Lake Hills that Friday. We hadn't lost to them, but the last two years the games have been very competitive. Calumet beat them 25-22, 25-21 in the championship game of our tournament, which was the last time we faced them. In the first two sets, CCS had the lead late but couldn't hold it. In the first set the lead was 20-19. Crossroads scored five of the next six. Ally kept us alive with a kill, but their big hitter crushed one to end it, 25-22. The lead late in set two was 22-20. Crossroads exploited the holes with dink kills as well as one big kill, and agains scored five of the next six, finishing the 25-23 set win with another dink. The Calumet serve received just fell apart in the third set. Crossroads also started going outside to their other hitter as we were having some success blocking their star, and we had trouble getting the block outside in time. We were in the game until at 12-12, but the Crusaders really got on a roll, outscoring the Patriots 10-1. Toward the end of the run our girls were really on their heels as they hit consecutive kill attempts into the net. Finally Olivia and Lee stopped the run with a block, which Ally and Olivia followed with kills and it was 22-16. But Crossroads scored twice, and then after two hitting errors, the star clinched it with a big kill and the girls had lost their first three-set sweep all year.
It may be uncharitable to say CCS went from the sublime to the ridiculous, to paraphrase Thomas Paine, but it fits so I'm sticking with it. I wasn't there, and the reports are that they were very nice girls, but the Gary West Side players were not very good and CCS rolled to an easy 25-8, 25-9, 25-4 victory on the following Monday. At least it was a workout before the Dayspring Classic, more commonly known as the Quentin Road tournament.
Ah yes, the QR tournament. After the requisite arm-in-arm skipping up the driveway (When did that start? Does anyone know?), the girls got down to business. I will summarize here because there was a lot of play to recap. Romeoville was the first opponent and they didn't last long, going down 25-4, 25-10. Another IACS team was up next, Berean of Rockford and they also went down with much of a fight, losing 25-9, 25-10. A couple of highlights: on one blast from Ally, the Berean player just ducked. I don't know if I blame her. Also, the girls felt confident enough to try some new stuff. Ally pounded one down on a slide. I don't know if Coach saw it - don't tell her! She thinks they're dangerous. Mandi also had a huge hit in this match. Grace gave us a good set to open the next pool play match. Grace stay right with the Patriots, pulling to within 21-19 on a kill. Two error followed by two kills by Ally ended their upset hopes and they went down somewhat weakly in the second, 25-9. Beth Haven of Michigan was the last pool play opponent. I was talking to one of the dads and found they had lost only one game before the tournament. They weren't bad, just not in Calumet's class and never threatened CCS, losing 25-14, 25-10. That made the fourth straight year of perfect pool play at QR by the Patriots, matching their record at their own tournament.
Saturday's first opponent in bracket play was the hosts, the Quentin Road Christian Eagles. As has been their pattern, the girls were sluggish in the (relatively) early morning match, but they methodically built leads in both sets and won both by the same score, 25-15. Our old friends, the Minutemen (Minutewomen?) of Calvary Academy out of Butler, PA was our next opponent. Six years ago they beat Calumet in the championship of this tournament. We had seen them once or twice since then, but they have never had a team since to compete with that one. This year was not an exception. They had one middle hitter that was very good and one that was pretty good, but they had a couple of fifth-graders that got significant playing time, who were in over their heads. Calvary committed a lot of errors to enable CCS to eventually build a 20-10 lead, and they cruised to a 25-16 set one win. Set two started similarly with Calumet going out to an 18-11 lead, but Calvary scored nine of ten to take the lead at 20-19. Olivia decided enough was enough, and she scored four kills in the Patriot six-point run to finish the set and match. Maranatha Baptist was our semifinal opponent. They were very tall and looked imposing. Calumet started very strongly, eventually going up 19-8 behind solid hitting from everyone. Maranatha made a little run, mainly because we had trouble with serve receive again. They got to with five, but Calumet scored the last four, the last on an ace from Ally to win set one 25-16. We committed more errors than usual to open set two - bad serves, hitting into the net, etc. - and could not pull away. At 12-12 Mandi scored two straight aces and it looked like the Patriots were back in control. An Olivia kill made it 20-16, but serve receive just fell apart again. Maranatha scored eight straight because of that and CCS hitting woes. They muffed one, but then the Patriots again couldn't handle a down ball, so we went to the third set. Maranatha's tall girls opened up hitting strong and a couple of hitting errors hurt CCS as well, but they were only down 7-6 when the Patriots really dialed up their intensity. A couple of Olivia aces contributed early in the run, then consecutive kills by Ally, Mandi, Faith and Stephanie ended it at 15-7, and the Patriots were in the finals again, for the seventh time in the last eight years. A chance to match the record in the Calumet tournament of four straight wins. Also a chance to become the first team to win four straight at QR ever in its 20-year history.
Nazareth Academy, a team from downstate Indiana would be the opponent. By this time, it wasn't a surprise, since we had watched most of the teams over the two days of the tournament. But if you would have told me before the tournament that Nazareth would have been our opponent in the finals, I would have asked you if the other teams had gotten food poisoning. In other words, they have not been very good in prior years, in fact, quite weak. This year they had two smaller girls that could really play. Their defense was solid and the fact that they had two go-to hitters separated them from most of the teams at the tournament. However, it was evident that they were not used to playing on such a big stage in front of so many people. The match started with four straight hitting errros by NA, three too long and one into the net. Ally tipped an overpass, then Nazareth put another ball into the net. Mandi then stuffed one. 7-0, CCS. Nazareth decided to try to settle down by dinking and it was effective. Later, following a huge Ally hit, we put one into the net and NA was within four at 11-7. They tried hitting again and it still wasn't working, as they hit three straight out at one point and CCS stretched out the lead to 18-8. Our girls started having some hitting troubles at this point, but NA couldn't take advantage. The score was 22-14 when Ally put two down. They did get a kill, but fittingly, they hit one out on set point, and CCS was one set from the championship. Both teams played better in the second, but as NA's hitting got better, so did our blocking. Olivia and Stephanie combined on a block to tie it up at 6. Two dink kills and an ace (serve receive issues again) and Nazareth led by three, but that was the last time they would lead. Kills by Ally and Olivia followed a serving and hitting error by Nazareth to give CCS the lead. We hit one long to let NA tie it up again. The lead was one or two until at 13-12 CCS, Nazareth's hitting woes returned, hitting two out. Ally followed with a kill to make the lead four. We hit one wide, but that was momentary glitch, because we followed it with a Faith kill, an ace by Mandi, and two kills by Ally, the second a thunderous one. (Thunderous - I don't think I ever used that term to describe a kill by her sister. So Ally's got that one on her.) After some back and forth play, Lee and Ally got kills to make it 24-16. We hit one out. Olivia then completed the championship run with a well-placed dink and CCS was champ for the fourth straight year (and fifth overall) of the Dayspring Classic.
Again, the Patriots follow a strong opponent with one at the other end of the spectrum. Last year the JV played Bowman Academy but this year the varsity had a hole in their schedule and so Coach scheduled the varsity to play. To use a favorite term of mine, Yikes. 25-3, 25-4, 25-7. Enough said.
The next four matches I was not able to attend. The first one was against Munster. Last year's match against Munster was the most frustrating of the year, not just because it was one of our two losses, but because we played about as poorly as we had all year and lost a close one. This year was different. Reports are that it was never in doubt, that Munster was the superior team and ended up taking the match 25-13, 25-16, 25-18. I'm especially sad I couldn't make the next one, as Coach told the girls played as good as they have all year, at least after the first set, and defeated Crossroads on their home court in five, 19-25, 25-22, 26-28, 25-22, 15-11. The next night was a trimatch with Goshen Blue Blazers and Heritage Christian. The girls won both in three straight, beating Goshen 25-16, 25-12, 25-15 and Heritage 25-10, 25-13, 26-24. Last night was the last home game and last regular-season match of the year. Before the match, seniors Stephanie and Lee were recognized and given flowers. The Chargers of Illinois Lutheran were the opponents. They were pretty strong last year, but lost many of their hitters and are in a little bit of a rebuilding year. The Patriots won pretty easily, even though they seemed a little sluggish at times. The significant element of this match was the number of blocks we had. I'm not absolutely sure, but this must have the most blocks we had in a match all year. The stats show we had eight which sounds about right. Everyone hit pretty well as well, and Illinois Lutheran had a lot of hitting errors. All three sets were pretty tight early - scores of 9-7 in the first, 9-8 in the second and 11-10 in the third - with CCS pulling away late.
44-5. Fifth straight year with forty or more wins and seventh in the last eight. I have been blessed to witness the last seven seasons For a volleyball fan to be a part of such a successful program, both in wins and losses and lives touched, it has been a real privilege.
Now we have a week off until the state tournament next weekend. Indy Silver Lightning looks to be the toughest potential opponent there. Then NACA. I hope we play Heritage of Maryland again. Here's why, from the Hagerstown Herald Mail:
"I am very proud of the whole team. They had to fight all the way through the tournament and they represented Washington County well,” Eagles coach Young-Sook Anderson said. “We were the newcomer, we’d never been there before, so nobody knew about us. All the coaches and parents there were shocked, they were all wondering where we were from. So it was neat because everybody was curious about us.”
“All the coaches came to me and told me Kara was the No. 1 player there,” Anderson said. “She mostly got defensive MVP because the offensive MVP went to a player on the winning team (Calumet), but she wasn’t as powerful as Kara.”
“The losers’ bracket tired our girls out because we had to play more games,” Anderson said. “Calumet had an easy road to the final, had to play less games and had more rest than us. They scouted us a lot, but we didn’t have the time to prepare for them.”
They seem to like sour grapes. Maybe we can give them some more :-)
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Aunt Voula
I'll explain the title later.
The more things change, the more things stay the same.
That's an axiom that has become a cliche, but it describes this season, and particularly this past Calumet Regional Volleyball Invitational, to a T, to use another cliche.
I'll try to dig out from under this pile of cliches. What I mean by that is the Patriots turned over seven players from last year. Only two remain, Ally and Mandi, while the two top hitters, one of the setters, another top hitter and the libero are gone. But even with all the new players, the success continues. Tournaments CCS never would have dreamed of playing in, much less winning, five years ago but were captured by what we thought was a once-in-a-lifetime group of players the last couple of years are still owned by Calumet. Three weeks ago it was Kankakee Valley, and this past weekend the Patriots captured their own tournament for the fourth year in a row, defeated this the Crossroad Crusaders, the same opponent in last year's championship match (although this year they needed only two games.) Another "same" from last year was the last name of the MVP - Rohn.
Along with the change in the makeup of the team was the expectations. Last year, the year before, and possible the year before that, Calumet was the favorite. In 2010, the Patriots weren't even tested on their march to the trophy. In 2009, there was a little scare in the semis, but the finals were somewhat anticlimactic. Last year we thought we would roll, but the championship game was very tightly contested and we barely survived 15-13 in the third game. This year, to quote the title character, "We never think this could happen for you! Never! NEVER!" Well, maybe that is a little bit of an overstatement, but that came to mind as I was thinking about the events of this weekend, reflecting back about my thoughts during the offseason, before I saw what this team could become.
On Friday, the Patriots opened pool play against possible the weakest team in the tournament, the Kankakee Trinity Academy Eagles. Not much needs to be said about the most lopsided contest of the weekend, other than the Patriots won 21-3, 21-3. Next up was the Rivertown Patriots, a homeschool team from Grand Rapids, Michigan that used to be known as WMCAA. This one was much tougher - Rivertown ended up as the second seed out of our pool - and the girls struggled a little bit. Serve receive was a problem as it has been the last few games. CCS did get out to a 16-11 lead as their hitting and blocking was pretty good, but Rivertown scored three aces in a row, then after a Calumet hitting error, they got another ace to tie it up. A couple of Rivertown errors gave Calumet the lead again. The game ended on a block and then a kill by Ally, 21-17. Continued sloppy defensive play put CCS in an 11-5 hole to open the second the second set. An alarm of sorts must have gone off at this point, as we went on an eight-point run behind solid blocking, then after giving up a point, scored seven more in a row. They gave up another, but closed it out on a back row kill by Kaylie 21-13.
Fort Wayne Falcons White was our next opponent. Fort Wayne used to have two homeschool volleyball teams, the Falcons and the Angels, but the Angels disbanded and the Falcons got a lot of their players. They now have two teams, Black and White, essentially an A and a B team. The White teams is the B team. They were better than a lot of recent Angels teams, but not very strong. We started out slow again, as we did against Rivertown in the second set, but at 6-6, the girls went on a run again, this time 14-1. The offense was strong and everyone contributed. One point later we wrapped up set one, 21-8. The momentum and the offense continued into the second set as the Patriots ran out to a 10-1 lead. Our errors were the source of most of the points FW scored down the stretch, but the lead was never threatened in the 21-9 second set win. At 7:30 we faced Arthur-Okaw, a team we played several times last year. They lost their star from last year but were still pretty tough. I think they were a little intimidated by us as the committed a lot of hitting errors. In both sets we led 6-1 and they were both essentially over. The first set saw a lot of kills from Olivia, and the second was characterized by aces from Ally. The scores were 21-10 and 21-11. Somonauk Christian was our final opponent. They only had one loss coming in, but they must a played a weak schedule. Ally came out pounding it. At 11-2 we started making some errors, but a block by Olivia and Lee put the Patriots back on track, and they soon finished the 21-11 set win. The second set saw kills from all the hitters and a Cassie ace finished up the 21-10 second set win and the fourth straight year of perfect pool play.
Because of the success on Friday, the girls' Saturday schedule didn't begin until noon. Schaumburg, who hasn't seemed to play well against us at all the last few years were our first opponent, I'm sure to their regret. This match was not an exception. At 2-2 the Patriots scored with four straight kills. After a hitting error by Schaumburg, they called a timeout. The blocking team of Lee and Olivia stuffed one, then Ally found a hole and Lee put one down and it was 10-2. A little while later the blocking team stuffed another one for a 15-4 lead. SCS put together a mini-run of six out of seven points, but couldn't sustain the momentum, as they committed numerous hitting errors and the girls wrapped up the 25-14 win with an Ally kill. SCS kept it close early in set two. At 6-5, Olivia got a kill, Ally scored on a dink, and Olivia paired up with Stephanie for a block. Ally dialed it up here and the game was soon in hand. Olivia closed out the 25-12 quarterfinal win with kill and a nice dink.
We had heard that the Indy Silver Lightning were good, but weren't sure how good. They finished first in the their pool and beat a pretty tough Fort Wayne Falcons Black team in their semifinal, so they were pretty good. They were big and athletic, with several hitters. Ally came out on fire. She had five kills and a block in a 9-3 Patriot run to open the match. Indy called a time out to slow her down. It seemed to work. Indy scored six of the next eight to pull to within two. Then Indy bookended two net violations around kills by Ally (back row), Faith and Stephanie to break it open. After a Patriot receiving error, CCS scored five more in a row and it was a rout. Indy did get some kills later, but Stephanie finished the 25-16 with a kill. We struggled a bit to open up the second set, but it was more Indy good play rather than our poor play. Indy had four kill for their first four points, then we started having some hitting problems. An Indy ace gave them a 7-3 lead, which would prove to be their biggest lead of the match. They hit one out which Lee followed with an ace. Mandi put one down before Indy scored two of the next three. Ally took over here. Four kills plus a shared block with Mandi were part of a seven point run. Indy got their hitting going again which allowed them to get back to within one at 15-14. Ally grabbed the momentum back, and Mandi, Olivia and Faith kept it. Olivia had two kills and Mandi had one down the stretch. Faith's kill ended the 25-17 set win and a berth in the championship game.
Crossroads gave us all we could handle in our contests against us last year. They had one dominant player, so dominant that Division 1 schools are recruiting her even though she is only 16. One player that they didn't have was their savvy setter of last year. It didn't look like they had any one to replace her. However, it also looked like the big hitter, #7, was better and smarter than last year. After an opening prayer by Dan Obinger and the roster introductions the match began. Crossroads led 3-1 when Ally and Annika (#7) started trading kills. Three by Ally, three by Annika. Crossroads bracketed two hitting errors around two kills by Stephanie for four straight by Calumet. Olivia then absolutely rejected a big kill by Annika and CCS led 9-6. Errors were committed by each team. Olivia, Stephanie then Faith each scored on kills to make it 13-8. Calumet gave one up, then Ally and Annika went back at it. Back row kill by Annika. Back row kill by Ally. Kill by Annika. Dink kill by Ally. Kill by Annika. Block by Annika. Ally then dinked one out and Annika dinked one in to tie it. Kill by Ally. Kill by Ally. Kill by Annika. We had a hitting error, they had a serving error. They had two defensive breakdowns, then Ally scored two aces. Annika hit one out and the Patriots led 23-17. The Crusaders scored two in a row, the second on an Annika kill. A block by Olivia and Lee put Calumet one point away. Annika crushed one from the back row, then Crossroads scored on an ace Coach called a timeout. Crossroads then couldn't return a ball and the Patriots had game one, 25-22.
Set two pickup where set one left off. A hitting error gave us the first point, then alternating kills by Ally and Annika, three by Annika and two by Ally made it 3-3. We messed up a return, then Ally scored on a kill then an ace. Annika blocked one before Stephanie got one down, then Ally from the back row, then Olivia. Lee completed the run with an ace and it was 9-5, CCS. Annika ended the run with a back row kill but Olivia followed this with a kill then an ace. Crossroads scored the next five, including a block and kill by Annika. They hit one out, then were called on a questionable carry on a dink attempt. They scored two kills in a row to tie it up again, which Ally answered with a spike and a dink. Annika dinked one in but they served out on the next point. We made two errors to make it tied again at 16, but then they served out again. We opened up a little room with a block by Olivia followed by an Ally ace, then a beautiful block by Olivia on Annika. Another hitting error was the last point in the five point streak. Crossroads ended the run with a downball that we partially blocked but fell on our side. We couldn't return the next serve,, then we were called on a some violation on what looked like a very nice dink kill by Olivia. 21-19, CCS. Ally pushed the lead back to three on a backrow kill, then the teams traded hitting errors. 23-20. Mandi got a nice kill to put the Patriots to within one of the championship, but Annika delayed things for a bit with a back row kill. On the next point, Annika raked the net on a kill attempt, and the championship was ours. Again.
The more things change, the more things stay the same.
That's an axiom that has become a cliche, but it describes this season, and particularly this past Calumet Regional Volleyball Invitational, to a T, to use another cliche.
I'll try to dig out from under this pile of cliches. What I mean by that is the Patriots turned over seven players from last year. Only two remain, Ally and Mandi, while the two top hitters, one of the setters, another top hitter and the libero are gone. But even with all the new players, the success continues. Tournaments CCS never would have dreamed of playing in, much less winning, five years ago but were captured by what we thought was a once-in-a-lifetime group of players the last couple of years are still owned by Calumet. Three weeks ago it was Kankakee Valley, and this past weekend the Patriots captured their own tournament for the fourth year in a row, defeated this the Crossroad Crusaders, the same opponent in last year's championship match (although this year they needed only two games.) Another "same" from last year was the last name of the MVP - Rohn.
Along with the change in the makeup of the team was the expectations. Last year, the year before, and possible the year before that, Calumet was the favorite. In 2010, the Patriots weren't even tested on their march to the trophy. In 2009, there was a little scare in the semis, but the finals were somewhat anticlimactic. Last year we thought we would roll, but the championship game was very tightly contested and we barely survived 15-13 in the third game. This year, to quote the title character, "We never think this could happen for you! Never! NEVER!" Well, maybe that is a little bit of an overstatement, but that came to mind as I was thinking about the events of this weekend, reflecting back about my thoughts during the offseason, before I saw what this team could become.
On Friday, the Patriots opened pool play against possible the weakest team in the tournament, the Kankakee Trinity Academy Eagles. Not much needs to be said about the most lopsided contest of the weekend, other than the Patriots won 21-3, 21-3. Next up was the Rivertown Patriots, a homeschool team from Grand Rapids, Michigan that used to be known as WMCAA. This one was much tougher - Rivertown ended up as the second seed out of our pool - and the girls struggled a little bit. Serve receive was a problem as it has been the last few games. CCS did get out to a 16-11 lead as their hitting and blocking was pretty good, but Rivertown scored three aces in a row, then after a Calumet hitting error, they got another ace to tie it up. A couple of Rivertown errors gave Calumet the lead again. The game ended on a block and then a kill by Ally, 21-17. Continued sloppy defensive play put CCS in an 11-5 hole to open the second the second set. An alarm of sorts must have gone off at this point, as we went on an eight-point run behind solid blocking, then after giving up a point, scored seven more in a row. They gave up another, but closed it out on a back row kill by Kaylie 21-13.
Fort Wayne Falcons White was our next opponent. Fort Wayne used to have two homeschool volleyball teams, the Falcons and the Angels, but the Angels disbanded and the Falcons got a lot of their players. They now have two teams, Black and White, essentially an A and a B team. The White teams is the B team. They were better than a lot of recent Angels teams, but not very strong. We started out slow again, as we did against Rivertown in the second set, but at 6-6, the girls went on a run again, this time 14-1. The offense was strong and everyone contributed. One point later we wrapped up set one, 21-8. The momentum and the offense continued into the second set as the Patriots ran out to a 10-1 lead. Our errors were the source of most of the points FW scored down the stretch, but the lead was never threatened in the 21-9 second set win. At 7:30 we faced Arthur-Okaw, a team we played several times last year. They lost their star from last year but were still pretty tough. I think they were a little intimidated by us as the committed a lot of hitting errors. In both sets we led 6-1 and they were both essentially over. The first set saw a lot of kills from Olivia, and the second was characterized by aces from Ally. The scores were 21-10 and 21-11. Somonauk Christian was our final opponent. They only had one loss coming in, but they must a played a weak schedule. Ally came out pounding it. At 11-2 we started making some errors, but a block by Olivia and Lee put the Patriots back on track, and they soon finished the 21-11 set win. The second set saw kills from all the hitters and a Cassie ace finished up the 21-10 second set win and the fourth straight year of perfect pool play.
Because of the success on Friday, the girls' Saturday schedule didn't begin until noon. Schaumburg, who hasn't seemed to play well against us at all the last few years were our first opponent, I'm sure to their regret. This match was not an exception. At 2-2 the Patriots scored with four straight kills. After a hitting error by Schaumburg, they called a timeout. The blocking team of Lee and Olivia stuffed one, then Ally found a hole and Lee put one down and it was 10-2. A little while later the blocking team stuffed another one for a 15-4 lead. SCS put together a mini-run of six out of seven points, but couldn't sustain the momentum, as they committed numerous hitting errors and the girls wrapped up the 25-14 win with an Ally kill. SCS kept it close early in set two. At 6-5, Olivia got a kill, Ally scored on a dink, and Olivia paired up with Stephanie for a block. Ally dialed it up here and the game was soon in hand. Olivia closed out the 25-12 quarterfinal win with kill and a nice dink.
We had heard that the Indy Silver Lightning were good, but weren't sure how good. They finished first in the their pool and beat a pretty tough Fort Wayne Falcons Black team in their semifinal, so they were pretty good. They were big and athletic, with several hitters. Ally came out on fire. She had five kills and a block in a 9-3 Patriot run to open the match. Indy called a time out to slow her down. It seemed to work. Indy scored six of the next eight to pull to within two. Then Indy bookended two net violations around kills by Ally (back row), Faith and Stephanie to break it open. After a Patriot receiving error, CCS scored five more in a row and it was a rout. Indy did get some kills later, but Stephanie finished the 25-16 with a kill. We struggled a bit to open up the second set, but it was more Indy good play rather than our poor play. Indy had four kill for their first four points, then we started having some hitting problems. An Indy ace gave them a 7-3 lead, which would prove to be their biggest lead of the match. They hit one out which Lee followed with an ace. Mandi put one down before Indy scored two of the next three. Ally took over here. Four kills plus a shared block with Mandi were part of a seven point run. Indy got their hitting going again which allowed them to get back to within one at 15-14. Ally grabbed the momentum back, and Mandi, Olivia and Faith kept it. Olivia had two kills and Mandi had one down the stretch. Faith's kill ended the 25-17 set win and a berth in the championship game.
Crossroads gave us all we could handle in our contests against us last year. They had one dominant player, so dominant that Division 1 schools are recruiting her even though she is only 16. One player that they didn't have was their savvy setter of last year. It didn't look like they had any one to replace her. However, it also looked like the big hitter, #7, was better and smarter than last year. After an opening prayer by Dan Obinger and the roster introductions the match began. Crossroads led 3-1 when Ally and Annika (#7) started trading kills. Three by Ally, three by Annika. Crossroads bracketed two hitting errors around two kills by Stephanie for four straight by Calumet. Olivia then absolutely rejected a big kill by Annika and CCS led 9-6. Errors were committed by each team. Olivia, Stephanie then Faith each scored on kills to make it 13-8. Calumet gave one up, then Ally and Annika went back at it. Back row kill by Annika. Back row kill by Ally. Kill by Annika. Dink kill by Ally. Kill by Annika. Block by Annika. Ally then dinked one out and Annika dinked one in to tie it. Kill by Ally. Kill by Ally. Kill by Annika. We had a hitting error, they had a serving error. They had two defensive breakdowns, then Ally scored two aces. Annika hit one out and the Patriots led 23-17. The Crusaders scored two in a row, the second on an Annika kill. A block by Olivia and Lee put Calumet one point away. Annika crushed one from the back row, then Crossroads scored on an ace Coach called a timeout. Crossroads then couldn't return a ball and the Patriots had game one, 25-22.
Set two pickup where set one left off. A hitting error gave us the first point, then alternating kills by Ally and Annika, three by Annika and two by Ally made it 3-3. We messed up a return, then Ally scored on a kill then an ace. Annika blocked one before Stephanie got one down, then Ally from the back row, then Olivia. Lee completed the run with an ace and it was 9-5, CCS. Annika ended the run with a back row kill but Olivia followed this with a kill then an ace. Crossroads scored the next five, including a block and kill by Annika. They hit one out, then were called on a questionable carry on a dink attempt. They scored two kills in a row to tie it up again, which Ally answered with a spike and a dink. Annika dinked one in but they served out on the next point. We made two errors to make it tied again at 16, but then they served out again. We opened up a little room with a block by Olivia followed by an Ally ace, then a beautiful block by Olivia on Annika. Another hitting error was the last point in the five point streak. Crossroads ended the run with a downball that we partially blocked but fell on our side. We couldn't return the next serve,, then we were called on a some violation on what looked like a very nice dink kill by Olivia. 21-19, CCS. Ally pushed the lead back to three on a backrow kill, then the teams traded hitting errors. 23-20. Mandi got a nice kill to put the Patriots to within one of the championship, but Annika delayed things for a bit with a back row kill. On the next point, Annika raked the net on a kill attempt, and the championship was ours. Again.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Lots of games, mostly wins
Let's see, where did I leave off? Oh yes, the Covenant Christian match. That means I only have FIVE matches to cover here. Yes, five, as in five in five days. I guess Coach was preparing the team for our tournament. Or something. Anyway I will recap the matches briefly here.
Thursday was Hebron. I only saw the first two sets - more about that later. We had faced Hebron in the Kankakee Valley tournament, so we knew what we were up against, which was a mediocre defensive team that ran their offence through their middle hitters, neither of which was taller than 5'8". We tried to help out Hebron to start the game, committing numerous hitting errors. When we weren't hitting the ball into the net or out, we were pounding it down. They scored three of their first four points on our errors; we scored our first six points on kills, which came from Mandi, Olivia and Ally. The girls actually were behind early, 4-2, but then ran off eight straight and twelve of thirteen to blow the set open. In that sequence, three straight Patriot points came from Lee kills. A kill by Ally from the back row gave CCS an eleven point lead, then they scored the last four to take set one, 25-11. The Patriots fell behind again in the second set, scored four in a row to go ahead 7-4, but then made two errors to let Hebron back into it. Hebron then got their hitting game going and trailed only 15-14. That was short-lived as they hit the next two out. Mandi was the hitting star down the stretch as the Patriot scored the last seven to win set two, 25-16. Set three was after I left, but I can report that they won 25-13. I left watching a good team dominate in person to watch a bad performance (Bears) on television. Not sure how smart that was.
I did not travel to Lafayette to watch the girls play Faith. I have been to Lafayette more times than I care to remember over the last six years, and I knew Faith wasn't very good. Not anymore, anyway. 31-29.....smh.....grumble....grumble...oops, sorry, where was I? Oh yes, Faith. CCS won the match 25-16, 25-12, 25-14. Ally had twenty kills, Cassie had fifteen assists and Kaylie had ten digs.
I did travel to the remotest hinterlands of Indiana to watch the girls in the Tippecanoe Valley tournament. This was the first time we participated in this one, and it was a pretty good one. Our first opponent was Knox. Knox falls in the Times coverage area, so this was an important one. However, it was a relatively early one for our girls, especially coming on the heels of matches on Thursday and Friday. Those are my excuses and I'm sticking with them. Anyway, the girls couldn't quite get it down and went down to defeat 25-23, 25-20. I did not get there in time for the first set but did see the second. The Patriots led early. After a Kaylie ace made it 5-2, we committed a hitting error, a defensive error and served one into the net. All we need was a net violation and a setting error and we would have covered the bases. We continued to struggle as Knox got their hitting going, eventually taking a 9-7 lead. We fought back and consecutive kills by Faith put us back up by one. Knox hit several into the net and out; we took the lead. Knox started finding the court with both their hits and serves; Knox tied it up. A bit later an Olivia kill made it a three-point lead, but then we stopped being able to return their serves, which were very good. When we did get one up, it wasn't right to the setter. On the last three, we barely touched the ball. Three straight aces capped an eight point run by Knox and they had the victory and we no longer had a chance to win.
Next up was the host team, Tippecanoe Valley. Even though Mandi was sidelined with a twisted ankle, it didn't slow the Patriots a bit. The girls had their hitting, blocking and serving shoes on, and TV seemed to not know what hit them. Before you knew it, it was 13-3 CCS. We gradually increased the lead, mainly by aces, which we got from Ally, Olivia (2) and Kaylie. Since Mandi was out, Cassie was playing front row, and she finished the 25-12 set win with a kill. TV started hitting better in set two, and the set was close throughout. Two kills and an ace put TV up 7-3. They led 9-5 when they committed a serving error. Stephane followed with a kill, then Ally got one from the back row, and Faith also put one down to tie up the game. TV went ahead again by three and kept the lead until Ally and Lee had back-to-back kills to tie it up at 15, then an Ally ace gave the Patriots the lead. Back-and-forth it went from there. TV led for the last time at 19-18. CCS scored five straight. In that sequence was a nice double block from Ally and Faith, but the best point was the last one. It was a very long volley, highlighted by a fabulous no-look (at least that's how it appeared to me) save on a scramble at the net by Stephanie. She shot her arm out and slightly behind her as she was falling out of bounds and popped the ball right to a teammate. Eventually Ally finished it with a kill, but that was the defensive play of the year so far. After a TV kill, Ally got another kill and then a block to finish the set and match, 25-20.
Last up was Heritage of Monroeville, Indiana, sort of near Fort Wayne. They were very tall. It turned out they could hit, but maybe not quite as well as they looked like they could. Their defense was solid, but at this point the girls were warmed up and had gotten a little used to the new rotation without Mandi, who Coach held out as a precaution because of her turned ankle. Ally had three kills early, leading to a 5-2 advantage. A couple of hitting and one shanked pass gave Heritage the lead at 7-6. We then righted the ship and ripped off seven in a row, highlighted by back-to-back kills by Olivia. Heritage's height came into play as they got the offensive game going and they gradually got back into the game, finally tying it at 16. Heritage gave us the next two points on errors and we never trailed again. CCS had kills from Ally, Olivia, Kaylie and Stephanie, who got the last one to close out the 25-20 victory. Heritage really had trouble hitting to open the second set and CCS took advantage. An ace from Olivia gave the Patriots an 11-5 lead and it looked like a rout. The lead eventually grew to 17-9 as the girls blocked very well while Heritage made fewer errors. CCS still led 23-17 after Cassie tipped one to a hole. Heritage then scored six straight on four kills and two hitting errors by the Patriots (LGFS!). Stephanie stopped the bleeding with a well-placed dink, then Ally got a dink kill as well to end it and the Patriots had second place.
This week it's Westville there on Tuesday (I will not be there) and then the tournament on Friday and Saturday. We are the three-time defending champions of that tournament, but there are some powerhouses coming that will make it tough. Come on out and cheer on the girls and let's make it a fourpeat!!
Thursday was Hebron. I only saw the first two sets - more about that later. We had faced Hebron in the Kankakee Valley tournament, so we knew what we were up against, which was a mediocre defensive team that ran their offence through their middle hitters, neither of which was taller than 5'8". We tried to help out Hebron to start the game, committing numerous hitting errors. When we weren't hitting the ball into the net or out, we were pounding it down. They scored three of their first four points on our errors; we scored our first six points on kills, which came from Mandi, Olivia and Ally. The girls actually were behind early, 4-2, but then ran off eight straight and twelve of thirteen to blow the set open. In that sequence, three straight Patriot points came from Lee kills. A kill by Ally from the back row gave CCS an eleven point lead, then they scored the last four to take set one, 25-11. The Patriots fell behind again in the second set, scored four in a row to go ahead 7-4, but then made two errors to let Hebron back into it. Hebron then got their hitting game going and trailed only 15-14. That was short-lived as they hit the next two out. Mandi was the hitting star down the stretch as the Patriot scored the last seven to win set two, 25-16. Set three was after I left, but I can report that they won 25-13. I left watching a good team dominate in person to watch a bad performance (Bears) on television. Not sure how smart that was.
I did not travel to Lafayette to watch the girls play Faith. I have been to Lafayette more times than I care to remember over the last six years, and I knew Faith wasn't very good. Not anymore, anyway. 31-29.....smh.....grumble....grumble...oops, sorry, where was I? Oh yes, Faith. CCS won the match 25-16, 25-12, 25-14. Ally had twenty kills, Cassie had fifteen assists and Kaylie had ten digs.
I did travel to the remotest hinterlands of Indiana to watch the girls in the Tippecanoe Valley tournament. This was the first time we participated in this one, and it was a pretty good one. Our first opponent was Knox. Knox falls in the Times coverage area, so this was an important one. However, it was a relatively early one for our girls, especially coming on the heels of matches on Thursday and Friday. Those are my excuses and I'm sticking with them. Anyway, the girls couldn't quite get it down and went down to defeat 25-23, 25-20. I did not get there in time for the first set but did see the second. The Patriots led early. After a Kaylie ace made it 5-2, we committed a hitting error, a defensive error and served one into the net. All we need was a net violation and a setting error and we would have covered the bases. We continued to struggle as Knox got their hitting going, eventually taking a 9-7 lead. We fought back and consecutive kills by Faith put us back up by one. Knox hit several into the net and out; we took the lead. Knox started finding the court with both their hits and serves; Knox tied it up. A bit later an Olivia kill made it a three-point lead, but then we stopped being able to return their serves, which were very good. When we did get one up, it wasn't right to the setter. On the last three, we barely touched the ball. Three straight aces capped an eight point run by Knox and they had the victory and we no longer had a chance to win.
Next up was the host team, Tippecanoe Valley. Even though Mandi was sidelined with a twisted ankle, it didn't slow the Patriots a bit. The girls had their hitting, blocking and serving shoes on, and TV seemed to not know what hit them. Before you knew it, it was 13-3 CCS. We gradually increased the lead, mainly by aces, which we got from Ally, Olivia (2) and Kaylie. Since Mandi was out, Cassie was playing front row, and she finished the 25-12 set win with a kill. TV started hitting better in set two, and the set was close throughout. Two kills and an ace put TV up 7-3. They led 9-5 when they committed a serving error. Stephane followed with a kill, then Ally got one from the back row, and Faith also put one down to tie up the game. TV went ahead again by three and kept the lead until Ally and Lee had back-to-back kills to tie it up at 15, then an Ally ace gave the Patriots the lead. Back-and-forth it went from there. TV led for the last time at 19-18. CCS scored five straight. In that sequence was a nice double block from Ally and Faith, but the best point was the last one. It was a very long volley, highlighted by a fabulous no-look (at least that's how it appeared to me) save on a scramble at the net by Stephanie. She shot her arm out and slightly behind her as she was falling out of bounds and popped the ball right to a teammate. Eventually Ally finished it with a kill, but that was the defensive play of the year so far. After a TV kill, Ally got another kill and then a block to finish the set and match, 25-20.
Last up was Heritage of Monroeville, Indiana, sort of near Fort Wayne. They were very tall. It turned out they could hit, but maybe not quite as well as they looked like they could. Their defense was solid, but at this point the girls were warmed up and had gotten a little used to the new rotation without Mandi, who Coach held out as a precaution because of her turned ankle. Ally had three kills early, leading to a 5-2 advantage. A couple of hitting and one shanked pass gave Heritage the lead at 7-6. We then righted the ship and ripped off seven in a row, highlighted by back-to-back kills by Olivia. Heritage's height came into play as they got the offensive game going and they gradually got back into the game, finally tying it at 16. Heritage gave us the next two points on errors and we never trailed again. CCS had kills from Ally, Olivia, Kaylie and Stephanie, who got the last one to close out the 25-20 victory. Heritage really had trouble hitting to open the second set and CCS took advantage. An ace from Olivia gave the Patriots an 11-5 lead and it looked like a rout. The lead eventually grew to 17-9 as the girls blocked very well while Heritage made fewer errors. CCS still led 23-17 after Cassie tipped one to a hole. Heritage then scored six straight on four kills and two hitting errors by the Patriots (LGFS!). Stephanie stopped the bleeding with a well-placed dink, then Ally got a dink kill as well to end it and the Patriots had second place.
This week it's Westville there on Tuesday (I will not be there) and then the tournament on Friday and Saturday. We are the three-time defending champions of that tournament, but there are some powerhouses coming that will make it tough. Come on out and cheer on the girls and let's make it a fourpeat!!
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Patience
One thing you must have with this team that you really didn't need for the last few years is patience. You must wait a little longer for the point. The point is nearly as inevitable as it was, but it doesn't come as quickly. That's what happens when hitters like Faith R, Taylor, Holly and Lauren leave, and defensive aces Kaylie, Cassie, and Amanda arrive. The team is also patient. They work hard until they earn the point. They don't seem to be disappointed when the point doesn't end quickly, they just keep working. It's different, but it's still fun.
Tonight the Covenant Christian Knights came to Dyer for only our second home game. As long as I have been with the program, we have not lost to Covenant. The streak is intact after a 25-14, 25-20, 25-12 win, the fifteenth win of the year for the Patriots against only two losses.
The girls marched out to an early 8-1 lead in the first set behind two kills by Faith, a block and kill by Ally and an ace by Cassie. Covenant then stepped up their hitting which slowed Calumet a bit, but after back-to-back kills by Stephanie and Ally, CCS led by 10. We got a little sloppy and allowed Covenant to get to within seven, but kills by Mandi and Olivia followed by consecutive aces by Lee pushed the lead back to double-digits. The lead stayed about ten the rest of the game, finishing on a bad dink by the Knights.
The teams stayed neck-and-neck through most of game two. Both teams made a lot of unforced errors, primarily hitting errors by us and passing errors by the Knights. We really had a hard time hitting outside againt Covenant as they were blocking well. Neither team led by more than two until at 19-19, Calumet scored five in a row, culminated by a kill from Faith. One point later, on ball put over on the first hit, CCS was up two sets to none.
It was close early again in the third set, though not as close as set two. Calumet got an early four-point lead 8-4, after an ace by Kaylie and a kill by Ally. The gap didn't vary much until at 12-9, the Patriots ran off three straight, then a bit later seven straight, highlighted by a nice block from Ally and Lee (who was WAY off the ground). That made it 23-11. Faith, who about the middle of the second set started finding the holes, got a kill to put Calumet within one, then after an error, Ally put one down to end it.
Hebron Thursday, Faith Friday, and Tippecanoe Valley tournament Saturday. If I didn't blog tonight, I would have been too far behind to ever catch up.
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Tonight the Covenant Christian Knights came to Dyer for only our second home game. As long as I have been with the program, we have not lost to Covenant. The streak is intact after a 25-14, 25-20, 25-12 win, the fifteenth win of the year for the Patriots against only two losses.
The girls marched out to an early 8-1 lead in the first set behind two kills by Faith, a block and kill by Ally and an ace by Cassie. Covenant then stepped up their hitting which slowed Calumet a bit, but after back-to-back kills by Stephanie and Ally, CCS led by 10. We got a little sloppy and allowed Covenant to get to within seven, but kills by Mandi and Olivia followed by consecutive aces by Lee pushed the lead back to double-digits. The lead stayed about ten the rest of the game, finishing on a bad dink by the Knights.
The teams stayed neck-and-neck through most of game two. Both teams made a lot of unforced errors, primarily hitting errors by us and passing errors by the Knights. We really had a hard time hitting outside againt Covenant as they were blocking well. Neither team led by more than two until at 19-19, Calumet scored five in a row, culminated by a kill from Faith. One point later, on ball put over on the first hit, CCS was up two sets to none.
It was close early again in the third set, though not as close as set two. Calumet got an early four-point lead 8-4, after an ace by Kaylie and a kill by Ally. The gap didn't vary much until at 12-9, the Patriots ran off three straight, then a bit later seven straight, highlighted by a nice block from Ally and Lee (who was WAY off the ground). That made it 23-11. Faith, who about the middle of the second set started finding the holes, got a kill to put Calumet within one, then after an error, Ally put one down to end it.
Hebron Thursday, Faith Friday, and Tippecanoe Valley tournament Saturday. If I didn't blog tonight, I would have been too far behind to ever catch up.
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Thursday, September 6, 2012
A worthy foe
Tuesday night the Patriots traveled a short distance south and west to the Heritage Christian High to take on their old rivals, the Defenders. Calumet had played the Defenders every year for as long as I've been associated with the program, usually more than once a year. HHCS is a member of the ICST, so we also often see them in the state tournament. In 2007 and 2008, Heritage had the upper hand, but since them Calumet has won seven straight over Heritage. Very few, if any, of the matches were easy, however. Tonight was not an exception, to an extent.
The match started on an error by CCS, and that kind of set the tone for the game. Not that Calumet made all the mistakes; both teams contributed to the sloppy play. The teams were pretty even through the first part of the game. We were up by two a few times, 5-3 after a kill by Ally, 7-5 after a nice block by Olivia, and 9-7 after an Olivia kill. Two Heritage errors made a four-point lead, but HCHS got two kills, then a kitting error by CCS got Heritage back to within one. A combination of Patriot dink kills and Heritage errors gave CCS a 18-11 lead and they never looked back. The lead got as big as eight at 22-14. CCS made some errors, but Heritage did not get closer than five in the 25-18 win.
The score followed the same path in the second set. Calumet had a three point lead twice early, at 8-5 and 11-8, but them, primarily because hitting errors by the Patriots, the Defenders scored five in a row to take the lead. Two Faith kills and one from Ally contributed to CCS recovering the lead, 16-14. A bit later an HCHS hitting error gave Calumet a three point lead, and Stephanie got a kill and CCS led 21-17. Heritage called a timeout when the lead got to 23-18. This seemed to help, and they got a kill to break the momentum. Calumet then contributed to Heritage's cause with three hitting errors in a row. Olivia righted the ship with a kill, then after a Heritage kill they put one into the net and Calumet won set two, 25-23.
The pattern held in game three, at least early. Neither team could get any sizable lead, though the Patriots did get a couple of two point leads. HCHS blocks and kills plus Calumet errors flipped the score, and the Defenders led by two. They then made some errors, and Calumet again went back up, this time at 17-16. Ally (two) and Olivia scored kills to give Calumet a 21-17 lead, but the error bug returned and Calumet could not overcome it. Five hitting errors, the last at game point, gave Heritage the third game, 25-22.
Calumet seemed to realize that needed to step up their game as the fourth set began. Cassie started things off with an ace, and the Patriots never looked back. Defender errors and kills from Faith, Olivia and Ally led toa 7-2 Patriot lead and a Defender timeout. We made two errors coming out of the time out, but Calumet never let Heritage get closer than four. Faith really started shutting down Heritage's middle hitter, and her block at 11-7 started the Patriots on a run. Three Heritage errors started it, then kills by Lee, Kaylie and Faith followed. Heritage made some more errors, Ally and Faith had a nice double block, then Lee capped off the 13-1 run with a kill. 24-8, CCS. A mild LGFS ensued, but finally Ally put one down and the Patriots had the set and the match, winning 25-11.
A week off, then a busy week next week with Covenant, Hebron and the Tippecanoe Valley tournament. We are #10 in the Times poll and should be about sixth or seventh. Go Patriots!
The match started on an error by CCS, and that kind of set the tone for the game. Not that Calumet made all the mistakes; both teams contributed to the sloppy play. The teams were pretty even through the first part of the game. We were up by two a few times, 5-3 after a kill by Ally, 7-5 after a nice block by Olivia, and 9-7 after an Olivia kill. Two Heritage errors made a four-point lead, but HCHS got two kills, then a kitting error by CCS got Heritage back to within one. A combination of Patriot dink kills and Heritage errors gave CCS a 18-11 lead and they never looked back. The lead got as big as eight at 22-14. CCS made some errors, but Heritage did not get closer than five in the 25-18 win.
The score followed the same path in the second set. Calumet had a three point lead twice early, at 8-5 and 11-8, but them, primarily because hitting errors by the Patriots, the Defenders scored five in a row to take the lead. Two Faith kills and one from Ally contributed to CCS recovering the lead, 16-14. A bit later an HCHS hitting error gave Calumet a three point lead, and Stephanie got a kill and CCS led 21-17. Heritage called a timeout when the lead got to 23-18. This seemed to help, and they got a kill to break the momentum. Calumet then contributed to Heritage's cause with three hitting errors in a row. Olivia righted the ship with a kill, then after a Heritage kill they put one into the net and Calumet won set two, 25-23.
The pattern held in game three, at least early. Neither team could get any sizable lead, though the Patriots did get a couple of two point leads. HCHS blocks and kills plus Calumet errors flipped the score, and the Defenders led by two. They then made some errors, and Calumet again went back up, this time at 17-16. Ally (two) and Olivia scored kills to give Calumet a 21-17 lead, but the error bug returned and Calumet could not overcome it. Five hitting errors, the last at game point, gave Heritage the third game, 25-22.
Calumet seemed to realize that needed to step up their game as the fourth set began. Cassie started things off with an ace, and the Patriots never looked back. Defender errors and kills from Faith, Olivia and Ally led toa 7-2 Patriot lead and a Defender timeout. We made two errors coming out of the time out, but Calumet never let Heritage get closer than four. Faith really started shutting down Heritage's middle hitter, and her block at 11-7 started the Patriots on a run. Three Heritage errors started it, then kills by Lee, Kaylie and Faith followed. Heritage made some more errors, Ally and Faith had a nice double block, then Lee capped off the 13-1 run with a kill. 24-8, CCS. A mild LGFS ensued, but finally Ally put one down and the Patriots had the set and the match, winning 25-11.
A week off, then a busy week next week with Covenant, Hebron and the Tippecanoe Valley tournament. We are #10 in the Times poll and should be about sixth or seventh. Go Patriots!
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Three-peat
It was only three years ago that winning our tournament and Quentin Road were big deals. Winning a public school tournament was, at least to me, not even thought of. Way beyond what little Calumet Christian could accomplish. Then, when the team actually did get to play (and do well) in some big-time tournaments, I figured that when this class graduated, that would be it, and CCS would go down to being able only to contend with the weaker public school programs again. Wrong. Behind some magical defense, timely offense, and steely resolve, the Patriots powered through the Kankakee Valley tournament again, winning for the third straight year, beating the host team in the championship game as we did in 2010 and 2011.
We like to see new teams when we go to these tournaments, but the two teams in our pool were a team we had beaten already (Gavit) and another we would play later in the season (Hebron). The first game was against Gavit, who we beat at the Argo tournament to open the season. This time was a little tougher, at least the first set, but the girls got the job done. The Patriots opened with a seven-point run, with Faith getting a block and a kill, two kills from Ally, and three Gavit errors. That set the pattern for the whole game, with some good play by CCS, including a nice block by Ally on game point, adding to poor play by Gavit, leading to a 25-13 Patriot victory. Game two was a struggle. The match stayed close early on. Both teams had success hitting until a couple of Gavit hitting errors gave the Patriots a 10-7 lead. Gavit stormed back with a block followed by two aces to tie it up. CCS pulled back into the lead at 15-12. We served it into the net, then Gavit ran off four straight errors. Our errors plus some solid hitting by Gavit allowed them to get to within two, but a dink kill by Olivia stopped the streak, and Mandi closed out the 25-19 clincher on a kill off an over-pass.
The girls started flat against Hebron, a seemingly inferior opponent. A questionable call on a second-hit dink by Ally gave Hebron a 4-0 lead. Kaylie stopped this run with kill from her libero position. We seemed to have a hard time picking up their medium-speed hits, and the resulting kills prevented the Patriots from quickly getting back into the game. Finally, down 10-7, the girls scored four in a row - kill by Olivia, ace from Lee, kill by Mandi, and a back-row kill from Ally. Hebron tied it on the next point, and then tied it again at 13, but CCS took control at that point. One remarkable sequence had Ally scoring four points in row on dink kills, then after a Hebron point, threw one more in for good measure. Mandi followed that with two aces, Hebron scored one more point, and the girls had a 25-15 set win. We made a lot of errors early on in set two, allowing Hebron to stay close. The score was tied at nine when CCS took over. They scored nine in a row, including three aces by Kaylie and four hitting errors by Hebron. We made a few errors which allowed Hebron to get to within seven, but at 24-14 Olivia found a hole with a dink and we were on to the top pool.
The tournament format was such that after the first round of pool play, the teams were put in pools based on where they finished in their pool. North Judson and Kankakee Valley were the other two first place teams. North Judson was our first opponent, and they were looking pretty good. They gave Kankakee Valley a good game, and we were looking at a tough match to get into the championship.
I thought something was strange when the teams got started, and then realized their best player, #13, was not out there. Was it an injury? Discipline issue? I didn't know. North Judson appeared very listless and disinterested while the Patriots jumped out to a 13-3 lead and gradually added to it until a NJ serving error ended it at 25-10. I started asking around about their missing player, and there was some word about a car accident. We made a lot of errors early in game two to keep North Judson in it, but at 12-9 CCS North Judson started making a lot of errors of their own and we began to pull away. Two consecutive Ally aces closed it out at 25-13. We then found out the star player's close friend had just been killed in a car accident, which explained her absence and the distracted play of the remaining players. Some of our girls asked to pray with some of theirs, and the offer was gratefully received.
Once again Kankakee Valley would be our opponent in the championship game. Although this wasn't a classic bracket championship game, it would be the game that decided who took home the trophy. At the outset it looked like a championship game. Strong play on both sides - KV hitting, our defense - and few errors made for some beautiful volleyball. Neither team had greater than a one-point lead until a KV ace made it 10-8, Kankakee Valley. We caught up again, and then at 11-11, a volley took place that seemed to take ten minutes. Great hitting by KV was offset by fantastic defense by the Patriots, with Mandi digging some blasts right to the setter, as well as Kaylie and Amanda. Finally Ally finished the most exciting point of the day with a dink that found the floor. That seemed to the the turning point. At 14-13 KV served out, then Ally did one of her dinks over on the second hit when everyone was expecting a set. A back-row flat-footed kill by Ally was sandwiched by hitting errors by KV. KV took their second time out, which apparently is the "running" time out, as their coach had them running sprints from sideline to sideline during the timeout. It didn't help, as Ally pounded two more down from the back row, then moved to the front row for another two kills. On game point, Faith and Ally stuffed a KV hit - 25-15, CCS. We were sort of in control of most of the second set, but we could never get more than a four-point lead. Mandi, Olivia and Stephanie were getting more kills in this game and Faith had a nice block, but at 20-16, CCS, KV got their slide working and their six-footer began to put some balls down. We would only scored one more point, while KV had kill after kill, eventually scoring six of them in their last nine points. Through in three Patriot errors and KV had game two, 25-21. Set three would only be to fifteen, so whoever got the hot start would have a big advantage. Advantage, CCS. KV scored the first point, but a dink kill by Ally answered it. Then an ace by Cassie, a nice block by Ally and Faith and a KV hitting error made it 4-1. KV scored three of the next five on two kills and a CCS net violation which made it 6-4. The next KV serve was bad, which opened up the floodgates. Olivia followed with her most emphatic kill of the day, causing Kankakee to call their second time out. It didn't help. Stephanie scored on a dink (net violation, KV), Ally put another second hit/set to the hole in the middle of the defense, Stephanie got another dink, Ally served two aces, and a KV hitting error made it 14-4. A mini-LGFS ensued, but after a couple of points, Ally shot a set to the back corner which fell, and the tournament was Calumet's. Again.
We like to see new teams when we go to these tournaments, but the two teams in our pool were a team we had beaten already (Gavit) and another we would play later in the season (Hebron). The first game was against Gavit, who we beat at the Argo tournament to open the season. This time was a little tougher, at least the first set, but the girls got the job done. The Patriots opened with a seven-point run, with Faith getting a block and a kill, two kills from Ally, and three Gavit errors. That set the pattern for the whole game, with some good play by CCS, including a nice block by Ally on game point, adding to poor play by Gavit, leading to a 25-13 Patriot victory. Game two was a struggle. The match stayed close early on. Both teams had success hitting until a couple of Gavit hitting errors gave the Patriots a 10-7 lead. Gavit stormed back with a block followed by two aces to tie it up. CCS pulled back into the lead at 15-12. We served it into the net, then Gavit ran off four straight errors. Our errors plus some solid hitting by Gavit allowed them to get to within two, but a dink kill by Olivia stopped the streak, and Mandi closed out the 25-19 clincher on a kill off an over-pass.
The girls started flat against Hebron, a seemingly inferior opponent. A questionable call on a second-hit dink by Ally gave Hebron a 4-0 lead. Kaylie stopped this run with kill from her libero position. We seemed to have a hard time picking up their medium-speed hits, and the resulting kills prevented the Patriots from quickly getting back into the game. Finally, down 10-7, the girls scored four in a row - kill by Olivia, ace from Lee, kill by Mandi, and a back-row kill from Ally. Hebron tied it on the next point, and then tied it again at 13, but CCS took control at that point. One remarkable sequence had Ally scoring four points in row on dink kills, then after a Hebron point, threw one more in for good measure. Mandi followed that with two aces, Hebron scored one more point, and the girls had a 25-15 set win. We made a lot of errors early on in set two, allowing Hebron to stay close. The score was tied at nine when CCS took over. They scored nine in a row, including three aces by Kaylie and four hitting errors by Hebron. We made a few errors which allowed Hebron to get to within seven, but at 24-14 Olivia found a hole with a dink and we were on to the top pool.
The tournament format was such that after the first round of pool play, the teams were put in pools based on where they finished in their pool. North Judson and Kankakee Valley were the other two first place teams. North Judson was our first opponent, and they were looking pretty good. They gave Kankakee Valley a good game, and we were looking at a tough match to get into the championship.
I thought something was strange when the teams got started, and then realized their best player, #13, was not out there. Was it an injury? Discipline issue? I didn't know. North Judson appeared very listless and disinterested while the Patriots jumped out to a 13-3 lead and gradually added to it until a NJ serving error ended it at 25-10. I started asking around about their missing player, and there was some word about a car accident. We made a lot of errors early in game two to keep North Judson in it, but at 12-9 CCS North Judson started making a lot of errors of their own and we began to pull away. Two consecutive Ally aces closed it out at 25-13. We then found out the star player's close friend had just been killed in a car accident, which explained her absence and the distracted play of the remaining players. Some of our girls asked to pray with some of theirs, and the offer was gratefully received.
Once again Kankakee Valley would be our opponent in the championship game. Although this wasn't a classic bracket championship game, it would be the game that decided who took home the trophy. At the outset it looked like a championship game. Strong play on both sides - KV hitting, our defense - and few errors made for some beautiful volleyball. Neither team had greater than a one-point lead until a KV ace made it 10-8, Kankakee Valley. We caught up again, and then at 11-11, a volley took place that seemed to take ten minutes. Great hitting by KV was offset by fantastic defense by the Patriots, with Mandi digging some blasts right to the setter, as well as Kaylie and Amanda. Finally Ally finished the most exciting point of the day with a dink that found the floor. That seemed to the the turning point. At 14-13 KV served out, then Ally did one of her dinks over on the second hit when everyone was expecting a set. A back-row flat-footed kill by Ally was sandwiched by hitting errors by KV. KV took their second time out, which apparently is the "running" time out, as their coach had them running sprints from sideline to sideline during the timeout. It didn't help, as Ally pounded two more down from the back row, then moved to the front row for another two kills. On game point, Faith and Ally stuffed a KV hit - 25-15, CCS. We were sort of in control of most of the second set, but we could never get more than a four-point lead. Mandi, Olivia and Stephanie were getting more kills in this game and Faith had a nice block, but at 20-16, CCS, KV got their slide working and their six-footer began to put some balls down. We would only scored one more point, while KV had kill after kill, eventually scoring six of them in their last nine points. Through in three Patriot errors and KV had game two, 25-21. Set three would only be to fifteen, so whoever got the hot start would have a big advantage. Advantage, CCS. KV scored the first point, but a dink kill by Ally answered it. Then an ace by Cassie, a nice block by Ally and Faith and a KV hitting error made it 4-1. KV scored three of the next five on two kills and a CCS net violation which made it 6-4. The next KV serve was bad, which opened up the floodgates. Olivia followed with her most emphatic kill of the day, causing Kankakee to call their second time out. It didn't help. Stephanie scored on a dink (net violation, KV), Ally put another second hit/set to the hole in the middle of the defense, Stephanie got another dink, Ally served two aces, and a KV hitting error made it 14-4. A mini-LGFS ensued, but after a couple of points, Ally shot a set to the back corner which fell, and the tournament was Calumet's. Again.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
A little perspective
It's remarkable what a little time and a couple of wins can do.
After much hand-wringing about what could be done to change things after losses in both morning matches at the Lafayette Central Catholic Volleyball Invitational on Saturday, the girls came out roaring in the afternoon, defeating the Times preseason #3 Andrean 59ers in two games, then rolling over the Rockville Rox in the fifth place game.
The team did have times where their play broke down in those earlier matches, but they did take the first set in each match, and did not look overmatched in the sets they lost, with the exception of the third game against West Lafayette. They ended up winning six sets and losing four on the day, and I believe that if a couple of points had gone our way, we could have been playing for the championship. Considering that the powerhouse team of the last couple years couldn't win this tournament, the only tournament they didn't win, I think this year's version did pretty well.
I will just give a quick overview of the games on Tuesday and Friday. I walked into Quentin Road's gym just as the host Eagles will wrapping up a second set win over the Patriots. I talked to a couple of parents that told me that we soundly beat them the first game, but we had trouble getting the ball down in the second. I was able to watch the third game, which the girls won with a little trouble (the third game being the final one because they play best-of-three game matches in Illinois). Quentin Road at times gives us a little trouble in their gym. Three years ago they pushed us to three games and the strong 2006 team suffered their only regular season loss at QR. The Schaumburg Conquerors followed, but they were the conquerees this night. CCS jumped out to a 9-1 lead and never looked back in a 25-14 opening-set victory. Schamburg started much stronger in the second, only trailing 9-6 at one point. It was then that the Patriots started finding holes with dinks, Schaumburg got flustered, and Calumet outscored them 16-4 to win game two, 25-10.
Friday night was an early game against Community Baptist of South Bend, our first home game. Our JV played them last year, but they wanted the varsity this year. They didn't look like much in warmups, but, as it often is, warmups were misleading. The strength of the Cougars, at least this night, is blocking. I counted at least eight blocks against us in the match, many of the dramatic variety. However, the rest of their game was not as good, especially their serve receive, evidenced by our nineteen aces. Game one saw the Patriots jumping out to an early lead and holding it through to a 25-14 victory. The score was close in set two, the Cougars even leading 5-3, but after a couple of CB hitting error, our girls started hitting and acing and soon it was 17-7, CCS. The Patriots maintained that lead and won 25-15. The Patriots started even slower in the third game. The game was tied at 7, and CCS only led 15-12 when Cassie served several aces and Ally gave the Cougars some of their own medicine, blocking two CB attacks. Community didn't score again and it was game, set and match, 25-12. CCS.
West Lafayette was our first opponent in the tournament, a public school with more than 1000 students. They were big, very big. The teams exchanged kills and errors early on. An Ally kill tied it at nine, but then CCS committed a series of errors which WL followed with kills and aces, leading to a 12-5 run and a 21-14 WL lead. After WL hit one into the net then went into the net, and an Ally kill made it 21-17. Olivia followed with two kills after a WL point, then after each team had a net violation, scored another kill. Each team made a hitting error and it was 24-22, WL. Ally scored on a kill, they hit one out, Ally hit a hard ball flat-footed which they couldn't return, and Stephanie capped off the comeback with kill, giving the Patriots game one, 26-24. We got the early lead in the second game, 4-0, but WL came right back and tied it, then went ahead. We went back up 10-7, but no team had lead greater than two the rest of the game. at 23-23, Ally made nice dink off a scramble. 24-23, CCS. Wait! After a WL player complained, the down ref called Ally in the net. Wow. Olivia scored the next point on a spike. We then alternated kills with errors, until at 27-26, WL scored an ace and it was on to game three. The Patriots were on their heels the entire game, making a lot of errors. CCS was down 9-2 at one point before they slowed WL a bit, but they didn't make any headway, just kept the deficit from getting much bigger and lost the set 15-6 and the match.
Immediately following was the Patriots' second game, this one against Loogootee, our opponent in the championship game last year. CCS started very strong in the first game leading 8-4 and 10-5. Loogootee, also a very tall team, really got their offense going, rattling off a series of kills in a 11-0 run. Our hitting then picked and the Lions made a few errors and the girls got back into it, going ahead again at 21-20. At 23-23, Olivia put one down. On game point, Ally read a slide, slid over herself and absolutely stuffed one of Loogootee's six-footers to win the game. Quite a play. Calumet fell behind early in game two, then caught up, then fell behind again. At 13-11, Lions, the Patriots made three very sloppy unforced errors. We cleaned it up after that, but the damage was done. The Lions kept up their hitting and gradually added to the lead, winning 25-17. A few points into game three, an Ally block put us up 3-1, but Loogootee caught us at four and we never led again. The girls kept it close, pulling to within one at 13-12 on an Ally kill, but the Lions scored the last two to take the match.
Andrean was the other team in our pool. They had split with Loogootee and WL, so they looked pretty good. Early on, it was Andrean errors and Ally kills and a block leading to a 6-3 lead. Four 59er kills in a row gave them the lead. Shortly thereafter, the Patriots started getting kills from everyone. Stephanie, Faith, Mandi, and even Kaylie from the back row got kills in the stretch that gave us a 13-9 lead. Andrean caught the Patriots on a questionable call on an Ally dink. Stephanie got a kill and Cassie served an ace, and the Patriots never trailed again. Andrean made a lot of mistakes, we blocked better and hit well, and a Faith dink kill was the winning point in opening 25-18 win. Their errors and our solid offensive play (the defense was consistent most of the day; the offense was up and down) led to an 8-3 lead and an Andrean timeout. The 59ers gradually got closer as we made a lot of hitting errors, eventually evening up the game after two CCS errors. At 18-17, CCS, Andrean went into the net twice on kill attempts to give the Patriots a three-point lead. Andrean then scored two in a row, but Stephanie put one down and Ally stuffed an Andrean spike attempt. The teams exchanged points, but Olivia finished it off with a kill. 25-22, CCS.
This put us into the fifth place game. We thought our pool was significantly tougher, and the score of that game seemed to support that. I wasn't able to stay for that game, but the score told the story: 25-6, 25-11, CCS over the Rockville Rox.
The girls are now 9-2 on the season. Last year we were 10-1 through eleven matches. The team was 26-4 in games to this point last year; this year they are 22-6. Considering the turnover, this season is going very well, higher than expectations, at least mine. No matches this week, but another tough tournament looms on Saturday, at Kankakee Valley. See you there.
After much hand-wringing about what could be done to change things after losses in both morning matches at the Lafayette Central Catholic Volleyball Invitational on Saturday, the girls came out roaring in the afternoon, defeating the Times preseason #3 Andrean 59ers in two games, then rolling over the Rockville Rox in the fifth place game.
The team did have times where their play broke down in those earlier matches, but they did take the first set in each match, and did not look overmatched in the sets they lost, with the exception of the third game against West Lafayette. They ended up winning six sets and losing four on the day, and I believe that if a couple of points had gone our way, we could have been playing for the championship. Considering that the powerhouse team of the last couple years couldn't win this tournament, the only tournament they didn't win, I think this year's version did pretty well.
I will just give a quick overview of the games on Tuesday and Friday. I walked into Quentin Road's gym just as the host Eagles will wrapping up a second set win over the Patriots. I talked to a couple of parents that told me that we soundly beat them the first game, but we had trouble getting the ball down in the second. I was able to watch the third game, which the girls won with a little trouble (the third game being the final one because they play best-of-three game matches in Illinois). Quentin Road at times gives us a little trouble in their gym. Three years ago they pushed us to three games and the strong 2006 team suffered their only regular season loss at QR. The Schaumburg Conquerors followed, but they were the conquerees this night. CCS jumped out to a 9-1 lead and never looked back in a 25-14 opening-set victory. Schamburg started much stronger in the second, only trailing 9-6 at one point. It was then that the Patriots started finding holes with dinks, Schaumburg got flustered, and Calumet outscored them 16-4 to win game two, 25-10.
Friday night was an early game against Community Baptist of South Bend, our first home game. Our JV played them last year, but they wanted the varsity this year. They didn't look like much in warmups, but, as it often is, warmups were misleading. The strength of the Cougars, at least this night, is blocking. I counted at least eight blocks against us in the match, many of the dramatic variety. However, the rest of their game was not as good, especially their serve receive, evidenced by our nineteen aces. Game one saw the Patriots jumping out to an early lead and holding it through to a 25-14 victory. The score was close in set two, the Cougars even leading 5-3, but after a couple of CB hitting error, our girls started hitting and acing and soon it was 17-7, CCS. The Patriots maintained that lead and won 25-15. The Patriots started even slower in the third game. The game was tied at 7, and CCS only led 15-12 when Cassie served several aces and Ally gave the Cougars some of their own medicine, blocking two CB attacks. Community didn't score again and it was game, set and match, 25-12. CCS.
West Lafayette was our first opponent in the tournament, a public school with more than 1000 students. They were big, very big. The teams exchanged kills and errors early on. An Ally kill tied it at nine, but then CCS committed a series of errors which WL followed with kills and aces, leading to a 12-5 run and a 21-14 WL lead. After WL hit one into the net then went into the net, and an Ally kill made it 21-17. Olivia followed with two kills after a WL point, then after each team had a net violation, scored another kill. Each team made a hitting error and it was 24-22, WL. Ally scored on a kill, they hit one out, Ally hit a hard ball flat-footed which they couldn't return, and Stephanie capped off the comeback with kill, giving the Patriots game one, 26-24. We got the early lead in the second game, 4-0, but WL came right back and tied it, then went ahead. We went back up 10-7, but no team had lead greater than two the rest of the game. at 23-23, Ally made nice dink off a scramble. 24-23, CCS. Wait! After a WL player complained, the down ref called Ally in the net. Wow. Olivia scored the next point on a spike. We then alternated kills with errors, until at 27-26, WL scored an ace and it was on to game three. The Patriots were on their heels the entire game, making a lot of errors. CCS was down 9-2 at one point before they slowed WL a bit, but they didn't make any headway, just kept the deficit from getting much bigger and lost the set 15-6 and the match.
Immediately following was the Patriots' second game, this one against Loogootee, our opponent in the championship game last year. CCS started very strong in the first game leading 8-4 and 10-5. Loogootee, also a very tall team, really got their offense going, rattling off a series of kills in a 11-0 run. Our hitting then picked and the Lions made a few errors and the girls got back into it, going ahead again at 21-20. At 23-23, Olivia put one down. On game point, Ally read a slide, slid over herself and absolutely stuffed one of Loogootee's six-footers to win the game. Quite a play. Calumet fell behind early in game two, then caught up, then fell behind again. At 13-11, Lions, the Patriots made three very sloppy unforced errors. We cleaned it up after that, but the damage was done. The Lions kept up their hitting and gradually added to the lead, winning 25-17. A few points into game three, an Ally block put us up 3-1, but Loogootee caught us at four and we never led again. The girls kept it close, pulling to within one at 13-12 on an Ally kill, but the Lions scored the last two to take the match.
Andrean was the other team in our pool. They had split with Loogootee and WL, so they looked pretty good. Early on, it was Andrean errors and Ally kills and a block leading to a 6-3 lead. Four 59er kills in a row gave them the lead. Shortly thereafter, the Patriots started getting kills from everyone. Stephanie, Faith, Mandi, and even Kaylie from the back row got kills in the stretch that gave us a 13-9 lead. Andrean caught the Patriots on a questionable call on an Ally dink. Stephanie got a kill and Cassie served an ace, and the Patriots never trailed again. Andrean made a lot of mistakes, we blocked better and hit well, and a Faith dink kill was the winning point in opening 25-18 win. Their errors and our solid offensive play (the defense was consistent most of the day; the offense was up and down) led to an 8-3 lead and an Andrean timeout. The 59ers gradually got closer as we made a lot of hitting errors, eventually evening up the game after two CCS errors. At 18-17, CCS, Andrean went into the net twice on kill attempts to give the Patriots a three-point lead. Andrean then scored two in a row, but Stephanie put one down and Ally stuffed an Andrean spike attempt. The teams exchanged points, but Olivia finished it off with a kill. 25-22, CCS.
This put us into the fifth place game. We thought our pool was significantly tougher, and the score of that game seemed to support that. I wasn't able to stay for that game, but the score told the story: 25-6, 25-11, CCS over the Rockville Rox.
The girls are now 9-2 on the season. Last year we were 10-1 through eleven matches. The team was 26-4 in games to this point last year; this year they are 22-6. Considering the turnover, this season is going very well, higher than expectations, at least mine. No matches this week, but another tough tournament looms on Saturday, at Kankakee Valley. See you there.
Monday, August 20, 2012
So far, so good
The Patriots volleyball team continues its mirroring of last year, beating Merrillville tonight in four games, just like last year.
Merrillville presented a step in class for the young Patriots, even though they did have a losing record coming into the match. The Pirates play a much tougher schedule than our opponents at Argo, and were just coming off the La Porte tournament which included some of the top teams in the region.
Tonight the Patriots found themselves down 4-0 because they couldn't get a spike in. Three CCS hitting errors and a MHS dink kill gave them the lead, but CCS quickly answered. Ally got on track with two kills which were followed by two MHS errors, then a nice block by Olivia and Ally. The game stayed close until CCS went on a 8-1 run, powered by four kills by Ally and kills from Olivia and Lee. The teams traded errors until at 24-16, Ally crushed a back-row kill to give the Patriots the win.
The girls fell behind early again in set two, this time 3-1. CCS tied it at four as the did in the first set, but then fell behind again as MHS scored three straight. The Pirate lead stayed between two and four. Merrillville played better defensively in the set which enabled them to get their offense going a little two. Finally two hitting errors and an Ally kill pulled the Patriots into a 22-22 tie. After MHS scored on a kill, CCS actually took the lead with an Ally kill and a Olivia/Lee block. However, a MHS kill was followed by two Patriot hitting errors gave the hosts the second set, 26-24.
Set three saw the Patriots actually get an early lead. The lead was three after a Mandi kill, 8-5, but Merrillville ran off five straight after that. Neither team lead by more than two after that. Several MHS serving errors were offset by several CCS hitting errors. Both teams played solid defense but couldn't get much offense going. CCS led 23-22 when some confusion about position left a hole that MHS found. Ally scored a down-ball kill, but the Patriots again let a ball drop. Then Ally made a beautiful power dink. What? A carry? Oh well. Ally scored on a spike to even things up at 25, then Faith was called for being in the net when it appeared that a Pirate was the one committing the violation. The girls powered through it, though, scoring the last three points, the last on a nice cross-court kill by Mandi, to take the set, 28-26.
Merrillville seemed to shut down to start the fourth set. Three of their errors led to a 5-0 CCS lead, then after giving up a point, the Patriot scored seven more in a row, mostly from well-placed dinks and Pirate errors. Merrillville picked things up at that point but really couldn't cut into the lead until they got their offense on track and ran off six straight (LGFS, perhaps?) to made it 19-14, CCS. Olivia broke the momentum then with a kill and a block, then Ally took over with three kills down the stretch as the Patriots took game four, 25-16.
I was impressed with the girls' composure in the tight games and overall some good play, including some amazing defensive saves. I also was impressed with the number of fans we had there. I think we had as many fans as the host did.
Tomorrow the girls travel to Schaumburg for games against Schaumburg and Quentin Road. I won't be there, so if anyone wants to file a report, please do so.
Merrillville presented a step in class for the young Patriots, even though they did have a losing record coming into the match. The Pirates play a much tougher schedule than our opponents at Argo, and were just coming off the La Porte tournament which included some of the top teams in the region.
Tonight the Patriots found themselves down 4-0 because they couldn't get a spike in. Three CCS hitting errors and a MHS dink kill gave them the lead, but CCS quickly answered. Ally got on track with two kills which were followed by two MHS errors, then a nice block by Olivia and Ally. The game stayed close until CCS went on a 8-1 run, powered by four kills by Ally and kills from Olivia and Lee. The teams traded errors until at 24-16, Ally crushed a back-row kill to give the Patriots the win.
The girls fell behind early again in set two, this time 3-1. CCS tied it at four as the did in the first set, but then fell behind again as MHS scored three straight. The Pirate lead stayed between two and four. Merrillville played better defensively in the set which enabled them to get their offense going a little two. Finally two hitting errors and an Ally kill pulled the Patriots into a 22-22 tie. After MHS scored on a kill, CCS actually took the lead with an Ally kill and a Olivia/Lee block. However, a MHS kill was followed by two Patriot hitting errors gave the hosts the second set, 26-24.
Set three saw the Patriots actually get an early lead. The lead was three after a Mandi kill, 8-5, but Merrillville ran off five straight after that. Neither team lead by more than two after that. Several MHS serving errors were offset by several CCS hitting errors. Both teams played solid defense but couldn't get much offense going. CCS led 23-22 when some confusion about position left a hole that MHS found. Ally scored a down-ball kill, but the Patriots again let a ball drop. Then Ally made a beautiful power dink. What? A carry? Oh well. Ally scored on a spike to even things up at 25, then Faith was called for being in the net when it appeared that a Pirate was the one committing the violation. The girls powered through it, though, scoring the last three points, the last on a nice cross-court kill by Mandi, to take the set, 28-26.
Merrillville seemed to shut down to start the fourth set. Three of their errors led to a 5-0 CCS lead, then after giving up a point, the Patriot scored seven more in a row, mostly from well-placed dinks and Pirate errors. Merrillville picked things up at that point but really couldn't cut into the lead until they got their offense on track and ran off six straight (LGFS, perhaps?) to made it 19-14, CCS. Olivia broke the momentum then with a kill and a block, then Ally took over with three kills down the stretch as the Patriots took game four, 25-16.
I was impressed with the girls' composure in the tight games and overall some good play, including some amazing defensive saves. I also was impressed with the number of fans we had there. I think we had as many fans as the host did.
Tomorrow the girls travel to Schaumburg for games against Schaumburg and Quentin Road. I won't be there, so if anyone wants to file a report, please do so.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Ho hum, another tournament championship
Calumet Christian volleyball does not rebuild. It reloads. Goodbye Faith R., Taylor, Holly, Jenna, Bekah, Kassie, Katie and Lauren. Hello Cassie, Kaylie, Faith L., Olivia, Lee, Stephanie, and welcome back Amanda.
Even after graduating five seniors and losing two other players that significantly contributed to Calumet's three-year run of dominance, the Patriots went out to Argo High yesterday and, for the most part, overwhelmed the opposition like was 2011 all over again. Granted, the other teams in the tournament can hardly be construed as tough, which was good for this young and inexperienced team, allowing them to get their feet wet while still winning.
I walked into the gym about fifteen minutes late and immediately looked up at the scoreboard. 8-3, home team. I had a momentary twinge thinking that we were playing the host team, but soon figured out it was Hammond Gavit we were playing, and we were the home team. Whew. The lead soon grew to 14-5, due equally to good play by CCS and errors by Gavit. The lead stayed between seven and ten, as both teams upped their play. A nice block by Mandi pushed the lead to 24-13, and after giving up a couple of points, Ally closed it out with a nice kill. Gavit really took a step back in game two, committing numerous errors and not generating much offense. Calumet scored the first seven points of the set. After a couple point exchanges, the Patriots increased the lead to 17-4. Faith and Ally were hitting well and Olivia was solid at the net on defense. We started making more errors at this point, allowing Gavit to get back to within 19-11. At that point, according to my notes, nine of Gavit's points were off of our errors. That was it for Gavit, though, as CCS scored the last six which included kills by Ally, Lee and Olivia, and ended on a Mandi ace.
Match #2 was against the host team, the weakest team of the group. We built the lead gradually in set one, with the strongest feature of play our serving - the Dragons could not figure out how to return them. Lee served the fifth CCS ace of the set to make it 15-5. The lead kept growing as Argo make error after error, though Olivia did have a couple of kills to contribute to the win. Final score was 25-10. Argo kept it somewhat close early in the second game, tying the game at three. The Patriots went on a little 4-1 run, then Lee started serving and served twelve straight points. Granted, many of the points were on hitting errors by Argo, but her serving was representative of the solid serving CCS had all day. Argo finally got a point on a kill, but the set was essentially over. Faith scored on a kill, then rotated to the serve position and scored an ace. The teams exchanged blocks, then Ally crushed a ball that popped up off an Olivia block. Argo got one more kill, then served into the net to give CCS the 25-7 win.
Goshen Blue Blazers, a home school team and long time opponent, would be our final opponent. By the time we played them, they also had beaten both public school teams, so the match would be for the championship. Goshen has always given the Patriots trouble, even when our record was far superior to theirs. In fact last year, CCS defeated Goshen in this tournament in two tough games, and even dropped a set when they faced them in their second-to-last regular season match (CCS did win 3-1). They would definitely be the biggest challenge of the day. The Patriots appeared to be very tight at the outset. Patriot errors led to a 7-3 deficit. It looked like the momentum would switch when Ally scored on consecutive kills and Faith stuffed a Goshen spike attempt, but Goshen followed by scoring three straight of their own. Goshen's lead got as big as five, and still led by four at 16-12 when the momentum really did change. Five straight by CCS, including two kills by Olivia gave the Patriots their first lead. CCS kept it up, eventually going ahead 23-19 after an Amanda ace. Alas, but Goshen pulled even at 23. Goshen went into the net but a Calumet hitting error evened it up again. Stephanie gave us the lead back with dink kill, then Ally finished it with a kill off of an overpass. Set two could not have been much different. Kill, kill, kill, CCS. Hitting error, Goshen. Ace, kill, kill, block, CCS. Defensive error, Goshen. Ace, kill CCS. 11-0, Patriots. Goshen finally scored, but the set was over. Blocks, kills and aces were coming from everyone. An ace from Ally make it 22-3. Goshen went on little run then, scoring four straight..oh wait..a rotation error was discovered. Goshen had to give up three of the points and Calumet was awarded one. A minute later a Mandi kill finished off the Blue Blazer, 25-5, and gave the Patriots another, yawn, trophy. Well, for these players the trophy wasn't really yawn-inducing. For most, it was their first varsity trophy. Look, a picture!
One significant difference from the last few years - no LGFSs. Well, there's still time.
Big schedule next week: Monday at Merrillville, Tuesday at Schaumburg Christian to take on Schaumburg and Quentin Road, Friday home against Community Baptist of South Bend and Lafayette for the Lafayette Central Catholic tournament. I will not be at the Quentin Road or Schaumburg match, so if anyone wants to write a match summary, please leave a comment and I will send you a email address to send it to.
Even after graduating five seniors and losing two other players that significantly contributed to Calumet's three-year run of dominance, the Patriots went out to Argo High yesterday and, for the most part, overwhelmed the opposition like was 2011 all over again. Granted, the other teams in the tournament can hardly be construed as tough, which was good for this young and inexperienced team, allowing them to get their feet wet while still winning.
I walked into the gym about fifteen minutes late and immediately looked up at the scoreboard. 8-3, home team. I had a momentary twinge thinking that we were playing the host team, but soon figured out it was Hammond Gavit we were playing, and we were the home team. Whew. The lead soon grew to 14-5, due equally to good play by CCS and errors by Gavit. The lead stayed between seven and ten, as both teams upped their play. A nice block by Mandi pushed the lead to 24-13, and after giving up a couple of points, Ally closed it out with a nice kill. Gavit really took a step back in game two, committing numerous errors and not generating much offense. Calumet scored the first seven points of the set. After a couple point exchanges, the Patriots increased the lead to 17-4. Faith and Ally were hitting well and Olivia was solid at the net on defense. We started making more errors at this point, allowing Gavit to get back to within 19-11. At that point, according to my notes, nine of Gavit's points were off of our errors. That was it for Gavit, though, as CCS scored the last six which included kills by Ally, Lee and Olivia, and ended on a Mandi ace.
Match #2 was against the host team, the weakest team of the group. We built the lead gradually in set one, with the strongest feature of play our serving - the Dragons could not figure out how to return them. Lee served the fifth CCS ace of the set to make it 15-5. The lead kept growing as Argo make error after error, though Olivia did have a couple of kills to contribute to the win. Final score was 25-10. Argo kept it somewhat close early in the second game, tying the game at three. The Patriots went on a little 4-1 run, then Lee started serving and served twelve straight points. Granted, many of the points were on hitting errors by Argo, but her serving was representative of the solid serving CCS had all day. Argo finally got a point on a kill, but the set was essentially over. Faith scored on a kill, then rotated to the serve position and scored an ace. The teams exchanged blocks, then Ally crushed a ball that popped up off an Olivia block. Argo got one more kill, then served into the net to give CCS the 25-7 win.
Goshen Blue Blazers, a home school team and long time opponent, would be our final opponent. By the time we played them, they also had beaten both public school teams, so the match would be for the championship. Goshen has always given the Patriots trouble, even when our record was far superior to theirs. In fact last year, CCS defeated Goshen in this tournament in two tough games, and even dropped a set when they faced them in their second-to-last regular season match (CCS did win 3-1). They would definitely be the biggest challenge of the day. The Patriots appeared to be very tight at the outset. Patriot errors led to a 7-3 deficit. It looked like the momentum would switch when Ally scored on consecutive kills and Faith stuffed a Goshen spike attempt, but Goshen followed by scoring three straight of their own. Goshen's lead got as big as five, and still led by four at 16-12 when the momentum really did change. Five straight by CCS, including two kills by Olivia gave the Patriots their first lead. CCS kept it up, eventually going ahead 23-19 after an Amanda ace. Alas, but Goshen pulled even at 23. Goshen went into the net but a Calumet hitting error evened it up again. Stephanie gave us the lead back with dink kill, then Ally finished it with a kill off of an overpass. Set two could not have been much different. Kill, kill, kill, CCS. Hitting error, Goshen. Ace, kill, kill, block, CCS. Defensive error, Goshen. Ace, kill CCS. 11-0, Patriots. Goshen finally scored, but the set was over. Blocks, kills and aces were coming from everyone. An ace from Ally make it 22-3. Goshen went on little run then, scoring four straight..oh wait..a rotation error was discovered. Goshen had to give up three of the points and Calumet was awarded one. A minute later a Mandi kill finished off the Blue Blazer, 25-5, and gave the Patriots another, yawn, trophy. Well, for these players the trophy wasn't really yawn-inducing. For most, it was their first varsity trophy. Look, a picture!
One significant difference from the last few years - no LGFSs. Well, there's still time.
Big schedule next week: Monday at Merrillville, Tuesday at Schaumburg Christian to take on Schaumburg and Quentin Road, Friday home against Community Baptist of South Bend and Lafayette for the Lafayette Central Catholic tournament. I will not be at the Quentin Road or Schaumburg match, so if anyone wants to write a match summary, please leave a comment and I will send you a email address to send it to.
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