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.

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.

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.