Hey, it's June! Which means it's time for a volleyball post!! Of course! And from me, whose children have graduated and are no longer playing!
I need a life.
Wait a minute - Calumet volleyball is my life. Well, part of it anyway.
Wait, I can justify this - Kelsey is coaching JV. See, there IS a connection.
I would continue this blog if only to list Ally Rohn at 5'4" on the roster.
I would continue following Calumet just to see the next goofy thing Taylor does.
I would continue this blog if only to write, "BIG HIT by Faith" yet again.
But sixty games? I think Kelsey's senior year, the team only played 43. Can I get a refund?
I'm still looking forward to the season, although my participation will be a wee bit less than last year. Like I might miss an away game or two.
Maximum.
And no big brown van on long away trips. The van is sad about that.
But seriously folks, I will be coming to a lot of games, blogging, keeping up the stats on Maxpreps and the NWI Times website, helping out again with the tournament, and, just possibly, going to Tennessee again.
Right now I'm working on getting the schedule set up on Maxpreps. When I do, I will link to that website.
Since I will likely be missing some away games, I will need a stringer or two to report on those games for the blog. Any parents or others that will likely be going to every game who might like to do this, please contact me at bossfarm6@yahoo.com and I will give you access to the blog, or you can email me your report and I will copy it here. Otherwise I will recap the game as best I can from the stats or I'll interview the coaches.
See you in August. Maybe not as much as the last four or five years, but...
I'm still looking forward to it.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Friday, December 4, 2009
If there are any basketball people following this blog...
I'm letting you know that I've set up a separate blog for the HSRC sports programs. The web address is http://www.hsrcpatriots.blogspot.com.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
I promised one more post, so here it is.
I won't go over the banquet very thoroughly, but I will say it was nice, as usual, and Coach Carr cried, as usual.
In case you didn't know, Jessi Stas and Faith Rohn were named to the all-tournament team at NACA. They don't give all the different awards that they used to, just offensive and defensive MVP. We didn't get either of them. Here's a link to the website (you'll have to cut and past into your address bar): http://nacasports.com/assets/Uploads/2009%20Volleyball%20Tournament.pdf
I put together a grid of where some of the player finished in various stat categories, both in the region per the NWI Times and the state, per Maxpreps. Here is the link to the document:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AhSbYCLoD5vTdDNHVnhvOGhJNGNqUkhHX29iS0JINWc&hl=en
Here is a link to the NWI Times volleyball stat leaders: http://www2.nwitimes.com/varsity/?sport_id=6&show=leaders
Hoping that all the girls' offseason pursuits increase their skills for next year. Best wishes to the club teams of Taylor, Faith, Ally and anyone else playing club. As I mentioned earlier, I will still be around in some capacities next year, so if I don't see you sooner, I'll see you next season.
Now, it's on to basketball. First games tomorrow. Should be.........interesting
I won't go over the banquet very thoroughly, but I will say it was nice, as usual, and Coach Carr cried, as usual.
In case you didn't know, Jessi Stas and Faith Rohn were named to the all-tournament team at NACA. They don't give all the different awards that they used to, just offensive and defensive MVP. We didn't get either of them. Here's a link to the website (you'll have to cut and past into your address bar): http://nacasports.com/assets/Uploads/2009%20Volleyball%20Tournament.pdf
I put together a grid of where some of the player finished in various stat categories, both in the region per the NWI Times and the state, per Maxpreps. Here is the link to the document:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AhSbYCLoD5vTdDNHVnhvOGhJNGNqUkhHX29iS0JINWc&hl=en
Here is a link to the NWI Times volleyball stat leaders: http://www2.nwitimes.com/varsity/?sport_id=6&show=leaders
Hoping that all the girls' offseason pursuits increase their skills for next year. Best wishes to the club teams of Taylor, Faith, Ally and anyone else playing club. As I mentioned earlier, I will still be around in some capacities next year, so if I don't see you sooner, I'll see you next season.
Now, it's on to basketball. First games tomorrow. Should be.........interesting
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Congrats to Rachel Eizenga!
Congrats to Rachel Eizenga, who was named AVCA/Maxpreps Player of the Week in Indiana for the week ended November 2. Here's the email I received:
AVCA High School Player of the Week - Indiana
Player of the Week of November 2
Rachel Eizenga
Calvary Christian High School (Highland): 40-3
5’8, Junior, Setter
Week of October 25 – November 1, 2009: 11 Games Played
Stats
Assists: 77
Ast./Game: 7
Kills: 14
Digs: 11
Aces: 9
Blocks: 2.5
The MaxPreps/AVCA High School Player of the Week Program is a partnership between the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and CBS MaxPreps, Inc. Each week MaxPreps and the AVCA recognize deserving student-athletes at the high school level who have demonstrated outstanding play on the court throughout the week of competition.
Statistics entered at MaxPreps.com by the high school coach are used to determine the week’s winner.
Winners receive a certificate and a letterman’s patch from MaxPreps and the AVCA.
The winners of the AVCA Player of the Week Award are recognized on the largest high school sports website in country, MaxPreps.com. Find complete high school volleyball coverage at:
http://www.maxpreps.com/national/volleyball.htm
Players who receive the award will also receive a virtual patch on their player profile on MaxPreps.com – recognizing them as one of the elite players to receive this prestigious award.
Previous Players of the Week
Fawn Ryan
Batesville High School (Batesville): 28-3
Junior, Outside Hitter/Setter
Week of October 18 – October 25, 2009: 8 Games Played
Stats
Kills: 30
Kills/Game: 3.75
Assists: 5
Ast./Game: 0.625
Digs: 25
Aces: 9
Blocks: 6
Allyson Morey
Muncie Burris (Muncie): 33-0
5’8, Senior, Setter
Week of October 11 – October 18, 2009: 9 Games Played
Stats
Assists: 97
Ast./Game: 10.778
Kills: 6 Digs: 27
Digs/Game: 3
Aces: 3
Lesley Wilzbacher
Evansville Central High School (Evansville): 16-10
5’8, Junior, Setter
Week of October 4 – October 11, 2009: 7 Games Played
Stats
Assists: 67
Ast./Game: 9.571
Digs: 34
Digs/Game: 4.857
Kills: 3
Aces: 1
Blocks: 1
Lexie Pawlik
Penn High School (Mishawaka): 22-3
6’1, Junior, Setter
Week of September 27 – October 4, 2009: 11 Games Played
Stats
Team Hit %: 33.7
Assists: 129
Ast./Game: 11.727
Digs: 33
Digs/Game: 3
Aces: 16
Blocks: 2.5
AVCA High School Player of the Week - Indiana
Player of the Week of November 2
Rachel Eizenga
Calvary Christian High School (Highland): 40-3
5’8, Junior, Setter
Week of October 25 – November 1, 2009: 11 Games Played
Stats
Assists: 77
Ast./Game: 7
Kills: 14
Digs: 11
Aces: 9
Blocks: 2.5
The MaxPreps/AVCA High School Player of the Week Program is a partnership between the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and CBS MaxPreps, Inc. Each week MaxPreps and the AVCA recognize deserving student-athletes at the high school level who have demonstrated outstanding play on the court throughout the week of competition.
Statistics entered at MaxPreps.com by the high school coach are used to determine the week’s winner.
Winners receive a certificate and a letterman’s patch from MaxPreps and the AVCA.
The winners of the AVCA Player of the Week Award are recognized on the largest high school sports website in country, MaxPreps.com. Find complete high school volleyball coverage at:
http://www.maxpreps.com/national/volleyball.htm
Players who receive the award will also receive a virtual patch on their player profile on MaxPreps.com – recognizing them as one of the elite players to receive this prestigious award.
Previous Players of the Week
Fawn Ryan
Batesville High School (Batesville): 28-3
Junior, Outside Hitter/Setter
Week of October 18 – October 25, 2009: 8 Games Played
Stats
Kills: 30
Kills/Game: 3.75
Assists: 5
Ast./Game: 0.625
Digs: 25
Aces: 9
Blocks: 6
Allyson Morey
Muncie Burris (Muncie): 33-0
5’8, Senior, Setter
Week of October 11 – October 18, 2009: 9 Games Played
Stats
Assists: 97
Ast./Game: 10.778
Kills: 6 Digs: 27
Digs/Game: 3
Aces: 3
Lesley Wilzbacher
Evansville Central High School (Evansville): 16-10
5’8, Junior, Setter
Week of October 4 – October 11, 2009: 7 Games Played
Stats
Assists: 67
Ast./Game: 9.571
Digs: 34
Digs/Game: 4.857
Kills: 3
Aces: 1
Blocks: 1
Lexie Pawlik
Penn High School (Mishawaka): 22-3
6’1, Junior, Setter
Week of September 27 – October 4, 2009: 11 Games Played
Stats
Team Hit %: 33.7
Assists: 129
Ast./Game: 11.727
Digs: 33
Digs/Game: 3
Aces: 16
Blocks: 2.5
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Double sadness
What a difference a day (or two) makes. After the Patriots looked so good on Wednesday and Thursday, expectations were quite high for Friday. The first team up on Friday morning was Hearts for Jesus. As you have read, our finest game of the year was the two pool sets against Hearts in pool play. Hearts has a very good team, but the girls should have had confidence going into this one, as they had beaten them so soundly just two days before.
This game was at 9:30 at Wolf Creek Baptist Church. This was bad for many reasons. First, the time. Regardless of how long we had been down there, it still was 8:30 Central time. Calumet is NOT a morning team. In addition, the gym had no scoreboard, little room between the courts and the bare walls, tile floors, and was twenty miles away from the camp. That's the physical problems. There also were competition problems. First, we were flat. Second, the reffing was incomprehensible and one-sided. Before you accuse me of being biased, Coach Carr was told by a observer not from our cheering section that he had never seen such a game reffed so one-sidedly. Rachel was called for double hits three times early. She was not doing anything differently than she had done all year. After the third call, she stopped trying to overhand set and was just bumping it up. The refs (the up ref, especially) saw some brushing up against the net by Taylor and Rachel, but didn't see Hearts' big middle hitter raking the net twice on her follow through. After falling behind 14-4, the put together a little rally to pull with 16-9. But then another phantom brush of the net, this time by Jessi, was called, and the girls just fell apart. A defensive error, a ball dropping, two aces, a kill, yet another alleged setting error on Rachel, another defensive error and it was 24-9. After a serving error by Hearts, they dinked one for a kill and the set one disaster was history.
Set #2 looked like it going to be a repeat of set #1. A kill by Faith made it 1-1, but then two kills followed by another double call on Rachel made it 4-1, Hearts. Then, some signs of life. A Faith kill. A Hearts hitting error. An ace by Rachel. Now it was a game at 4-4. After a serving error, Kara got a kill and Taylor got a dink kill. The Patriots led 6-5. We fell behind again, 10-8, before a kill by Jessi and a couple by Taylor tied it back up again at 11. They got a dink kill before they made a hitting error. Back and forth it went. A Taylor kill tied it at 17. The momentum was broken by a hitting error, followed by two Hearts kills and then another hitting error. 21-17, Hearts. We scored two, but then, you guessed it, a double hit call on Rachel. Finally the ref noticed Hearts in the net, but then a kill and a block put Hearts on the doorstep, 24-20. It wasn't over yet. Two kills by Faith sandwiched around an ace by Rachel make it 24-23. Too little, too late. Hearts put down a kill and it was loser bracket for Calumet.
We soon found out our opponent was Broadfording, who we would play at the camp at 2:00 PM. Broadfording, who we split with in pool play and had defeated in the first game of bracket play. If we win the game, we play Hearts again for the championship (we would have to beat them twice). If we lost, it meant we were done with a third-place finish. The girls did play well. Faith struggled with her hitting, Broadfording blocked well, and our defense (serve-receive) was very poor. Calumet fell behind 13-6 because of this. We pulled to within five at 15-10, but then Broadfording began pounding the gifts given to them. More poor defensive play and a very bad call put the Patriots down 23-12. Rachel left her feet to pull a ball back that was overpassed, and a Broadfording girl reached over the net and blocked it. Instead of calling Broadfording for a an over-the-net violation, they called Rachel for a backrow attack. Anyway, Faith dinked one in but followed that with a serving error - 24-13, Broadfording. Rachel bumped one over that fell, Ally got an ace, Taylor blocked on, Ally got another ace and it was 24-17. Broadfording then hit one into the net, Jessi got a dink kill, and Broadfording hit two more into the net. 24-21 Broadfording. Kara got a kill. Could it be? Of course not. A very questionable double call on Rachel ended the game. How the ref could end the set on iffy judgment call was beyond all of us.
Set 2 was different. The girls fell behind early, but got back to within one at 9-8. They stayed there til it was 13-12. Broadfording pulled out a little bit til it was 18-15. Then a lift call (legit), kill, kill, ace, block and it was 23-15. Jessi got a kill, but then a net violation ended the tournament for Calumet. Game analysis: the defense was poor, leading to many easy kills for Broadfording.
Second sadness: now it's all over. I will do some statistical stuff later, but for now, I'm just thinking about what an experience for my girls and myself it has been to be part of the Calumet program. I also will expand on this, maybe after the banquet. It's been fun, I will miss having a daughter in it, but I'm not leaving it altogether. It's too much fun.
This game was at 9:30 at Wolf Creek Baptist Church. This was bad for many reasons. First, the time. Regardless of how long we had been down there, it still was 8:30 Central time. Calumet is NOT a morning team. In addition, the gym had no scoreboard, little room between the courts and the bare walls, tile floors, and was twenty miles away from the camp. That's the physical problems. There also were competition problems. First, we were flat. Second, the reffing was incomprehensible and one-sided. Before you accuse me of being biased, Coach Carr was told by a observer not from our cheering section that he had never seen such a game reffed so one-sidedly. Rachel was called for double hits three times early. She was not doing anything differently than she had done all year. After the third call, she stopped trying to overhand set and was just bumping it up. The refs (the up ref, especially) saw some brushing up against the net by Taylor and Rachel, but didn't see Hearts' big middle hitter raking the net twice on her follow through. After falling behind 14-4, the put together a little rally to pull with 16-9. But then another phantom brush of the net, this time by Jessi, was called, and the girls just fell apart. A defensive error, a ball dropping, two aces, a kill, yet another alleged setting error on Rachel, another defensive error and it was 24-9. After a serving error by Hearts, they dinked one for a kill and the set one disaster was history.
Set #2 looked like it going to be a repeat of set #1. A kill by Faith made it 1-1, but then two kills followed by another double call on Rachel made it 4-1, Hearts. Then, some signs of life. A Faith kill. A Hearts hitting error. An ace by Rachel. Now it was a game at 4-4. After a serving error, Kara got a kill and Taylor got a dink kill. The Patriots led 6-5. We fell behind again, 10-8, before a kill by Jessi and a couple by Taylor tied it back up again at 11. They got a dink kill before they made a hitting error. Back and forth it went. A Taylor kill tied it at 17. The momentum was broken by a hitting error, followed by two Hearts kills and then another hitting error. 21-17, Hearts. We scored two, but then, you guessed it, a double hit call on Rachel. Finally the ref noticed Hearts in the net, but then a kill and a block put Hearts on the doorstep, 24-20. It wasn't over yet. Two kills by Faith sandwiched around an ace by Rachel make it 24-23. Too little, too late. Hearts put down a kill and it was loser bracket for Calumet.
We soon found out our opponent was Broadfording, who we would play at the camp at 2:00 PM. Broadfording, who we split with in pool play and had defeated in the first game of bracket play. If we win the game, we play Hearts again for the championship (we would have to beat them twice). If we lost, it meant we were done with a third-place finish. The girls did play well. Faith struggled with her hitting, Broadfording blocked well, and our defense (serve-receive) was very poor. Calumet fell behind 13-6 because of this. We pulled to within five at 15-10, but then Broadfording began pounding the gifts given to them. More poor defensive play and a very bad call put the Patriots down 23-12. Rachel left her feet to pull a ball back that was overpassed, and a Broadfording girl reached over the net and blocked it. Instead of calling Broadfording for a an over-the-net violation, they called Rachel for a backrow attack. Anyway, Faith dinked one in but followed that with a serving error - 24-13, Broadfording. Rachel bumped one over that fell, Ally got an ace, Taylor blocked on, Ally got another ace and it was 24-17. Broadfording then hit one into the net, Jessi got a dink kill, and Broadfording hit two more into the net. 24-21 Broadfording. Kara got a kill. Could it be? Of course not. A very questionable double call on Rachel ended the game. How the ref could end the set on iffy judgment call was beyond all of us.
Set 2 was different. The girls fell behind early, but got back to within one at 9-8. They stayed there til it was 13-12. Broadfording pulled out a little bit til it was 18-15. Then a lift call (legit), kill, kill, ace, block and it was 23-15. Jessi got a kill, but then a net violation ended the tournament for Calumet. Game analysis: the defense was poor, leading to many easy kills for Broadfording.
Second sadness: now it's all over. I will do some statistical stuff later, but for now, I'm just thinking about what an experience for my girls and myself it has been to be part of the Calumet program. I also will expand on this, maybe after the banquet. It's been fun, I will miss having a daughter in it, but I'm not leaving it altogether. It's too much fun.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
One down, two to go
This morning the Patriots faced Broadfording of Maryland again. Broadfording had finished fourth in the seeding, and had defeated Cornerstone in the first round earlier this morning. We had played and split with Broadfording yesterday morning. Broadfoarding had finished 4-4 in pool play, defeating Cornerstone twice, splitting with us and Crossroads, and losing twice to Community Christian.
Since their first round game went long, the girls had a lot of time to warm up waiting for them (they played in a different location). So they didn't have their usual early-morning lethargy. They came out smoking, with aces, big hits by Faith and all-around good play. The lead got as big as 21-8 before the you-know-what, but the girls finally finished it after giving fifteen to Broadfording.
The second game was different. We started out a little too loose, and Broadfording really turned up the heat with spikes. Faith also was pounding it, but we were making service errors (four of their first eleven points were from that). We also passed poorly and kept popping it back over the net for them to kill it. From 9-6 to 17-12, we trailed by three to five points. Finally at 17-12, Faith got a nice block. She followed that with two kills, Broadfording served into the net, and Rachel put in an ace. But from there, we broke down again, with a Kara hitting error, a couple of kills by BF set up by poor passing on our part. This was halted by a dink kill by Faith, but then they got another kill, an ace (perfectly placed), and after a hitting error, finished the girls off with a couple of dinks to win 25-19.
The third game started out great. Taylor dinked it and got an ace sandwiched around a hitting error by BF, and we led 3-0. But then they started killing it again. Faith tried to match them, but we kept making errors to offset that. At 9-9, Kara got a big block, they made a hitting error, Jessi and Taylor got kills, and then after a kill by BF, Taylor bumped one over that surprised them and fell, and Faith made a nice hit to finish them off.
Hearts for Jesus awaits us tomorrow at 9:30. We played the game of the season against them yesterday to defeat them 25-16 and 25-19, so they should be ready for us. If we win, we will play the winner of the loser's bracket in this double elimination tournament for the championship. If we lose, we have to win two games, on in the loser's bracket and one in the championship game to win it all.
Since their first round game went long, the girls had a lot of time to warm up waiting for them (they played in a different location). So they didn't have their usual early-morning lethargy. They came out smoking, with aces, big hits by Faith and all-around good play. The lead got as big as 21-8 before the you-know-what, but the girls finally finished it after giving fifteen to Broadfording.
The second game was different. We started out a little too loose, and Broadfording really turned up the heat with spikes. Faith also was pounding it, but we were making service errors (four of their first eleven points were from that). We also passed poorly and kept popping it back over the net for them to kill it. From 9-6 to 17-12, we trailed by three to five points. Finally at 17-12, Faith got a nice block. She followed that with two kills, Broadfording served into the net, and Rachel put in an ace. But from there, we broke down again, with a Kara hitting error, a couple of kills by BF set up by poor passing on our part. This was halted by a dink kill by Faith, but then they got another kill, an ace (perfectly placed), and after a hitting error, finished the girls off with a couple of dinks to win 25-19.
The third game started out great. Taylor dinked it and got an ace sandwiched around a hitting error by BF, and we led 3-0. But then they started killing it again. Faith tried to match them, but we kept making errors to offset that. At 9-9, Kara got a big block, they made a hitting error, Jessi and Taylor got kills, and then after a kill by BF, Taylor bumped one over that surprised them and fell, and Faith made a nice hit to finish them off.
Hearts for Jesus awaits us tomorrow at 9:30. We played the game of the season against them yesterday to defeat them 25-16 and 25-19, so they should be ready for us. If we win, we will play the winner of the loser's bracket in this double elimination tournament for the championship. If we lose, we have to win two games, on in the loser's bracket and one in the championship game to win it all.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
I guess we belong in Division I
Very quick update before I go to bed: Pool play today consisted of two-set games against four of the five other teams in our division. We started with a split with Broadfording, which should have been a sweep except for the LGFS in game 1, turning a 23-19 advantage into a 25-24 loss. Our second game was against Crossorads of NC, and we swept and swept easily 25-12, 25-16, with a lot of sub play in the second game. Third was against Hearts for Jesus, a team that had defeated the team twice that defeated us in the finals of the PA tourney. We played our best game of the year and swept them, 25-16, 25-19. Faith was awesome in these games, and everyone else played great. To finish up, we played Cornerstone, another top team. We smoked them in the first game, 25-12, but lost the second 25-20.
Following the completion of pool play, the standings were as follows: Calumet, 6-2; Community Christian of OK (the one team we didn't play), 5-3; Hearts for Jesus of OH, 4-4; Cornerstone of FL, 4-4; Broadfording of MD, 4-4; and Crossroads of NC, 1-7. The three 4-4 teams are listed in the order they finished in the seeding. (The rules for teams with the same records were first, head-to-head; second total points given up.) The teams, except for Crossroads, are very evenly matched. Bracket results might be completely different than the seeding. What we do know is that we play tomorrow at 10:30 against the winner of Cornerstone and Broadfording.
Following the completion of pool play, the standings were as follows: Calumet, 6-2; Community Christian of OK (the one team we didn't play), 5-3; Hearts for Jesus of OH, 4-4; Cornerstone of FL, 4-4; Broadfording of MD, 4-4; and Crossroads of NC, 1-7. The three 4-4 teams are listed in the order they finished in the seeding. (The rules for teams with the same records were first, head-to-head; second total points given up.) The teams, except for Crossroads, are very evenly matched. Bracket results might be completely different than the seeding. What we do know is that we play tomorrow at 10:30 against the winner of Cornerstone and Broadfording.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
See the pattern?
You don't get a blog entry after a disappointing loss, at least for a few days. That's the pattern.
Anyway, here on the eve of the final final national tournament, NACA, I am going to give you a few observations of the second day of the NCSAA nationals.
First of all, the tournament was a little better run than last year. Improvements: The refs were far better. Good devotional/call to service to kick off the tournament. The girls weren't harmed by the filthy dorms (because they didn't stay there). The only other game going on during the championship game was the third place game. The final was in the evening. Negatives: Still no all-tournament team. Championship team only gets a banner. Weird pool set up to seed the bracket play. Unbalanced pools. Weird brackets in that the second place team (us) didn't get a bye but the fourth seed did (which turned out not to be too bad of a thing for us, because we got to play another game). Dorms still filthy and bad (heard this from other teams that were there for the first time). Not enough play - too few teams. Too many weak teams. Overall impression: they are moving in the right direction.
And now for our play. We were able to play three games because of the weird bracket; the downside was that the first two games were against teams we played the day before - first MCAC. We beat them easily the day before; we beath them easily again, 25-13, 25-9. I'm not going to go into any detail about this game; MCAC is a young team and a young program and is not in our class.
The second game was against Covenant Classical, who we had split with in pool play. It was more a classic Calumet performance this day, even down to a pair of LGFSs (late game flat spots). Game 1 started with hits by several players and a lot of aces by Faith, who broke out the jump serve, and the girls led 24-10. The the LGFS, and Covenant scored eight straight. Finally Calumet closed it out for a 25-18 win. The second game was similar - same assorted kills, same Faith aces, and soon it was 22-11. Then the you-know-what, and the girls kind of stumbled to another 25-18 win.
Christian Community awaited us for the final. They were pretty much the same team that rolled through this tournament last year. No one had gotten close to them this weekend. In game one, the girls had their usual fast start. Christian Community made a few hitting errors, we got some kills and the girls had leads of 12-7, 14-11, and 16-13. Chr. Comm. then pulled even at 16 and from that point on, no one had a lead of more than two points. After a hitting error, CC led 24-23 and could have closed us out. But they made two consecutive errors and we were within one of winning. A stuff block brought them back even, then they got a kill to get within one of winning. Then, of all things, a serving error. But they followed this us with a kill. 27-26, CC. Faith then rode to the rescue - big kill, then a block, then another kill, this one down the line, to give the Patriots a 29-27 win.
Game 2 saw a lot more hitting by Calumet, especially early. Jessi put one down to give our girls a 12-9 lead. CC kill, kill, block, Calumet hitting error, Calumet hitting error and all of a sudden it was 14-12, CC. Kills by CC and errors by the Patoriots enabled CC to pull ahead and win, 25-20.
Game 3, oh boy. Calumet had a 16-10 lead at one point. Our girls were hitting the ball like crazy and it looked really good. Starting there we had MGCS (middle game comatose spot). Before the finally served the ball into the net, they ran off thirteen straight points. After they finally broke the streak, Taylor had a kill for our last point, and CC took game three, 25-18.
Game 4 was anticlimactic. The girls stayed close up until 16-13, but then it became a CC killfest. CC outscored Calumet 9-2 from that point on and won game 4 and the match.
Now we are at NACA. The competition looks fierce. We start tomorrow at 9 central time against a state champion, undefeated team from Maryland. I am excited.
Anyway, here on the eve of the final final national tournament, NACA, I am going to give you a few observations of the second day of the NCSAA nationals.
First of all, the tournament was a little better run than last year. Improvements: The refs were far better. Good devotional/call to service to kick off the tournament. The girls weren't harmed by the filthy dorms (because they didn't stay there). The only other game going on during the championship game was the third place game. The final was in the evening. Negatives: Still no all-tournament team. Championship team only gets a banner. Weird pool set up to seed the bracket play. Unbalanced pools. Weird brackets in that the second place team (us) didn't get a bye but the fourth seed did (which turned out not to be too bad of a thing for us, because we got to play another game). Dorms still filthy and bad (heard this from other teams that were there for the first time). Not enough play - too few teams. Too many weak teams. Overall impression: they are moving in the right direction.
And now for our play. We were able to play three games because of the weird bracket; the downside was that the first two games were against teams we played the day before - first MCAC. We beat them easily the day before; we beath them easily again, 25-13, 25-9. I'm not going to go into any detail about this game; MCAC is a young team and a young program and is not in our class.
The second game was against Covenant Classical, who we had split with in pool play. It was more a classic Calumet performance this day, even down to a pair of LGFSs (late game flat spots). Game 1 started with hits by several players and a lot of aces by Faith, who broke out the jump serve, and the girls led 24-10. The the LGFS, and Covenant scored eight straight. Finally Calumet closed it out for a 25-18 win. The second game was similar - same assorted kills, same Faith aces, and soon it was 22-11. Then the you-know-what, and the girls kind of stumbled to another 25-18 win.
Christian Community awaited us for the final. They were pretty much the same team that rolled through this tournament last year. No one had gotten close to them this weekend. In game one, the girls had their usual fast start. Christian Community made a few hitting errors, we got some kills and the girls had leads of 12-7, 14-11, and 16-13. Chr. Comm. then pulled even at 16 and from that point on, no one had a lead of more than two points. After a hitting error, CC led 24-23 and could have closed us out. But they made two consecutive errors and we were within one of winning. A stuff block brought them back even, then they got a kill to get within one of winning. Then, of all things, a serving error. But they followed this us with a kill. 27-26, CC. Faith then rode to the rescue - big kill, then a block, then another kill, this one down the line, to give the Patriots a 29-27 win.
Game 2 saw a lot more hitting by Calumet, especially early. Jessi put one down to give our girls a 12-9 lead. CC kill, kill, block, Calumet hitting error, Calumet hitting error and all of a sudden it was 14-12, CC. Kills by CC and errors by the Patoriots enabled CC to pull ahead and win, 25-20.
Game 3, oh boy. Calumet had a 16-10 lead at one point. Our girls were hitting the ball like crazy and it looked really good. Starting there we had MGCS (middle game comatose spot). Before the finally served the ball into the net, they ran off thirteen straight points. After they finally broke the streak, Taylor had a kill for our last point, and CC took game three, 25-18.
Game 4 was anticlimactic. The girls stayed close up until 16-13, but then it became a CC killfest. CC outscored Calumet 9-2 from that point on and won game 4 and the match.
Now we are at NACA. The competition looks fierce. We start tomorrow at 9 central time against a state champion, undefeated team from Maryland. I am excited.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Perfect pool play record is no more
Calumet's perfect record in pool play in tournaments in 2009 ended tonight with an opening set loss to Covenant Classical in the third pool play match this afternoon. We were told by the tournament organizer that they would be our toughest competition in our pool, and he was correct. However, we could have played better and won that game.
Covenant's game was marked by solid blocking. Their defense was good and their hitting was good, but the blocking was very good. And then we played like we were surprised that anyone would block any of our hits, in the first game, especially. They also played nearly error free volleyball in that game. We did jump out to a 7-3 lead in that game with a little blocking of our own and nice hits by Faith and Jessi. Then they began to dink us and they also get those blocks going, and all of a sudden they were leading, 12-10. Taylor then got two straight hits and then a dink kill to put us back ahead. Some errors by our girls and two blocks by Covenant Classical put them back in front, 16-14. And then it was back and forth until it was tied at 22. Covenant got two on errors, then after a kill by taylor to make it 24-23, Ally mishhit her serve, giving game one to Covenant, 25-23
Game two picked up where game left off. Mainly because of our errors and their blcoking, they took the lead at 8-5. A block by Kara and a kill by Taylor got Calumet going, as they went on a 12-1 run to go up 17-9. They increased in a little more as the game wore on, and appropriatley finished with an ace by Ally and the Patriots had game two 25-15. This was important, as head to head point scores would determine who finished first in our pool.
I'm not going to go into much detail about the later game against Redeemer. Suffice it to say, we didn't play well in game one and only won 25-20. Game two was a little different, as Calumet led 10-2 at one point and 21-9. From there each team scored four, and the final was 25-15.
As of this writing, we don't know who we play. I'll let you know as soon as I do.
Covenant's game was marked by solid blocking. Their defense was good and their hitting was good, but the blocking was very good. And then we played like we were surprised that anyone would block any of our hits, in the first game, especially. They also played nearly error free volleyball in that game. We did jump out to a 7-3 lead in that game with a little blocking of our own and nice hits by Faith and Jessi. Then they began to dink us and they also get those blocks going, and all of a sudden they were leading, 12-10. Taylor then got two straight hits and then a dink kill to put us back ahead. Some errors by our girls and two blocks by Covenant Classical put them back in front, 16-14. And then it was back and forth until it was tied at 22. Covenant got two on errors, then after a kill by taylor to make it 24-23, Ally mishhit her serve, giving game one to Covenant, 25-23
Game two picked up where game left off. Mainly because of our errors and their blcoking, they took the lead at 8-5. A block by Kara and a kill by Taylor got Calumet going, as they went on a 12-1 run to go up 17-9. They increased in a little more as the game wore on, and appropriatley finished with an ace by Ally and the Patriots had game two 25-15. This was important, as head to head point scores would determine who finished first in our pool.
I'm not going to go into much detail about the later game against Redeemer. Suffice it to say, we didn't play well in game one and only won 25-20. Game two was a little different, as Calumet led 10-2 at one point and 21-9. From there each team scored four, and the final was 25-15.
As of this writing, we don't know who we play. I'll let you know as soon as I do.
Quick update
We are through two pool play game, and so far, so good. The first was against Faith Community Elite of Ohio, which we believe is a homeschool team. They weren't bad, and we were slow on defense and just not into it. Even so, we came out with a 25-18, 25-19 win.
Second game was against MCAC, a team we had beaten easily early in the season. This time was no different. Although MCAC looked to be a little better than they were earlier this year, they had just played a tough match against another pool team and were a little tired. We won the first 25-6 (really 24-7, because we got a point we shouldn't have.) The second was just a bit tougher, as both teams played better, but Calumet got the victory 25-11.
What appears to be the two toughest teams in our pool are coming up. We're enjoying a little lunch and "homework" time right now before we play again at 4 (3 Central time).
I will try to update again tonight.
Signing off, Mrs. Ross (ask the girls about that one).
Second game was against MCAC, a team we had beaten easily early in the season. This time was no different. Although MCAC looked to be a little better than they were earlier this year, they had just played a tough match against another pool team and were a little tired. We won the first 25-6 (really 24-7, because we got a point we shouldn't have.) The second was just a bit tougher, as both teams played better, but Calumet got the victory 25-11.
What appears to be the two toughest teams in our pool are coming up. We're enjoying a little lunch and "homework" time right now before we play again at 4 (3 Central time).
I will try to update again tonight.
Signing off, Mrs. Ross (ask the girls about that one).
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
OK, I think I'm over it enough now to post
No, no, I'm not. Sorry.
Just kidding.
It has been four days since we traveled down to Lafayette for the thirty-seventh time in the last two weekends, this time to finally take on Faith Christian for the state championship. Faith, who had given us our only loss of the season to date. Faith, against who we wanted to correct that one black mark on our season record. Faith, our nemesis.
It was not to be.
Again, we were wondering what went wrong after the fourth set of the game, a fourth set that went to 31-29 before we went down, and lost the match three games to one. Again, the girls defeated Faith in the first game and dropped the next three. Well, where shall I start.
Oh, yes, the first game. Last time the girls rolled to a 24-11 lead before giving up a few point, and then finishing off Faith 25-16. This time the girls fell behind 4-0 before they got their first point, on a hitting error by FCS. That started a little run for the Patriots helped by a couple of aces by Taylor and a hit by Faith, and Calumet took a 6-4 lead. From that point until an ace by Jessi gave the girls a 19-16 lead, no team led by more than two. But from here, Calumet maintained a three or four point lead until 23-20, when FCS made two errors to give the Patriots the game one victory.
Game two started the same way. Before we knew it, the score was 3-0, FCS. But there was no Calumet run this time. FCS kept up the pressure, we make a couple of hitting errors and quickly it was 10-3, FCS. Calumet made a little run to get within five at 13-8, but the rally fizzled as FCS kept finding the holes with their dinks and wiped out the Patriots, 25-15. One strange (or telling) stat from this set was we had one kill the entire set.
We improved our start in game three, as we only fell behind by two before we got our first point. We stayed close to FCS the entire game, with a Jessi kill bringing us to within two at 18-16. FCS put one down, a couple of defensive errors, and a kill dink pushed FCS's lead out to six, and FCS came out with a 25-18 game three win.
The start in game four was again weak for our girls. This time they were down 4-0 before a service error by FCS gave us our first point. The girls got a couple more before FCS pushed it back out to a four point lead at 8-4. FCS maintained that until it was 15-11, and then Calumet came back with five straight points to go ahead, triggered by a Jessi kill. The girls fell behind by three again at 22-19, then got a kill from Taylor, a hitting error by FCS and an ace by Ally to tie it up. FCS then scored the next two and were one point away from closing out the set, game and state championship, leading 24-22. Jessi stepped up for us here, with two kill dinks. From there it was one point for FCS, one point for Calumet. Taylor's kill tied it up at 29 before FCS got a kill, then another point (I was so upset I didn't record nor do I remember how the last point was scored) to beat us again and to take the state championship.
Arggh.
A quick summary of Tuesday's game against Goshen:
Goshen played much better than they did against us in the state semis, but it wasn't enough to even take a game, as Calumet defeated them for the third time this season, 25-17, 25-16, 25-20. Faith was really on Tuesday night, with nine spike kills and a couple of dink kills to go with her three aces. While the score in the first game was close for a while, even tied at 16, the game was really never in doubt as the girls scored nine of the last ten to get the win. Game two was the same except that the last tie was at 13. The girls took hold of the game from that point to win by nine. In game three, the Patriots led 16-9 and 21-12 before a little LGFS (look up the acronym in an earlier post) made it a 21-18 game. Calumet scored three in a row before Goshen got their last two. Then an Ally back-row kill ended the night.
Anyway, we have an opportunity to beat another team that handled us pretty easily last year here at Pennsylvanian, Christian Community from Ohio. We won't face them until Friday; until then, we have some unknown teams in our pool plus the MCAC Wildcats, who we played earlier this year. I'll try to update during the day; otherwise I will write something tomorrow night.
Just kidding.
It has been four days since we traveled down to Lafayette for the thirty-seventh time in the last two weekends, this time to finally take on Faith Christian for the state championship. Faith, who had given us our only loss of the season to date. Faith, against who we wanted to correct that one black mark on our season record. Faith, our nemesis.
It was not to be.
Again, we were wondering what went wrong after the fourth set of the game, a fourth set that went to 31-29 before we went down, and lost the match three games to one. Again, the girls defeated Faith in the first game and dropped the next three. Well, where shall I start.
Oh, yes, the first game. Last time the girls rolled to a 24-11 lead before giving up a few point, and then finishing off Faith 25-16. This time the girls fell behind 4-0 before they got their first point, on a hitting error by FCS. That started a little run for the Patriots helped by a couple of aces by Taylor and a hit by Faith, and Calumet took a 6-4 lead. From that point until an ace by Jessi gave the girls a 19-16 lead, no team led by more than two. But from here, Calumet maintained a three or four point lead until 23-20, when FCS made two errors to give the Patriots the game one victory.
Game two started the same way. Before we knew it, the score was 3-0, FCS. But there was no Calumet run this time. FCS kept up the pressure, we make a couple of hitting errors and quickly it was 10-3, FCS. Calumet made a little run to get within five at 13-8, but the rally fizzled as FCS kept finding the holes with their dinks and wiped out the Patriots, 25-15. One strange (or telling) stat from this set was we had one kill the entire set.
We improved our start in game three, as we only fell behind by two before we got our first point. We stayed close to FCS the entire game, with a Jessi kill bringing us to within two at 18-16. FCS put one down, a couple of defensive errors, and a kill dink pushed FCS's lead out to six, and FCS came out with a 25-18 game three win.
The start in game four was again weak for our girls. This time they were down 4-0 before a service error by FCS gave us our first point. The girls got a couple more before FCS pushed it back out to a four point lead at 8-4. FCS maintained that until it was 15-11, and then Calumet came back with five straight points to go ahead, triggered by a Jessi kill. The girls fell behind by three again at 22-19, then got a kill from Taylor, a hitting error by FCS and an ace by Ally to tie it up. FCS then scored the next two and were one point away from closing out the set, game and state championship, leading 24-22. Jessi stepped up for us here, with two kill dinks. From there it was one point for FCS, one point for Calumet. Taylor's kill tied it up at 29 before FCS got a kill, then another point (I was so upset I didn't record nor do I remember how the last point was scored) to beat us again and to take the state championship.
Arggh.
A quick summary of Tuesday's game against Goshen:
Goshen played much better than they did against us in the state semis, but it wasn't enough to even take a game, as Calumet defeated them for the third time this season, 25-17, 25-16, 25-20. Faith was really on Tuesday night, with nine spike kills and a couple of dink kills to go with her three aces. While the score in the first game was close for a while, even tied at 16, the game was really never in doubt as the girls scored nine of the last ten to get the win. Game two was the same except that the last tie was at 13. The girls took hold of the game from that point to win by nine. In game three, the Patriots led 16-9 and 21-12 before a little LGFS (look up the acronym in an earlier post) made it a 21-18 game. Calumet scored three in a row before Goshen got their last two. Then an Ally back-row kill ended the night.
Anyway, we have an opportunity to beat another team that handled us pretty easily last year here at Pennsylvanian, Christian Community from Ohio. We won't face them until Friday; until then, we have some unknown teams in our pool plus the MCAC Wildcats, who we played earlier this year. I'll try to update during the day; otherwise I will write something tomorrow night.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
The preliminaries are over; time for the big event
All the formalities required to get to this point have been completed. It's time for the main event.
Calumet vs. Faith.
The game we all knew was inevitable is now upon us. Last night in Lafayette, the Patriots quickly dispatched the Goshen Blue Blazers, 25-6, 25-8, 25-18, after which the Eagles of Faith Christian even more quickly ended the season of Horizon Christian, 25-10, 25-10, 25-5.
As you all know, we faced Goshen in the championship game of our tournament about a month ago (a month already!), and the game was, while not really close, entertaining and well-played, and won by Calumet 25-16, 25-17. We had watched a little of Goshen's win over Clinton the previous week, and they looked pretty good while winning in four. So we figured on a good game for the semifinals. Well, it wasn't a good game.
The first set began with great hitting. Jessi set the tone with a big hit to begin the game, which was followed by an ace by Taylor. Then a kill by Faith, a nice block by Jessi, a kill by Jessi, a power dink by Jessi - it was the Jessi Show for a bit - and another ace by Taylor before she served one into the net. 7-1, Calumet. After some point exchanges which included a couple of kills by Goshen's eighth-grade star, Faith began serving. And serving and serving. Her jump-serves completely befuddled Goshen as she served eleven straight points, including six aces. The girls gave up a couple of points before finishing the set.
The second was similar to the first, except the stellar serving streak was by Jessi, and it came earlier in the game. At 2-1, Calumet, Jessi began serving and served until it was 14-1. She had five aces in that stretch, and was helped along with four kills by Faith. A few points later it was 17-3 when Goshen took a timeout. That seemed to settle them a little, and they kept the deficit steady to 21-7. But Calumet outscored them 4-1, with a kill by Kara finishing the set.
The third set seemed like it was going to go like the first two, even though Coach Carr had moved people around and changed a starter. First Taylor got a couple of aces, and then Rachel did, and pretty quickly it was 8-2. Then a little streak of poor defense afflicted the Patriots, and Goshen got to withing 12-9. The girls righted the ship for a bit, though, and stretched out the lead to 19-13. A block and a defensive error gave Goshen a couple of points, Calument got those back, then Goshen put one down and served an ace but followed that up with a service error. Taylor got a kill to make it 23-17, but a service error of our own followed. Finally, Kara got a dink kill and Emily fittingly ended the game with an ace.
We then ran out to grab a bite before returning to watch the anticpated annihilation of Horizon by Faith. But when we walked in, it was 7-7. Hmmm, what's going on here. But soon the earth returned to its axis and Faith began establishing its dominance. From that point Faith outscored Horizon 18-3 to win 25-10. The second game went like the first, with Faith starting a little slow, but then imposing it superiority bit by bit to win the second by the same score. Horizon was done for the third game and Faith rolled 25-5. Faith is a very precise, methodical team. They don't get flustered and they play very evenly. They're not prone to emotional streaks; they just play their game and wear down the opponent.
Today's game should be fantastic. We're a different team than when we barely lost to Faith five weeks ago. Everyone come on out and make some noise. We haven't had to do that for a while.
Calumet vs. Faith.
The game we all knew was inevitable is now upon us. Last night in Lafayette, the Patriots quickly dispatched the Goshen Blue Blazers, 25-6, 25-8, 25-18, after which the Eagles of Faith Christian even more quickly ended the season of Horizon Christian, 25-10, 25-10, 25-5.
As you all know, we faced Goshen in the championship game of our tournament about a month ago (a month already!), and the game was, while not really close, entertaining and well-played, and won by Calumet 25-16, 25-17. We had watched a little of Goshen's win over Clinton the previous week, and they looked pretty good while winning in four. So we figured on a good game for the semifinals. Well, it wasn't a good game.
The first set began with great hitting. Jessi set the tone with a big hit to begin the game, which was followed by an ace by Taylor. Then a kill by Faith, a nice block by Jessi, a kill by Jessi, a power dink by Jessi - it was the Jessi Show for a bit - and another ace by Taylor before she served one into the net. 7-1, Calumet. After some point exchanges which included a couple of kills by Goshen's eighth-grade star, Faith began serving. And serving and serving. Her jump-serves completely befuddled Goshen as she served eleven straight points, including six aces. The girls gave up a couple of points before finishing the set.
The second was similar to the first, except the stellar serving streak was by Jessi, and it came earlier in the game. At 2-1, Calumet, Jessi began serving and served until it was 14-1. She had five aces in that stretch, and was helped along with four kills by Faith. A few points later it was 17-3 when Goshen took a timeout. That seemed to settle them a little, and they kept the deficit steady to 21-7. But Calumet outscored them 4-1, with a kill by Kara finishing the set.
The third set seemed like it was going to go like the first two, even though Coach Carr had moved people around and changed a starter. First Taylor got a couple of aces, and then Rachel did, and pretty quickly it was 8-2. Then a little streak of poor defense afflicted the Patriots, and Goshen got to withing 12-9. The girls righted the ship for a bit, though, and stretched out the lead to 19-13. A block and a defensive error gave Goshen a couple of points, Calument got those back, then Goshen put one down and served an ace but followed that up with a service error. Taylor got a kill to make it 23-17, but a service error of our own followed. Finally, Kara got a dink kill and Emily fittingly ended the game with an ace.
We then ran out to grab a bite before returning to watch the anticpated annihilation of Horizon by Faith. But when we walked in, it was 7-7. Hmmm, what's going on here. But soon the earth returned to its axis and Faith began establishing its dominance. From that point Faith outscored Horizon 18-3 to win 25-10. The second game went like the first, with Faith starting a little slow, but then imposing it superiority bit by bit to win the second by the same score. Horizon was done for the third game and Faith rolled 25-5. Faith is a very precise, methodical team. They don't get flustered and they play very evenly. They're not prone to emotional streaks; they just play their game and wear down the opponent.
Today's game should be fantastic. We're a different team than when we barely lost to Faith five weeks ago. Everyone come on out and make some noise. We haven't had to do that for a while.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Lots of people, little noise
The irresistible force continued on tonight, defeating the Southside Torchpersons (a little political correctness for you) in three straight, 25-6, 25-12, 25-23.
This was a workperson-like effort (PC spasm again) in that the girls didn't show much fire for this game - in fact, the most fire was for Tina getting a kill in the third game. But the girls did play well. They established their dominance in the first game. This one wasn't one of those games where the girls jumped out to huge lead and then lost interest at the end of the game. This was a good, focused effort from the beginning to end. Most of our point were on kills rather than errors by the opponent, so it was a little more entertaining than some of their other blowouts this season.
The second game was more like the ones the girls have played against inferior opponents. Also, Coach Carr subbed a little more this game, and Jessica Neely was called up from JV to play. Anyway, the girls committed more errors in this game, and also Southside got more good passes to the setter which led to more kills. Also, their middle hitter started blocking, and Calumet couldn't pull away early. After a Southside ace and a hitting error by Taylor, the score was 15-12, Calumet. But then the Patriots ran off ten straight points, mainly behind the serving of Taylor, the girls had game two. Taylor broke out the jump serve to finish things off, and she had three straight aces to end the set.
Then Coach really got creative with the lineup, with Tina playing all the way around and Jessica getting playing time. Calumet fell behind early, 6-2, and stayed about that far behind for a considerable part of the game. The girls were down 15-10 and 16-12 before they started their comeback. Kills by Kara and an ace by Rachel contributed to the girls going ahead 19-18. Then Jessi Stas started pounding the ball but so did Southside's middle hitter. We also had some hitting errors, so the score remained close. But at 23-22 Southside, Faith put one down, Tina scored on a non-returnable downball, and Southside hit it into the net to complete the game.
Recognition of the seniors followed, of which there were about 112. OK, that was a little exaggeration. Rev. Broadbent handled the emcee duties for these festivities - thank you, pastor. Then the junior high and JVB team played Victory's teams to close out the night.
State semifinals on Friday night against Goshen Blue Blazers in Lafayette at 6:30 EDT, 5:30 our time. If we win, we play for the state championship on Saturday. Come on out and make some noise.
This was a workperson-like effort (PC spasm again) in that the girls didn't show much fire for this game - in fact, the most fire was for Tina getting a kill in the third game. But the girls did play well. They established their dominance in the first game. This one wasn't one of those games where the girls jumped out to huge lead and then lost interest at the end of the game. This was a good, focused effort from the beginning to end. Most of our point were on kills rather than errors by the opponent, so it was a little more entertaining than some of their other blowouts this season.
The second game was more like the ones the girls have played against inferior opponents. Also, Coach Carr subbed a little more this game, and Jessica Neely was called up from JV to play. Anyway, the girls committed more errors in this game, and also Southside got more good passes to the setter which led to more kills. Also, their middle hitter started blocking, and Calumet couldn't pull away early. After a Southside ace and a hitting error by Taylor, the score was 15-12, Calumet. But then the Patriots ran off ten straight points, mainly behind the serving of Taylor, the girls had game two. Taylor broke out the jump serve to finish things off, and she had three straight aces to end the set.
Then Coach really got creative with the lineup, with Tina playing all the way around and Jessica getting playing time. Calumet fell behind early, 6-2, and stayed about that far behind for a considerable part of the game. The girls were down 15-10 and 16-12 before they started their comeback. Kills by Kara and an ace by Rachel contributed to the girls going ahead 19-18. Then Jessi Stas started pounding the ball but so did Southside's middle hitter. We also had some hitting errors, so the score remained close. But at 23-22 Southside, Faith put one down, Tina scored on a non-returnable downball, and Southside hit it into the net to complete the game.
Recognition of the seniors followed, of which there were about 112. OK, that was a little exaggeration. Rev. Broadbent handled the emcee duties for these festivities - thank you, pastor. Then the junior high and JVB team played Victory's teams to close out the night.
State semifinals on Friday night against Goshen Blue Blazers in Lafayette at 6:30 EDT, 5:30 our time. If we win, we play for the state championship on Saturday. Come on out and make some noise.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
ICSTS Follies
The fun continues.
The weekend in Lafayette began with Mr. Meyers, czar of the ICSTS, pointedly ignoring Coach Carr and our team when we arrived for the exercise in futility that the first game was, which set the tone for the whole weekend. Then, Coach Carr was greeted by a smiling Mrs. Meyers, who asked if we had our scorekeeper, as required from the higher seed. Yes, we had, she responded (me). Then she asked if we had line judges, also as required. No, said Coach. The smile disappeared. Why not? Coach Carr calmly explained that we were assured that we would not have to play on Friday night, so we had games scheduled for the night. Games that our JV had to play since now our varsity had to play here. So all our potential line judges were busy. Playing a game our varsity was supposed to play. Mrs. Meyers was not happy. She was quite cold to us the rest of the weekend.
So, Saturday we got there a little early, so after watching the Goshen-Clinton game for a while Coach Casey, Coach Carr and I wandered over to the other gym to see what we thought we would be the Horizon (4th seed) and Lighthouse (5th seed). As we walked in, we found out that Horizon had won two and the teams were in their fourth game. So apparently the other team had won one. We settled into our seats and took a look at Horizon's opponent. GCS was on their jerseys. GCS? Lighthouse? I took a look at the brackets and realized that the 12th seed had "upset" Lighthouse, the fifth seed. Who was the 12th seed? Why, it was Granger Christian.
Horizon played Granger to get to the semifinals.
Our JV team always plays Granger's varsity and regularly beats them. I mean, we don't even send our varsity to play Granger because it's too one-sided.
I will need a lot convincing that Mr. Meyers didn't arrange the seeding to get his below-average team into the semifinals. Deserving teams like Clinton and Heritage are done, while Horizon - Horizon who lost to Covenant in three straight after Covenant lost to Heritage in three straight - is still playing while Heritage's season is over. Horizon who needed four games to defeat Granger, is still playing while Clinton's seniors won't get to play high school volleyball again. I'm sorry but if Horizon played ten games against us, Faith, Heritage, Clinton or Goshen, they would lose ten times. It isn't right or fair.
What a lesson these girls are learning.
So now Faith gets to play the cupcake, guaranteeing their spot in the finals while we have to go through Heritage and Goshen to get there. What, we don't have to beat Clinton too? How did they let that happen?
One final thing: Faith gets to choose what semifinal time slot they want - either 6:10 or 8:45 EDT, because they are the top seeded team. So we don't even know what time we play on Friday yet. EDIT: We are playing at 6:10, 5:10 our time.
Apparently at least one coach is starting to see things as we do. However, we'll need a few more to change the way things are set up. Many coaches don't understand what's going on or don't care. But if this kind of thinly-veiled abuse of power continues, more teams are going to be burned. And then hopefully enough teams will say enough is enough.
The weekend in Lafayette began with Mr. Meyers, czar of the ICSTS, pointedly ignoring Coach Carr and our team when we arrived for the exercise in futility that the first game was, which set the tone for the whole weekend. Then, Coach Carr was greeted by a smiling Mrs. Meyers, who asked if we had our scorekeeper, as required from the higher seed. Yes, we had, she responded (me). Then she asked if we had line judges, also as required. No, said Coach. The smile disappeared. Why not? Coach Carr calmly explained that we were assured that we would not have to play on Friday night, so we had games scheduled for the night. Games that our JV had to play since now our varsity had to play here. So all our potential line judges were busy. Playing a game our varsity was supposed to play. Mrs. Meyers was not happy. She was quite cold to us the rest of the weekend.
So, Saturday we got there a little early, so after watching the Goshen-Clinton game for a while Coach Casey, Coach Carr and I wandered over to the other gym to see what we thought we would be the Horizon (4th seed) and Lighthouse (5th seed). As we walked in, we found out that Horizon had won two and the teams were in their fourth game. So apparently the other team had won one. We settled into our seats and took a look at Horizon's opponent. GCS was on their jerseys. GCS? Lighthouse? I took a look at the brackets and realized that the 12th seed had "upset" Lighthouse, the fifth seed. Who was the 12th seed? Why, it was Granger Christian.
Horizon played Granger to get to the semifinals.
Our JV team always plays Granger's varsity and regularly beats them. I mean, we don't even send our varsity to play Granger because it's too one-sided.
I will need a lot convincing that Mr. Meyers didn't arrange the seeding to get his below-average team into the semifinals. Deserving teams like Clinton and Heritage are done, while Horizon - Horizon who lost to Covenant in three straight after Covenant lost to Heritage in three straight - is still playing while Heritage's season is over. Horizon who needed four games to defeat Granger, is still playing while Clinton's seniors won't get to play high school volleyball again. I'm sorry but if Horizon played ten games against us, Faith, Heritage, Clinton or Goshen, they would lose ten times. It isn't right or fair.
What a lesson these girls are learning.
So now Faith gets to play the cupcake, guaranteeing their spot in the finals while we have to go through Heritage and Goshen to get there. What, we don't have to beat Clinton too? How did they let that happen?
One final thing: Faith gets to choose what semifinal time slot they want - either 6:10 or 8:45 EDT, because they are the top seeded team. So we don't even know what time we play on Friday yet. EDIT: We are playing at 6:10, 5:10 our time.
Apparently at least one coach is starting to see things as we do. However, we'll need a few more to change the way things are set up. Many coaches don't understand what's going on or don't care. But if this kind of thinly-veiled abuse of power continues, more teams are going to be burned. And then hopefully enough teams will say enough is enough.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Trifecta
Tonight the girls traveled down to Lafayette AGAIN, this time to play Heritage in the quarterfinals of the state tournament, or the regional finals, however you want to look at it. Yes, to Lafayette to play a school that's about five miles away from our home court.
The girls had played Heritage twice earlier in the season, defeating them in tightly contested games both times. The first time was a regular season game in which Calumet won in three straight, with the first and third games being quite close. The second time was in the semifinals of our tournament. That game saw the Defenders win the second game before succumbing in the third. So we were ready for a competitive game.
Except someone forgot to tell Heritage. At least in the first set. After a Taylor kill to get the serve, Taylor ran off eleven consecutive points to make it 12-0. Taylor lost the serve after a timeout, but Calumet maintained a ten-point or better lead through the end of the game before scoring five of the last six points to defeate Heritage 25-9 in game 1.
The second game was more competitive, especially after Heritage discovered the double block. The second stuff block for Heritage brought them to within two at 16-14, but then Faith put one between the blocks, Taylor blocked one of theirs, they dinked one out, Kara got a kill, a Heritage hitting error, another kill by Kara and a kill by Taylor gave the Patriots a 23-14. At this point the team performed their usual generosity by giving Heritage four points before closing it out with a kill by Taylor and a Heritage hitting error.
The third game kind of started like the first, in that Calumet jumped out to an early 10-3 lead, with three kills from Faith and two from Kara. Heritage then had a mini-run to close to within four. From there the Patriots slowly pulled farther and farther ahead, with some hitting by Faith and a lot of error commited by Heritage. The score eventually reached 24-15, before the LGFS occurred (late-game flat spot). Heritage ran off seven straight points before final getting the winner on a block by Emily Eizenga.
Tomorrow I give my impressions of the first weekend at the tournament.
The girls had played Heritage twice earlier in the season, defeating them in tightly contested games both times. The first time was a regular season game in which Calumet won in three straight, with the first and third games being quite close. The second time was in the semifinals of our tournament. That game saw the Defenders win the second game before succumbing in the third. So we were ready for a competitive game.
Except someone forgot to tell Heritage. At least in the first set. After a Taylor kill to get the serve, Taylor ran off eleven consecutive points to make it 12-0. Taylor lost the serve after a timeout, but Calumet maintained a ten-point or better lead through the end of the game before scoring five of the last six points to defeate Heritage 25-9 in game 1.
The second game was more competitive, especially after Heritage discovered the double block. The second stuff block for Heritage brought them to within two at 16-14, but then Faith put one between the blocks, Taylor blocked one of theirs, they dinked one out, Kara got a kill, a Heritage hitting error, another kill by Kara and a kill by Taylor gave the Patriots a 23-14. At this point the team performed their usual generosity by giving Heritage four points before closing it out with a kill by Taylor and a Heritage hitting error.
The third game kind of started like the first, in that Calumet jumped out to an early 10-3 lead, with three kills from Faith and two from Kara. Heritage then had a mini-run to close to within four. From there the Patriots slowly pulled farther and farther ahead, with some hitting by Faith and a lot of error commited by Heritage. The score eventually reached 24-15, before the LGFS occurred (late-game flat spot). Heritage ran off seven straight points before final getting the winner on a block by Emily Eizenga.
Tomorrow I give my impressions of the first weekend at the tournament.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Perfunctory
per⋅func⋅to⋅ry /pərˈfʌŋktəri/ [per-fuhngk-tuh-ree]
–adjective 1. performed merely as a routine duty; hasty and superficial: perfunctory courtesy.
2. lacking interest, care, or enthusiasm; indifferent or apathetic.
Yep, that pretty much sums up tonights waste of ti.. er game.
The mess also known as the ICSTS tournament began tonight, with a lovely trip to Lafayette to play a group of students from Providence Cristo Rey that I hesitate to call a team. Yikes. If the girls weren't totally disinterested, it might have been three shutouts. As it was, the girls won 25-8, 25-4, 25-4. This was pointless for both teams. (A frightening aspect: Providence Cristo Rey beat another team to get to play us.) Total playing time: about 40 minutes. Travel time to and from Lafayette: about 180 minutes.
And we get to go back again tomorrow, this time probably against Heritage. Heritage is one of three teams to win a set from us all year, so this game should be good.
NOTE: I began a blog entry a couple weeks ago, but didn't finish it until yesterday. However, it still posted with the original date. Scroll down to the September 30 entry if you want to read it. It's some more of my thoughts about the ICSTS.
–adjective 1. performed merely as a routine duty; hasty and superficial: perfunctory courtesy.
2. lacking interest, care, or enthusiasm; indifferent or apathetic.
Yep, that pretty much sums up tonights waste of ti.. er game.
The mess also known as the ICSTS tournament began tonight, with a lovely trip to Lafayette to play a group of students from Providence Cristo Rey that I hesitate to call a team. Yikes. If the girls weren't totally disinterested, it might have been three shutouts. As it was, the girls won 25-8, 25-4, 25-4. This was pointless for both teams. (A frightening aspect: Providence Cristo Rey beat another team to get to play us.) Total playing time: about 40 minutes. Travel time to and from Lafayette: about 180 minutes.
And we get to go back again tomorrow, this time probably against Heritage. Heritage is one of three teams to win a set from us all year, so this game should be good.
NOTE: I began a blog entry a couple weeks ago, but didn't finish it until yesterday. However, it still posted with the original date. Scroll down to the September 30 entry if you want to read it. It's some more of my thoughts about the ICSTS.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Double post
Lots of activity over the last couple of days. First, on Monday, the team scrimmaged against the Prairie State College team. Stephanie Carlson, former Calumet player, is now a key player on the Prairie State team, so through her the scrimmage was arranged. The Prairie State team was just returning from a successful trip to Rhode Island, winning all their games there, to give them a season record of 25-6.
The game started out close, sort of like each team was getting an idea about how the other team played. Then Prairie State started imposing their dominance. They had one tall athletic girl who could pound the ball. They also had a very gifted setter. Once they got a few points going, some of our girls started tightening up a little, and the lead increased quickly. Prairie State ended up with a 25-13 win.
The second game went a little better for the girls, but Prairie State continued to demonstrate that they were a college team and our girls were not. Faith was all over the court, doing her best to keep them in it, but troubles with serve receiving among other errors kept the Patriots from making a game of it, and they lost 25-15.
Prairie State's coach sat down three of his starters for the third game. By that time most of the nervousness had worn off for Calumet, and this game was very competitive. The game was close throughout, but Calumet scored the last two points to pull out a 25-22 win.
For the games that actually counted, Calumet traveled up to Schaumburg to play both Schaumburg Christian and Quentin Road at Schaumburg Christian's fantastic new fieldhouse. With the old gym, there could be at least five games going on at the same time. As it was, I think there were nine games played over three time slots, with JV, junior high and varsity games taking place. I will mention that the JV team defeated Quentin Road after losing twice to them earlier in the year. The junior high team struggled, losing their games against Schaumburg and Quentin Road. Now, on to the varsity.
I arrived late for the Schaumburg game. They were leading early in the second game. The parents that were there reported that the team had defeated Schaumburg in the first game 25-15. There wasn't much high-level play in the second game, but the girls did win the set 25-16.
Quentin Road was next up, immediately following the Schaumburg game. Earlier in the year, Calumet had traveled up to Quentin Road and defeated them 25-12, 25-13. The girls were playing at a high level in that game. Tonight, the girls didn't play at that level. The first game started out well. The Patriots jumped out to a 4-1 lead behind kills by Kara and Faith. But due mainly to Patriot errors, Quentin Road crept back in to the game, and eventually took the lead at 12-11. But from there, the girls outscored the Eagles 14-3, as Taylor got several kills, and then several aces. The game ended on an ace by Jessi.
The second game was not a good game for Calumet. This one went the opposite of the first one. Our girls played well early and led 12-5 at one point. After giving up three points, the girls matched it an led 15-8. Some back-and-forth scoring brought the score to 17-11. Things went south from here. Kill by QR. Hitting error. Another kill. Another hitting error. An ace. Faith broke the streak with a kill, but QR matched it. QR then committed a hitting error, but then scored on a dink. A hit by QR that went off our block. It went like this, no team scoring more than two in a row until the end. Our girls had two set points that they couldn't get, then Quentin Road had one but Calumet got a dink in. Finally QR hit one out and the girls escaped with a 29-27 win.
Next up is a first-round game in the state regionals against the winner of the 15th and 18th seeds on Friday. We should win that one easily, and then next after that should be Heritage, which would be the third time we will have faced them this season. That game will be at 5:10P CST at Faith Christian School in Lafayette. I will blog tomorrow about the wonderful format and seeding of the state tournament.
The game started out close, sort of like each team was getting an idea about how the other team played. Then Prairie State started imposing their dominance. They had one tall athletic girl who could pound the ball. They also had a very gifted setter. Once they got a few points going, some of our girls started tightening up a little, and the lead increased quickly. Prairie State ended up with a 25-13 win.
The second game went a little better for the girls, but Prairie State continued to demonstrate that they were a college team and our girls were not. Faith was all over the court, doing her best to keep them in it, but troubles with serve receiving among other errors kept the Patriots from making a game of it, and they lost 25-15.
Prairie State's coach sat down three of his starters for the third game. By that time most of the nervousness had worn off for Calumet, and this game was very competitive. The game was close throughout, but Calumet scored the last two points to pull out a 25-22 win.
For the games that actually counted, Calumet traveled up to Schaumburg to play both Schaumburg Christian and Quentin Road at Schaumburg Christian's fantastic new fieldhouse. With the old gym, there could be at least five games going on at the same time. As it was, I think there were nine games played over three time slots, with JV, junior high and varsity games taking place. I will mention that the JV team defeated Quentin Road after losing twice to them earlier in the year. The junior high team struggled, losing their games against Schaumburg and Quentin Road. Now, on to the varsity.
I arrived late for the Schaumburg game. They were leading early in the second game. The parents that were there reported that the team had defeated Schaumburg in the first game 25-15. There wasn't much high-level play in the second game, but the girls did win the set 25-16.
Quentin Road was next up, immediately following the Schaumburg game. Earlier in the year, Calumet had traveled up to Quentin Road and defeated them 25-12, 25-13. The girls were playing at a high level in that game. Tonight, the girls didn't play at that level. The first game started out well. The Patriots jumped out to a 4-1 lead behind kills by Kara and Faith. But due mainly to Patriot errors, Quentin Road crept back in to the game, and eventually took the lead at 12-11. But from there, the girls outscored the Eagles 14-3, as Taylor got several kills, and then several aces. The game ended on an ace by Jessi.
The second game was not a good game for Calumet. This one went the opposite of the first one. Our girls played well early and led 12-5 at one point. After giving up three points, the girls matched it an led 15-8. Some back-and-forth scoring brought the score to 17-11. Things went south from here. Kill by QR. Hitting error. Another kill. Another hitting error. An ace. Faith broke the streak with a kill, but QR matched it. QR then committed a hitting error, but then scored on a dink. A hit by QR that went off our block. It went like this, no team scoring more than two in a row until the end. Our girls had two set points that they couldn't get, then Quentin Road had one but Calumet got a dink in. Finally QR hit one out and the girls escaped with a 29-27 win.
Next up is a first-round game in the state regionals against the winner of the 15th and 18th seeds on Friday. We should win that one easily, and then next after that should be Heritage, which would be the third time we will have faced them this season. That game will be at 5:10P CST at Faith Christian School in Lafayette. I will blog tomorrow about the wonderful format and seeding of the state tournament.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Champions again!
The Calumet Christian (yes, we're back to Calumet - I don't have to change the blog name!) Patriots defeated an old rival to win the Quentin Road/Dayspring Classic volleyball tournament yesterday, their second tournament victory of the year.
As you read, we went undefeated in our pool, finishing 8-0. The day wasn't without adventure, as you also read, with the late start we all got due to some miscommunication, and the wrong turn by Coach Carr's vehicle which caused her, Jessi Stas, Holly Schaap, and Tina Schnoor to completely miss the first set against Southside, and with some struggles against weaker teams. But the girls got the job done, which set the stage for Saturday's events.
We had already examined the bracket possibilities before the tournament started, and realized that we would face Saline, if we got there, in the semifinals. We were a little disappointed that we couldn't play them in the championship, but of course there was nothing we could do about that. We also speculated about Calvary of PA in the finals, but that turned out to be a wrong assumption.
In our first game, we played Westchester. They were in our pool and we had beaten them on Friday, 25-11, 25-14. We figured that this wouldn't be a tough game, and we were right. The girls played like they played in their first bracket game in the Calumet Invitational, like a machine. Even with a lot of substitutions in the second game, the girls rolled to a 25-4, 25-4 whitewash.
The second game was against Arthur. This was a little bit of a surprise for a couple of reasons. First, we figured Calvary of PA would win their pool, but they only finished 5-3 in pool play. So after Friday's play was over, we thought we would be playing them in the quarterfinals instead of the finals, like we might have if they won their pool. But Calvary lost to Arthur in the first round of the tournament.(Background information: Three years ago, the last year Calumet had a near-perfect team, we came up against Calvary in the finals of this tournament. Calvary had, that year, one of the best teams I've seen in the four years I have been watching most of the varsity games. Calvary beat us, I believe, 25-14, 25-16. We lost two other games the whole year, which I believe were a pool play game in Nationals against Fulton County and a late-season game against Quentin Road which had beaten easily earlier in the year. So we figured if Calvary was back, they must be really good. They weren't.) Arthur had one really good middle hitter, one good middle hitter, and then the rest of team. In game one, the girls established that they were the superior team, dominating the game 25-13. In the second game, the girls decided that this was the game in which they would lose focus. Due mostly to our errors, the girls found themselves trailing 13-9. After a little 4-2 run by Calumet, they were still trailing 15-13. Then, a kill by Faith. A block by Faith. A shanked pass by Arthur. Two consecutive aces by Rachel gave the Patriots a 18-15 lead. Then four errors by Calumet with a kill by Faith in the middle of it made it a 19-19 game. Then Taylor got a kill, Arthur made a error, an ace by Kara, a kill by Faith, a dink by Jessi and another ace by Kara gave the Patriots a 25-19 win.
As expected, Saline was up next in the semifinal. Same as the Patriots, Saline had not lost the whole tournament. For those of you not with the team last year, Saline is a very conservative team from Kentucky. They don't look like much, not at all like athletes, especially in their very long shorts and long socks, but they are very smart, very good defensively, and generally do not get flustered. They do have one girl, Sarah Mills, who is a very gifted and smart player. From what I could find on the Net, they didn't lose so much as a set last year except the one to us in the final last year. Coach noticed that Sarah did all the blocking, so she made sure to distributed the hitting across the front row.
The first game went as many do for the Patriots. They were somewhat even with Saline, but service and hitting errors kept our girls from getting a bigger lead. At 12-9, the errors were fewer, but the hitting, that the girls had been doing all game, continued. Two kills by Faith, two kills by Kara, and an ace by Jessi contributed to pushing the lead out to 18-11. Then the usual flat spot for the Patriots occurred, as Saline put down some dinks and down balls and pretty soon it was 20-16. From there it was back and forth, with Calumet making many errors between kills by Jessi and Ally, but at 22-19 the girls finished off Saline with a backrow kill by Ally, and ace by Jessi and a Saline hitting error.
The second game had the Patriots jumping out to 11-4 lead. Saline began to come back, helped a lot by errors by our girls, including a net violation and back row attack violation. It was 12-11, then 14-12. But then Jessi began a long streak of serving as Faith had several kills. Calumet scored nine straight points before a kill by Saline. Then a kill by Kara and an ace by Rachel put the Patriots into the finals.
The other semifinal was between Ridgewood and Freedom Farm. Some of the girls wanted Ridgewood; others wanted a new opponent so were cheering for Freedom Farm. Ridgewood ended up winning, beating Freedom Farm in three games. We had faced Ridgewood the weekend before, winning in three tough games. Ridgewood came out fired up to play us. Our girls came out flat. There were net violations, out of rotation violations, blocking errors, hitting errors and service errors. At one point, Ridgewood was up by six at 16-10. Ridgewood hit one into the net, Taylor put one down, Jessi got two kills and it was a two point game. But then the girls scored nine in a row, which included kills by Jessi and Faith, aces by Taylor and some hits out by Ridgewood. Ridgewood then got two on a dink by Faith that went out and a block, but Calumet got the next two with the last a kill by Faith to win game one, 25-20.
The second game began very even, with some good play by both teams. but at 11-11 the Patriots scored six in a row, mainly because of hitting errors by Ridgewood. After giving up a point, the girls then outscored Ridgewood 6-2 to give Calumet a commanding 23-14 lead. Ridgewood regrouped to score four straight before Calumet stopped the streak. At 24-18 Ridgewood called a timeout. Faith was serving. Because there was no room when there were two courts per gym, Faith hadn't jump served all day. She didn't jump serve at all during the final game to that point either, but she pulled it out for this point. And of course it was perfect and dropped in for an ace, giving Calumet the set, game and tournament championship.
After the trophies for first and second were handed out, the all-tournament team was announced. There are only six all-tournament slots at the Dayspring Classic. They announced them in reverse order of votes received. First announced was Beverly Black of Quentin Road, then Monica Schlabach of Pathway, our very own Jessi Stas, and Dominique Stegall of Ridgewood. The final player named was the MVP, and that announcement had very little to no suspense. Of course it was Faith Rohn, making it two-for-two for her in MVP tournament awards.
Tuesday is a trimatch against Schaumburg and Quentin Road at Schaumburg. Then the state regionals with their ridiculous schedule this weekend. I will post on that later this week.
As you read, we went undefeated in our pool, finishing 8-0. The day wasn't without adventure, as you also read, with the late start we all got due to some miscommunication, and the wrong turn by Coach Carr's vehicle which caused her, Jessi Stas, Holly Schaap, and Tina Schnoor to completely miss the first set against Southside, and with some struggles against weaker teams. But the girls got the job done, which set the stage for Saturday's events.
We had already examined the bracket possibilities before the tournament started, and realized that we would face Saline, if we got there, in the semifinals. We were a little disappointed that we couldn't play them in the championship, but of course there was nothing we could do about that. We also speculated about Calvary of PA in the finals, but that turned out to be a wrong assumption.
In our first game, we played Westchester. They were in our pool and we had beaten them on Friday, 25-11, 25-14. We figured that this wouldn't be a tough game, and we were right. The girls played like they played in their first bracket game in the Calumet Invitational, like a machine. Even with a lot of substitutions in the second game, the girls rolled to a 25-4, 25-4 whitewash.
The second game was against Arthur. This was a little bit of a surprise for a couple of reasons. First, we figured Calvary of PA would win their pool, but they only finished 5-3 in pool play. So after Friday's play was over, we thought we would be playing them in the quarterfinals instead of the finals, like we might have if they won their pool. But Calvary lost to Arthur in the first round of the tournament.(Background information: Three years ago, the last year Calumet had a near-perfect team, we came up against Calvary in the finals of this tournament. Calvary had, that year, one of the best teams I've seen in the four years I have been watching most of the varsity games. Calvary beat us, I believe, 25-14, 25-16. We lost two other games the whole year, which I believe were a pool play game in Nationals against Fulton County and a late-season game against Quentin Road which had beaten easily earlier in the year. So we figured if Calvary was back, they must be really good. They weren't.) Arthur had one really good middle hitter, one good middle hitter, and then the rest of team. In game one, the girls established that they were the superior team, dominating the game 25-13. In the second game, the girls decided that this was the game in which they would lose focus. Due mostly to our errors, the girls found themselves trailing 13-9. After a little 4-2 run by Calumet, they were still trailing 15-13. Then, a kill by Faith. A block by Faith. A shanked pass by Arthur. Two consecutive aces by Rachel gave the Patriots a 18-15 lead. Then four errors by Calumet with a kill by Faith in the middle of it made it a 19-19 game. Then Taylor got a kill, Arthur made a error, an ace by Kara, a kill by Faith, a dink by Jessi and another ace by Kara gave the Patriots a 25-19 win.
As expected, Saline was up next in the semifinal. Same as the Patriots, Saline had not lost the whole tournament. For those of you not with the team last year, Saline is a very conservative team from Kentucky. They don't look like much, not at all like athletes, especially in their very long shorts and long socks, but they are very smart, very good defensively, and generally do not get flustered. They do have one girl, Sarah Mills, who is a very gifted and smart player. From what I could find on the Net, they didn't lose so much as a set last year except the one to us in the final last year. Coach noticed that Sarah did all the blocking, so she made sure to distributed the hitting across the front row.
The first game went as many do for the Patriots. They were somewhat even with Saline, but service and hitting errors kept our girls from getting a bigger lead. At 12-9, the errors were fewer, but the hitting, that the girls had been doing all game, continued. Two kills by Faith, two kills by Kara, and an ace by Jessi contributed to pushing the lead out to 18-11. Then the usual flat spot for the Patriots occurred, as Saline put down some dinks and down balls and pretty soon it was 20-16. From there it was back and forth, with Calumet making many errors between kills by Jessi and Ally, but at 22-19 the girls finished off Saline with a backrow kill by Ally, and ace by Jessi and a Saline hitting error.
The second game had the Patriots jumping out to 11-4 lead. Saline began to come back, helped a lot by errors by our girls, including a net violation and back row attack violation. It was 12-11, then 14-12. But then Jessi began a long streak of serving as Faith had several kills. Calumet scored nine straight points before a kill by Saline. Then a kill by Kara and an ace by Rachel put the Patriots into the finals.
The other semifinal was between Ridgewood and Freedom Farm. Some of the girls wanted Ridgewood; others wanted a new opponent so were cheering for Freedom Farm. Ridgewood ended up winning, beating Freedom Farm in three games. We had faced Ridgewood the weekend before, winning in three tough games. Ridgewood came out fired up to play us. Our girls came out flat. There were net violations, out of rotation violations, blocking errors, hitting errors and service errors. At one point, Ridgewood was up by six at 16-10. Ridgewood hit one into the net, Taylor put one down, Jessi got two kills and it was a two point game. But then the girls scored nine in a row, which included kills by Jessi and Faith, aces by Taylor and some hits out by Ridgewood. Ridgewood then got two on a dink by Faith that went out and a block, but Calumet got the next two with the last a kill by Faith to win game one, 25-20.
The second game began very even, with some good play by both teams. but at 11-11 the Patriots scored six in a row, mainly because of hitting errors by Ridgewood. After giving up a point, the girls then outscored Ridgewood 6-2 to give Calumet a commanding 23-14 lead. Ridgewood regrouped to score four straight before Calumet stopped the streak. At 24-18 Ridgewood called a timeout. Faith was serving. Because there was no room when there were two courts per gym, Faith hadn't jump served all day. She didn't jump serve at all during the final game to that point either, but she pulled it out for this point. And of course it was perfect and dropped in for an ace, giving Calumet the set, game and tournament championship.
After the trophies for first and second were handed out, the all-tournament team was announced. There are only six all-tournament slots at the Dayspring Classic. They announced them in reverse order of votes received. First announced was Beverly Black of Quentin Road, then Monica Schlabach of Pathway, our very own Jessi Stas, and Dominique Stegall of Ridgewood. The final player named was the MVP, and that announcement had very little to no suspense. Of course it was Faith Rohn, making it two-for-two for her in MVP tournament awards.
Tuesday is a trimatch against Schaumburg and Quentin Road at Schaumburg. Then the state regionals with their ridiculous schedule this weekend. I will post on that later this week.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Even shorter blog on pool play day at Quentin Road
It's late, I'm tired, so I'm not going to give you a lot.
We opened the day with only six players and no coach. One of the vehicles in the caravan made a wrong turn and went REALLY out of the way, so they were late. No matter - Coach Casey filled in admirably, and the girls did their job, with Ally playing Jessi Stas' position and putting down some kills. The girls beat Southside 25-17, 25-14.
Next up was East Moline. We hadn't faced them at least since before I was following the team. After making short work of them in the first set, 25-11, Coach began subbing liberally and the girls lost a little focus, but they won anyway, 25-18.
Coach Carr then left to go to a wedding. At 4 we took on Westchester, and traditionally a weak team. Again, there was a lot of substitutions. Still the girls won 25-11, 25-14.
With Kelsey coaching again, the Patriots played First Baptist of Danville for their last game of the day. The first game was a struggle, as FB played well and we played poorly. We did finally manage to capture the game, 25-21. The second game went more as expected with our girls making better play. The final was 25-12.
Tomorrow we take on the winner of two weak teams at 10:30 AM. Then the real fun will begin.
Congrats to Coach Car on your 400th career victory. That milestone was reached after Calvary won the second game, against East Moline.
We opened the day with only six players and no coach. One of the vehicles in the caravan made a wrong turn and went REALLY out of the way, so they were late. No matter - Coach Casey filled in admirably, and the girls did their job, with Ally playing Jessi Stas' position and putting down some kills. The girls beat Southside 25-17, 25-14.
Next up was East Moline. We hadn't faced them at least since before I was following the team. After making short work of them in the first set, 25-11, Coach began subbing liberally and the girls lost a little focus, but they won anyway, 25-18.
Coach Carr then left to go to a wedding. At 4 we took on Westchester, and traditionally a weak team. Again, there was a lot of substitutions. Still the girls won 25-11, 25-14.
With Kelsey coaching again, the Patriots played First Baptist of Danville for their last game of the day. The first game was a struggle, as FB played well and we played poorly. We did finally manage to capture the game, 25-21. The second game went more as expected with our girls making better play. The final was 25-12.
Tomorrow we take on the winner of two weak teams at 10:30 AM. Then the real fun will begin.
Congrats to Coach Car on your 400th career victory. That milestone was reached after Calvary won the second game, against East Moline.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Very short blog entry on FB of Mish
I know it's been a couple of days since the FB of Mishawaka game. I have been formulating a blog entry about the ICSTS (yes, I know I'm a broken record), but I've put that aside to give you a quick update before the big QR tournament this weekend.
The JH and JV started the evening with two easy wins over their FB of M counterparts preceding the varsity game. This was the first game after the loss of a key member of the team, so we weren't sure how things would go. The replacements were Holly in the front row and Tina in the back. The team played a little out of sorts the whole evening as the girls tried to get used to playing with new teammates, and the new players tried to get used to their new assignments. The first game was tied at 6, and the Patriots only led 13-10 at one point. Then Rachel began to serve ace after ace. Sprinkled in were a couple of nice hits and blocks, and the score was 21-10. The usual focus loss occurred, and FB outscored the Patriots 6-2 to pull FB within seven. The Patriots finally got the last two and won 25-16.
The second game was similar. Behind a lot of kills, the girls pulled out to a 19-9 lead. Again, the girls played indiffently with a big lead. There were hitting errors and serving errors and some poor defense, allowing FB to get within seven at 24-17. Finally a back row kill by Ally ended it.
The third was like the first two. The girls led 21-12 in this one before the usual flat spot occurred. FB scored three in a row; Calvary/Calumet got one. FB got another one before Cal/Cal got two to get within one of winning it, 24-16. This time FB scored three in a row before the girls got the final one to win it 25-19.
Quentin Road begins tomorrow at 10AM. I will see you there.
The JH and JV started the evening with two easy wins over their FB of M counterparts preceding the varsity game. This was the first game after the loss of a key member of the team, so we weren't sure how things would go. The replacements were Holly in the front row and Tina in the back. The team played a little out of sorts the whole evening as the girls tried to get used to playing with new teammates, and the new players tried to get used to their new assignments. The first game was tied at 6, and the Patriots only led 13-10 at one point. Then Rachel began to serve ace after ace. Sprinkled in were a couple of nice hits and blocks, and the score was 21-10. The usual focus loss occurred, and FB outscored the Patriots 6-2 to pull FB within seven. The Patriots finally got the last two and won 25-16.
The second game was similar. Behind a lot of kills, the girls pulled out to a 19-9 lead. Again, the girls played indiffently with a big lead. There were hitting errors and serving errors and some poor defense, allowing FB to get within seven at 24-17. Finally a back row kill by Ally ended it.
The third was like the first two. The girls led 21-12 in this one before the usual flat spot occurred. FB scored three in a row; Calvary/Calumet got one. FB got another one before Cal/Cal got two to get within one of winning it, 24-16. This time FB scored three in a row before the girls got the final one to win it 25-19.
Quentin Road begins tomorrow at 10AM. I will see you there.
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