I have some stats for you. The cumulative record of the JHa, JVa, and varsity is 32-2-2. Overall game record is 75-8. Overall scoring is 1,952-1,161. Individually, varsity is 10-0, 28-1 in games (I'm still waiting for an explanation of that loss, girls). JV is 10-2-1, 7-1 in the regular season, 21-6 in games. Junior High A is 12-0-1, 7-0 in regular season, 26-1 in games. Interestingly, the one game dropped by the varsity, the one game dropped by the junior high, and one of the games dropped by the JV were all to the same school (and my cynical alter ego would say the same team) - Grace.
Tomorrow is a big day. Clinton, I believe, is 12-2. Faith was 12-0 before their last game on Tuesday. The biggest challenge of the season so far.
Go Patriots!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
HSRC Flag Football
I realized that this blog is also for the HSRC, or Homeschool Resource Center, sports program as well as the Calvary volleyball team. The HSRC Patriots are now the organization under which the boy's volleyball team and the girl's basketball team played the last two years, and this fall we've expanded into flag football. The guys played Luther East at their place last Thursday for their very first game ever and came away with a 41-20 win. The Patriots gave up the first score of the game, but then scored the next 20 points to end the half with the lead, 20-7. The second half began with a Patriot score, but then Luther East scored the next two touchdowns to pull within seven points. But the guys scored the last two touchdowns resulting in the final score. I didn't keep any stats - I don't even know some of the players and I didn't get there at the start, but this is what I noted: #24 scored at least two touchdowns, Ted Carlson scored at least one, Cody DeBoer caught at least one touchdown pass, and Steve Bianchi intercepted two passes. Hopefully I can at least find out who scored the touchdowns.
Next games are Saturday at Luther East again. I believe they are playing two games.
Next games are Saturday at Luther East again. I believe they are playing two games.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Silence
That was what struck me about tonight's game - the silence. Even as we were blowing out Covenant, with a lot of good defense, some blocks and several big hits, the crowd was noticably quiet, almost bored. After getting pushed a bit the last couple of games, the drop off in the quality of the opponent was noticable, so the crowd seemed a little let down. The score was similar to several of the games played earlier in the season, but again the girls played to the level of their competition, so to speak. The final scores were 25-12, 25-10, 25-9. So
The girls were up early and often in the first game. The lead was up to 14-4 before Covenant got a couple of points. Then, after Calvary scored 4, Covenant got another one. Taylor then served five straight points to make the score 24-7. As they often do, Calvary got sloppy one point away from victory. They gave up five before they finally finished Covenant off.
The girls picked up where they left off in the second game. The intensity wasn't there, which was reflected in the score being even until it was 8-8. Then, as often happens, Taylor's serving got the Patriots on a run. She didn't stop serving until it was 21-8. I only noted two aces during that stretch, but her hard, dropping serves kept Covenant quite off balance. After a hitting error and another point given up, Calvary scored four more to win.
The girls were very focused to begin the third game. Three aces by Jessi Stas helped the girls to a 14-3 lead. The girls gave up a point and scored three. Then they gave up one and scored two. They then gave up two. They outscored Covenant 6-1 to close out the game.
The kills were spread around tonight. Jessie, Emily, Rachel, and Ally got kills in addition to the ones by the big three - Faith, Jessi, and Taylor. Aces were plentiful and also spread around. Covenant was inexperienced and couldn't match Calvary in talent.
Now we have our biggest test of the season. I have heard the girls talking about Faith all season, and now it's upon us. I hope the girls don't overlook Clinton - last I checked, Clinton had only one loss themselves. We start with Clinton at, we believe, 5:30 our time before we take on Faith at 7:00. Faith is currently 12-0 pending their game tonight. We are 10-0. It should be fun. See you there.
EDIT: The JV team won in two straight, 25-18, 25-11. The junior high also won.
The girls were up early and often in the first game. The lead was up to 14-4 before Covenant got a couple of points. Then, after Calvary scored 4, Covenant got another one. Taylor then served five straight points to make the score 24-7. As they often do, Calvary got sloppy one point away from victory. They gave up five before they finally finished Covenant off.
The girls picked up where they left off in the second game. The intensity wasn't there, which was reflected in the score being even until it was 8-8. Then, as often happens, Taylor's serving got the Patriots on a run. She didn't stop serving until it was 21-8. I only noted two aces during that stretch, but her hard, dropping serves kept Covenant quite off balance. After a hitting error and another point given up, Calvary scored four more to win.
The girls were very focused to begin the third game. Three aces by Jessi Stas helped the girls to a 14-3 lead. The girls gave up a point and scored three. Then they gave up one and scored two. They then gave up two. They outscored Covenant 6-1 to close out the game.
The kills were spread around tonight. Jessie, Emily, Rachel, and Ally got kills in addition to the ones by the big three - Faith, Jessi, and Taylor. Aces were plentiful and also spread around. Covenant was inexperienced and couldn't match Calvary in talent.
Now we have our biggest test of the season. I have heard the girls talking about Faith all season, and now it's upon us. I hope the girls don't overlook Clinton - last I checked, Clinton had only one loss themselves. We start with Clinton at, we believe, 5:30 our time before we take on Faith at 7:00. Faith is currently 12-0 pending their game tonight. We are 10-0. It should be fun. See you there.
EDIT: The JV team won in two straight, 25-18, 25-11. The junior high also won.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Top of our game
I would have posted last night, but the headache and ringing in the ears from the three girls sitting (and singing and yelling and shrieking) behind me on the ride home prevented that. So blame them. EDIT: The three were Faith, Ally and Kara.
Last night the girls played their best game of the year so far (I think) in defeating the Quentin Road Eagles 25-13, 25-12. Don't let the score fool you. QR was not a bad team. I know the girls have defeated other teams earlier this year by about the same scores, but often it was only due to boredom that they let the opponent get that close. It was a little different last night.
We weren't sure what to expect. We knew that they had lost in a reasonably close match to Ridgewood earlier, and that they had also lost to Southside. We also had seen their JV team play very well in our tournament, beating our JV team and losing in three to Heritage in the finals. What we got was a team with a couple of talented players, but not very deep, and no match for us last night.
I won't go into too much detail about the game. But one telling thing is that from 9-9 in the first game to 14-3 in the second, Calvary outscored Quentin Road 30-7. During that stretch, the volleyball was beautiful. Great saves, perfectly placed dinks, big hits, great defense, blocking...I think that about covers it. They did fall into a stretch in the second game where the decision making wasn't great, but after that Faith scored seven straight points with that big jump serve and Calvary was comfortably ahead. One more thing: several times during the game, QR made an excellent save, but our girls calmly set the ball up again and got the point. Often a big save takes the wind out of the other team, but our girls played confidently and with precision.
EDIT: The JV fell again to QR, the team that defeated them in the semifinals of our tournament. I haven't got the score of the first game, but the second game was 27-25, QR. The JVb team also lost.
EDIT #2: Got word that the JHa team won the Southside tourney. Congrats to them!
Tuesday at 5:30 and 6:30 against Covenant in Demotte.
Last night the girls played their best game of the year so far (I think) in defeating the Quentin Road Eagles 25-13, 25-12. Don't let the score fool you. QR was not a bad team. I know the girls have defeated other teams earlier this year by about the same scores, but often it was only due to boredom that they let the opponent get that close. It was a little different last night.
We weren't sure what to expect. We knew that they had lost in a reasonably close match to Ridgewood earlier, and that they had also lost to Southside. We also had seen their JV team play very well in our tournament, beating our JV team and losing in three to Heritage in the finals. What we got was a team with a couple of talented players, but not very deep, and no match for us last night.
I won't go into too much detail about the game. But one telling thing is that from 9-9 in the first game to 14-3 in the second, Calvary outscored Quentin Road 30-7. During that stretch, the volleyball was beautiful. Great saves, perfectly placed dinks, big hits, great defense, blocking...I think that about covers it. They did fall into a stretch in the second game where the decision making wasn't great, but after that Faith scored seven straight points with that big jump serve and Calvary was comfortably ahead. One more thing: several times during the game, QR made an excellent save, but our girls calmly set the ball up again and got the point. Often a big save takes the wind out of the other team, but our girls played confidently and with precision.
EDIT: The JV fell again to QR, the team that defeated them in the semifinals of our tournament. I haven't got the score of the first game, but the second game was 27-25, QR. The JVb team also lost.
EDIT #2: Got word that the JHa team won the Southside tourney. Congrats to them!
Tuesday at 5:30 and 6:30 against Covenant in Demotte.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Tough competition
Tonight the girls faced their toughest challenge to date, except for maybe Kankakee Valley in the first game of the year. Heritage Christian High gave the girls everything they could handle, but eventually fell to Calvary 25-21, 25-15, 25-22.
In the first game, after a quick start, Calvary starting playing at the level they needed to win the last few games. This was not good enough tonight. After a big hit by Jessi Stas, a big hit by Faith, and an ace by Taylor, Calvary led 3-0. The girls then stopped playing defense, and soon it was 7-7. Then it was 11-7 Heritage. The Patriots got three back to pull within one, then the defense went south again and Heritage jumped out to a 19-11 lead. At this point, the defense got a little better, and the hitting got real good. They outscored Heritage 14-2 from that point and won the first game 25-21.
The Patriots started slowly in the second, staying even with Heritage until they regained their level from the end of the first game. They relentlessly pulled away until they led 24-13. Then after a service error and another point scored by Heritage, Calvary finished it off for a final of 25-15.
The third game saw another slow start by Calvary. They were down 4-2 this time before they woke up. Again good offense and good-enough defense was what provided the advantage for Calvary. An 11-3 run put Calvary on top 13-7. The defense and the decision making faltered for Calvary for a stretch, allowing Heritage to catch up at 14. The Patriots pulled out again to a 19-15 lead, and again allowed Heritage to catch up at 19. Calary got the next three and maintained the lead to finish the match, 25-22. Some shaky reffing in this game caused annoyance for both sides of the contest, but did not really change the outcome of the game.
Calvary is now 8-0 on the year. The JV also won, beating the recently-crowned champion of the Calvary JV tournament 25-21, 25-16. The difference in the game was the serving. Calvary has some very good servers on the JV team, and Heritage had trouble returning them. The rest of the JV's game was much better than it was in the brackets of the tournament - if they had played this well Saturday, they might have won the tourney. The JHb team lost in two and the JHa team defeated Protestant Reformed 25-24, 25-21.
The next game is this Friday against Quentin Road up in Lake Zurich. Times and maps are in the schedule at the bottom of the page. See you there.
In the first game, after a quick start, Calvary starting playing at the level they needed to win the last few games. This was not good enough tonight. After a big hit by Jessi Stas, a big hit by Faith, and an ace by Taylor, Calvary led 3-0. The girls then stopped playing defense, and soon it was 7-7. Then it was 11-7 Heritage. The Patriots got three back to pull within one, then the defense went south again and Heritage jumped out to a 19-11 lead. At this point, the defense got a little better, and the hitting got real good. They outscored Heritage 14-2 from that point and won the first game 25-21.
The Patriots started slowly in the second, staying even with Heritage until they regained their level from the end of the first game. They relentlessly pulled away until they led 24-13. Then after a service error and another point scored by Heritage, Calvary finished it off for a final of 25-15.
The third game saw another slow start by Calvary. They were down 4-2 this time before they woke up. Again good offense and good-enough defense was what provided the advantage for Calvary. An 11-3 run put Calvary on top 13-7. The defense and the decision making faltered for Calvary for a stretch, allowing Heritage to catch up at 14. The Patriots pulled out again to a 19-15 lead, and again allowed Heritage to catch up at 19. Calary got the next three and maintained the lead to finish the match, 25-22. Some shaky reffing in this game caused annoyance for both sides of the contest, but did not really change the outcome of the game.
Calvary is now 8-0 on the year. The JV also won, beating the recently-crowned champion of the Calvary JV tournament 25-21, 25-16. The difference in the game was the serving. Calvary has some very good servers on the JV team, and Heritage had trouble returning them. The rest of the JV's game was much better than it was in the brackets of the tournament - if they had played this well Saturday, they might have won the tourney. The JHb team lost in two and the JHa team defeated Protestant Reformed 25-24, 25-21.
The next game is this Friday against Quentin Road up in Lake Zurich. Times and maps are in the schedule at the bottom of the page. See you there.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
JV tournament recap
I know you will all find this hard to believe, but I spent Friday evening and most of today at Lake Hills Baptist watching the JV tournament. No, I do not have any children, nieces, cousins, cousins' children or any other near or medium-distant relatives playing, I just have a volleyball problem - nothing that a good twelve-step program or intervention wouldn't cure. But for now, I am indulging my addiction, and the result is that you get a recap of the JV tournament.
I arrived Friday just in time to see Calvary play. Pool A play for the day was complete. I did find out the scores for the games completed before my arrival. They were: Quentin Road defeated Ridgewood, 21-7, 21-6; Heritage downed Schaumburg, 21-11, 21-19; Heritage beat Quentin Road, 21-18, 21-19; and Schaumburg overcame Ridgewood, 21-16, 21-16.
Calvary's first opponent was Grace Baptist, which strangely appeared to be the same team as the varsity faced the first weekend of the season. The themes of the games were great serving, poor serve receiving. There were a lot of very short points. Jenna and Holly's serving gave Calvary a 12-4 lead, then Grace's serving enabled them to catch up at 12. Then after a couple of point exchanges, then Calvary jumped out to a, I thought, insurmountable 19-14 lead. However, Grace served themselves back into it. It was tied at 20. Each team then had opportunities to win the game, but couldn't finish the job. Then Holly went down with what looked like might be a serious leg injury. Calvary hung in there but finally lost 25-24, with the rules of play being that 25 was the cap. The next game was quite different. The girls stopped making a lot of the mistakes they made in the first and won 21-15. EDIT: Forgot to mention that Holly was not seriously hurt and returned to play in the second game.
We them watched Indy Silver Lightning handle Soutside rather easily, 21-14, 21-8, then witnessed Grace slip by Southside 24-22, 21-15. We then took on Indy Silver Lightning. After a tightly contested first game, won by Calvary 21-17, the girls seemed to get into a rhythm and ISL fell apart, resulting in a convincing victory for the Patriots, 21-6.
On Saturday, Pool A played early and the results were Heritage over Ridgewood 21-10, 21-9, and Quentin Road beating Schaumburg 21-18, 21-10. These games put Heritage and Quenting Road into the semifinals, with Heritage winning Pool A and Quentin Road finishing second. Then Calvary and Southside played for the first Pool B game of the day. Calvary won handily the first game 21-10, so Coach Carr put in the B team for the second game. They struggled, so Coach gradually put back several A team members in, until I believe four were back playing. Despite this, our girls found themselved down 20-14 before they got the serve back. In these days of rally scoring, a lead like this almost always is impossible to overcome. However, with Holly serving, Calvary did just that. Holly served seven straight points, and the Patriots eked out a 22-20 win. After the Silver Lightning defeated Grace 21-12, 21-17, the brackets were set. Indy Silver Lightning, second place in Pool B, was matched up with Heritage Christian first, then Calvary, as the first place team in Pool B, would play Quentin Road.
Heritage quickly disposed of Indy Silver Lightning in the one of the most lopsided contests of the weekend, 21-9, 21-5. Then it was our turn in the second semifinal. In the first game, the girls' defense was not good and the front row play was inconsistent and tentative. Due to the poor defense, there wasn't many good sets or hits as the team was often scrambling. However, the free ball third hits were often weak popups to QR's front row, giving them an opportunity to easily set up a play. Despite all this, the girls played well enough to be in the game, but did end up dropping the first one 21-16. In the second, the girls played better but were very tentative - they seemed to play not to make mistakes rather than aggresively. But it wasn't enough, and the girls dropped the second game 21-19.
The girls them played in the third place game. They played better, well enough to defeat Indy Silver Lightning 21-16, 21-17 for third. Heritage, after playing horribly in the first game, ended up winning the tournament, defeating Quentin Road 6-21, 21-17, 15-10.
Jessica Neeley and Holly Schaap were both named to the all-tournament team, along with a player from Grace, one from Indy Silver Lightning, two from Quentin Road, and two from Heritage including the MVP, setter Samantha Andringa.
Speaking of Heritage, their teams will be visiting us on Tuesday. JHa at 4, JHb at 5, JV at 6 and varsity at 7. See you there. Especially the superfans.
I arrived Friday just in time to see Calvary play. Pool A play for the day was complete. I did find out the scores for the games completed before my arrival. They were: Quentin Road defeated Ridgewood, 21-7, 21-6; Heritage downed Schaumburg, 21-11, 21-19; Heritage beat Quentin Road, 21-18, 21-19; and Schaumburg overcame Ridgewood, 21-16, 21-16.
Calvary's first opponent was Grace Baptist, which strangely appeared to be the same team as the varsity faced the first weekend of the season. The themes of the games were great serving, poor serve receiving. There were a lot of very short points. Jenna and Holly's serving gave Calvary a 12-4 lead, then Grace's serving enabled them to catch up at 12. Then after a couple of point exchanges, then Calvary jumped out to a, I thought, insurmountable 19-14 lead. However, Grace served themselves back into it. It was tied at 20. Each team then had opportunities to win the game, but couldn't finish the job. Then Holly went down with what looked like might be a serious leg injury. Calvary hung in there but finally lost 25-24, with the rules of play being that 25 was the cap. The next game was quite different. The girls stopped making a lot of the mistakes they made in the first and won 21-15. EDIT: Forgot to mention that Holly was not seriously hurt and returned to play in the second game.
We them watched Indy Silver Lightning handle Soutside rather easily, 21-14, 21-8, then witnessed Grace slip by Southside 24-22, 21-15. We then took on Indy Silver Lightning. After a tightly contested first game, won by Calvary 21-17, the girls seemed to get into a rhythm and ISL fell apart, resulting in a convincing victory for the Patriots, 21-6.
On Saturday, Pool A played early and the results were Heritage over Ridgewood 21-10, 21-9, and Quentin Road beating Schaumburg 21-18, 21-10. These games put Heritage and Quenting Road into the semifinals, with Heritage winning Pool A and Quentin Road finishing second. Then Calvary and Southside played for the first Pool B game of the day. Calvary won handily the first game 21-10, so Coach Carr put in the B team for the second game. They struggled, so Coach gradually put back several A team members in, until I believe four were back playing. Despite this, our girls found themselved down 20-14 before they got the serve back. In these days of rally scoring, a lead like this almost always is impossible to overcome. However, with Holly serving, Calvary did just that. Holly served seven straight points, and the Patriots eked out a 22-20 win. After the Silver Lightning defeated Grace 21-12, 21-17, the brackets were set. Indy Silver Lightning, second place in Pool B, was matched up with Heritage Christian first, then Calvary, as the first place team in Pool B, would play Quentin Road.
Heritage quickly disposed of Indy Silver Lightning in the one of the most lopsided contests of the weekend, 21-9, 21-5. Then it was our turn in the second semifinal. In the first game, the girls' defense was not good and the front row play was inconsistent and tentative. Due to the poor defense, there wasn't many good sets or hits as the team was often scrambling. However, the free ball third hits were often weak popups to QR's front row, giving them an opportunity to easily set up a play. Despite all this, the girls played well enough to be in the game, but did end up dropping the first one 21-16. In the second, the girls played better but were very tentative - they seemed to play not to make mistakes rather than aggresively. But it wasn't enough, and the girls dropped the second game 21-19.
The girls them played in the third place game. They played better, well enough to defeat Indy Silver Lightning 21-16, 21-17 for third. Heritage, after playing horribly in the first game, ended up winning the tournament, defeating Quentin Road 6-21, 21-17, 15-10.
Jessica Neeley and Holly Schaap were both named to the all-tournament team, along with a player from Grace, one from Indy Silver Lightning, two from Quentin Road, and two from Heritage including the MVP, setter Samantha Andringa.
Speaking of Heritage, their teams will be visiting us on Tuesday. JHa at 4, JHb at 5, JV at 6 and varsity at 7. See you there. Especially the superfans.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Sickness can't stop them
The Calvary Patriots faced the East Chicago Central Cardinals tonight in East Chicago and came away with their seventh straight victory, 25-10, 25-20, 25-16. This despite several of the girls fighting various ailments and with Tina going down with a rolled ankle in warmups. There are so many of the girls with colds and such that the official team cheer now consists of coughing in unison.
Poor Tina. After missing all last year with a broken wrist that wouldn't heal, now this. Let's hope and pray that it isn't serious.
Anyway, back to the game. The first game began with both teams playing tentatively, with ragged play and errors on both sides. After starting out close, Calvary pulled away a little to a 12-7 lead, causing EC to call a timeout. Maybe they regret that now, because the Patriots went on a 13-3 run from there (and that included once again giving up a couple of points on game point) to finish out the Cardinals, 25-10. Faith wasn't jump-serving, and with her coughing I thought it was because she was sick. However, she did tell me after the game that the lighting made it tough for her to see the ball when she jump-served. Good thing they didn't need it.
The second game saw EC cleaning up a lot of their errors. They also served quite well and picked up a lot of our hits. All this being said, Calvary never trailed and when they stretched the lead to 17-10, EC called timeout. This time it helped, as the Cardinals pulled within three at 18-15, but could get no closer and Calvary completed their second game victory, 25-20.
I don't know if it was because the girls were too relaxed after winning the first two, but they dropped behind 4-1 quite quickly in the third. The girls then rallied to take a 5-4 lead, and from there the lead went back and forth. Our girls benefited from a lot of service errors, and again pulled out to a comfortable lead at 18-11. EC then called a timeout. This time it didn't help. They made several more errors, and the game ended on yet another error by EC.
Other than losing focus at times, the girls played well despite their sicknesses. And Tina and Kara cheered very well from the bench. Let's hope for quick healing for the girls.
The JVa team defeated EC's JV team 25-13, 25-16. The JVb team lost to EC's freshman team, 24-25, 21-25. Report from Romeoville was that the JHa team won 25-15, 25-19 and the JHb team also won in two.
The next game for the varsity is next Tuesday at home against Heritage Christian. Please check the calender.
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