Salem Tourney 3/18/2012

Back to back weekends for tourneys but close to home, in Salem. Started off a little odd, eight team tourney and Salem didn't have a team in the tourney they were hosting. Our pool was changed after our first match because one team failed to show up. This had an effect on our team and we didn't really recover. Similar to last tourney we have moments of brilliance. We need to continue working on sustaining momentum and focus.
The players are growing at their own rates and are taking on roles that are difficult. The twins are continuing to learn the setting position and I commend them on taking on the challenge. Maddie had a great day for missing so much time. Emily is solid and is doing a good job with Shalini in talking on the court. The players that stuck out to me were Taylor and Cory. Taylor has become a versatile player that I can put in the left side or middle. She doesn't complain about playing middle but does a solid job for the team. Her hitting is improving, along with her ball control when passing. Keep up the good work. Cory does an amazing job in being our libero. I have asked her to take charge in the back row and pass everything she can get to and she has done just that. She was picking up balls that kept our team in plays and gave us additional opportunities to score. Her ball control has gotten better as the season has come along, every pass is right on target. Thanks Cory!!
Next tourney is Power League on the 7th at Willamalane. Opportunity to improve and gain experience.

Power League-3/10/2012

Looking to be a day of adversity, playing with seven players today (one sick and one hurt). Also our first tourney with having the twins do the setting, they did a very good job. In pool play, we had moments of glory. But not enough of them to secure us a win. This left us the four seed out of our pool. Our day went from being on on schedule to being out of whack. The other pool in our division was still two matches behind so we ended up reffing three matches in a row. After the three hours of not playing, we played our crossover match. It was a rematch of the championship match from last power league. It was a good match, we just came up a lil short. We then reffed and played again, getting out of the gym at about 6:45. After being on schedule during pool play, we were the last team out of the gym.
Like I said earlier, it was a day of adversity and an opportunity to grow as a team. We took steps in that direction and continue to improve. All the players did well, the middles gave a solid performance (Natalie premiered her jump serve at this tourney). The outsides gave us all they had, playing through injury and illness. The top players would have to be Cory, Molly and Hannah. Cory did an amazing job of passing yesterday, her defense saved us on many plays and kept us in matches at times. Great Job!! Molly and Hannah have had the toughest transition, being asked to set. They have done a great job of stepping into the role. They have done something special on this team and have taken over a position that they were not expecting to. Thank you girls. Looking forward to what we can accomplish. Next tourney, next weekend, another opportunity to improve.