First weekend of the Badger Region Power League (BRPL). Ages 13 and up split up to play in their first weekend. Here is how they did!
13 RED
Our first event over the weekend, despite implementing a "new" 5-1 went very well! It was clear at the end of Sunday afternoon that we can play with anyone at 13's AND 14's. We came out a bit sluggish in our first set, with a touch of nerves, and battled back to win our first set against a 14-1's team from One Wisconsin. We found ourselves down 15-23 in the first set; that was until Isabel Hilgart stepped up to serve. She proceeded to deliver 10 straight monster jump serves, many of which were legitimate aces, that propelled us to a 25-23 win. That was just the injection of confidence and energy our group needed. We proceeded to play so much crisper, quicker, and with purpose after that, en route to winning our first 10 sets of the event. We were 5-0 heading into our final match of the first weekend of Power League and ran into a very talented 14-1 Juniors team who pushed us around in the first set. They were bigger and ran a cleaner system than we had become used to and it came at us quickly. In set 2, we played smarter and attacked them more aggressively, but fell short in the 2nd set 20-25. Even in a loss, the girls proved that they can stay the course and make adjustments mentally and physically.
Overall, the girls went 5-1, delivered 72 aces, and all of our hitters had spectacular plays. We were led by Mille Kreif's decision making and keeping us in system, our outside tandem of Morgan Vetter and Hannah Heitzkey who put pressure on opposing defenses.
Our weekend MVP Isabel Hilgart who kickstarted our weekend with an impressive serving run that had the gym in awe, in addition to her all-around play that gave us a legit option at the Right Side, which is unique at 13's.
13 BLACK
13 Black had an amazing start to their club season! We only lost to 1 team and took 1st in the Silver Bracket! The girls received compliments both times we have played now on their character and their skill. I am super proud of them and about where we are headed!
Grace Tilley was our team's MVP of the Tournament!
We also awarded 5 players with Ace Pins from this weekend too. Congratulations Paige Arentz, Summer Wille, Alessandra Austin, Grace Tilley and Brooklyn Cherney!
14 RED
The 14’s red team started off power league going 6-0! Strong serving and ball control led to lots of success their first weekend in competition. The setters have been working really hard on making strong connections with their hitters, and this was evident this weekend. All of the girls were aggressive at the serving line, which made it difficult for other teams to earn points against them.
#Shoutout to Delaney Winkelmann for having five or more aces in two different matches!
14 BLACK
Our first weekend of Play and Power League is in the books. We had a great time in Appleton this weekend, leaving with a 2/3 win on Saturday and a 2/3 win on Sunday. Our very first match against FC Elite was a tough one but the girls held their heads high, shook it off and dominated for the 2nd match against 414 and 3rd against WI Blaze. Lineups changed constantly and they were able to be versatile and focus. Day 2 started off with a great win against Capitol 14 Red and another big win going to 3 sets against FC Elite. Our last match of the weekend was a fun one against I AM 14 Red, catching up close but lost in the first set and ending the 2nd set with a loss. They played very well against a team that was faster than what we are used to.
#Shoutout to Eden for finishing her first ever club volleyball weekend and doing a great job in the middle, Morgan for putting up some nice sets, and Jillian playing all around doing a great job!!!!
14 WHITE
Coming Soon!
15 RED
I AM 15 Red started the season this year at the Badger Region Power League in a combined 16 Elite/Select division. This league will be playing up for us, but the girls were excited to see what we could do against some talented competition. We got just that in our first match playing against a 16s team that signed up for the Elite division. We started off with some expected first set errors. We followed that up with trying to play safe volleyball, which gave the other team an easy first set. We regrouped, focused on staying aggressive, but fell just short in set two 23-25. We learned a valuable lesson, to stay aggressive, that helped us the rest of the weekend.
The next three matches brought us our 3 victories for the weekend. All the teams were good, but we took control, for the most part, found our groove, and played some good sets. The last two matches put us up against the teams that should take 1st and 2nd in our pool of 10 teams. My message to girls for the first team was simple. Have fun, play aggressive and celebrate every little victory like we just won the match. We got beat up pretty bad losing 25-11 & 25-14 just like the rest of the teams in our pool. But, by the end of set two, we were getting used to the speed of the game, putting together some rallys and scoring some points.
The message to the girls for the "second place" team was simple, keep the momentum going and see what we can do. And we did just that. We took control of the game early and kept the pressure on, never giving them a chance to come back.
#Shoutout to Sophie for 5 tough serves keeping them out of system and putting us ahead early in the set.
The other team regrouped and did take the next two sets handing us a loss. But we played the 2nd and 3rd sets tough, leaving the girls feeling pretty good about how we played.
15 Red played some very tough teams this weekend, ending with a 3 and 3 record. It was good enough to put us alone in 4th place in our 10 team pool, in the driver's seat to finish pool play and move up to the Elite division for bracket play. We played at a level much higher than I would have expected this early. I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do this year!
15 BLACK
Coming Soon!
15 WHITE
15 White had an amazing opening weekend! Our record was 5-1 which is super exciting for our first power league tournament! We had a few ladies out sick which created an opportunity for some other teammates to step up and play some new positions they are not as familiar with.
#Shoutout to Chole Krebsbach and Autumn Daniels for being willing to play new positions!
One aspect of the game we have really focused on in practice is serving! All that practice was worth it for Eden who had multiple aces each match, even having 5 in one set!! She has received the service/ace award for this weekend!!
Our MVP for the weekend is our libero/DS Kennedie Skarlupka!
She lead the back row with confidence and kindness. Ken always made sure to encourage her teammates and use her voice to help set up great plays, always calling the ball in or out! She also had great serve receive and defense! She has been working hard on her platform angles, which definitely paid off in game play! Overall super proud of the whole team, everyone played great!
16 RED
A tremendous start to our season going 6-0 in the Power League! We started off with a bit of a push from a WI Premier team but was able to rally late and take a win. After getting that first set out of the way the girls found their groove and won game 2 with more confidence. We continue to roll with some awesome serving where we had multiple serving pins earned! Carolyn Lippe got the first pin and then follow Jade Erickson, Maura Lucke, and Clara Corbett! I think we have two make more pins...
During our last match we got another challenge from the Midwest Penguins where they kept the ball alive even when we were getting good swings. Dropping set 2 in a close game was
the wake up call we needed and we were pleasantly surprised on the composure the team showed going into set 3 and we cam out HOT! Picking up early points with high efficiency swinging and serving. We controlled that whole set and to go home 6-0.
#Shoutout to Jade Erickson for stepping into a 5-1 setter position on short notice and making awesome decisions throughout the day.
16 BLACK
The girls went 4-2 despite only having six people on Saturday. We gave out 2 pancake pins to the same player, and a top server pin to another. These girls faced their challenges head on and trusted each other as teammates every step of the way. Very proud of them for their first tournament!
16 WHITE
16 White kicked off their season this weekend in Appleton at the Champion Center! It was a hard fought long weekend with a lot of matches that had great back and forth rallies. The girls did a great job adapting from practicing a 5-1 rotation in practice to rolling out a 6-2 a week before their first tournament! Our girls started off the weekend against the JR Red Knight G 15 Red team! They did a great job learning and fixing things as the play continued but ending up falling just a bit short losing Set 1 25-21 and Set 2 25-16. They didn’t let that get them down though! They came out and won their next game against RVA G15 White 26-24 and 25-20!
The tournament ended on Sunday with the girls playing FVP G15-Blue. They kept great energy and pushed for the win but weren’t able to secure it in the end. The girls did a great job holding their own and coming back from 9 point deficits! Although they went 1-5 for the tournament they never gave up along the way! They fought for every single point!
#Shoutout to Addie for her amazing blocking throughout the weekend!
#Shoutout to Julia for stepping in as our Libero this weekend and holding it down in middle back!
#Shoutout to Bella for her zone serving earning our team multiple aces throughout the tournament!
17 RED
17 Red started off their season with Weekend #1 of the Badger Region Power League and they could not have gotten off to a better start. Playing 6 matches in 2 days they were able to go 6-0 with only dropping 2 sets in the whole weekend. The girls persevered through some early season rust and showed a lot of flexibility and confidence in themselves and each other as the lineup continued to change and develop over the weekend. The girls know there is a lot to clean up and improve but it's a great starting point for the goals they have set for the season.
#Shoutout to Ella Ahlstrand for being a presence of consistency, positivity, and accountability all weekend. She is our first tournament MVP of the season!
17 BLACK
Like many of I AM’s team, the 17Black team opened up the season with the first round of the Badger Power League at Center Court. We competed well the entire weekend, getting better as the weekend went on (other than running on fumes in our last match!). We opened Saturday play with a tough match vs. 360 18-1 and were led by a couple of our Maddie’s (Cadieux serving & Metke in kills) and Macey Steier’s great serve receive. We lost that one and then battled a tough WI Jr. 17-1 Elite team and pushed them hard behind Ava Patty’s serving and Anna Rosewitz’ 6 kills.
#Shoutout to Ava on the 7 aces for the match and earning the Top Server Pin!
Saturday ended well, with us playing our best of the day – easily defeating Adversity 18-1 team behind another Maddie (Klumpyan) leading the team in aces and kills (# shoutout Maddie on the 5 aces for the match and the ace pin!). Sunday we continued to improve, beating a solid Southwest VBC 18-1 team behind the leadership of Becca Arendt’s 4 aces and 12 assists. We played our best volleyball of the weekend against a very tough WI Elite 17-1 team. We fell just short – but had some fantastic defense- including EJ Novinski’s 2 pancakes (# shoutout to EJ on the elusive pancake pin!). We ended the weekend with a win over Lakes Jrs 18-2 team and were led by Molly Trepanier’s 3 aces and 5 kills and Natalie Fernald’s 3 blocks and 6 kills! Our team MVP was someone who did an incredibly steady job in all parts of the game – serving, attacking, blocking and defense -
#Shoutout to Maddie Metke for earning the first Tournament MVP of the season! Way to go Maddie!
17 WHITE
17 White started the season playing up in the Badger Region Power League combined 18 Elite/Regional division. We had some hard fought matches and steadily progressed through the weekend as we faced tougher teams along the way. We took a couple matches to three sets and pulled out a few Ws, but ultimately the Losses we endured offered up opportunity for Learning!
We set high expectations for girls this weekend and they were successful at incorporating our instruction and feedback. They were able to not only improve their volleyball skills, but they brought the intensity up to a new level! They started taking more risks on the court and played more aggressively, helping to build their confidence. In our last match, against Wisconsin Juniors 18-1, we played our absolute BEST! We fell short of victory in that match and ended up 1-5 overall. Regardless, we walked away from the weekend with so much positive energy and excitement for the future. We were proud to celebrate our own small victories along the way and look forward to building upon that as our season is just getting started!
#Shoutout to Rebecca Sepanic for serving 8 aces in one match to earn her serving pin and to Charlotte Oberg for being named our tournament MVP!
18 RED
We kicked off our season at Badger Region Power League, finishing 5-1 and seeding 5th out of 32 teams!
Our team faced a lot of talent this weekend as we took on Wisconsin Juniors, FC Elite, 414, and FVP. In our first two matches against WI Juniors and 414, we battled for two 3 set wins. Despite the first match nerves, our girls showed resiliency and grit throughout the first day. We were able to take down FC Elite in 2 sets, bringing us to a 3-0 record our first day of play. Even with a few injuries and a head coach out with COVID, we were able to find success in playing together and for one another.
Day 2 started off a bit rocky, as we lost in 3 against FVP — a very talented group of girls. Our team fought until the very end of this game, but made a few errors that unfortunately cost us the match. We learned that the un-statable plays can make or break a game. However, we were able to bounce back after a short break and come out with two more wins against 360VA and SWVBC.
Overall, we are happy with how we played in our first tournament. Many teams showed us areas of weakness, but we are excited to get back in the gym and improve upon these throughout the rest of the season. We will continue to prove that we are one of the best teams in each gym we play in!
To highlight some of our own,
Our tournament MVPs this past weekend are Izzy Lutz and Mikaela Marquardt.
These two dominated the back row and kept our team going in numerous rallies. Their serve receive kept us in system often and allowed us to run a strong offense. We wouldn’t have had the success we did without these two!