World Challenge in Kentucky and Milltown Madness hosted by PrepDig this weekend! Many teams wrap up their seasons. See how they finished!
12 RED
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13 RED
Our first 3-day tournament took us to Louisville, KY!
Day 1…the afternoon wave. We knew we were in for a long night since our wave started 1 hour and 45 minutes late due to several 3 set matches earlier in the day. But we took care of business winning our first 2 matches 2-0. Our last pool play match on day 1 was moved to another court and got started around 8:30pm. We struggled to get anything going but when we finally did, we came back in dramatic fashion! We were down 17-24 before storming back to take an impressive 26-24 victory in set 1!! Unfortunately, we couldn’t hold on and ended up losing in 3. It was a memorable match as we finished around 10pm and were the second to last match going on in the entire convention center! We finished 2nd in our pool, so advanced and kept ourselves in a position to compete in the top brackets!
Day 2 we had 3 very close matches against a solid Tri-State team and 2 Munciana teams. We had our ups and downs and some untimely errors and ended up 0-3 on the day. Day 3 we found ourselves in the silver bracket. Sunday was not our day, but this tough competition is exactly what our team needs so we can continue to learn and get better in those moments!
Overall, it was great to play teams from different regions. We learned a lot about ourselves and are looking forward to more challenges as the season goes on.
13 WHITE
Girls 13 White played in the UW-Whitewater open this weekend coming out second in the silver bracket! They started the day against Madison Starlings 13’s and came out victorious in two sets. Strong serving by Kiley C and Eve led to 12 combined Aces earning them each an ace pin! Strong swings at the net by Ava, Dani, and Kiley C also added to the victory.
The second match was a tough battle against Oconomowoc 12’s Purple. Solid defense by Eve and Bri held down the back row while aggressive swinging by Jovie in the front earned her a handful of kills. We ultimately dropped the match in two close sets.
The girls entered the silver bracket first matching up against G-Force 13’s Green. The girls had a very hot start winning set one 25-9! Aggressive serving by Emma was a huge factor as well as by Bri earning her 11 aces and two more ace pins! The girls continued their streak and won the second set 25-16.
The final matchup of the day was against another tough Oconomowoc team, 13’s purple. After a sleepy first set, which we dropped 15-25, the girls battled back to win set 2 25-22! Jovie stepped up for the team doing a little bit of everything (including setting!) and played solid defense. Kiley W and Carolyn joined her in the defense department holding down our back court while Dani, Ava, and Ireland continued swinging strong in the front row. Ultimately we dropped set 3, 10-15 making for a tough finish to a good battle.
The girls are now resting up for the Midwest Fiesta in two weeks where we hope to bring home a big piñata to end the year!
13 BLACK
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14 RED
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14 BLACK
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15 RED | 5-1 | 1st Place
Two days down at the Sting Center for the Midtown Madness. We started day one in a power pool which consists of the top 4 teams in the tournament playing a round robin to reseed for day two making us all the top 4 seeds in bracket play. We played Sting Silver, Southern Minnesota, and Iowa Select.
Matches vs Sting and Southern Minnesota were handled with consistent pressure on the serving and our offense clicking every chance we got! We won both matches in 2 sets. Our last set was against a big Iowa team that had tall middles and solid pins. We got caught early with some serve receive errors and put us out of system. We couldn't string enough points in a row to take a lead and end up losing both sets. Since we were in this pool the only time we would play them again would be the finals of day two.
Starting day two we reffed the team we were going to play and faced off against Xtreme. We came out hot and took a big lead in set 1 and road it from there. Set 2 was closer but managed to stop any runs from them and kept adding a point here and there. We won 2-0. Match two was against Midwest Penguins who we haven't seen all year! We scouted pretty good and knew what to expect and once again our offense was too much for them to keep up. We won 2-0 again! Now we are in the championship against Iowa! Redemption on it's way!
We knew it was a tall order against this team but luckily the shock factor wasn't there and we were able to get comfortable early on. We took a big lead but Iowa being so talented was able to catch up and eventually turn the tides and took game 1 from us. Game 2 we came out on fire again! Taking a 5-6 point lead but an unfortunate call that I had to protest stopped our momentum. We won the replay but the cost was great... Iowa Immediately tied it up and now it was a battle to the end! We fought hard and won the 2nd set! Game 3 was back and forth and when we got to 10 we got some tough clutch serves from Abby Barthelemy that tipped the scales in our favor winning 15-10!
Redemption and a gratifying win! Congrats team!
16 RED
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16 BLACK
16 Black played a tough weekend against a whole new set of teams at the Prep Dig Madness in Milltown tournament. This tournament was quite exciting as we knew we were going up against very tough teams with dynamic players showing off for Prep Dig. On Saturday we started with an tough 3 set win against Minnesota Core(25-22, 24-26, 15-10). This match set the tone for our team defense with 8 blocks and 13 digs. We also handed out 2 overpass pins (Ava and Lily) and 2 joust pins (Alayna and Laila) . Khiah (normally a DS) lead the team with 6 kills including a run of 3 consecutive kills early in the match. Next was a tall Elevate team that was led by a setter that would not quit. While our offense increased their output (20 Kills) and our defense continued to hold the line, we were unable to pull this one out and lost 2 close sets (26-28 and 23-25.) Outstanding play by all here with Katie leading with 13 digs and 5 aces against Elevates Libero(#ForThePin). We finished day 1 with another 3 set match (#LastTeamInGym). Unfortunately while we played tough the first 2 sets, we ran out of gas for the 3rd and could not complete the win. (25-18, 22-25, 6-15). Overpass Kills to Ava and Lily again.
We started Sunday with a goal to play and not officiate – which meant we had to will 2 matches and would put us in the Consolation Championship. We came out of the gate hot and won our first match against Xtreme VBC in 2 sets (25-19, 25-19) We had aggressive serving from all with a total of 14 Aces in the match (Reese for the Serving Pin). Our second match was much the same – aggressive serving kept the Precision Blue team out of system for most of the match. Defense continued to shine while the offense was exciting and dynamic. 1 Overpass pin here – Lily. Also –Ice Cream for the team with a face ace. A 2 set win here (25-18, 25-12) ensured we did not have to officiate at all (#BigWin). The final match was against the Elevate team from Saturday. Another close match that we just could not win. Highlights of this match included Olivia playing well above her height and getting 4 block touches against a much taller outside. These touches allowed the defense to continue the play and improve our chances for points. The team chemistry and togetherness was highlighted during our match against Precision Blue. A line up mistake by some coach (Chris) placed a few players in a different rotation. During a quick time out to organize, the girls decided ‘it’s fine’ and proceeded to play to a win with no let up in their game. My broken record comments – these girls continue to fine tune their team and individual play each week. The work we put in during practice continues to pay off. The defensive reads and coverage was impressive while the offense demonstrated ‘smarts’ by hitting key shots and making timely aggressive kills.
17 RED
This past weekend, I AM 17 Red stayed local to compete at the Milwaukee Sting Center. The team received a 5th place seeding, earning themselves a spot in one of the two power pools for the weekend. The first team they faced was SMV 18-1, who came from Minnesota. We started off slow, trying to get into our rhythm as a team, but could not in the first set. The second set, I AM battled back, putting SMV out of system often, forcing errors across the net and into a third set. We came up short in the 3rd and lost 9-15.
The next match, we faced Sting 18 white. Once again, our aggressive and consistent serving made it difficult for Sting to get in system. Our defense worked hard around the blocks and hitters did a great job in transition. Anna and Maddie spread the offense to create splits for our hitters to score. The final match of the day was against Sting 18 black where we fell 15-25 and 23-25. It was great to see the team fight hard after falling the first sets of their two losses during the day.
Sunday, the team was in the Championship bracket and played SMV 17-1 for the first match of the day. I AM had another slow beginning to the morning, but did not let that affect them. They did a fantastic job at adjusting to the other team and took the second set, 25-18 and had another 3 set match. The 3rd game exchanged points back-to-back and the team was tied 7-7 but a tough server and a few hitting errors allowed SMV to go on a run and take the win.
The last matchup of the tournament was against Sting 18 white for the second time of the weekend. We did a fantastic job adjusting to their tendencies and won in 3 sets. The team finished on a high note for the weekend and it was great to see each girl play a huge role in the win. Brooke, Gabi, and Kylee had phenomenal serve receive, setters were running a tempo with plays that Sting could not defend, and hitters were pounding balls. The coaches have been so proud of their girls, the improvement they have made so far, and cannot wait for the rest of the seasons’ practices and tournaments.
I AM 17 RED heads to Madison the end of April for the Madtown Festival.
18 RED
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