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     The 15 Heat team finally had a chance to play in a U15 tournament, and President's Day Weekend was  great opportunity to see the improvement they have made since January.  The record was not exemplary (3-5 overall), but the play was, as the Heat team showed it's ability to compete with some of the better 15's teams in the area.  The tournament started against Capital Ice, the #4 ranked U15 team in the region.  They handed Heat it's first and only loss of the day.  Though the scores did not show it (14-25, 14-25) we played very well against them.  The other two matches were much better for the Heat team, as we defeated Power Surge 15-1 and Athena 15 Beta,  team from Oregon.  The good news at the end of the first day -- we moved up and took second in the pool; the reward, we are in division 1 and get a tougher pool on Sunday :)

     Sunday was a good day.  We did not win any matches, BUT we played our best volleyball of the year against some of the best.  The only match we got blown out was against the eventual tournament champion WVBA 15 Black (#3 U15 in the region).  The other two matches we were very competitive, losing to Jaguars, a top team from Spokane 20-25, 22-25; and losing to our own 15 Thunder team (#2 U15 in the region) 22-25, 18-25.  Our 0-3 record for the day placed us in the Silver Bracket for Monday.  Even though we had a tough day in the win column, everyone left the gym feeling pretty good about the day. 

     Monday was playoffs and we opened up with a battle against Athena 15 Alpha.  This was a back and forth battle: we lost game one 20-25, and won game two 25-12, it came down to an exchange of points in game three, and we were fortunate to have one of our best servers at the service line.  Olivia VanDlac went back to serve with the score tied at 13 and she served up an ace and a tough enough serve that got us the ball back.  We put it away for a final score of 15-13.  On to the second round.  The second round we got to play Olympia 15-1, a team we really struggled with the first week of Power League in January.  We came out strong and won game one 25-19.  Game two we came out strong also, but faltered late and lost 20-25.  Game three was a mystery!  We were in command all game, and were serving for the match at 14-11.  Tough breaks and we didn't score again, losing 13-15 to eventual Silver Division Champion Oly 15-1.

     Recap.  Overall, we had a fine weekend.  We got consistency from a lot of players, and Haley Bedell was named our team's tournament MVP.  She was consistent all weekend -- she served, passed, hit, and defended well from her OH spot.  Other bright spots were new addition, MB Sammie Minnig who was a force at the net, Olivia VanDlac was great both as an OH and as an Opposite, Tessa Helber did a good job in relief stepping in and setting .  Nicole Stevens did well in a new position at the Opposite, and Tiva Akau was phenomenal as a libero for us, and our starting setter Taylor Brooks bounced back from a couple rough games and was solid on Monday.  We grew up this weekend, and it bodes well for us as we prepare for Power League and Spokane