16 INFERNO

(KENT)

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NAME

POS

SCHOOL

HT

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

40

42

January 5

NW JUNIORS CHALLENGE

(Official's clinic & tournament)

U16/15

Bellevue CC

NW JUNIORS

January 12-13

PSR U16 Power League Seeding

U16

TBA

Puget Sound Region (PSR)

TBA

PSR

February 16-18

NW Juniors President's Day Weekend Tournament

U16

Kent Area

NW Juniors VBC

March 1

PSR U16 Power League

U16

TBA

PSR

March 15-16

Team Yakima Junior Jamboree 

16 Challenge

Yakima, WA

Team Yakima

PSR U16 Power League

U16

TBA

PSR

May 3-4

PSR Regional Championships

U16

TBA

PSR

May 24-25

NW Juniors Memorial Day Classic

U16

Bothell/Kirkland

NW JUNIORS

Pool Play
vs.YMCA Blaze 15 (loss) 19-25, 22-25
vs.Cascade U15 Blue  (loss) 15-25, 17-25
vs.OPVBC U16-2 (loss) 22-25, 22-25

Tournament Play
vs.Stanwood VBC U15 (loss) 15-25, 23-25
vs.Olympia U16-2 (loss)  21-25

win/loss: 5-3

Inferno had some huge improvements this weekend. Not only did we win our first match in pool play of the season, we won our pool. The second day we started out great - wining our first match after an outstanding comeback in game 2 where we were down 8-17 and went on to win. Next, we ran into some tough competition with some big hitters on the other side of the net, but we managed to stay competitive. The results for the second day of pool play were very odd with every team wining one match and the pool ended with a four-team tie. After pool play we were seeded in the Silver Bracket for the tournament and we did very well. We won our first tournament match after forcing game three and then in the second match we were a few missed serves away from advancing to the finals.  Overall, we were very happy with our performance and the team showed real improvement in the focus areas of practice.

The main focus of practice for the last three months has been on serve receive and our team passing increased this weekend from 1.04 last tournament to 1.25 with our Libero Alyssa Kuramoto leading the way.  She passed a 2.04 the first day and 1.7 overall while also recording 17 aces with 2 errors and picking up 58 digs. Our outsides continued to show ball control improvement while picking up 50 kills for the weekend. We also had solid work out of our setters who combined for 78 assists and are really responding to our tutoring sessions. Our middles worked very hard for us this weekend and along with our opposites helped to continuously put up a big block and challenge every attack.

Results:

Pool Play – Day One
vs.Salem 16 Gold (win) 25-21, 20-25, 15-10
vs.Excel 16 White (win) 25-15, 25-16
vs.Sabotage (win) 25-20, 25-15

Pool Play – Day Two
vs.NWCVBC (win)  25-16, 25-23
vs.East Valley (loss) 13-25, 11-25
vs.Salem White (loss) 24-26, 11-25

Tournament Play
vs.Island Fire (win) 15-26, 25-21, 15-12
vs.Sabotage (loss) 23-25, 23-25

This was a tough week for our team.  We played hard and but had some critical breakdowns that lead to losses.  In the second pool play match we had a great response to a bad first game loss (11-25) winning the second game (25-22).  We continued this momentum in the third game and had game point and the serve twice (14-13 and 15-14) but lost the match.   Although, any loss is discouraging, it also shows what we need to work on: finishing games.  We did just that in the third match winning (27-26 and 27-25), but fell short in the tournament.  Every match that goes to three games is a great learning experience for our team and we will work to build from these close games in the future.  One bright note of the tournament was our outsides hitters who as a group really increased their passing averages. 

Results:

Pool Play
vs. Southend Jrs Fala (loss) 19-25, 15-25
vs. Puyallup Jrs 16 (loss) 11-25, 25-22, 15-17
vs. Olympia 15-2 (win) 27-26 27-25

Tournament Play
vs. OPVBC 16-2 (loss) 21-25, 25-22, 11-15
vs. Olympia 15-2 (loss) 14-2