DYNAMIX VBC 12 BLACK

Non-League #2 was the first tournament of the 2019 season and both players and coaches could not have been more excited and nervous! Our young team was all smiles and excitement as they strolled in wearing their new Dynamix gear. For most of our players, this was the first volleyball tournament of their volleyball careers!


We were uncertain what the competition would look like, as this tournament was comprised of both power and premier teams. Unsure of what to expect, the team went out and tried their hardest. They battled hard, but lost the first three matches of the day against Vacaville Extreme VEX 12-1, FPVC 12 Gold, and Aspire (California) 12 Black.


With afternoon games amongst them, the girls kept their spirits high! The fourth match of the day was against Club Solano 12 Black and we knew it would be a tough match. The team worked hard, but lost the first set 20-25. Ready to fight, the girls came together as a team and won the second set 25-13. The third set was the true test. The teams rallied back and forth for each point. Never giving up, the team won the third set 16-14 and won their very first match of the season! Fortunately, the excitement and joy the girls had was enough to carry them through the loss of their next match. 


The fifth match of the day was again FPVC 12 Gold, again. Although they worked hard, the team did not pull out another win. We hope to see them in the future to redeem ourselves!


Now that we have our first tournament under our belt and know what to expect, we can better prepare for our next tournament! This first tournament was a true learning experience for us all. We have a better idea of what we need to improve on individually and as a team. We will be focusing on serving, passing, and overall consistency!

Both coaches and players were beyond excited for the second tournament of the season! We had seen tremendous growth from the girls in the past few weeks. Each practice our communication, court awareness, and volleyball skills improved.  Many girls had even made big strides with their serving and were beginning to get them over consistently. Our practices exemplified hard work and having fun!


Unfortunately, as hopeful as we all were, the tournament did not go as expected. The constant communication we hear in practice, consistent serving, and accurate passing did not find its way to the court this weekend. The team lost their first four games, but was able to end the day with a win. 


Although the day did not go as planned, the girls did not get down on themselves or each other. They picked each other up and continued to have fun.  During our break times, the girls played games such as tag, knee volleyball, and basic circle passing with the entire team. We may not have performed at our best, but the team remained united. We will continue to work hard at practice and improve as a team for our next tournament!


It's back to the practice courts! 


OPPONENTS & SCORES

Colusa CVC 12-1 Black - Loss - 18-25, 25-27
Sierra Vista 12 Premier - Loss - 10-25, 11-25
NNJ 12 Byrne- Loss - 10-25, 15-25
Ignite VBC 12 Red- Loss - 12-25, 19-25
Yuba Elite VBC 12 White - Win - 25-15

Non-League #3 turned out to be a great success for our young 12-Black team! The girls battled hard and worked together to finish 2-3 for the day. We faced three strong teams during pool play; VEX 11-U, Yuba Elite 12-Black, and Chowchilla 12-Gold. Our team rose to the occasion and performed at a much higher level than we had seen from them in the past. All three games were close and scores went back and forth during these games.  There were many great things happening during the morning games. Tons of good passes with opportunities for our setters to get to the second ball. We had several opportunities to attack the ball and even got a few kills! Our serving was on fire and the overall team moral, communication, and camaraderie was the best it has been all season! Although we lost the first three matches of the day, the team stepped it up and really challenged their opponents. In my opinion, the scores were a true reflection of how hard the girls battled for each point and us coaches could not have been more proud of the team's performance. 

The two afternoon games were against Yube Elite 12-White and Five Starz 12-Premier. Having had played against Yuba in the prior tournament, we felt confident in our abilities and knew what to expect of the other team. Our girls played with confidence and were able to finish the game in 2 sets. We were not however familiar with Five Starz since we had not played them before. We won the first game without any bumps in the road, 25-16. However, the second set was a challenge for our team. We lost our focus and energy that we had in the morning. After losing the second set 21-25, we knew we had to come back strong if we were going to win. The girls mustered up all the energy they had left in them and were able to win the third set, 15-8. Although our team was not as focused as they were in the morning, they managed to find the energy to pull out two wins! A great reward for having had worked hard throughout the day!

Side note: at every tournament, our girls have asked if we would get to play Five Starz. We never quite understood what the fascination with this other team was, until we realized that some of our girls go to school with the players on Five Starz. So, I think it was fun for our girls to get to play against their friends and hopefully we will get to play them again!

One of the contributing factors to the successful day was the major improvement in our serving! Although not perfect, our serving was tremendously better than it has been at our previous tournaments. Alyssa served an AMAZING 53 aces for the whole day and began jump serving! Lexie also contributed a solid 19 aces for the day, followed by Ally and Emma both with 8 aces! Serving and serving consistently has been a struggle for this team and it was so great to see the hard work these girls have been putting into practice pay off! 

We had a long and exhausting day with very little downtime, but overall, Non-League #3 was a successful day! This team showed us what they are capable of. They showed us that that they can compete at a higher level of play and can be successful against strong teams. The progress, growth, and consistency that was shown during the tournament makes us coaches very excited for the rest of the season ahead!  If the girls continue to work hard, there will be no stopping them!

12-Black had another long and successful day of games at League #1 this past Saturday! We began the day as the #19 seed in Bronze and finished the day as the #16 seed in Silver! The team finished 4-1 on the day winning their last four games of the day. Although we did lose the very first match of the day, we went on and beat this team (Yuba Elite 12-Black) later on in the day! We have played against this team in the past and this was our first time beating them. Very exciting for the girls. 

For the first time this season, the team ran a 6-2 rotation. The girls have been focusing on specialized positions during practice to allow us to run the new rotation. Although there were a few hiccups in the rotation, the girls worked together and really pulled it off. We (coaches) were nervous about running the new rotation since we had only worked on it during practice however, the girls played great and exceeded our expectations. We cannot wait to see them further progress in the new rotation. 

League #1 was a successful day, but it was also a very long and tiresome day for the girls. They played five games and refereed one game and did not receive a single break! All of the girls kept such positive attitudes and did not complain about the long day. Since the girls were unable to sneak away to get some food, during our final games our team mom was kind enough to sneak some granola bars and crackers onto the bench for the girls so they could get a quick bite to eat. We were all very appreciative of this!

Overall, another successful day of volleyball for Dynamix 12-Black at League #1. With League #2 only a week away, it is back to the practice courts to perfect our rotation and prepare for the next round of games!  We are excited to see what Saturday has in store for us!

Shoutouts 

Ally, Alyssa, and Lexie - A special thank you to our captains this tournament! These three girls stepped it up as captains and did a great job helping their teammates with the rotation. Running a new rotation can be confusing and these three girls led the way for our team. Great job captains!

Abigail and Ruby - These two girls were asked to play positions they had not played before. With their positive attitudes, hard work, and a little help from their teammates, these two pulled it off and played very well in the new positions! 

Ally, Alyssa, Cat, and Lexie - These four girls served 75% or better during the tournament! A HUGE contribution to our success for the day! Way to go girls, keep it up!