DYNAMIX VBC 13 BLACK

The time came for the 13 Black Dynamix Volleyball Club to take the court for their first non-league tournament.  With them all sporting their new Dynamix gear, the girls were a little nervous taking the court for their first opponent, Pulse 13 Black.  The first set was not a good indication of how hard these young ladies have been working the past month.  We missed many serves and could not get a good serve receive pass to our setter.  We fell 11-25.  The second set... now that is the team that the coaches know!  We won in 25-20 and wow was it a completely different team then the 1st set.  Our passes were on target, and we were able to produce more of an offense.  Lizzy, Annika and Lexi combined for 8 aces.  Lexi had 3 kills in the set as well.  The 3rd set, well, that looked very similar to the 1st.  The girls just did not produce what they needed to, falling 4-15.  

The second match of the day was against Vacaville Extreme 13-1.   We lost in 2 sets, 22-25 and 22-25.  However, as the scores show, we were starting to find our stride.  There was only 2 missed serves in the entire match.  Numerous kills from Annika, Lexi, Mya, Maya, Kathy and Lizzy.  The girls were having fun and it showed in the way that they were playing.  Cayley provided a defensive strength with 10 digs in the match.  Marlena and Celeste were strong on the right side opposite the setter.  It was such a breath of fresh air compared to how we started the day.

Our final match in the AM pool play, had us up against Gold Cal 13 Air.  We came up victorious and oh, did we have to work for it.  Final scores, 29-27 and 25-22.  We had our ups and downs throughout the match, however, this match showed our perseverance.  The girls never gave up and you could see the fight in their eyes.  Lizzy did a phenomenal job setting her hitters and moving the offense around.  Mya and Celeste's serve receive passing were spot on and both were close to being perfect on the match.  Marlena even put in a quiet solo block.

The afternoon play put us into a 3 team pool.  Our first opponent was against Five Starz 13-1.  With friends on the other side of the court, there were times when I saw people applauding both sides of the court.  It was a fun match to play and win.  The girls pulled off another victory with scores of 25-22 and 25-22.  Nikki was a solid force for us, with great passes and putting up a consistent offense.  Lizzy once again proved that her serving is going to be something to wrecken' with this year with 5 aces on the match.   The girls were very excited to have won and also exhausted as it was past 5 PM, but we still had one more match to play.

Our final match of the day was against, Infinity 14 White.  The girls finished with a win, 25-7 and 25-9.  Both Marnie and Megan were happy that the girls were able to keep their focus, after they had mentally prepared themselves to go home after the previous match.  First tournament mistake on behalf of one of their coaches.  Oops!  Maya came up huge in the 2nd set with 4 kills.  She did an amazing job of finishing her arm swing and putting the ball straight down on the other side of the net.  The coaches were extremely proud of her growth over the entire day!  Lexi finished with 9 aces and Kathy had 4 kills.

Looking back on the day, Dynamix 13 Black played against 4 Power teams and 1 Premier.  They were able to go 3-2 on the day.  There is still a tremendous amount of volleyball to learn, but it set a great foundation for the season.  Keep up the hard work at practice!  Nothing says it best but a title of a Dr. Suess book..."Oh the places you will go!"

Traveling to Vallejo for Qualifier at Mare Island Sports Complex was a very interesting tournament for the Dynamix 13 Black team.  It was a bit chilly inside the non insulated venue.  The nets were either too high or too low and our court was the only court that had 2 antennas.  But we were ready!

Our first match of the day was against Yuba Eilte VBC 14 White.  The first set was a battle back and forth, however, we were able to pull ahead at the end with a 25-18 lead.  The second set, Annika went on a serving run with 14 straight points with 9 aces.  Lexi then put down 2 solo blocks and 3 aces of her own.  The other team had basically fallen back on their heals and had not found the same energy that they had in the first set.  The ending score was 25-4.

The second match of our pool play was against our very own 13 Purple.  We always love to see familiar faces and it is fun to play each other, even if it is an hour away from where we could do it in Woodland.  :)  The first set 3 players, Lizzy, Annika and Lexi all combined for 10 aces.  Kathy, Maya, Celeste, Nikki and Cayley each had kills.  The girls were able to work as a team and everyone was able to contribute to the success.  First set score, 25-5.  The second set was not as successful.  While in the first set we made 4 unforced errors, in the second set we had 20 unforced errors.  Between 15 hitting errors, blocking, serving and free ball errors, we basically gave the other team the win.  They had earned 5 points off of us.  All were from aces.  This was not a good indication of how they handle their mental focus.  The team did not perform to their ability and did not play clean.  Their coaches were not pleased with their performance and how they could not play clean volleyball.  Ending score, 23-25.  Going into the 3rd set and receiving a stern lecture from their coaches, the girls bounced back with a 15-4 win.  There were only 3 unforced errors and the girls regained their composure.

In their final match during pool play, the girls were up against Synergy Force 13 Red.  This match was a great game where they were able to see how they start to perform under pressure.  Before the match they had lost a player due to an ankle injury.  They were able to keep their focus and win a game for Celeste!  The final scores were 25-13 and 25-18.  In the first set they only had 5 unforced errors and in the 2nd there were 6.  

The final match of the game was a cross over match.  We were the number 4 seed up against the number 28 seed, Dynamix 14 Black.  Here were are again playing one of our own teams.  If there was any match to come watch, it was this one!  The girls and the parents were hyped for the game.  The girls were hyped because they were told that if they won, they could go home and not have to ref the next match.  Megan had never seen so much fire from her team.  Her favorite memory of the entire match was when the score was 24-19, match point, and Kathy turned around to cheer her team on saying, "Let's go Ladies!  WE WANT THIS!"  Marnie and Megan both looked at each other with smiles on their faces.  Kathy was ready for it!  She finished us off with a kill and ended the match.  

Looking back on this match, the coaches were honestly proud of every single player.  Marlena had a kill that had every player on the opposing side on their heals.  She found the center of the court and laid the ball down in the middle.  Mya had dig after dig and was going after every ball.  Lizzy once again served the team off the court.  Finishing with 9 aces in the first set and 3 in the second.  She also had 5 kills in the match.  Nikki did a fantastic job giving our team solid passes from the right side of the court.  Lexi worked hard in the middle keeping the ball in play and leading her team in serve receive passes.  In the first set, Annika had 3 kills that were some of the best of the tournament for her.  Cayley was hustling all over the back of the court trying to get the ball to her setter.  Maya came in clutch with her quick reaction speed and working hard on the outside.  Kathy, she finished us off and didn't have a single error.  Just overall, a fantastic match.

The girls finished the tournament as the number 4 seed.  We will be seeded the same when we enter League #1 in March.  In the mean time, there are still many things to work on at practice.  

Lastly, I would like to share some comments that were made to me by total strangers.  We had a few fans from other teams.  One was another coach who kept complimenting how well the girls worked together and how well they knew their positions and the court.  The final one was my favorite.  An older gentlemen, before our final match, came up to me and told me what a great team I have.  He said he had been watching us during his granddaughters game and couldn't get over how fun our girls were to watch.  After we won the first set, he snuck over to me and told me "I smell a victory!"  I told him not to jinx us.  After the team had won the match, he once again found me on the court and congratulated me on the win.  He even gave me a hug in the process.  In all my years of coaching, this has never happened.  Parents, grandparents, players...yes, but never our opponents families.  Between Kathy and this gentlemen, I had 2 fond memories of our Qualifier.  

"The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team."

                     --Phil Jackson

This past Saturday, Dynamix 13 Black came into the Gold Division with the number 4 seed.  Starting their tournament with a new format and having a 3pm start time, was something new for us.  Coach Josie filled in for an hour before Head Coach Megan was able to join us.  Thank you Coach Josie for joining us briefly for our tournament.  

Our first match was against the number 9 seed, CPVC 14-1.  In the first set, Annika served up 7 aces and Mya contributed 2 aces as well.  She helped lead the parade with a 25-4 win.  The second set, was a good all around effort from off of the girls.  Everyone contributed to the win and Lizzy continued to lead our offense with her superb setting.

In our second match of the day, we met up against Yuba Elite 14 Black (number 3 seed).  We came out a little flat and our serve receive passing was not very strong.  We were aced 9 times and fell with the score 19-25.  During the transition between sets we spoke about minimizing our errors and the team did just that.  Nikki was moved from the opposite position to outside and she did a fantastic job adapting to the challend.  She had 2 kills and not a single hitting error.  It was exactly the boost that the team needed.  We came out on top, 25-19.  In the third set, we came out to an early lead, however, we were soon battling back and forth with Yuba.  Lexi was our anchor in the middle while Maya was a defensive beast digging up everything that was hit to her.  Marlena had many heads up plays throughout the match.  She continued to be consistent with her hitting and serving.  We ended up winning the match 16-14.  Some might think it was unjustified, however, the other coach exceeded her limit of timeouts and we were rewarded the winning point.

Moving to the final bracket with the top 3 teams, we faced two very good teams.  First up was Colusa 14-1.  The first set was a great set.  Annika put down the only block for our team and Celeste had some great passes from the right back.  We took the loss, 18-25.  The second set did not look as good for us.  We lost 13-25 and fatigue starting to take its toll on the girls.

Moving to our final match of the day and still not getting a break to regroup or eat, we were up against Synergy Force 14 Red.  The first set was a loss to the score of 11-25.  The girls looked absolutely defeated and exhausted.  Between the two sets, we spoke about pride and effort.  We wanted to feel better about the effort that we were putting out on the court and have pride in what we were doing.  The girls played MUCH better and gave every last bit of energy they had on the court.  They could honestly say, we gave it our all.  Unfortunately we lost, 21-25, but it was a gallant effort.  Cayley was solid in her defensive passes and Maya came alive at the net with her hitting.   Her overall quickness to react to the ball is a great asset to her play.

From this tournament we learned a lot about ourselves.  We learned that it is very tough to play 4 straight matches without a break.  We learned that we can overcome injuries  and play for the team.  We learned that we are a good team and we still have some areas of weakness to focus on at practice.  We learned that we do deserve to be in the gold division, but we need to continue to rise to the occasions.  We are a young team, but age does not define us.  We need to continue to push ourselves to be better volleyball players.  We need to continue to listen to our coaches and apply what they are telling us.  

In conclusion, the coaches would like to give a little extra praise to Marlena.  She has continued to push herself and improve every time she hits the court.  She was extremely consistent and is starting to come into her own.  We are extremely proud of her and all of her hard work is paying off.  Great Job Marlena!

No one succeeds without effort... Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance.

~ Ramana Maharshi

We made it to Reno!  The girls have been looking forward to this tournament all season.  Our first match of the weekend was against a familiar team, Synergy Force 13 Red.  The girls came out on fire!  They played one of the most flawless matches to date.  Every element of the game was on point.  It was such a pleasant way to start the tournament finishing off with scores, 25-15 and 25-11.

The next match of the day was against VEX 13-1.  We played this team back in January at Non-League #1.  We had lost in straight sets, but the games were close.  This time around, we came out a little tentative and lost game 1 with the score 18-25.  The next two sets, the girls were determined to come out on top.  They were putting down a strong offense and the defense was sweeping the floor.  Finishing off the match, 25-22 and 15-13. 

The final match of the evening was against Rage 13 Alynn.  This was one of the strongest teams we have seen all season.  The girls came out with a lot of determination to get the job done.  You could see their focus of wanting to do well.  They ended falling witht he score 18-25.  It was a strong set and gave them a good taste of how they needed to play to compete with strong Power teams.  The second set got the best of us.  We simply had no offense.  We only one 2 earned points in the beating of 8-25.  It was a rough set where we just couldn't get the hits to fall.  

From the first day, we kept our seed of 31 and moved into AM wave for the following day.  The girls played some of their best volleyball and were just simply enjoying the experience of playing at a big tournament. 

Day 2 brought us in as the bottom seeded team in our pool, coming in as the 31st seed again.  We were up against NorCal 13-2 Blue.  The girls played well, but there were too many unforced errors at the net.  When playing tougher teams, we cannot give them unearned points.  We need to keep our play clean and make them earn their points.  The second set was pretty much the same story as the first.  Final scores of the game were, 25-19 and 14-25.

The next match was against 650 Extreme 13 Red.  The girls lost the first set 10-25.  We just could not get our game together.  The second set the girls were able to pull it together, create an offense, get passes to the setter and take the win 25-23.  There were still unforced errors, but we were able to create more of an attack.  The final set was another victory 15-9.  The girls played clean and battled until the final point.

The final match of the day was against Five Star VBC 13 Black from Colorado.  There were a lot of would of, could of, should of's from this match.  Unfortunately we once again did not play our game and lost 15-25 and 23-25.  We were playing tentative and waiting for the other team to make mistakes.  We need to go back to the matches from the previous day where we were the team that put the ball down on the other side of the court and were playing with an aggressive offense.  

At the end of the day, we moved up in seed to 24. 

The last and final day of Far Westerns.  The 13 Black beat Empire Black 13-1 in the first set 25-13.  This set was flawless and a just a pleasure to be apart of.  The second set, our unforced errors came back to haunt us.  This would inevitably be what took us out of the match and loosing in 3 sets.  The final two scores were 22-25 and 13-15.  This was an extremely emotionally charged match.  The girls really wanted to win but just came up short.  Unforced errors hitting, serving and mental mistakes at the net took us out of the match.  These are elements of the game that we will definitely be working on to better ourselves for the final push of the season.

As I recap the tournament, there are many positive things to take from Reno.  Our little 13's team that plays in the Premier League was able to compete and beat Power teams that are in the top 20 of NCVA.  We finished in 24th place out of 75 teams and had a wonderful time, while making lasting memories that will last a lifetime.  Of course we would have liked to have finished better, but we will learn from our mistakes and it will hopefully make us stronger.