Power League Seeding Results
Both U16 teams do well in first tournament of the year
16 Black stepped on the court this past Sunday for their first official outing of the 2016 season. Spending the past month preparing, the team was ready to compete with others in our Region and ended the day with a strong showing.
The first round of pool play were matches against SVVC Fusion, Cascade 16s, and Kraken 16s, and all resulted in wins for the team and a #1 finish in their pool. All three games were full team efforts, highlighted by Kayleigh Shirk’s serve receive (a 2.5 thoughout all three matches), solid blocking from Lizzie Joyce, Natalie Miller, and Zyonna Fellows, and offense from outsides Anna Fall and Sophia Spoja. This set up the second round of pool play against MVA, LC Spikers, and Space Needle 16. With a 2-0 win against MVA, Sophia Spoja had 5 kills, followed by Anna Fall with 3. Kayleigh Shirk led the way defensively with 7 digs. LC Spikers followed, with Fellows leading the team in kills (3) and Spoja in digs (4). Strong serving from Kailey Means and Natalie Miller helped put LC on their heels, and resulted in a 2-0 win. The final match in pool play was against a scrappy Space Needle team, and ended with the team’s first loss on the day. Spoja and Shirk both finished with 7 digs apiece.
Finishing as the #2 seed in their pool, 16 Black was set up to play PSVBA 16s in a final crossover match for the day. The single set to 25 ended in a loss, but not without strong efforts from Spoja (2.7 serve receive, 4 kills), and Bri Thompson (4 digs).
Natalie Miller finished the day with a .321 hitting percentage, followed by Kailey Means at a .280, Sophia Spoja at .255, and Anna Fall at a .225. Kayleigh Shirk finished with 27 digs (2.7 digs per set), and setter Riley Clark dished out 61 assists on the day.
Overall, it was a positive first outing for the team, and set them up as a #9 seed out of 68 teams for the first Power League of the season on January 24. The team is looking forward to getting back in the gym and prepare for their next tournament, the Matt Hartner Memorial Classic in Eugene, OR, on January 16-18.
SSVBC 16-2 went into this weekend’s Power League Seeding Tournament ranked 30th out of 68 total teams. They had opportunities during the day to refine many of the skills they had been working on since the Winter Classic in December as well as to test themselves against some of the top teams in the tournament.
They started the day strong with wins against WVBA 16 and Kraken 16 Atomic – 25-11 and 25-17. Against WVBA Abbie and Addy led us in aces with 2 apiece while Hayley and Stacie each walked away with 3 kills.
In the match against Kraken – a re-match from the Winter Classic – Sierra led with 3 kills, followed closely by Maddy with 2, and Judy led defense with 6 digs. In the last two matches of the first round, the team struggled against Gray’s Harbor and against the number three team in the tournament – KJ Baden – 23-25 and 13-25. In those two matches, Judy’s defense racked up 11 digs, Stacie and Addy led us in kills with 3 and 2, respectively, followed by Taylor and Caitlin with 1 apiece, and Addy and Megan dished out 7 total assists. After the first round of play, the team managed to hold their spot at 30th, and went into a much tougher 2nd round.
The Second Round of play included three highly ranked teams from the 16's age group. They started off competing against PCVBA where we lost in two sets – 7-15 and 13-15. From there, the team moved on to play PSVBA 15s – the #6 ranked team in the tournament. The girls stepped up to the challenge and battled hard, but their hard-hitting prevailed and they took the match in two sets. The final Round 2 match was against NW Jrs. 16 Black. Despite aces from Judy, kills from Sierra (3), Addy (1) and Hayley (1), and digs from Judy (12) and Ireland (1), the result was an 0-2 loss. The girls headed into the crossover match still holding onto our original seed.
The final match of the day was against a tough Whatcom 16s team. The girls fought hard through the first points of the match – proving their ability to compete against hard-hitting and serving teams – but in the end, Whatcom took the match. They finished the day a few seeds lower at 38th.
Overall, the coaches were pleased that the team held close to their starting seed. They have a lot of work to do in the upcoming weeks before our next tournament, but the potential seen during the Winter Classic is starting to shine through. Over the next weeks, they will be working a lot on their serve receive and ability to play consistently and with intensity for the duration of a match.
Tag(s): Home U16 Black U16 Black 2
