18 Teal
18 Teal held their own down in Florida this weekend! The girls pulled out a 6-0 record without dropping a single set after the first two days to face some tough competition in the gold bracket on day three! A successful tournament overall, finishing 5th of the 32 teams in 18s.
18 White
18 White finished off the weekend on a 5-0 run, with an overall record of 6-2! We saw some scrappy competition down in the sunshine state and managed to secure the win over the copper bracket on the final day. These girls continue to impress us with their commitment to their team and their ability to stick together when the competition gets tough!
17 Teal
17 Teal earned their first two Open wins this season and played some awesome, competitive volleyball in the five matches that didn’t procure the desired result of winning!
From Emma, “I’m really seeing the team start to develop fight and urgency, which is a must when you’re playing some of the best competition in the country!”
We’ll do some film this week and make some upgrades before MEQ in just two short weeks. Us coaches are very excited about our progress and our grit!
17 White
As coaches, we saw growth in just this three-day tournament alone! Having a tough fight on our first day, 17 White fought hard in the first set, falling short in a 28-30 set loss. But, these girls kept fighting, especially offensively. Stats were through the roof and just even just watching, 17 White showed grit and played very well together as a team. We will take all these learning experiences into practice and hit the ground running again on Saturday in Rocky Mount.
17 Black
17 Black played with great energy the entire weekend and finished strong with a 2-1 record on day two and 2-0 record on day 3. After being down a setter this weekend, the team adjusted well to running a 5-1. Our outsides, Emily Burnett and Jasmin Ye, stepped up in a big way with increased serve receive responsibilities. We dialed up the service intensity all weekend leading to 55 aces across 8 matches. Special shout-out to Emily who contributed 16 aces over the weekend. Coach Colten said, “I’m so proud of our ability to finish sets this weekend and fight back from deficits. We’re going to carry this momentum into the Locomotive Challenge this next weekend!”
16 Teal
16 Teal played in Open this weekend at Sunshine. This tournament was a good test for us, as we’ve been hyper focused in practice on engagement, decision making, and moving on to our next responsibilities. As coaches, we noticed a much higher level of coverage and pursuit this weekend. Serving pressure was very high this weekend, earning 44 aces over 8 matches. Our middle, Julia Pate, contributed 12 of those aces throughout the tournament! Next up, Big South!
16 White
16 White had our fair bit of challenges this weekend with overcoming injuries and playing tougher competition. We’re still learning how to be able to dictate our game no matter the level on the other side of the net, high or low. There were some great plays made and the overall fight these girls have is great to see. Although we did not do as well as we had hoped, We’re going to learn from these inconsistencies and come back better for the Locomotive Challenge this weekend.
16 Black
16 Black worked hard this weekend and made it into the bronze bracket on the final day! We learned what it means to adapt in a game, having to move our libero to be the setter for an entire match. When playing in the 5-1 as a setter, Jaqueline got her first block ever! We played some really tough teams on the second day, including the team that placed second overall. On the final day, we made it to the semifinals, but lost in a tight, three set match. Our goal going into the Locomotive Challenge is to place higher and come ready to win from the very beginning!
15 Teal
There was a lot of fight and energy in 15 Teal this weekend. We had a lot more highs than lows in our plays and its exciting to see. Shoutout for #7, Sam, who was an all-around stand out this past weekend-hitting nothing but positives and continuing to be a source of energy even when off the court! On day one, we played an impressive MVP team and in that game, Sam hit an impressive 0.727 and Tamari hit 0.428. Alex and Grace led the team in serve receive passing, each with an average pass rating of 2.0 across the weekend (that’s incredible!) We’re so excited to watch them continue to grow their volleyball IQ and skill!!
14 Teal
14 Teal had a challenging weekend at MAPL Raleigh. We played a lot of really competitive matches against teams very similar in skill and level to us, that just didn’t end up in our favor.
Some things we’ll be working on going forward:
- Being a bit more aggressive at the net (on blocking and when the ball is passed too tight)
- Hunger and desire for the ball and having confidence that we will make a great play with the ball
- Recognizing when to keep the ball in play and make the other team earn their points instead of giving free points
Some highlights from this weekend:
- All matches were competitive and evenly matched!
- We adapted really well to having new friends from 14 White play with us!
- We beat Triangle Blue! Whoop Whoop!!
Overall, a really solid weekend and we can’t wait to get into the gym to work on these things heading into the Locomotive Challenge this weekend!
