Kinsley | Ford | #8 | OH | |||
Valentina | Rincon | #7 | DS | |||
Naomi | Martin | #1 | S | |||
Madison | Parpart | #3 | DS | |||
Harper | Brumley | #4 | MBH | |||
Justice | Clemens | #5 | OH | |||
Lexie | Baca | #10 | DS | |||
Lux | Ross | #6 | Libero | |||
Dylan | Cothren | #11 | MBH | |||
Genevieve | Allen | #39 | S | |||
Head Coach: | Blase | |||||
Asst. Coach: | Natalie | |||||
Chaperone 1: | Jessica | |||||
Chaperone 2: | Katherine |
Spikes 12s JumpStart season tournaments:
January 31-2 (3 days) Crossroads, Denver CO
April 5-6 (2 days) AAU Grand Prix, Norman OK
May 16-18 (3 days) Rumble in the Rockies, Aurora CO
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Colorado Crossroads 3 day tournament - January 31/February 2
Day one: Missing Valentina. Match 1: LOBOS BLACK, Spikes loses 22-25, 18-25. The girls started strong, getting a great lead but losing it two sets in a a row. Unable to adjust properly during serve receive was our biggest culprit. Genevieve started out with her first lift calls in this match and it definitely rattled the team. This carried on through the tournament. She’s aware and already made progress on how to correct her form/speed. Just time for practice!
Match 2: CLUB ONE 12 GOLD, Spikes wins 25-9, 25-4. We came out warmed up and ready to go for this game. Serves were consistent and played smart volleyball! Holding them to 9 and 4 points. Excellent game.
Match 3: E3VB, Spikes wins 25-12, 25-21. Another good win for the team. They made it look easy. Serves were mostly consistent and worked together well as a team. All in all the girls left this day feeling good as they came away with two wins!
Day 2: our whole team finally together, for the first time ever. After playing a great first day the girls were moved up and matched with more challenging teams this day. Ultimately going home with only one win but hard fought for points in their losses. Biggest struggle on this day was team communication/emotions.
Match 1: River City Jrs 12s Navy, Spikes loses 19-25, 18-25. This was an excellent team, unlike our first tournament where I feel we were simply out matched on two teams, this was a winnable game. Communication, and working together tends to be hard when the girls get down.More lift calls lost important points as well.
Match 2: Vail Peak 12-1. Spikes wins 25-22, 25-11. The girls played much more cohesively on this match. Working out where to be, making great saves. Consistent serving was key again.
Match 3: The edge 12, Spikes loses 21-25, 20-25 This was a strong team and the girls played well. I believe they could have definitely won this game. They got taken away on some serve receive communication and teamwork.. let their frustrations get them down.
Day 3: Silver bracket. Naomi became ill and wasn’t able to make this game so the day started a little bleak. Valentina stepped up, once again, willing and able to play any position and rotation we ask her to. I really tried to take timeouts before we needed them today.. and in the end it worked well for their psyche!
Game 1: ARVC 12 Blue adidas . Spikes wins 25-20,12-25, 15-12. This game really showcased the girls’ ability to grind through and not give up! We had some more lift calls and They absolutely crumbed in set 2. Going into set 3 they found themselves down 0-7.. I continued to remind them to climb the ladder. Play smart, one point at a time AND THEY CAME BACK!! Winning to stay in!
Game 2: FRVBC 12-1 Spikes wins 25-22, 25-22. The girls made such smart plays, found holes, had great tips, super consistent serving. They never gave up and it showed they stayed in the fight all the way to the end to get to the silver championship! The last play of this game they made a great save and went into a beautifully executed hit from Harper right into a hole on their side. This play was featured on crossroads instagram story! Afterwards Harper told me she didn’t even know it was game point, and I was so thankful she didn’t!! They were so into the game and it was awesome to see them jiving as a team so well.
Game 3: SFSVC - Spikes wins 25-18, 25-22. The girls were exhausted by this point and I was REALLY hoping we’d come out with the win on the second because I could see them fading. They stayed in and got what they came for! Excellent serves, smart playing, finding holes again. Just all around a fantastic day.
Way to go 12s!!!
I was incredibly proud of their ability to adjust every single day and making it to the end of the silver bracket and winning! They improved immensely from the last tournament in only two weeks!
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Colorado Challenge 3 day tournament - January 18/20
Going in: Justice absent. Lost Genevieve to illness
We worked on rotations Thursday at practice but I left feeling very unsure of how this was going to look for them.
Day 1: Game 1: Norco 12 Black (Won 1st in the Gold bracket). We used the rotation of Lux opposite Naomi, playing second setter. While this was ok in theory and she did fine getting to the second ball the back row was definitely out of sorts with her in the front. We lost two sets. 11-25 Missed serves and touching out balls hurt us, along with everyone being so unsure of their position on the court.
Game 2: crossfire 13-1 (we beat on day 3 in two sets). Between game 1 & 2 we talked as a team about how the rotation wasn’t working as planned. Lux and Naomi agreed to work hard to make a swap in positions and how it would look in the game. Sets went 13-25 (L), 25-18 (W), 13-15 (L) Again, missing serves really hurt us.
Game 3: High Desert Elite 13 Elite (played to go to final Gold Bracket game). We lost in two games. 9-25, 11-25. This team was just a great team. With our inconsistent serving we just couldn’t hang in there when we did get the ball back.
Day 2: Game 1: Believe 13 Jubilee. We won in two games 25-9, 25-17. The first game Lux served 15 in a row in rotation 1! The girls had a better handle of how to switch spots and who was responsible for what. Communication was high and they were working together wonderfully.
Game 2: Cloud Peak 13 elite (won Silver bracket) . The girls came out with a ton of fight in them for this game. We watched the 13s play this team and they were quite worried.. We lost in 3 but I cannot say I saw them play any better than this match the entire weekend. 23-25 (L), 25-23 (W), 16-18 (L). The girls were talking, moving fluidly, helping each other even when it wasn’t “their ball”. They played incredible volleyball and did not give up. It ended in a loss but honestly was fantastic to watch even with that outcome.
Game 3: Spikes 13 . First of all it was heartwarming to see the way these two teams respect and value one another. They huddled at the net after the hand shake prior to the game and did their “spikes on 3” together. The 12s were exhausted, as this game was immediately following the Cloud Peak game. We pulled out a win at 25-22 the first set. But petered out the second two. Losing 12-25, 7-15
Day 3: Bronze Bracket. Game 1: Crossfire 13-1. The girls were ready for this team again and knew they could win. Ended the match in two sets with scores at 25-21 and 25-17. Serving was spotty again at times but they were able to keep moving on and getting the ball back.
Game 2 for 1st in Bronze:. Spikes 13. We lost in two. 16-25 and 18-25. We struggled with serving and sending the ball to the back of the court. Instead of short easy free balls. We also had many dropped balls that were very high/easy to get, some off incredible saves, because of communication/who’s responsible. This was the most frustrating part of the tournament for me as the coach.
Overall the girls were very flexible and resilient through the weekend. Making changes and working so hard to get to the best spot to have the strongest team. Huge shout out to Naomi and Lux but many girls had to remember where to move to and when and executed it wonderfully. Many more saves and not giving up on the ball, even when it got messy, than giving up on it. Lux and Kinsley struggled with getting frustrated at times. Serves would be my number one concern going into the next tournament. Just over and in would have saved us a lot of points this weekend. So proud of them for coming back after such a defeating first day.
Natalie Tarkowski