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Spikes U13 JumpStart Amanda

Vidhi   Chhajed   #6   DS
Morgan   Brumley   #4   MBH
Avery   Talbot   #9   PIN
Emily   Wilson   #5   DS
Nicoletta   Leathers   #3   PIN
Saydi   Morris   #8   PIN
Stevie   Russomanno   #1   Libero
Aleah   Drury   #7   MBH
Eva   Constant   #11   Setter
Delilah   Kehoe   #13   PIN
             
Head Coach:   Amanda        
Asst. Coach:    Pasky        
Chaperone 1:   Amber        
Chaperone 2:   Katherine        
Team mom:    Bridget        

Spikes 13s JumpStart season tournaments:

January 18-20 (3 days) Colorado Challenge, Greeley CO

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

Crossroads - What a whirlwind but so proud of the 13s
We just finished Colorado Challenge with only 15 teams in the bronze bracket the girls didn’t know what to think when I told them they were entering a tournament with 38 other teams. Leaving the Colorado Challenge we knew we had a lot of work to do in a short amount of time, but the girls were ready to work.
We entered the first day of Crossroad, the girls arrived, and I was so shocked to see all of them wide awake and ready to play. I explained to the girls that today was so important and if we lead the pool, we will stay on top to move to play better teams and have a chance for the gold bracket. Boy did they take the challenge. We started our day against Crossfire, beating them in 2 sets 25-15 and 25 -9. The girls were on a high level as their performance was already showing improvement. Our second game was against SFSVC again beating them in 2 sets 25-10 and 25-17. Serving was key today as we struggled with this at the Colorado Challenge. The girls had a clear picture of “why” it was so important to make your serve.
Our third and final match was against Relentless VC Grind. Set one we won 25-12 but set two was something I have never experienced. The match began with Eva serving and it continued with Eva serving. On multiple occasions I told her “Serve all 25” and she did just that… All 25 points ending the set 25-0. We had so many people around us and no one could believe what they just watched.
Eva was the star of the show!!!

As a team at the end of day one we discussed the positives of the day. I assured them that tomorrow will be harder and to come ready to play.


Day Two 
13s arrive again happy as can be and ready to get the day started. We had the first match of the day against Big Sky. This was the nicest group of girls and coaches we have run into. While we won both sets 25-21 and 25-18 the girls started to get a taste of playing teams more at their level of skill.
They knew this wasn’t going to be as easy as day 1. Unfortunately, our work break allowed the girls to get comfortable and relaxed. We set to play the Coyotes next and the team I just watched wasn’t the team that showed up to play. The Coyote girls were scrappy and ready to win. Fighting for each point we lost in a set of 3. We had great serving but seemed to really struggle in passing the pass to the setter.
We then had a very long 2.5-hour break again worried the girls would lose all motivation to play there 3rd and final match of the day against Aspire out of California. The girls were nervous as we had watched Aspire play earlier in the day. Spike 13s surprised themselves as they played one of the best games they had ever played. Ending the day beating Aspire 25-17 and 25-22.
We were all in shock as the bracket was populating and seeing we made it in the gold bracket!! We ended the day again talking about our day and what we needed to focus on going into day 3.


Day 3 Championship Day
Our first match 10 Am against 3CVBC. All the girls appeared a bit nervous, maybe it was the long wait to get to 10 Am play time. Unfortunately, day 3 was not what I expected given the girls performance all weekend. The first set began, and we were up 18-9 and this is when things began to crumble. We struggled to pass the ball to the setter; balls were going into the net over the net setting the other team or simply shanking a serve. We quickly found ourselves losing set one 25-22, giving up 16 points in errors. Set 2 was quicker than the first losing 25-8.
While Championship Day was not what I’d hoped for I am still very proud of the girls for playing much better games of volleyball throughout the days we spent at Crossroads.
I am also proud of the girl’s behavior and attitudes our girls have on and off the court. I received feedback from 2 different teams about how nice and respectful our 13s were.
While we have a lot of work to do surrounding defense and simple passing, I have all the faith in these girls to accomplish what is needed before we hit Oklahoma.
Coach Amanda

 

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Colorado Challenge 3 day tournament - January 18/20

 

Colorado Challenge overall was a big learning experience for the 13’s who discovered the importance of several key skills in the game. Throughout the 3 days they realized how critical it is to serve consistently as this sets the tone of the game. They also learned how important it is to play defense, move their feet to the ball and communicate.


We started Day 1 with early and cold. Playing CVA 12’s team. Set 1 we simply killed ourselves with errors giving up the game 15-25. Set 2 we had some strong servers that kept us in the game willing 25-15. I thought we would take the 3rd set as the girls now saw what it takes to win. Well, unfortunately we did the opposite played like we did in set one giving up the game 7-15. We played match two right away against RVC13. The girls were ready for another win, and they did just that, taking out RVC in two sets. Shoutout to Eva, Saydi and Morgan for the fantastic serving throughout this match. After a long break we set off to play CoJrs12. While we had some mistakes costing us points, we did show up to play. The Cojrs12 team is a well-rounded 12’s team that rarely misses a serve, could spot serve and played great defense. We put up a tough fight and we each won a match, pushing us to a third. Sadly, we bombed the third set, losing 5-15. Hats off to Morgan and Aleah who found their legs and learned to jump for a hit and block. The smiles on their faces were priceless! Day 1 ended with a 1-2 day which placed us as the bottom of the pack.


Day 2 we entered the day with the will to want to win. We knew we needed to win all our games today to move into the silver bracket. With the pressure in mind the girl came to play, however, fell short of the same errors we had on day 1. Playing neck in neck sets against Cloud Peak pushing us to a 3rd set and crumbling to a loss of 9-15. Next up was a match against Believe. First set our serves were so on point that we won our first set 25-8, again seeing how important it was to make our serves. Multiple girls served more than 5-10 points in a row. Set two Believe wanted to win and gave us a little more of a challenge along tied along with our teams’ typical errors that caused us points. We did end up pulling off a win 25-19. The last match of the night was against our very team of our very own Spikes 12s team. I am not sure what it is but the 13s are afraid to play the 12’s. It boils down to the fear of losing… Well, the 12s came to play and wanted to win so badly that they were hustling all over the court and won the first set 25-22. The 13s didn’t like this and had to figure out how to dig deep and come back with a win. They did just that, taking the 2nd set 25-12 and the third 15-7.
Shout out to Eva for executing a setter dump for game the winning point!


Day 3 we found ourselves in the bronze bracket against the teams we played yesterday. Our first match was against Believe again. I challenged the girls to take the match in two and keep their opponent’s points low. They did just that, winning in two sets against Believe 25-10 and 25-14. Kudos to our libero Stevie who had been down all tournaments due to her services errors finding her serve on the third day. We accredit this to the bacon she ate that morning giving her the strength and power to serve almost 10 balls in a row. Without the bacon we may not have had this type of success!! Our second came was then against our very own 12s team again for the winner of the Bronze bracket. We never thought we would travel for a tournament and go up against our very own team not just once but twice and for the winner of a bracket. The 12s again put up a good fight and challenged the 13’s. We did end up winning in two sets winning the bronze bracket.
While the girls were disappointed, they didn’t successfully defend last year’s first place title they learned a lot about what it takes to stay aggressive, make your severe, play defense and move your feet to the ball. We hope to have better success and the upcoming Crossroads tournament.

Eva (setter) takes charge - Enough with that nonsense #1

Eva (setter) takes charge - Enough with that nonsense #2