2023 Tournament Recaps - Week 12

Last weekend of Badger Region Championships and our younger teams finish up their seasons!

11 Black | 5th Place

We went into this weekend missing some girls, but that didn’t stop us from fighting super hard! We took 2nd in our pool beating a team we had lost to the weekend before! We battled really hard against some sting teams and served the best we had all season! We fell short in the end but took 5th overall! We continued to have good attitudes and never gave up which brought us back many times when we were down! There were lots of swings and kills from everyone that made the games super exciting! This season was a blast and there was so much growth from these girls from their persistence and drive to get better but also to have a lot of fun as well! And that’s a wrap from 11 Black!

12 Red | 4-0 | 1st Place

I AM 12 Red competed in a 6 team tourney up in Green Bay on Sunday and took home Championship t-shirts!

Down a few players due to spring break, we played with a new lineup. We finished 4-0 dropping only the first set of the day! It took us until set 2 to wake up.

With the way pool play and the bracket played out, we ended up playing the same 2 teams from pool play in the semifinal and championship matches. We played better as the day went, with 3 different players earning serving pins, (Brooke, Audra and Janie) and one an overpass kill pin. (Grace)

We have about a month off before we play in our last tournament in Minneapolis to wrap up the season! The team is extremely excited for this tournament being our first true overnight!

12 Black | 2-2

This weekend was our last tournament...wow! We finished off the season at the Bay Bash in Green Bay.

We started off the morning strong in the 8 am game against 1W. We won the first set 25-8 and the second set 25-14. We had good ball control throughout the match and tough serving! Great work team!

The second game of pool play was against Burlington Elite. This was definitely a change of pace from the last match. Although we lost 19-25 in both sets, the girls fought hard. We learned that we must be intentional with our communication from this match.

Game 3 was the first round of bracket play! We battled against the De Pere Diggers. In this match, the team looked a lot cleaner. We had controlled passes, clean sets, and some great swings! Unfortunately, we lost the match 18-25 and 24-26. The girls had a HUGE comeback in the second set! Ally had some fantastic serves!

Game 4 was the last game of the tournament. We played against One Wisconsin again. The girls used this game to try out some new skills, jump serving, zone serving, and one balls. We took the dub in two winning 25-15 and 25-11! It was great to end the season with a win!

Thank you all for a fantastic season! Kara and I had so much fun being your coaches! We are so proud of all of you for working hard in the gym and always wanting to learn. We hope to see you next year!:)

15 Red | 4-1 | 2nd Place

The team had an outstanding performance this weekend at the Badger Region Championships! We were bumped up to the Open Division, and we definitely should have been in this division the whole time. We were ranked 2nd in our pool sitting in the middle of the pack and that was a perfect spot to start. We faced off against 608 Juniors after watching them play the match before. 608bwas warmed up and we didn't start our engines right away. We were able to get momentum towards the end of set 1 the lead us to extend the match to 3 and took the W. Knowing 608 and 414 Elite went three in their match we would be evenly matched again. We had a battle and never lost our composure. We won that match in 3 as well sealing us in a bye for a crossover match. We need up playing Milwaukee Juniors reseed our day two Gold Bracket. We controlled most of the game and sweeping them in 2.

Day two we earned a spot in the Gold Semi-Finals and we just needed to win one match to medal. We reffed the match between MVP and Wisconsin Ice and got the chance to do a scouting report. In our match vs MVP we got a good lead and coasted to the win for set 1 and in set 2 we had a back and forth battle but Eden caught fire and closed out the match with a MONSTER kill! On to the Gold Championship!

We matched up with Wisconsin Juniors who looked polished throughout their entire roster. But we had confidence through the roof at this point and a relaxing style of play knowing we already accomplished so much. We maintained an intensity that kept us in game one and at the end we were able to score the final points taking game 1! Now we are in reach of a championship. WI Juniors got a good lead towards the middle of the game and we tried to conserve energy knowing this is going 3. In set 3 we had an early jump but we got too comfortable with roll shots that they saw going and they turned it around on use with a streak 4 or 5 solid hits. That was enough of a lead to finish off the game.

Overall, we are so happy with this style of play from everyone and we believe this gave our team our second wind going into the next half of our season!

15 Black

Coming Soon!

15 White | 3-2

This weekend, I AM 15 White took on Badger Region in Milwaukee! In our first game, we took 608 Juniors Red to three games. Though close, we were unable to secure the win (25-20, 22-25, 12-15). But! That didn’t stop us from securing a win in our second game of day one against Infinity 15 Blue (25-19, 25-13). The girls were consistent and scrappy. We finished day one with a close game against Adversity 15 (22-25, 20-25) and a win against Madtown 15 (25-13, 25-20). Day two, we started the day shaky with a loss against VVBC 15 Purple (18-25, 21-25) , but finished the day with a victory against Lake Jrs (25-13, 25-21)! Great work ladies!

Our MVP this tournament is Maia Kreir!! She was amazing in both front row and back row, but where she really shined this weekend was playing our middle, despite this not being her normal position. Blocking was on point and kills were killin’! She definitely stepped it up this weekend and was an essential player! Great work!!

15 Gold

15 Gold had a great time this past weekend in Milwaukee! This tournament did not go how they would have liked. The girls got right back into the gym yesterday evening and are working extremely hard, for our upcoming tournament (Saturday and Sunday). We are so proud of the girls, their dedication to the team and their drive on the floor is absolutely amazing!

16 Red | 4-1 | 2nd Place

Coming off back to back championships 16 Red was headed into a tough tournament field at the River City open 17/18s tournament. We were seeded 7th out of 8 teams and were put in the same pool as I AM 18s. We started against Novus a team from Illinois and had a strong beginning of the day winning in straight sets. Next was the intersquad match vs 18s. We started very slow and struggled through set one and lost. Set two we came out with a little more fire and pulled out a close victory forcing a deciding set 3. It was close early but 18s went on a big run in the middle that proved too much for us to overcome and we dropped the set moving our record to 1-1 on the day. The last match of pool play once again saw a tale of two teams in the first two sets and we split the games vs River City 16s. The third set was back and forth early but a late run sent River City to victory and forced a three way tie at 1-2 between us, River City, and Novus. Since we forced a third set in two of our matches that gave us the tie breaker via set winning percentage and sent us to gold. In the semi final we had to face a tough Southern Heat 18s team. After losing a close first set we came out strong early in set two and keeped the momentum up through the third and earned a rematch against I AM 18s in the championship. Once again the 18s team was more composed and consistent with their play and we gave up too many runs of 3 or more points to stay in the match but overall it was a good tournament for us against some really solid teams that were a year or two older than us. Finishing 2nd out of 8 teams is a good result and provides us with motivation to keep working as we head into the last part of our season and the postseason on the way to nationals.

18 Red | 5-0 | 1st Place

This past weekend 18 Red played in the first and only single day tournament of the year, the River City 17/18 Open. Last season as a 17s team they were able to get through a very large field of teams and win this tournament against our own 18s team. The team was excited for the challenge to try and repeat. In pool play we got off to a slow start with some sloppy play but were able to come away with a 2-0 match victory with some clutch swings and big serves down the stretch. In match 2 of the day we were set to play against our very talented 16 Red team. In the first set we showed our age and maturity and controlled much of the set from start to finish. In set 2, 16 Red stepped up their game in serve receive and began to put more pressure on us with their swings and serves. We lost a tight 2nd set to them which put us in a 3rd set scenario. We have had a hard time in 3rd sets finishing big plays and staying consistent. In this set we were able to again control the first contact situations and were able to come out on top. The girls were happy to get the 3rd set monkey off their back.

After winning the final match in pool play and semis of gold fairly convincingly, we were set to play our 16 Red team again. In one of their best matches of the season they won a huge 3-set match vs the #1 overall seed. In our rematch our team showed a lot more poise and consistency in all facets of the game. We continued to put a high amount of pressure with our attack and our setters did a great job keeping the offense balanced. We were able to win 2-0 and repeat as champions. The girls go into a stretch with a bunch of weekends off before a very tough field at Battle at the Bay. We are excited about the small tweaks we can make down the stretch to prepare for that tournament and Nationals the week after!