2023 Tournament Recaps - Week 2

Teams headed to Appleton, Oshkosh, and Waukesha!

11 Red | 2-1 | 2nd Place

The 11 Red team was super excited to start their first competition of this year this weekend. We started off the weekend against a good Wisconsin Ice team. Game 1 started with Eden getting her 1st ACE pin on her first 5 serves of the year. Although Wisconsin ICE worked hard and took game two, The I AM 11 Red team crushed them in Game 3 winning 15-6.

FC Elite 11 Navy was next up for I AM. Although we struggled a little bit in the serving and serve receipt game, I AM took advantage of most of the rallies and held the scores close losing both games 25-18 and 25-19.

Our 3rd match was against Adversity 11-1. After starting a little sluggish in game 1, the team found itself down 19-24. After a quick side out and a serving substitution, Jane went back and went to work on the service line. For the next 6 points, I AM played flawlessly as Jane kept the pressure on from the service line and any balls that came over were quickly converted to an attack from I AM and winning 26-24. I AM then went on to win Game 2 25-20 to end up 2-1 on the day.

I was super impressed with our play today. We had at least 15 good spikes today and that was double any other team. Every server made at least 1 serve today with many making multiple for the 1st time ever. We did an excellent job cheering and it was so good some teams copied our cheers right down to our name. We definilty found some things we need to work on in practice, however I couldn't be more proud of these girls after this weekend!

GREAT JOB LADIES!

12 Red | 3-0 | 1st Place

Our first tournament of the year brought us to the JAG Oshkosh Lourdes Rumble. The girls were so excited to finally be playing. We went 3-0 in the tournament and took home

tournament champion t-shirts!

The day was highlighted by great serving. We had 53 aces as a team, with 3 players earning serving pins. Shout out to Grace, Jovie and Emery for earning serving pin! Grace also earned the professional serving pin with a spectacular 16 aces in 1 match! Addie did a great job at the net for us earning herself an overpass kill pin!

We were challenged in both our 1st and 3rd matches of the day. Both matches had us taking set one, then facing some tough serves were pushed to a 3rd set. Serve receiving tougher serves will be a point of emphasis before our next tournament.

The excitement of the day was in our final match. Down 14-11 in the 3rd set, the girls didn't give up and in comeback fashion, took home the championship with a 16-14 win to wrap up the day!

I'm very proud of the team for overcoming some first tournament jitters and building confidence throughout the day!

12 Black | 3-1 | 3rd Place

This weekend we played at the MWP Igloo Games in Waukesha, WI. We had a full day of games with pool play in the morning and bracket play in the afternoon. We started our first

game not so strong against SWVBC, but the girls fought hard and won the second set then secured the third set to win our first game! We then won in two sets against Crossfire and MWP putting us undefeated and in first place for pool play!

We then went into bracket play and unfortunately lost in the semi-finals. Us coaches are so proud of the girls for showing resilience in a tough match and working hard against our biggest opponents. Overall, we went 3-1 for the weekend placing us in 3rd out of 8 teams. Congrats on an outstanding first tournament!

13 Red | 3-3 | 9th Place

This weekend, 13 Red played in the Prep Dig Resolution. Saturday was a long day with 4 total matches but the girls gave everything they had throughout the games! We ended up going 2-2, losing to MKE Sting and the eventual tournament champion FC Elite. They were tough losses but it was great to see how we were able to serve aggressively and make the correct movements towards the ball in defense. A huge focus we had was trying to take aggressive swings at the ball as much as possible rather than giving the other team an easy free ball. It was great to see our team following through on this, even when the swings weren't always landing. By day 2, many more of those swings turned into kills which was exciting progress! We still struggled with playing consistently but the fight in our team never gave out. Our first match of the day ended with a heart breaking 16-18 loss in the 3rd set, but we were able to rebound quickly and win our final match of the weekend! Our 3-3 finish wasn't ideal but huge improvements were made from our previous weekend of play. Specifically, the girls did a much better job of serving aggressively, passing in serve receive, and swinging at out of system balls. Considering the positive attitudes and high work ethic of our players, we are excited to have a couple weeks of practice to work on the small things that will have huge impacts on the results of our matches!

She led our team in kills and did a great job in making switches between playing middle and outside. Her defense at the net also had a huge impact on our success!

14 Red | 3-2 | 5th Place

The girls were entered into a very tough field at the Prep Dig Resolution in Appleton in the Open Division. It was a great opportunity to see exactly where we are at this point in early January. We left the weekend with a clear sense of our status in the Badger Region and also a strengthened connection between our girls. The coaches knew that even if we played well, we could still lose on a weekend like this. But, that is the competition that we want to play against. Regardless, the goal was to make it to the Gold bracket, and we were successful in that pursuit.

We started off Saturday afternoon against Impact Volleyball. We were able to win that match in 3 sets after a slow and uninspiring effort in the first set that saw us lose 24-26. The struggle to communicate and play with intensity at all times appears to be an issue that the girls will have to work to overcome as individual players. We then faced a 14 Sting black team who we played much better against, but fell short in 2 tight sets. Even in a loss, it became clear that this group can play with anyone in the state, especially if we limit our unforced errors. This put us in a cross-over match against FC Elite White. We were able to limit our unforced errors a bit more in this match, and won in 2 sets against a feisty FC group; the 2nd set was 32-30. This ended our evening and all of the girls hung out for a few hours and spent some valuable time getting to let loose and enjoy some laughs.

Day 2 would present an enormous challenge during the first round of the Gold Bracket. We faced an extremely talented and well-coached Sting 13 Gold team. Their tough servers pushed us around too much in the first set and we had to fight to score. We came out in set 2 with more determination, more aggressive serves, and attacked with a purpose. Even though we came up short in this match, we showed more of what we were capable of. We then faced FC Elite White once more to end our day and we won that match in 2 sets giving us a 3-2 record for the weekend. Knowing where we stand in the state and embracing that status, as well as expecting more consistent and impassioned play from individual players, will be the largest jump that we need to, and can, make. We can play with anybody! The girls just need to believe that 100%.