We have a couple of 1st place finishes again this week! Things are looking bright at I AM Volleyball!
12 RED
This weekend 12 Red played in a one day tournament at the Rec Plex in Pleasant Prairie. In pool play, the girls earned three wins in straight sets against teams with varying talent. This gave us an opportunity to further work on more challenging aspects of the game such as zone serving and quick sets. During these matches, our tough serving and aggressive swings stood out!
#Shoutout to Nora for getting 13 aces in our first match of the day and to Ella for getting 14 aces in the third match!
#Shoutout to Ana for getting her first serving pin of the season with 6 aces in one match!
We ended the day in the championship match against McHenry Juniors! The first set wasn’t our best volleyball as there were unusual errors and miscommunication on the court, but they girls kept a positive attitude and came out playing much better in the second set! Unfortunately, a few points didn’t go our way and we lost 24-26. Though it was a tough ending to a great day, the girls should be very proud of their effort and energy! We can’t wait to be back in a championship game again and change the ending to finish in 1st!
#Shoutout to Avlynn for being the tournament MVP! She was consistent in setting, serving and playing defense. She also has made awesome improvements in her free ball transition!
13 RED
A team of 10 players that runs a 6-2 requires all players to contribute to a tournament win! The JVA MKE Jamboree proved to be a tough test for us, but one that showed an incredible ability to overcome some significant adversity. On Saturday afternoon, we didn't play as sharp as we had the previous 2 tournaments, but we grinded out 3 match wins to take our pool. Some highlights during that afternoon were 2 first time servers this season in Avery Peirce and Leilah Prichard. Our rotations do not regularly provide an opportunity for all of our girls to serve. On Thursday night when our group was setting up courts, Leilah told me she would prefer to jump serve and she busted that out during our 2nd match! It was so cool to see her do that and be an effective tool. Avery Pierce, as a middle, provided big time serves in crunch time, too.
On day 2, we played so much better from the start and dominated our quarterfinal Gold match. Sierra Hoeft ran her best offense to date with perfect sets and even better decisions. During the semi finals, we lost the 1st set to a very aggressive, tall, and loud team from Michigan, but tightened up our offense and served to more aggressive spots and pulled away from them in sets 2 and 3. This placed us in the Championship match against a very talented, sharp, and athletic team from Iowa. We fell in the first set 23-25. Our opponents were super proficient on offense with backrow attacks and outside hitters who could attack the line. They also had a dominant libero. We made adjustments defensively and became more precise in our serves and won a hard fought 2nd set 28-26 that ended with 2 aces from Abby Barthelemy. The 3rd set wasn't much different. Our pin hitters (Leilah, Morgan, Isabel, and Hannah) mixed up their attacks to keep their strong defenders guessing and we started fast. Our opponents fought back to take a 13-12 lead, but our girls won the final 3 points in dramatic fashion to take the Gold Championship. We are now 17-1 for the season.
Morgan Vetter was our tournament MVP. I think she was probably the MVP for all teams in the event. She played exceptionally well on defense with some digs that were unbelievable. She brought out her jump serve for the first time this season that forced plenty of TO's from other coaches. Her hitting was also extremely consistent with very few errors. What a great and exciting weekend!
13 BLACK
Coming Soon!
14 RED
Congratulations to the 14 Red team on winning the Block Party Open! They went 3-0, winning every game by 9 or more points! They were given many opportunities to practice speeding up the offense, aggressively serving to hard zones, and playing multiple positions. Everyone played very well and took feedback from coaches seriously, leading to some noticeable improvements!
#Shoutout to Mia and Sam for both having 5+ aces in 2 different matches!
Mia, Sam, Emy, and Delaney all had a least one match with 5+ aces! Not only did they serve aggressively, but they also hit their serving zones consistently, making it difficult for all teams to get their offense going! Overall, the team had 53 aces across 3 matches!
15 BLACK
The 15 black team had a good weekend of competition at the JV jamboree. Started off playing the number one seeded team in the tournament, and we ended the game very proud of the 18 pts we got on the scoreboard against a very good offense. We worked hard defensively and played very competitively. We ended the day with a win, and were placed into the bronze bracket Sunday. We played a very evenly matched team to us, but couldn’t seal the deal. Thankfully we were able to light a fire to win the last game of the day. The coaches are so proud of how the girls pulled together as a team, and really impressed how the team adjusted to a few small last minute line up changes. Breleigh and MJ both earned an ace pin, and Ava & Hannah played great at the net. Grace did a great job passing in the backrow, along with Breleigh (middle) who got to stay in the whole game.
We really got to see teamwork develop on the court this weekend, so we’re excited to see how that improves our game in tournaments to come!
15 WHITE
Coming Soon!
16 RED
We came into this weekend unsure of how it will all play out. Still battling the limited roster with injuries, the kids came in ready to just play volleyball. We got the opportunity to run a 4-2 with our setters setting out of the middle. We practiced this on Thursday and had some hiccups but when Sunday came along we owned the new rotation and dominated! The team stayed focus on the serve and pass aspect of the game which can give us trouble at times and it this set us up to take early leads and hold on to them with long serving streaks. Even though we only handed out one serving pin to Carolyn Lippe, we had a lot of players getting 3-4 aces per match.
By the end of the day the kids were sweaty and exhuiasted but it was all worth it as we took home the gold. Our final match against 360 Volleyball Academy was a close one and it took every bit of strength to finish. Coach Kevin and I are extremely proud of the kids attitudes and effort throughout the day. We look forward to getting the whole team healthy as we head into our 2nd weekend of the Badger Power League.
#Shoutout to Sarah getting voted by our team as Tournament MVP!
16 BLACK
Coming Soon!
16 WHITE
16 White came out strong this past weekend at the UW-W Open! They went 4-1 in the tournament! The girls did an amazing job starting off hot in sets and keeping up with it. They started the day 2-0 which got them a spot in the gold bracket. They fought hard and even took the team to 3 sets but weren’t able to pull through. They didn’t let that define the rest of the day! They beat the next team 2-0 which allowed them to take third place! Great job girls!
#Shoutout to Kate and Amanda for earning their serving pins! Also to Greta and Addie with all their amazing blocks!
17 BLACK
Coming Soon!
18 RED
This weekend 18R was at FusionFest at Center Court. Pool play was a blast as we went undefeated and didn’t drop a set. This was especially impressive considering we ran 5 different lineups, including double liberos. Once again, service pressure was our sharpest attribute, with 4 players earning a 5-ace service pin. Clean serve receive, solid 6-rotation hitting from Abby, and high efficiency from the middles made for a fun and successful 3 matches. We ran into a pretty strong team in semifinals that caught us off-guard with their size in set one. Set two, however, was the best this team has performed so far in the season with some incredible rallies, pancakes, and 7 blocks in one set! It resulted in a narrow defeat but I’m proud of how we fought all the way through and looking forward to a rematch later this season. Overall, we wound up 3rd and it was a good day for demonstrating some progress made so far this season.
#Shoutout to Kelsey for running an immaculate 5-1 offense for 4 straight matches, all while feeling under the weather.
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