18-Gold

Saturday we were 1 - 3 which was unfortunate because we should have been 2- 2. Sunday we won all of our matches and came into Monday as the first seed in our flight.  We won the first match then lost the 2nd match against Vacaville Extreme in a close match 25 - 21, 25 - 23.  It was a little sad saying goodbye to the girls but all in all it was a great last tournament.

15-Gold

This was another fantastic weekend for the 15 gold team.

We started the weekend at Diablo Valley College on Saturday afternoon, ranked #38. We beat NorCal (#78) 25-22, 25-22; EastBay (#75) 25-18, 25-16; and XLVB (#35) 26-24, 25-19.  This moved us up to end the day at #35.

On Sunday, we played in the morning at Bladium.  We played Golden Bear 14-1 (#19) and won 26-24, 25-21; then lost to NorCal 16-2 (#14) 16-25, 19-25; then beat The Spikers from Woodland (#30) 25-21, 25-20.  When we left the gym, we thought we finished 2nd in our pool, #19, but NorCal lost to Golden Bear, and we took first when comparing the number of games won versus lost.  This finish put us into the "Sweet Sixteen" for Division I play-in on Monday morning!

Monday morning we played against North Valley 16-1 (#4) and lost 13-25, 17-25.  (They were a very good team.)  We then went to Division II and beat Empire 15 (#12) 25-17, 16-25, 15-10.  Finally, we lost to Golden Bear 16-2 (#9) 23-25, 9-25.   

Finishing #12 in a 16s division just proves that we are a very strong team.  We have a lot of players who contribute to our team in more than one position - Morgan Crosta, Molly O'Hagan and Chloe McGuire are powerful blockers and hitters in the middle, outside and opposite.  Terren Dominguez and Hailey Gregor both saw time as outside hitters and as middle back defensive specialists.  (Terren earned us many key points this weekend with her tough serve, which managed to hit opponents as they were attempting to let the serve go out!)  April Esser was very effective on the outside, as well as on the right side.

Olivia James made the most improvement this weekend.  Her blocking is becoming much more aggressive and consistent.  Roxanne Lucero played great defense and was always ready to step in to pass a perfect free-ball.  Erica Palmer had a fantastic serve and controlled defense in the back row.  Finally, Briana Mason did a terrific job setting this weekend.  She has also been focusing on her jump serve and defense, which have improved quite a bit in the past couple of weeks.

Our next tournament is the California Finals, June 16-19 in Sacramento.