The last blog that I wrote focused on Hannah’s first
volleyball tournament and how well her 11 year old team played in a tournament
full of 12 year olds. They showed a lot
of spirit, team work and most of all a lot of promise. This past weekend she had another tournament
and this time, as before, they showed a lot of sprit and a lot of team work but
instead of showing promise they showed a lot of progress and a lot of wins for
the effort.
They played in the choo-choo city tournament that was
sponsored by the host club, choo-choo city volleyball club. As with most tournaments they started out with
pool play. They were placed in a pool of
a total of 5 teams. They were seeded 2nd
in the pool based on their performance from the last tournament. Only the host club was seeded higher. As before the tournament consisted of only 12
year old teams except for them.
As with most tournaments they play 2 sets against a team
regardless of how the wins and losses go and at the end of the day the teams
are seeded into the elimination brackets (gold, silver, etc) based on their
total wins and losses. The format for
this tournament was that only the top two teams in the bracket would advance to
the elimination bracket, meaning that 3 of the 5 teams in the pool would be
eliminated at the end of pool play. Last
tournament Hannah’s team ended in 4th place by beating Team 205 but
this was enough to get them into the silver bracket since 4 of 5 teams
advanced. That wouldn’t be nearly good
enough this week.
Being seeded second they drew the first match of the day
against the 5th seeded team in the bracket. The took the court to play Tennessee Blaze
12-1. Coach Heather told Hannah that she
would be held out the first game since she missed a practice due to weather
this past week. The game went well and
11 Black held a 1 – 2 point lead most of the game. The first set ended 25-22 with 11 Black
winning. It was a great way to start the
tournament and super boost for the team.
The second game started and it was obvious that the girls were brimming
with confidence after starting so strong.
Hannah rotated in for several series and made several saves and even a
block attempt. For most of the game
Hannah was in a rotation with Sydney where Hannah would play the front row and
Sydney would play the back. Hannah would
come out and Sydney would go into serve.
This seemed to work well but Sydney was a little hit or miss with her
serving at times. The second game was
very impressive for 11 Black. They got
on a run and late in the game the score was 21-10. Tennessee Blaze got on a serving run right at
the end and made the score a little closer.
The final score was 25-22. 11
Black was off to a 2-0 start on the day.
The next match was against Team Sting 12 yellow. 12 Yellow is a group of big looking 12 year
olds. 11 Black didn’t play 12 yellow in
the first tournament since they were in a different pool and were in a
different bracket during elimination. The
match started and immediately 11 Black fell behind. Hannah rotated in for
several series and she (like most of the other girls) struggled to keep up and
catch up with 12 Yellow. As before the
girls adjusted as they played to the speed and the power of the other team and
by the end of the match were keeping up point for point with the older team.
The second match started and this time 11 Black went on the offensive. They
scored several points in a row and took a 4-1 lead. Hannah played the same
rotation that she had in the previous match where she would play front row for
Sydney. At a critical point in the match 12 Yellow had taken a lead and were
serving to 11 Black. They rallied the
ball back and forth several times and the ball came back over the net short,
Hannah stepped back and set the ball back over the net short to 12Yellow. They
recovered the ball and passed it back over the net, Grace made a diving dig and
Hannah got under the ball and set it. After a brief hesitation (11’s don’t set
and hit that much) one of the other girls stepped up and made a hit on the ball
and scored on 12 Yellow to tie the game again. 11Black went on to finish the game
25-21 and improve their record on the day to 3-1.
The girls had a little time off between their 2nd
and 3rd matches so they ate and rested. Eating during tournaments is
a tricky thing. Eat and drink too little and you’ll be tired and dehydrated
from lack of food. Eat and drink too much and you run the risk of being
sluggish and lethargic. When the third match started it was clear that the team
was not as perky as they had been previously. The third match was against the
team 205 12 year old team that 11 Black played in their first tournament. The
match started and team 205 took a quick 7-1 lead over 11 Black. Everything that
had been going right in previous matches was going wrong. The girls weren’t
moving or talking and balls were hitting the floor like never before. At 14-8 coach
heather called a time out to talk to the team. I’m not sure what coaches say to
teams at critical moments in the game but whatever coach heather said during
the time out worked. 11 Black returned to the court, shook the cobwebs off and
started playing volleyball again. Hannah played through her rotations and the
game ended with 11 Black winning 25-20. The second match was never in
question. 11 black took an early lead
and never looked back. The game was never in question and near the end coach
heather put Hannah in to serve. Hannah has a really good serve but has
struggled with having enough strength to get them over the net every time. She
lined up took her stance and belted her serve over the net. It was low and fast
and aced the other team. Her grin went from ear to ear. She lined up for the
second one, lofted it into the air and served it right into the net. It was a
good serve but just a little too low. The game continued and 11 Black won
25-13. 11 Blacks record on the day stood
at 5-1. Shortly thereafter 12 yellow
lost a match and 12 black became the sole owner of 2nd place in the
pool and guaranteed of going on to play in the elimination bracket as one of
the top two teams in their pool. It is
truly amazing to think that a team of 9, 10 and 11 year olds can play with that
much passion, enthusiasm and skill. The
team that struggled in the first tournament but played well and showed growth
now was one of the dominant teams in the tournament and a force to be reckoned
with. 11 Black had proven to be one of
the best 12 year old teams that Team Sting had to offer this season. I learned during the break between games that
over the course of the season and practices that each of the girls has gotten a
nick name. Coach Heather’s daughter
Maggie is Maggles, Anna is Anna Banana and Grace is Grace Face. The girls like to joke and kid with their new
nicknames and they seemed to be enjoyed their run of success on the day.
From here on out the girls were playing with house
money. Any win, any success past this
point is just icing on the cake. The
final match of pool play pitted 11 Black against the number one team in the
pool, the host team Choo-Choo City Volleyball.
The match started and 11 Black coming off of a dominating win against
Team 205 jumped out to a 4-1 lead. The
game continued and 11 Black continued to lead up to the point that the score
was 20-15. 11 Black rode strong serving
and good defense to keep Choo-Choo citys best servers from getting on a run. No other team had held a lead on Choo Choo
City all day. The shock of being challenged
in this way was evident on the faces of the players and the coaches for Choo
choo city. The two lead servers for Choo
Choo city were very good and had been dominating other teams all day but 11
Black was very effective in their rallies and limited them to a single serve
each. At 20-15 the lead server for
Choo-Choo came back up to serve and managed to get three serves that 11 Black couldn’t
return. The score was 21-18 when their
second server rolled up to serve. Again
the strong serving from Choo Choo city caused 11 Black problems as it had other
teams all day, at the end of her run the score stood at 22-23 and 11 Black had
lost their lead but they weren’t done yet, Sophie, 11 Blacks best server was up
to serve. Sophie’s first serve was an
ace, 23-23. Her second serve was not an
ace but it was a good serve and 11 Black rallied to get the point, 24-23, game
point. Her next serve was a good one but
Choo Choo city rallied and won the point, 24-24. Choo-Choo city served next and won the next
two points and won the match 26-24. It
was only the second loss of the day for 11 Black against a very good team. The second match started and Choo-Choo city
took the early lead. The score was close
for the entire match but in the end 11 Black couldn’t pull the win out and the
set ended 25-22 in favor of Choo-Choo City.
Even though they lost two straight to Choo-Choo city 11 Black had played
them closer than any other team in the pool and nearly pulled off what would
have easily been the biggest upset of the day.
They finished second in the pool with a 5-3 overall record and were
moving on to the elimination bracket. They prepared to play the first elimination
match against Team Sting 12 White as the other teams packed and left.
For the first match of the elimination round we had to move
from Court 1 to Court 2. Court 2 was
located about 2 blocks away from court 1 in a much older gym that looked a lot
like an old high school gymnasium. Since
11 Black finished 2nd in their pool they were slated to play the
number one team from the other pool, 12 White.
12 White and 11 Black had played before in the first tournament but 11
Black had come a long way since then and were a much more confident team than
they were in the first meeting. 12 White
and 11 Black took the court and the match started. The match was back and forth with multiple
lead changes. The score went from 5-2 in
favor of 12 White to 7-6 in favor of 11 Black.
Hannah and the other girls on 11 Black took turns in their rotations and
played well. Each team got their shots
at the other team and it was a very tense match. Late in the match 12 White held a slim lead
at 22-20. 11 Black rallied on some
strong serving from Sophie and Grace and several impressive digs from Grace and
Sydney. The score stood at 23-23. 12 White scored and made it 24-23, game point
but 11 Black wasn’t done and return a serve for a score to tie it at
24-24. Anna came up to serve and uncharacteristically
fired her serve into the net, 25-24 game point 12 White. 12 White took the serve, 11 Black rallied it
back and then when 12 White returned it again it was more than 11 Black could
handle and it went out of bounds. Game
over 26-24, 12 White.
The second match started and just like the first it was a
back and forth affair with neither team being able to gain a substantial lead
on the other. Hannah rotated in to play
front row for Sydney and made several saves including one near block over the
net that resulted in a score for 11 Black.
As with the first match the score stood at 22-23 in favor of 12
White. Then everything stopped. Kathyryn was standing in the middle of the
court holding her face and crying.
Somewhere in the last rally one of her team mates had accidentally elbowed
her in the nose. There was no blood but
it was clear she was in a lot of pain and her nose and cheek were
swelling. There was a brief timeout in
the match and Coach Heather was given a substitution to replace Kathyrn. Coach Heather looked at her sideline and at
the girls standing there and after a brief hesitation said “Go Hannah”. Oh my, my heart jumped up in my throat. 12 White took the serve and it came
over. Hannah was standing at the front
left and grace took a dig on the ball and Hannah passed it back over the
net. 12 White bobbled it and it fell to
the floor, 23-23. Hannah was up to
serve. 12 White’s Coach called a time
out. 11 Black went to the side line and
huddled up with Coach Heather. I learned
later what Coach said to the girls. She
told them that she was very proud of them and they had played fantastic. She said that they had a chance to win this
game and then she looked at Hannah and told her that they really needed a point
and to go out there and do her best. The
timeout ended and Hannah walked out on the court to serve. She stood in the middle of the court with the
ball at her side and took a deep breath.
The referee whistled the play in and Hannah took her stance to
serve. She lofted the ball into the air
and the hit it harder than I have ever seen her hit a ball before. The crack of her hand hitting the ball was
something you could feel as well as hear.
The ball cleared the net by 3 inches and landed in the middle of the
court untouched., ACE!!!. 24-23 11
Black. The adults and other spectators
erupted in cheers but the team was happy but solemn. They knew that the game wasn’t over and there
was still more work to do. Hannah stood
back in the middle of the court again ready to serve. Just as before she lofted the ball and hit it
over the net. The middle back player
went to a knee to dig the serve and popped it back up but to the right. Two of the girls chased it out of bounds but
were unable to get to it in time.
ACE!!! Game!!! 25-23. 11 Black Wins. The arena erupted. Hannah and all of 11 Black went nuts. 9 little girls were jumping up and down and
screaming. They were all high fiving
each other and especially Hannah. In the
midst of the celebration Coach Heather pulled Hannah close to her and said
something to her. I learned later that
what she said was that she now knew what Hannahs nick name should be. “Clutch”.
The best nick names are earned and Hannah earned hers with a gutsy
couple of aces with the game on the line.
