FALLS CITY H.S VB TOURNAMENT October 6, 2007
Lady Jets Take 2nd Place!
By Stan Karr
October 06, 2007
Click below to view and print the Falls City HS VB Tournament which takes place October 6, 2007 in Falls City.
FALLS CITY TOURNAMENT OCTOBER 6, 2007
Sterling Lady Jets take 2nd place at the Falls City Tournament
Sterling at Falls City HS Invite
We only had one student manager, senior Bridget Brammeier, who had her hands full but did an outstanding job with everything. Our JV’s were playing at a tournament in Stella and our Jr. High played a tournament in Lewiston, so the only stats we have at this time are for serving.
Scores;
D-2 Sterling 25 30
C-2 Palmyra 14 28
Serving; Willow Hunt 9 for 9 2aces 7 pts.
Courtney VanGroningen 8 for 9 2 aces 5 pts.
Kala Weber 9 for 9 0 aces 5 pts.
McKenzie McAuliffe 6 for 9 2 aces 5 pts.
Team missed 11 serves!
This was a match in which we really didn’t play very well. We played so-so in the first and then way below average in the second. I have to give our girls credit though. Late in the second, when we finally started to make a run, we kept our composure and focus. Most of that run was made possible by inserting Willow Hunt, our libero, also as a server. Something that is legal this year. She went 9 for 9 with 2 aces and got us back in the game. We never looked nervous during the comeback. We were focusing on the task at hand. That’s why we were able to come back and win the long second game. Afterwards it was rather telling in the locker room, even though we had won in exciting fashion, there were no happy faces. They knew they had not played well and they all agreed it wasn’t any fun playing like that either. We all knew it would take a better effort to win the next game.
Semi-Finals
D-2 Sterling 13 25 25
C-1 Tri Co. 25 16 22
Serving; McKenzie McAuliffe 22 for 22 3 aces 17 pts.
Steph Heusman 10 for 11 1 ace 6 pts
In the first game against Tri-County, we still hadn’t woke up or something! Tri-County just dominated the game with their speed and athleticism. I guess it was after that the girls realized it was time to play like they were capable of playing. Maybe Tri-County at this point took a little D-2 school for granted. But our girls started playing with heart and intensity and there was no stopping them. One of the keys was McKenzie’s serving. We had an area in their rotation that we wanted to expose on serve receive so they wouldn’t be able to get into an offensive system as easily and McKenzie was very consistent in serving to that area. Of course the rest of the girls did their part as well… passing and digging. Kala Weber did another good job setting the hitters, and our hitters pounded on the ball without making errors. With the score 24-17 they regained the serve and rattled off 2 quick pts. With a TO we set up a play for Maddie Daehling. Unfortunately it took us two of their serves to get a good pass to run the play but it was nice to see the execution come together when Maddie put the game and match away with a crushing kill.
Championship Game
D-2 Sterling 15 17
C-1 Fairbury 25 25
Serving; Steph Heusman 8 for 8 1 ace 4 pts.
Courtney VanGroningen 7 for 7 0 aces 3 pts.
After scouting Fairbury in their last game (set) vs. Wilber Clatonia, I felt we could play with Fairbury and if we played well we could beat them. However, in the championship game, they raised their game to a whole different level. Besides being much taller than us, some times when they were in system their hitters were going right over the top of our block for kills. They were also very athletic. But we actually helped them get into their offense by not serving to the areas we needed to, like McKenzie had in the game against Tri-County and we didn’t serve aggressive enough. I felt the only way to neutralize their strengths was by strategic tough serving. Then when you get your opportunities to score you have to take advantage of those opportunities because against a good team you’re not going to get a lot of those chances.
But we failed to do that consistently. The second game we played better, got off to a good start, got a lead, and then stayed with them most of the game until 17. At that point their 6’0” middle blocker, who played bigger than 6’0”, took over and we couldn’t get her stopped. When Fairbury got into system, their offense was much quicker and more powerful than anything we had seen this year. We just couldn’t keep up and that’s the level of play that we hadn’t seen earlier from Fairbury. But we had also helped the situation by not serving aggressively to their weakest serve receiver.
Playing in this tournament will undoubtedly help us as we go into the next 2 weeks and then the Conference tournament. We were able to play against some tough competition.
