Power League - February
CLASSIC DIVISION
February 11, 2007 @ Hudson's Bay HS - Vancouver, WA

We traveled to Hudson's Bay High School in Vancouver on February 11th for our Power League tourney. Our playing format for the Classic Division was a 5-team pool.

We had a bit of a slow start but steadily improved during the day -- Canby who took the match in two (14-25; 18-25); then Rebel 14 Gray who won (12-25; 17-25); then turned things around in a great match against Kingsmen (19-25; 25-16; 15-7) and finished in another tie-breaker vs. Scappoose (28-26 -- WOW; 18-25; 9-15 - darn!)

Even though throughout the day we struggled with serve receive (it's tough to recover when too many points are lost on serve receive, but that gives us a goal -- to improve that skill together!) we got better and better which showed in the last two awesome matches. It was a thriller winning 28-26 against Scappoose. Everyone put out a lot of effort during the day; some standouts were: Talisa Swanson who really stepped up her passing and serving to make a very positive contribution during the day; Chantal Grothen who served bullets and made some beautiful sets, giving our hitters an opportunity to attack; Chloe Udd who tallied up a number of much needed blocks; Brittany Balderee who found the key to passing at our last tourney and continued to make some terrific target passes which our setters greatly appreciated; and Mykenzie Johnson who worked hard on her serve last practice and boy, did it show - she really improved. We had glimpses of some picture perfect pass-set-hit combos and looking forward to more of them in future matches. Our serving stats continue to improve as a team and when we become more consistent, we'll give our opponents a much tougher battle. The team also accomplished one other very important thing - as a group they got the pre-match celebration (on the floor - slapping the court - hand-jive thing) down pat.

We're very proud of the girls' continuing efforts to learn and improve upon team defense, serving and attempts to step up the offense. We've had some great practices (lots of effort on the team's part) which will pay off in the long run. Looking forward to the rest of the season - keep up the good work, girls!!!