CEVA Regional Championship
April 30, 2006 @ The Courts - Beaverton, OR

The season ended for the Cowlitz 14 Red at the Regional Championship Tournament at the Courts in Beaverton on Sunday, April 30th. Although the win/loss record might not be what we wished for, the coaches were very pleased with the team’s efforts and level of play. It was shades of the Yakima tournament, where the girls played with such heart and tenacity! The team hit hard, passed and set well, and played awesome defense. It was definitely one of our better tournaments!

We started the day playing the Blues Performance 14-1 with scores of 15-25, 25-10, 11-15. Red was led by strong serving from Erin Bate, Jill Isaacson, and Kylie Moses and aggressive hitting from Hannah Johnson and Amanda Littlefield. 

Next, we met the hard hitting team of Bridgetown 14 Navy. We lost a heartbreaker 25-15, 16-25, 14-16. It was an intense match with some great rallies. Ashley Moore did an outstanding job on serve receive and was aggressive at the net with numerous hard-driven hits, four of which were kills. Jane Foreman also had great net play and hit with zero errors!

Our third set of the day was against Lakeside 14 Gold. We fell in two, 9-25, 24-26. Our big hitters for the match were Lexi Vogel, Amanda, and Ashley.

We finished our day against our rivals PVC 14 Yellow who we can just never quite pull it together to beat. We were defeated 25-23, 21-25, 7-15. Cowlitz was led by the impressive defense of Katie Reichert and Sarilee Rybar, the powerful hitting of Kylie, Lexi, and Hannah, and the tough serving of Amanda and Kylie. It was a great match and it was good to see the team end their season playing well, playing hard, playing smart, and playing together.

For the day, Jane was our top server, serving 100%. Kylie was next with 93% and Lexi a close third with 92%. Kylie led the team in aces with 11, and Erin and Jill each had 9. Our top hitters were Hannah with 9 kills, and Ashley and Lexi with 8 apiece. Ashley was our most consistent serve receiver for the tournament.

The Cowlitz 14 Red’s season was both successful and enjoyable. We slowly climbed the ranks of the 77 teams in the 14s division. We started at 48 and ended at 29, playing teams that were either all 8th graders or 8th graders with a few 7th graders thrown in. Not bad for a bunch of shrimpy 7th graders! In terms of enjoyable, Coach Johnson doesn’t call them “The Dream Team” for nothing! We were blessed with a group of girls who were hard-working, coachable, respectful, kind, and supportive of each other. There was very little, if any, conflict on this team and not one girl would put herself above the others. We didn’t ever hear any complaints or whining. All of this is highly unusual when you throw together ten 12 and 13 year old girls! Furthermore, due to their work ethic, each and every girl has improved tremendously since we first met back in December. We are so very proud of you, girls! Each of you earned and deserved The Coaches’ Award!

The other awards, which were voted on by the girls themselves, went to Jane Foreman for Most Improved, Lexi Vogel for Most Inspirational, and Jill Isaacson for Most Valuable. Congratulations, girls!

Another reason why this was such an enjoyable season is because of the 14 Red parents! Thank you so much for your support and help. We appreciate each of you very much!

Although our season together has come to a close, we look forward to the coming years as each of you has a bright future in the world of volleyball. It will be fun to see you facing each other across the net! We know that you all will be very successful and are proud that we played a small part in this.

Pre-Regional Tournament
April 23, 2006 @ Longview, WA

It was a beautiful day ... we saw beautiful play. The Cowlitz Reds were back! The last 2 tournaments we just didn't have our flow, pass-set-hit ... our game wasn't clicking! This Sunday, the girls came ready to play. They were on fire. Started out strong attacking the ball, playing defense, and power serving. The Red's looked good!

In pool play we easily defeated the Sunset Apollo and Evergreen Club teams. Our biggest challenge was to play Camas Ohana. They had rocket servers. The girls adjusted their serve receive and passed the ball up right to target. Impressive ... bullet serves don't scare these girls. They love the feeling of the ball blasting their forearms. They love to sacrifice their bodies for this game. This was our most aggressive match of the day. Our outside hitters were on fire. Ashley was unstoppable. Everything she touched went down ... hard. Jill was confident and made solid contact attacking the ball. Amanda had a tough job hitting through a strong middle block. She kept attacking with creativity to defeat their defense, tipping ... hitting the angles ... etc. Sarilee passed beautifully and moved all over the court. We love seeing her do libero dives.

Highlight of the tourney we finally had the opportunity to play against Cowlitz Purple ... we were never in the same pool with them during any tourneys all year. This was a fun match. Purple served great, attacked the ball, made us work hard. Luckily, everything meshed together for us. Hannah & Erin made beautiful sets to our hitters, and both girls attacked and hit from the right side. Their defense was phenomenal. Kylie tipped and hit aggressively and provided a string of clutch serves to help us to victory in 2 sets.

We now faced Cowlitz Blue. Third times a charm. Victory was ours. They've beat us 2 times prior. They missed serves and we capitalized. Our defense was incredible ... they hit cross-angles, tipped, nothing hit the floor. We dug everything. Lexi was everywhere on the floor ... she attacked at the net, hit and flicked that wrist bringing the ball down. Again, Ashley had beautiful defensive saves. She had a fabulous day on the court. We took them in two as well. We made it to the finals. (Little sisters earned some bragging rights.)

Our opponent was another Evergreen team. They had defeated the tough Camas team. They were scrappy. We defeated them easily the first set. They came back and rallied the second game. Our team play began to fall apart ... we had communication lapses, and service errors. Evergreen fought hard to take the 2nd set. We now had to play three. We had no flow. They played tired ... a pattern they've shown all year. Play great all day but by afternoon the energy is gone. The same strategy that worked all day for us wasn't clicking this match. Evergreen rallied to defeat us. We hit and they dug. They served. We missed. Playing a quick game to 15 ... it's hard to come back and win if you get in a hole. So we suffered a disappointing loss. The team, coaches, and parents were a little bummed! We wanted t-shirts!

The girls played great all day. Feel proud. They are so much fun to watch! They are positive, energetic, and enthusiastic. We are a great team! It's sad, only one week left. Boo-hoo!

Sunday's contributions:
Superior serving: Katie, Jane, Amanda, Kylie and Lexi.
Dominating Defense: Hannah, Erin, Katie, Ashley, Jill, and Sarilee.
Heralded Hitting: Ashley, Amanda, Lexi, Erin, Jill
Everyone had terrific moments!
*Ashley had great all-around play. This was her tournament!

Power League - April
CONTENDER DIVISION
April 8, 2006 @ The Courts - Beaverton, OR

Cowlitz 14 Red played at The Courts in Beaverton on Saturday. There were many ups and quite a few downs at this final Power League, and we only were able to win one match. It just wasn't our day, and we definitely didn't play our usual game. We started out slow, losing to the Suns 13-15, 22-25. Next, we were defeated by Webfoot 22-25, 21-25. Finally, we experienced a victory over West Valley 25-20, 25-23. Then, after a long break, we lost to Blue 25-14, 22-25, 8-15. In our final match, we again faced West Valley, but this time came out short 12-25.

Jane Forman had a great tournament, playing all-around and doing it all well. Sarilee Rybar and Katie Reichert did an awesome job playing a new position for the first time! They both stepped up to the plate and were very consistent. Sarilee excelled at serve receive and Katie did a fantastic job hitting! Our two setters, Hannah Johnson and Erin Bate, did an outstanding job on defense. Lexi Vogel worked hard to improve her game throughout the day, becoming much more aggressive at the net. Kylie Moses was a strong hitter, hitting hard from both the front and back row and hitting all over the opponent’s court. Amanda Littlefield was again our number one server, serving for 95% with 10 aces!

We are off for two weeks and next play at the Pre-Regional Tournament in Longview on April 23rd. I am confident we will be back on track at this tournament. These girls are too competitive not to bounce back and come out fighting!

Mid-Season Tournament
March 19, 2006 @ Longview, WA

Well, well, well! It was great to see the scrappy Cowlitz 14 Reds return to their normal high level of play this past Sunday in Longview! After our disappointing showing at our last Power League, the team came fired up and started strong, finished strong, and played consistently well all day long. We opened against a much improved Cowlitz Gold team. It was a hard fought match on both sides, but Red prevailed 25-20, 25-21. Our opponents passed the ball really well, and it was much more difficult to defeat them this time. Jane Forman had 4 key kills for us, while Kylie Moses was great on serve receive.

We played the Rebels in set two, and again were victorious with scores of 25-11, 25-11. Lexi Vogel was instrumental in this game with her strong serving. At the net, Jane and Lexi each had 4 kills. Our next set was against the number 8 ranked Mt. Hood team. This team could hit the ball! We lost in two 18-25, 24-26 but fought hard the entire set. Amanda Littlefield was on fire with 6 kills and 3 aces. Both she and Lexi had super serving streaks that kept us in the set until the very end.

Next, we came up against number 4 ranked Nike Northwest Jrs, and believe me, it wasn't hard to see why they are the number 4 team out of the ninety U14 teams in the area! Not only do they pound the ball, but their defense is phenomenal! We didn't make it easy for them, however. Alas, we were no match for their size and strength, and we fell 13-25, 19-25. Katie Reichert was a standout with her tough serving. She also had 2 assists and Erin Bate had 3.

Our fifth set was against Sapphire, which we handily beat 25-21, 25-5. Jill Issacson was a serving dynamo with 11 aces! No matter what they tried, they could not break her serve! Our three setters, Katie, Erin, and Hannah Johnson all had 2 assists apiece. With this set, we expanded our setting repertoire with the set up of 2 back row attacks, the first purposeful ones of the season! Kylie and Sarilee Rybar were both intimidating factors behind that 10 foot line!

We ended the long day, splitting with Canby 25-22, 19-25. We played well, but just couldn't push them over the edge. Amanda and Kylie were our power hitters this set with Erin having 4 assists.

All in all, it was a good day and the team can take pride in their level of play. There was a huge improvement over last weekend! It was great to have Ashley Moore back as she has been sorely missed. Ashley hit well today with only 1 hitting error the entire day! It was also great to see Kylie hitting so smart with 10 kills, Jane hitting for 10 kills, Hannah and Erin playing awesome defense, Katie serving tough and consistent and hitting the ball hard, Jill serving for 98%, Lexi serving for 97%, Sarilee covering that back line rolling this way and that, and Amanda getting numerous touches on the block and having 15 kills for the day! Boy howdy, can that girl jump! It is exciting how the team has gelled together and continues to improve. It is gratifying to hear other coaches and our opponents' parents praise our girls for their strong fundamentals and their amazing defense. They listen well, they work hard, and they always give it their all! Way to go, girls!

I couldn't end without again thanking our awesome group of parents, especially the spirit-gum-chewing, stat-taking Mommies! You all are truly the best!

Power League - March
CONTENDER DIVISION
March 11, 2006 @ Camas High School - Camas, WA

March 11 the girls journeyed to Camas High School to play in their first Contender Division Power League after moving up from Conquest in February. Camas was a beautiful campus, the main court was beautiful. The cafeteria was spacious with a "cafe" atmosphere, perfect for the girls to spread out their camp ... food, bags, blankets, and coolers. Then we moved upstairs to play our first match.

We played in the side-annexed gyms. They were tiny. We had no end line on one side and a foot on the other with a portable wall. There was little room to move to serve and to play scrappy defense, not the best conditions for volleyball. It would be a lesson in what type of flexibility we had as individuals and as a team. Were we capable of adjusting to the challenge?

Nope.

We were off and on all day. Our serving game was non-existent ... we have a lot of deep servers who need that extra space to get the power serves over. So the girls took the power off serves to make sure it was in the court, making an easy receive for our opponents. We hit easy balls out, made a lot of mental mistakes, and failed to communicate with our teammates as we played. We played tired, no "Oomph!" This was so unlike our team. We've been competitive all season. This shocked us a little.

As frustrated as we were, we then realized "Hey, we moved up a Power League!" We were doing all right. We were on fire at our Yakima tourney, we expected to pick up where we left off. We belong in this division ... when our game is collaborative and back in-sync, we'll do fine.

We played Webfoot Jrs., Bridgetown, and Suncats in pool play in the morning. Again, we were inconsistent, did some things well but just couldn't pull away with victory. We had a lot of 3-set matches.

As the afternoon approached, our goal was to improve our caliber of play. We did. We played against Nike NW on the main court and our team had returned. We looked good. The best part of winning this match was ... WE DIDN'T HAVE TO REF! YAHOOEY!

We played our last match against Lakeside and had a close set to 25 and the lights went out. It was a sign representing our dreary performance all day. It summarized how the tourney went for us. But, boy did we look good with our pre-game struts, cheers, chants, and dance moves. Whoo! You knew the "Spunky chicks of Cowlitz RED." If they weren't talking about us, they sure were listening to us.

We don't want to make excuses for ourselves. We'll take this experience as athletes and learn from it. We'll focus next time and improve. We can ... we are the awesome, athletic Cowlitz 14 Reds.

The team decided we didn't play our game ... because our "Good-Luck Charm" ... teammate Ashley Moore was home sick with fever and flu. We missed you Ashley!

Northwest Junior Jamboree
February 25 & 26, 2006 @ Yakima, WA

Bring it on! Cowlitz 14 Red Competes with the Best! The Little Red Team that Could!

Bring it on! That was the phrase for our weekend in Yakima. We were placed in a tough pool with the top 14-year-old teams in the region, a variety of talented competition. Our girls were ready. They always rise to the challenge and Yakima was no exception. Bring it on!

As we walked into Selah High School, our necks cringed looking up at the tall girls we would soon face. How did we get in this pool? Everyone was huge and looked grown up. We looked teeny! You know why? We earned it!

Never let our size fool you, our Cascade opponent soon discovered. We shook hands to begin the set, our tallest player was smaller than their shortest player. Bring it on! They were confident they could take us 14's easily. Not true. We played smart defense, great serve receive, and all our good stuff. Literally! We had our first stuff block of the season thanks to Amanda Littlefield. Jaws dropped. Cascade was awe-struck. We defeated them in 3. We played our game and took Cascade out of theirs. We were noticed. Not for our size but our play. Look at that scrappy red team. It continued through pool play. We played our hearts out to a 2-2 record. WE TOOK 2nd IN OUR POOL! We were 12 & 13 year olds playing against fantastic 8th grade Amazon women.

After each match, no matter who we played, coaches, officials, and parents complimented our team. "How old are these girls? They are terrific! Nothing hits the floor! How do they do that? Not again, they dug another one! What hustle!" We were the talk of the gym, everybody's favorite underdog. As coaches, it sure made us feel great to be able to have concrete evidence to share with our girls. We were bragging about them, to them all weekend.

The compliments meant a lot for other reasons. We were playing against excellent teams. Instead of playing rat-ball. We upped our level of play. We had more block touches with our middle blockers Amanda, Lexi, and Jane, than any other tourney. Hannah even contributed in our blocking effort. She was so excited. Our defense was phenomenal. We were digging up hard-hit balls. Ashley performed a perfect "pancake" save. Impressive! Kylie and Jill worked keeping those cross-court attacks from hitting the floor. Boom-dig! Sarilee, Lexi, and Amanda were covering the seams and working the back court. Our setters Hannah, Erin, and Katie all had saves from the net and covered tips expertly. They were exactly where they were supposed to be. This frustrated their opponents. We ruined their kill percentages.

Our serve receive was impressive. We got down on ourselves because our passing was off a bit. But it wasn't because we were passing bad ... our opponents were serving so good. They were making us work. Bring it on! We always adjusted and won the ball back. Teams were serving bullets to our weak spots and holes. The girls had nice red forearms after Saturday and Sunday.

At the start of bracket play we played a strong Olympia team. This was our worst match of the tourney. We were a little shell-shocked. They had a strong offense running a variety of sets from the middle, back, & outside. It was a volleyball Pearl Harbor. We didn't pass as well as we could and gave them overfeed passes which they utilized every time. Attack! Attack! Attack! We had reached the "Big Time." But instead of giving up, they used it as a teachable match to learn what to do as a team, regarding defense, hitter's and blocker's coverage, etc...They were not scared of the hitters though. That was wonderful to see. Bring it on!

Sunday morning we played against the tournament 14 champions, North Idaho Volleyball Club. These girls could play. We loved watching them. We went 2 sets against them. We were within a respectable point range with each game. We encouraged the girls that would be them after some more growth. Idaho could hit the ball. We attacked and hit but played timid at times at the net, as was the case throughout the tourney. We'll work on more confidence in our attack. It's hard with short bodies on a 7'4" net. We were blocked more this weekend than others before. Again, it was an opportunity to practice our roll, chip, and tip shots, including angled hits.

We served well both days. Lexi, Jane, Kylie, Jill, and Amanda were our top servers, each with several key point rolls. Ashley, Erin, Hannah, and Katie all contributed valuable points throughout the tourney as well and improved their percentages. Sarilee has 100% serving! Way to go girl!

The highlight of the tourney was when we moved to Selah Middle School and took on Cowlitz 14 Black. We were pumped to play. We all wanted it so badly. Bring it on! The adrenaline was pumping in our guts, coaches and fans included. These girls love competition and the challenge towards victory. Unfortunately, we just couldn't take them down. The energy on the court after 2 days of hard, physical play was incredible. These ladies were something special, losing a hard-fought match in 2 sets.

The 2006 Yakima Tournament was the best playing experience for our team. It brought up our level of play. It exposed us to quality teams, and gave us practice with those areas we had not seen yet. The tournament resulted in Cowlitz 14 Red tying for 15th, Cowlitz 14 Blue taking 11th, and Cowlitz 14 Black taking 14th. Not bad for Southwest Washington. Not bad for us ... the only all 7th grade team in our pool. Power League is in Camas, March 11th. All we can say is BRING IT ON!

*Check out the pictures on the Website. Very fun! Thanks Mr. Rybar! Any other families with great pictures, please send to Erik Guttormsen via the Cowlitz Website.

Power League - February
CONQUEST DIVISION
February 12, 2006 @ The Courts - Beaverton, OR

All the other teams were seeing red at the Courts in Beaverton because the mighty Cowlitz 14 Reds came to play. Undefeated in morning pool play, the team ended up placing 2nd in the division. We began the day by scaling the Mt. Hood team. Cowlitz Red won 25-14, 26-24 behind the strong serving of Amanda Littlefield and the impressive hitting of Jill Isaacson and Kylie Moses. Our second match, against West Valley Jrs., went three sets with Red prevailing 23-25, 25-17, 15-8. Standouts in this match were Kylie with 6 kills, Amanda with 3, and setters Erin Bate, Hannah Johnson, and Katie Reichert who did an amazing job feeding our hitters. Our setters always give it their all and aggressively go after every second ball. They were by far the best setters in the gym. In our last match of morning pool play, Cowlitz Red came from behind to beat Cascade Jrs. 25-21, 26-24. Lexi Vogel was instrumental in the second set comeback through her consistently tough serving. Ashley Moore and Jane Forman were all over the place, showing terrific court sense and hustle.

In afternoon bracket play, Red took it to Canby 25-23, 25-19. Amanda led the way serving bullet after bullet as she did match after match. She leads the team in serving percentage and had 12 aces for the day! Sarilee Rybar was a standout passer, and Jill again showed her amazing skill as a defender. Jill had some incredible digs today, and the one in this match knocked the breath clean out of her and wowed the crowd. She crashed over a teammate diving out of bounds, but most importantly, the ball sailed over the net and fell to our opponent’s floor! Way to sacrifice the bod, Jill! How are those bruises? Do you have matching ones on both hips now?

Finally, it was time for the championship match against PVC Yellow. Both teams were impressive on defense and serve receive, and there were numerous hard fought, crowd pleasing rallies. Sadly, PVC edged us out 24-26, 25-18, 15-9. Erin, Hannah, and Jill kept us in the match with their serving to key positions, and Kylie again was a dominant force at the net.

This bunch of scrappers really should take great pride in today’s play. Every athlete has improved tremendously since our first turnout in December. We are starting to really gel as a team, and our defense and court movement can attest to that. Other coaches and our opponents’ parents have praised our consistent passing. One coach even went so far as to tell us that they learn how to play defense by watching us! This team can really cover the court! Today, we played with heart, drive, and perseverance. Many times, we came from behind to put the game away. These girls hate to lose and do everything in their power to win, never giving up. You were fun to watch today, girls, and we are so very proud of you! Keep up the hard work! It is really paying off!

Athletes Corner Tournament
February 5, 2006 @ Lower Columbia College - Longview, WA

Super Bowl Sunday ... Seahawks ... Steelers ... Lower Columbia College ... Cowlitz 14's Red ... both intense, competitive, exciting, with exceptional athletes. Where would you rather be? Detroit or Longview? Our fans knew ... Southwest Washington, Mykelbust Gym ... Where else?

Our girls walked on the court immediately to face a tough Apollo team. Apollo ran an impressive offense. The "Reds" game was off from the start, but once they warmed up, all aspects of our game came in sync. Unfortunately, it was a hole a little too deep. Despite all our efforts, we couldn't put points on the board. Kind of like the 4th quarter for the Seahawks. We lost 16-25, 20-25.

Next, we challenged Cowlitz Gold. As the game progressed we served, passed, and played "quick-feet" defense. It took 3 sets to win the match. We took the first set 25-19, lost the second,17-25, and dominated the third set 15-7.

The next challenger was IVRVC - from Hood River. This was a nail-biter. We dominated the first set 25-15. The second set was a different story. We had sloppy play, lacked communication, let balls drop between players (BIG NO-NO), and made some unforced errors. The coaching staff didn't sugarcoat their disappointment. Hood River took advantage and won the second set 24-26.

We burrowed into another hole and were down 0-8 the last game, then ... whammo! The girls showed "heart" and pulled it together as a team, with encouragement, discipline, and determination to win the set and the match 17-15. WOW! ... the power of teamwork on the court & on the bench!

Now, overflowing with enthusiasm and excitement, they were playing their game. We played a tough Cascade Jr. team. It was a ping-pong match ... we'd go ahead ... they'd push ahead ... we'd get a point ... they'd get a side out. We lost the first set 26-27, only due to the point cap. Bummer! That got the team riled up. You didn't mess with them. Now, the Cowlitz Reds were playing volleyball. The last 2 sets we dominated 25-16 and 15-8. This was more like it.

The final match of the day we played the Suncats, and our best set of the day. We played beautifully! First set wowed the crowd 25-9. Second set, our level of play plummeted. Again, we lacked consistent play, a recurring theme for the day. Suncats defeated us 12-25. The third set we missed serves and had several missed opportunities to take control, and Suncats stepped up and played well. We fought hard. It was a tough loss 12-15. The girls kept their chins up and showed Cowlitz Pride. We need to work on consistency, ending tough, and not tiring at the end of a tourney. Come on, we're 12 or 13 years old! We have all the energy in the world ... right girls? Giggle ... giggle!

Individual Summaries:

Roethlisberger? Hasslebeck? Randle El? I think not! Bate, Johnson and Reichert were our quarterbacks on the court. After a shaky start ... they turned up the volume, communicated to the passers, hitters, and assisted to many kill attempts. They set to our "hot" hitters and had some tricky "dumps" our opponents did NOT appreciate. It's exciting to see their "court sense" improve each time they play. How lucky we are to have such strong, assertive, aggressive athletes at the core of our offense.

Defense? Forget about Tutupa! ... We have Rybar,Johnson, Vogel, Isaacson and Moses, rolling, diving, sprawling on the wood, anything to keep that ball in play. Football players think they're tough ... but our girls have the bumps & bruises to prove it ... Bring it on!

Bring it on is exactly what our offense did Sunday ... forget about Alexander, we had Littlefield springing our attack into motion ...18 kills for the day (impressive) ... Johnson followed closely with 8 perfectly placed kills. Isaacson, Moore, and Moses were machines, continuously in motion with hard-hit attacks, causing our opponents to scramble.

Touchdowns? ... Who needs them when you have 1/2 your team serving 90% or better at a volleyball tournament. Reichert (100%), Littlefield, Moses (7 aces), Forman, Moore, and Isaacson (17 aces) all contributed to a great day of team serving effort. Awesome!

Our offensive line, the middle blockers, continue to impress. Forman, Littlefield, and Vogel, have fancy footwork, get to the ball, and show improvement with block-timing each match.

Rybar was the "go-to" girl. She read the opponent's hits and would "go-to" the ball, left ... right ... forward ... backward. The opposing hitters learned to NOT "go-to" her. She was everywhere!

We love our girls ... we thank our parents ... all good sports about being in the gym on Super Bowl Sunday ... headphones and all ... parent statisticians ... terrific day! Bring on Power League! We're up for the challenge!

Go COWLITZ RED!

Power League Qualifier
January 22, 2006 @ Portland State University - Portland, OR

The mighty Cowlitz 14 Red was impressive this Sunday in Power League at Portland State University. This bunch of hardworking, intense athletes were younger, shorter, and pounds lighter than every opponent they faced. In morning pool play, to paraphrase Survivor’s motto, the team out-hustled, out-played, and out-scored their first two opponents. In the opening match, we handily beat North Clackamas 25-14, 25-16. In match two, we defeated Locos 25-18, 25-20. Sadly though, we fell to Clark County Juniors in a three game heartbreaker 25-22, 23-25, 13-15. All morning long, there wasn’t a better serve-receiving team than us! It was truly amazing! Our opponents served hard bullets at us and, “pop,” up to target most passes would go. Our defensive movement was excellent, and as a result, we had numerous impressive digs. Jane Forman and Hannah Johnson both went after balls with a vengeance and a roll! Sarilee Rybar had many impressive digs! One in particular comes to memory when one beefy hitter drilled it at her, and Sarilee passed it like it was a free ball! ! Jill Isaacson had another memorable, interesting dig - I’ll call it the bounce pass, like in basketball! I have never seen anything like it in all my years of volleyball. Ask her about it!

In afternoon pool play, we came on strong winning our first match against Cascade Juniors 25-23. After that, we just kind of ran out of gas! We didn’t have the same energy and just didn’t move as well as we had earlier in the day. We lost to Mount Hood 19-25 and then to West Valley Juniors 16-25.

Overall, the Cowlitz 14 Red had a great showing at their first appearance at 14’s Power League. We as coaches are so proud of your growth, efforts, and camaraderie, both on and off the court. Every single player should be pleased with how they played. Our three middle blockers, Amanda Littlefield, Lexi Vogel, and Jane Forman, each had multiple touches on the block, with Amanda having three in one play! Amanda had great net play, as both a blocker and a hitter. As mentioned previously, our serve receive was spectacular with Jill Isaacson and Ashley Moore passing extremely well all day long! A standout hitter was Kylie Moses who had numerous kills, many of which were hard-driven spikes. Setters Erin Bate and Hannah Johnson did a magnificent job getting to most every second ball and putting the ball up in just the right place for our hitters. As a team, we met one of our team goals of keeping that third hit in play! Among other things, that accounted for much of our success in morning pool play. Furthermore, our serving was much improved over last tournament! One match, we didn’t miss a serve! (I bought you all ice cream sandwiches to celebrate.) A few servers deserve special mention: Katie Reichert went the entire day without missing a single serve! Way to go, Katie! Katie also served tough and racked up a ton of aces! Lexi Vogel, Ashley Moore, and Kylie Moses each only missed one serve for the day, and Erin Bate did an amazing job serving tough to specific positions. Although long and tiring, all and all it was a good day, and we have much to be proud of! Way to go, BIG Red! (And I say the “big” with tongue in cheek!)

Well, I think it is definitely time to sign off! I seem to be a little punchy as I read back over this, and as it is fast approaching 11:00 p.m. Sunday night, and the day began at 5:30 a.m. I cannot close, however, without saying a HUGE “Thank You” to the best group of parents around. We so appreciate your support and encouragement! You should be doubly proud of your daughters! Not only are they superior athletes, but they are a classy bunch of young ladies. There is not a negative bone in any of their lean bodies! The credit goes to you for how you are raising them. They are kind, cheerful, and yes, a bit goofy, and they do a tremendous job encouraging each other. And so…THANK YOU, PARENTS and good night!

Pre-Qualifier Tournament
January 8, 2006 @ Longview, WA

The Cowlitz 14 Reds began their journey into Volleyball Land Sunday, January 8, in the township of Longview, WA, at the court of Olympic Elementary School. Our team has representatives from the kingdoms of Ridgefield, Castle Rock, Kelso, and Longview. This was our first tourney of the year. We had several goals in mind ... get the girls playing together ... get used to our rotation ... get any nervousness out of our system ... and to experiment with our line-up. The Fellowship has begun.

Our first match of pool play was against a dominating Rose City Team. They were impressive. So were we. We started off slow ... missed serves, sloppy passing, unforced errors. Cowlitz lost the first set. By the second set, our nerves were under control and we were a force Rose City had to reckon with. We improved with each point, but with weak serving, Cowlitz was unable to come up with a win. Our defense improved, the girls hustled and began attacking the ball, shocking our opponent.

The second match was against Camas Ohana, a hard serving team. We saw improvement with each set once again. We serve-received beautifully, right to target. We defended our court with spectacular digs, aggressive net play, nail-biting rallies, and awesome setting. Once again, we came up short by only a few points each game to lose the match. The girls were upping their level of play.

The third match placed us against West Valley of Beaverton. Finally we had all aspects of our game in-sync. We served well, attacked, defended, and passed with pinpoint accuracy. The team was working the court, adjusting their floor placement for each opposing server and hitter, and defending the ball. They were looking good. We looked as if we were playing together for years instead of a month. This time victory belonged to the 14 Reds.

The highlight of our afternoon was when we played against the Cowlitz 14 Blue's. This match pitted sisters against sisters, literally. Our "sevvies" wanted victory so bad we could taste it. We thought we were were going to take the match, but couldn't reach that 25th point ahead of the 8th graders. It was close, only losing by 2 points for the decision ... a familiar tune we heard all day.

Each player deserves recognition for great team play in the Pre-Qualifier. Lexi Vogel, Amanda Littlefield, and Jane Forman did a great job middle blocking and attacking at the net. As the season progresses they'll become more familiar with their positions. We need to get the ball to them more on the attack and when we do, they will be an intimidating force for our opponents, with their agility and natural athletic abilities.

Hannah Johnson, Erin Bate, and Katie Reichert were the floor directors, our setters. Yahoo! We saw wonderful ball movement, attempting to set all 3 hitting positions. All went to the second ball and communicated well. They played awesome defense and were the core of our offense. They were dare-devils with those sneaky dumps.

Jill Isaacson, Kylie Moses, and Ashley Moore were our outside hitters. Attack! Attack! Attack! All contributed kills, tips, down-balls, and what we loved best ... limited "free" balls. These hitters were steady on defense as well, as all three came up with clutch plays and dynamic saves each match! Keep it up girls! We need their aggressiveness.

Sarilee Rybar was the lone libero in the gym (until Cowlitz Blue arrived). The little girl in the white shirt was a mighty passing force. She came in, then out, in again, out again, each time getting the job done ... getting the pass to our setters. Incredible digs, dives, you name it ... that was Sarilee.

Our first tournament was a success. We definitely have room for improvement. It was great to see what we could do. We met the challenge. Expect to see great things from this fellowship of girls, the Cowlitz 14 Reds.