Pre-Festival Tournament
June 17-18, 2006 @ Longview, WA

Asics went undefeated Sunday to win the Longview Pre-Festival Tourney in Longview. "It was nice to see everything come together and play as a team".

We started out the day winning six straight games in pool play; Apollo Black 25-8, 25-8; PVC Teal 25-20, 25-15; and North Clackamas 15's Gold 25-20, 25-15. We got to see how well Ellen Payne could set. I think she could be a good setter with some training. Heather Shulke got to play middle blocker (Wow!) and Ashley Bjorum libero. Rebecca Haight and KC Schmit did a nice job hitting outside. When Denali Preston got good passes, she would put the ball on the money for our hitters.

Bracket play was a little tougher. We started out beating Cascade Excel 25-19, 25-16; PVC White 25-21, 17-25, 16-14; and Northwest Storm 25-23, 25-23. Tara Anderson did a great job putting up a block against these tougher teams and Cayden Gaston, recovering from a car accident, played well. This was a great warm-up for us before traveling to the Volleyball Festival next week. We are looking forward to competing well and having fun! This is a great group of girls who have worked hard all year to improve their skills and their knowledge of the game. It has been very rewarding watching this team "grow".

Way to go Cowlitz 16's Asics ... you are awesome!

Kent Juniors Tournament
18-U DIVISION
June 10-11, 2006 @ Kentwood HS - Covington, WA

16's Asics stepped up a notch this weekend and played in an 18's tourney. We finish third in the silver division. The pool play format was two games to 25. We started out with WVBA 16 Black 14-25, 21-25; KJVBC 17's Baden 25-22, 19-25; and NW Jrs. 16 Storm 23-25, 27-25. Asics won the first round of bracket play against High Velocity 18 Black 13-25, 25-20, 15-6. We missed playing in the championship game by two points. We lost to WVBA 15 Black 25-20, 18-25, 17-19.

Stats for the tourney were: Denali Preston led the team in aces with 5 and a 90% serving average. Tara Anderson had 4 aces and had the highest serve receive passing average along with Ellen Payne at 1.67 Ellen also led the team in blocks with 4 and had a hitting efficiency of .257. Rebecca Haight led in kills with 25 but KC Schmit was the hottest hitter with a hitting efficiency of .294. Ashley Bjorum had the top serving average at 91% and Heather Shulke had the most serve receive balls (29).

Jaws and I were happy to see improvement in our serving game and some hitting plays. We adjusted well with Cayden gone this weekend and hope she will be back soon. We miss her. Our next tourney will be in Longview next Sunday and then on to RENO.

Emerald City Classic
16'S OPEN DIVISION
May 27, 28 & 29, 2006 @ University of Washington - Seattle, WA

Asics 16's had their best tournament of the year this weekend. Seeded 14th out of 40 teams in the Open Division and another 40 in the Club Division, this was by far the toughest tournament we have played in this year. There were teams from Brazil, British Columbia, Idaho, California, Arizona, Maryland, Oregon and Washington. Yes, they play volleyball in Brazil. Ask Tara what happens when you block their On Hand hitter! WOW! They have 4 players that have been invited to play with the Brazilian junior national team in July. Minas Tenis Clube came to win and they did. They didn't lose a single set all weekend!

Asics went 4 & 4 for the tournament and finished higher than any team from our region. After a tough first day the team started to gel on Sunday and put together a 4 match run to finish 5th out of 80 16's. All of our matches were close except the one with the Champs:

Nike Power : 25-21, 21-25, 6-15
WVBA : 22-25, 21-25
PSVBC 15 Gold : 22-25, 25-23, 12-15
Spokane Sky : 18-25, 25-16, 15-7
PSVBC 16 Silver : 25-15, 25-18
Webfoot Gold : 25-19, 26-24
Minas 16's White : 10-25, 16-25

The team averaged 90% serving with Tara Anderson leading the team with 10 aces and Rebecca Haight 8 aces. Denali Preston averaged 93% serving with 7 aces and 112 assists. KC Schmit had 20 kills and 4 digs. Rebecca had 63 kills, 15 digs and a 2.00 serve receive average. Ellen Payne had 5 aces, 3 blocks and 20 kills. Tara led the team with 8 blocks and had 5 kills. Ashley Bjorum had 91% serving with 5 aces and she had 5 kills from the back row. Cayden Gaston, our new right-side player, had 2 aces, 2 blocks, 11 kills, 4 assists and 8 digs for her first tournament with the team. Thanks for giving the rest of us the opportunity to finish the season. Heather Shulke, our Libero, had 46 digs and a 2.30 serve receive average and she also had 7 kills.

Jaws and I are excited about the rest of the season. Keep up the hard work.

CEVA Regional Championship
GOLD / SILVER DIVISION
April 22 & 23, 2006 @ The Courts - Beaverton, OR

Cowlitz Asics played their Regional Tournament at The Courts in Beaverton, Or. Cowlitz Asics was seeded second in the number one pool and finish tied for seventh at the end of the weekend.

Our first match on Saturday was against Corvallis Black, the number three seed in our pool. KC Schmit started us off with an ace serve and we never looked back. Kaylie Dobbins played middle and served well in the match. KC and Kaylie are getting better everyday that they are on the court. They have that eagerness to learn all they can from us. That's what every coach wants to see in their players. Denali Preston set both games winning 25-20, 25-21.

Webfoot Gold gave us a tough first game, 27-25 and the second game we cruised to a 25-15 win. Andrea DeRosier's serves are getting more consistent. Andrea has been working on her serves and it has been a big improvement. Ellen Payne is our "giant" on our team. When we get into trouble she is one of our go-to people who gets the job done. Ellen played well at the net all weekend.

Our third match of the day was against the number one seed in the tournament, Nike Air Elite. We all know why they are the number one seed ... they're huge and they jump. Practicing three times a week and going to major tournaments all over the states will do that to you. It was our only loss of the day 7-25, 16-25.

Our first round of bracket play was against Locos of Estacada. This match would put the winner in the Gold eight and the loser in the Silver eight. This was a good match with two evenly matched teams. We had a two hour lay-off and then had to play a good team to stay in contention for first place. We wanted to get done early so Denali could get to the Prom on time. Naturally it would go three, but we won 25-22, 23-25, and 15-10.

I'm not sure what the guy was thinking that dreamed up this format but here we are playing Nike again in the first round of the elite eight. As I said, they are good, beating us 9-25, 14-25.

The best match of the tournament was Asics against Lakeside. Asics won the first game 25-20 behind the hitting of Rebecca Haight and KC Schmit and Tara Anderson at the net. Tara is one of our smaller middles but she has that ability to read hitters and she gets a lot of blocks. The second game, Lakeside came out fired up and blew us out 11-25. It is imperative to get a good start in the third game, playing only to 15, but that didn't happen. We switched sides at 3-8. The score was somewhere around 5-11 when Jaws put Ashley Bjorum in to serve. The momentum switched to our side and we were back in it. We tied the game at 12 and were ahead at 13-12 but could not put the game away when we had a chance. Heather Shulke, who played libero all weekend, was asked to set the third game. She had not set a ball all weekend until then. Playing without our libero meant our middles had to play center-back on defense. We had a five minute delay when the coach from Lakeside questioned a call by the ref at 14-15. The call he wanted would have ended the game with his team ahead. Like I said this was the game to watch in the whole tournament. Everyone was gathered around court # 1 to watch these two teams battle it out. Both teams had numerous chances to win but the other team would not go down without a fight. Our outside hitters, Rebecca, KC and Ashley were hammering the ball and our back-row players were passing some hard hit balls. I saw more diving for the ball and people getting second touches on the ball to keep it alive. Like I told the team, people may not remember who won the tournament, but they will remember the 23-25 third game they just watched.

Enjoy your time off.

Pro Image Invitational
April 9, 2006 @ Longview, WA

Cowlitz 16's Asics went undefeated in match play to win the Pro-Image Invitational on Sunday in Longview. The match of the day went smoothly considering we were coming off Spring Break and many were not able to be at practice on Wednesday. We handled Wilson VBC pretty easily with a 25-4; 25-6 score. Match number two against Vancouver Reign was more challenging, but we prevailed with a 28-26 and 25-22 win. Apollo took us to a 3-game match with a scores of 15-25; 25-19 and 15-10. Finishing first in our pool put us up against Wind River with scores of 25-9 and 25-4. While we had an easy road with Wind River, Cowlitz Blue and Red were battling against each other, the winner to see us in the semi-finals. With a great match being completed, Cowlitz Blue prevailed and we saw them in the elimination round. Cowlitz Blue played inspired volleyball as they took us to our second 3-game match of the day. We managed to get in a win with our serves (25-11), which was unusual, since serving seems to be an albatross hanging around our necks this season. Blue went on to beat us in the second game 14-25. With our backs against the wall and pride issues on the table, we won the third game with a 15-12 victory. Cowlitz Blue played great and it was fun to play them. This matched us up with a much taller South Sound Ohana team in the finals. (I don't know why taller should be an issue ... everyone is taller than us!) Anyway, the final match was 25-21 and 25-16. Finally, t-shirts went to the victors and this time it was us! Way to go team!!

Without our setter, Denali Preston, who was seeing her brother off to Iraq, Heather Shulke filled in admirably. We put her in a tough spot in that she normally plays Libero, but had to step up with the absence of Denali. Unfortunately for her, she just doesn't get to practice it enough! Kaylie Dobbins filled in at Middle Blocker when we needed a lift and did some great things! Andrea DeRosier served and hit better than I've seen her do all year ... way to go Andrea (or should I say "Cyclops"?) Ellen Payne had the passion and desire of a competitive volleyball player and was a leader on the court with her play and energy. Rebecca Haight, KC Schmit and Ashley Bjorum took turns at the outside hitter position, all offering needed offense. Rebecca continues to be our go-to person and is able to place the ball down the line quite nicely. Tara Anderson joined Kaylie and Ellen as our middle hitter and continues to improve every day. Our middles did an outstanding job of adjusting to a different setter, which shows that each person has to step up when things get switched around due to absences or injury.

Way to go Asics ... we are proud of you!

Power League - March
GOLD DIVISION
March 4, 2006 @ The Courts - Beaverton, OR

How smart are athletes? This is a question that coaches really don't have an answer for. Take for instance this tournament. We are seeded eighth in Gold and we are in the same pool as Nike Air Elite (who had just beat up a bunch of 18 year olds last week in Yakima). Now, I'm thinking we can give Nike a good match with our defense and maybe beat Nike Power and Mac Club to stay in Gold. Right!!!! The kids had a different idea! 1. Jaws is gone for the day. 2. Denali, our setter, is playing in a State basketball game in Spokane. 3. Our go-to outside hitter made a wrong turn and didn't make the first match. 4. I'm thinking, seven players, well the line up will be easy.

We gave it our best shot but lost to Nike Power 7-25, 19-25; Nike Air 8-25, 13-25; Mac 13-25, 23-25. Now I'm worried that we will be in Silver soon. Like I said, Coaches don't really know what their athletes are thinking! All this time, while I'm thinking we need to win in pool play, the kids had figured out a better way to get the job done. We won one match all day and we not only stayed in Gold, we moved up two places to 6th. We beat Canby 25-22, 8-25, 15-11 and lost our one game match to Nike Power 15-25.

Heather did a fine job filling in for Denali. Setting can be a stressful job because you are the middle man who catches flak from hitters and the coaches who want the ball bettered each time you touch it. Tara and Ellen got to play all the way around this weekend. It was nice to see what they could do in the back row. KC got to play some right-front and some center-back this weekend along with her on-hand position. Ashley and Rebecca did most of the outside hitting and playing left-back. Andrea's sore shoulder kept her to limited playing in the front row. Kaylie came in and had some tough serves in our match that we won.

Hopefully by the time we play our next tournament we will have everyone back and not so sore from spring sports that are getting started this past week. But what do I know, I'm just a coach!!!!

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

Asics had a great tournament in Yakima this weekend, finishing 10th overall. We went undefeated in the first pool on Saturday and lost only one in the second pool on Sunday. The one loss was to the eventual Tournament Champion Spokane Splash 20-25, 20-25.

Saturday's pool play saw Asics beating Power Surge 16's 25-13, 25-23; Puget Sound 16 Silver 25-8, 25-18; and PVC White 25-23, 22-25, 15-8.

The seeding for the second pool had us in the top 16 of the tournament. Our first match was against a tall North Central Washington Volleyball Club Team. We finally beat NCWVBC 25-21, 18-25, 15-11. We got the rest of Saturday off to prepare for Sunday's long day and drive home. We started off Sunday beating Olympia Crush 26-24, 25-22 and then lost to Spokane Splash.

Bracket Play had us going against a tough Sideout team in the first round of the playoffs. We won the first set 25-18 and just missed the second 24-26. The third set was all Sideout winning 9-15. We rebounded against Northwest Juniors Storm 26-24, 25-12. The match for the t-shirts was all Jaguars winning 17-25, 9-25.

Heather Shulke took over the setting on Saturday and was undefeated. Heather will be seeing more time this weekend in the Gold Division of Power League while Denali Preston plays in the state basketball tournament. We will be using Heather, Denali and Andrea DeRosier in the right-back position more to give us more options at the end of a long tournament. Andrea's serves were awesome this weekend. With three of them playing the same position, it will push the level of play at right-front and right-back.

Ellen Payne played all the way around most of the weekend. This was new to her in the Club season. She played well enough for us to change our lineup. Tara Anderson, our other middle, worked hard at blocking some big hitters. This was a long tournament and for us to play all weekend with just two middles took it's toll. We will start working with Kaylie Dobbins in the middle to give Tara and Ellen a rest when they need it. Kaylie played center-back defense and is serving better as the season progresses.

Our outside hitters were the go-to people this weekend, partly because of our passing and because they could get a kill in the front-row or back-row. Rebecca Haight, Ashley Bjorum, and KC (moonwalker) Schmit are doing a good job with our rotational defense. Our back-row attack was great. When we were up against a tall team, we were able to beat them with our hits from the back. I think playing with the older kids at practice has improved our play. I saw some great "shots" from our hitters. When there is a wall up there you have to have more than just hitting the ball hard.

Nice job by all this weekend. Keep up the good work. Gold Division next week.

Power League - February
SILVER DIVISION
February 5, 2006 @ Albany Boys & Girls Club - Albany, OR

16 Asics played at Albany Boys and Girls Club on Super Bowl Sunday and finished just like Seattle. Second. We played a tough Lakeside team (10-25, 19-25) to finish second in Silver. We will be 8th in Gold next month. That was one of our goals for the weekend.

Asics beat Athena 16 Alpha 25-18, 25-16 and PVC White 19-25, 25-13, 15-7 in pool play. Asics lost to Rose City 16 Black 20-25, 25-23, 9-15. It seems like, after a break of an hour are longer, we can't get going right away. We will need to find a way to get ready to play after a break. Losing to Rose City caused a three-way tie. Rose City beat PVC, then we beat Rose City in a one gamer 15-7.

Asics beat Oregon Suns Gold in the first match of the playoffs 25-15, 25-20. Rebecca and Ellen are still, by far, our go-to people. Andrea wasn't feeling well at all this weekend but she and Elisa helped when they could. Heather has picked up her game at Libero and Kaylie saw at lot of time in the front-row Sunday. KC and Ashley are fighting for the outside position opposite Rebecca. Tara had several blocks and Denali set all but one game. We still are missing way too many serves. Hopefully we will have that problem fixed by the time we go to Yakima.

Awards N' More Classic
January 29, 2006 @ Longview, WA

16 ASICS had a good weekend, finishing 2nd at the Awards N' More Classic in Longview. ASICS beat Gara Jrs. 25-13, 25-11, 25-17; and South Sound Ohana 25-16, 9-25, 25-16 in pool play.

We got a chance to work on our rotational defense. We believe that the team is starting to head in the right direction. Players are learning what their roles are and also what we as coaches expect out of them. Having three practices also helps. There were a few parents who commented on how much better we were since the last time they saw us play. We are still not at full strength; EB (Elisa Bolden) goes in for more tests this week.

In bracket play Asics had to play Cowlitz Blue first. This is not something either coach wanted to see early in the bracket. This was our toughest match up 'til then. They put up a good fight but we prevailed 25-11, 25-16. Ellen Payne (21 kills for the day) was unstoppable with her slide approach. Ellen also had some key serves in that match. Our next opponent was West Valley Jrs. We came out a little flat after an hour lay off and the big win over Blue. West Valley beat us the first set 19-25 but we came back and won the second set 25-9. The third set was a thriller. Trailing most of the game 6-8 at the switch and 10-13, we then lost the serve at 12-14. They missed their serve and that was all we needed to spark us to victory at 17-15. Ashley Bjorum has perfected her serve and it is awesome. We saw Tara Anderson run some quick sets in the middle. Ashley and Tara finished the day with 7 kills apiece.

Nike Air Elite has so many weapons, it was hard to keep up at times. We need to play teams like that all the time to make us get better. We stayed with them the first set (19-25) but the second was over quick (11-25). Rebecca Haight had a great day (33 Kills) ... she was by far our go-to person. When we needed a kill, we gave her the ball. KC Schmit had 11 kills for the day and Andrea DeRosier had 8. Kaylie Dobbins played right-side and left-back or wherever we needed her this weekend. She had 4 kills and some tough digs as well. Heather Shulke, our Libero, did a good job with our new defense. She ran down some tough balls today. Denali Preston, our setter, had a long day. She had 81 assists and three kills herself. She is starting to know who to give the ball to and when to dump the ball. Keep up the good work.

Thanks to all the parents for all the help this weekend and the support of our team. We are off to Albany next weekend for Power League (road trip).

Martin Luther King, Jr. Tournament
January 14-15, 2006 @ Seattle, WA

"Rebecca Haight Has All-Star Weekend!"

The 16's Black team played some of the top teams in the Northwest this weekend at the MLK Tournament in Seattle. Black played Sudden Impact Thunder and won two out of three games to start out the day. We then played three very tall teams, Puget Sound Gold 0-3, Nike Power 1-2, And we finish the day with Washington Volleyball Academy 0-3. We were the first ones in the gym that morning and the last ones to leave that night. We learned a lot about stamina today.

We got to sleep in the next day with only one match at 1:30. We lost the first two games but finished on a good note against Kent Jrs. Baden 1-2. I believe the team saw what it is going to take to compete at this level. I also know they worked hard Wednesday so they can compete. Keep working hard, Jaws and I believe in you.

Power League Qualifier
January 8, 2006 @ The Courts at Beaverton - Beaverton, OR

ASICS started out the day against a strong Nike NW 15 Force team. The Nike team played great defense and we had trouble finding holes on their side of the court. After playing with a lot of different lineups, we finally put them away in three close games 23-25, 25-21, and 18-16. Heather did a great job at setting and Kaylie played Libero. Rebecca hit the ball strong at outside hitter.

We dominated Columbia Jrs. 16 Black in the second match 25-16, 25-14. Ellen, Tara and Elisa had easy kills when we got them the ball. We played a more up-tempo game and the score showed it.

Our only loss of the day came at the hands of a strong Yakima 16 Gold team 25-27, 23-25. We had several leads at the end of both games but couldn't put them away. Denali ran our offense and spread out her sets to our hitters. She kept Yakima's defense guessing and our hitters, KC and Ashley, found the holes in their defense. We will get another shot at them and we will be better prepared.

We swept the last three one game matches; PVC 16 White 25-18, Athena 16 Alpha 25-19, and Rose City 16 Black 25-16. Andrea's serves were awesome and she played well at our off-hand position.

I believe we will be the top team in the Silver Division at next month's Power League. We only drop one seed and I watched the Gold teams and I think we have a chance at competing with them. We will need to "come to play" to get it done. Remember, when you walk into a facility, you have your game face on and you are there to kick butt.

Our next test will be at the MLK in Seattle this weekend.

Pre-Qualifier Tournament
December 31, 2005 @ Longview, WA

The Cowlitz 16's ASICS team finished the Longview Pre-Qualifier tied for first with the only team that handed them a loss, Blues. In this seven team round robin, we faced Power Surge 2, beating them in our first match of the season ... 25-14, 25-10. Our second match put us up against Cascade Jrs., beating them as well ... 25-12, 25-14. Vancouver Lightning gave us a better challenge, but we prevailed in a 3-game match ... 21-25, 25-12, 15-4. Camas Ohana was the next foe to fall ... 25-15, 25-22. On came the Blues of St. Mary's Academy in Portland. We started off strong, but eventually lost to them in a 3-game match ... 25-20, 20-25, 7-15. This is the match where our skills fell a little bit. We let the Blues make a couple of runs at us with their tough serves and we struggled on serve receive. As usual, when the serve receive goes, so does the rest of your game! However, after a 2 match break, we were able to beat the number one seed of the tournament, Power Surge 1, with scores of 26-24, and 25-11. This was a great tournament for us to start the season off with so that we as coaches could see what our strengths are and what areas we need to focus on in practice. We learned a lot and played a lot of different line-ups to see what combinations work well together. We have a long way to go yet, but we have already learned from our successes and our failures. This is a great group of girls and they are a lot of fun! We will be laughing a lot as we work hard, especially with Kaylie around! She definitely keeps things lively!

We are still looking at each athlete to determine what position would be best for them and that will help our team be successful on the court. KC Schmit (Kalama), Rebecca Haight (Mark Morris) and Ashley Bjorum (RA Long) will do most of the outside hitting. Tara Anderson (Mark Morris), Ellen Payne (RA Long), and Elisa Bolden, affectionately nicknamed EB (Kelso) will do the honors in the middle. Denali Preston (Toutle) will do the majority of the setting along with teammates Andrea DeRosier (Kelso), and Heather Shulke (Castle Rock). Andrea is also very steady as a right side player and can put up a pretty darn good block. Heather will do most of the duties at the Libero position. Kaylie Dobbins rounds out this team as what some would call a "utility" player. She does a little bit of everything ... well, at least she did this past weekend! It is great to have someone on the team that is capable of filling in wherever she is needed.

This is going to be an exciting year! We have a lot of work to do, but we're up for the challenge. These kids want to get better and are willing to put out the effort to improve their skills and become better volleyball players.