The girls played well with a new line-up. Some players got the chance to play an entirely new position. With added pressure, they all stepped up to the challenge. Great work Girls !!! Besides the couple altercations from other coaches and or fans, we ended the tournament by shutting down the gym with a win.

We are looking forward to finishing off our season with all 9 players to end our season with a strong finish in Regionals.

We would like to thank our parents for being great examples to us and your daughters, and for keeping your focus on supporting your children and leaving the referees, lines judges and scorekeepers alone. It was a long and hot day that ended with me thinking about how you all have made a difference in me as regards to being a parent. You all are truly God sent - one of a kind. It has been a joy to be involved in your lives through your great kids.

Looking forward to the next couple of weeks we will be sharing in the gym !!!

In our first pool, we defeated Alderwood Little Hawks, Greater Columbia 16 Yellow, and SFY 16 HCC, taking 1st in our pool. To finish out Saturday's play, we then won our next match against Air Attack Pack. Feeling great about our day, we celebrated with some Virgin Strawberry Margaritas and dinner at Azteca. Although Kacie and Megan may have gotten the real thing. Thanks to the girls, they surprised me again ..... with a baby shower. Thank you for all of the cute clothes and especially for thinking about me and my new baby ! It really means a lot to me. Thanks again !!!

Then we resumed play Sunday @ 8 am, defeating NW Juniors 16 Tempest and Greater Columbia 16 Green. We had a two hour break before we beat Greater Columbia 16 Green to finish 1st in our pool. We refereed one match and then we played in bracket against Northshore 16's Jade, losing the first game, but coming back full force to win the match. The girls passed with great precision, served consistently and played all-out defense. It was an awesome sight to see. After an intense match we played right away in the semi-final match against Northshore 16's Black. We played hard but came up a little short in the end, losing to take 3rd. It was a finish we are proud of and the girls should be proud of because they played with heart.

All of the girls contributed to our success. Kacie DeRosier led the team with 92% serving, scoring 51 points, 48 assists and 21 digs. Emily Damschen had 32 kills, 10 blocks and 52 points. Nichole Bryant had 30 kills, 4 blocks and 19 points. Megan Alcock had 37 points, 56 assists and 20 kills. BriAnne Culbertson scored 27 points, 21 kills and 18 digs. Lindsey Delker had 30 points, 15 Aces and 21 digs. Lindsey Thompson hit 44% with 15 kills and 2 blocks. Sadie Aschoff had 21 kills, 1 block and 23 digs. Paige Orwig, our libero, dug 39 times and passed a 2.0 average. The stats speak for themselves. As a team we passed a 2.0 average, served 89% with 89 Aces, hit 20% and had 163 digs. Great Job 16's BLUE !!!

P.S. We want to thank all the parents for their support. Thanks for shagging balls, Marionberry Muffins and the coffee. We appreciate your support and especially your trust with your daughters !!!

We learned quickly that we would be competing against 3 teams we have played against in our Power League. So we were ready to play. Our first match of the second pool was against Team Yakima Gold. We played our best against Team Yakima but came up a little short, losing 16-25, 20-25. We blocked well enough to take their top hitter our of her game. But in the end we beat ourselves with a decline in communication, poor passing and the lack of confidence that we could beat Team Yakima. Nevertheless, we've improved every time we've played them. We look forward to working our way back up to Gold to meet them again.

Saturday night was a great time for our team to have fun and relax. So we ordered pizza and hung out together in the coaches' room. Thanks to all the girls, parents Patty, Annie, Kris and Kiana for making my birthday a memorable one.

Sunday morning we struggled with our serving and passing against Nike NW Jrs. Force losing 7-25, 16-25, and then losing to PVC Blue (17-25, 11-25). We ended up 4th in our pool and waited 4 hours to play our last match against Spokane Storm 15's Black. Unfortunately, we lost 18-25, 14-25, placing us 16th out of the top 32 teams. All 9 of our girls got to play a lot and contributed to our top 16 finish.

Our all around top players were Nichole Bryant with 92% serving with 19 points - 2 aces - hitting 23% with 20 kills - 4 blocks; Lindsey Thompson was a passing and digging machine with an average 2 pass and 17 digs - she rounded out her play with 21 points and 2 aces - 2 blocks; Sadie Aschoff led our setters with 51 assists - 28 points with 7 aces and 11 kills.

Emily Damschen had 39 kills - 1 block and served 17 points with 8 aces. Lindsey Delker had 11 points and 4 aces with 10 digs. BriAnne Culbertson had 12 kills - served 23 points with 3 aces and had 15 digs. Kacie DeRosier served 100% for the tournament with 3 aces - 20 assists and 5 digs. Megan Alcock had 39 assists - 10 kills and 7 digs. Great Job 16's Blue.

Outstanding play this weekend by Sadie Aschoff - 92 assists, 18 kills and 34 points with 11 Aces; Emily Damschen - 48 kills, 4 blocks and 22 points; also at the net, play by Nichole Bryant - 22 kills, 4 blocks and 27 points.

We spread out the setting assignment with three setters and they all did well. Kacie DeRosier had 15 assists and Megan Alcock had 57 assists.

Defensively our top players with more than half the digs are Paige Orwig 22 digs, Lindsey Delker 14 digs and Brianne Culbertson 13 digs.

The girls did some more great things this weekend, led by all around play as an entire team. We are seeing glimpses of their top play and we are very pleased with their progress. We hope to compete well in the following tournament ... so off to Yakima.

Once again, we tried new line-ups and we may have some more adjusting to do, but the girls did well with the changes and different positions.

There was outstanding net play this weekend by Emily Damschen with 3 blocks & 13 kills, as well as some impressive improvement from Lindsey Delker with 2 blocks & 9 kills, and Lindsey Thompson with 1 block & 4 kills. There was nice work on setting the block, though we will now work on our timing, but an overall improvement.

We had some outstanding serving this weekend as well from BriAnne Culbertson with 100% & 11 points, and Lindsey Thompson with 15 points.

We had some outstanding defense this weekend with the most digs the entire season at a tournament. With 95 digs throughout the day, we were able to have some wonderful rallies. Diligent defense was played by BriAnne Culbertson with 25 digs, Paige Orwig with 20 digs & Nichole Bryant with 11 digs.

We had many girls trying a lot of different positions this weekend; they made adjustments and stepped up to the challenge. Sadie Aschoff played outside hitter, setter and even went in as a defensive specialist. She had an outstanding day all around with 89% serving, 11 points, 11 digs, 5 kills and 9 assists. Great job, Sadie.

The setters are working on setting a smart set. This weekend there were some struggles with more blocking from our opponents. Megan Allcock had 44 assists & 9 kills. Kacie DeRosier had 9 assists & 4 digs.

Overall, we are seeing improvement and hope to have some great practices to get everyone together.

Outstanding net play from:
Emily Damschen with 14 kills and 3 blocks
Sadie Aschoff with 7 kills
Lindsey Thompson with 7 kills
Jessie King with 4 kills

Top Servers:
Nichole Bryant with 11 aces and 28 points
Lindsey Delker with 10 aces and 25 points
Kacie DeRosier with 8 aces and 23 points

All Around Play:
Brianne Culbertson as one of the top passers with 5 digs, 100% serving and 10 points. She also added 4 kills.

Our libero Paige Orwig was our top passer and our top player defensively; she had 7 digs and also had 2 kills from the back row.

Megan Alcock with 39 assists - 5 kills - 12 points. 

Some success at the net this weekend and are looking forward to having everything come together. Until next time, great weekend Ladies.

We had a great day and had some great play from the team. There were times that we were playing above what we even expected at this time in the season. It has just showed us coaches what we are capable of doing with some hard work and some adjustments; we are looking forward to all the progress ahead.

As I reflect on the day, I think about what we accomplished; getting blocks up, setters setting wiser, defense playing all out, serving areas, taking advantage of our opportunities. The list could just go on. I also reflect on the team on the off-time seeing them join together and talk over the day. We will be working on our overall game, but are very pleased with what we achieved today.

Top 4 servers of the day;
Brianne Culbertson  94% / 2 Aces
Sadie Aschoff  93% / 4 Aces
Nicole Bryant  93% / 6 Aces
Megan Alcock  91% / 9 Aces

The entire team had 77% serving; not bad, but hope to see progress here as well.

Great patience, work and attitude today !!!!

Due to the weather, teams left early and half of our team headed out as well. So with five local players on our team and two other Cowlitz volleyball players, we played our last match. Kiana Mawae (12 black) and Kalena Mawae (12 Blue) played in our match against Mt Hood. They helped to finish out the tournament and we are grateful to have shared the court with them. It will be a great highlight for the beginning of the 2004 season. So thanks for the great day girls - and hats off to the two that visited; we look forward to seeing your progress in the CVC.