Pre-Qualifier Tournament
Power League Qualifier
December 30 & January 7, 2006

The 16 Red Team entered the Pre-Qualifer at Longview full of questions. We had practiced long and hard through the holiday season, but still had no idea of our ability to play together. Our question was answered in our first match. Against a very tall Mid Valley team, we went one and one. This was followed by a split with Bridgetown's top 16's team. The last match had us winning in two against Power Surge. We moved to Mt Solo ranked 6th in the Championship division. We then lost to Bridgetown. Our final standing was tied for 7th in the tournament. Not a bad showing for our first outing.

Afterwards the girls discussed their strong points and their weaknesses, with the intent of improvement prior to the first Power League

And so last Sunday we traveled to Mt. Hood Community College for our first Power League.

Our morning pool did not go as well as we expected. We lost to a Suncats team in three. This was followed by a two game loss to Webfoot. We ended by beating the number 1 team, MAC Club, in our pool, in three. We were plagued by the same issues that we had in the Longview tournament. We were not communicating on the court and were also having trouble with our positioning. We determined to do better.

The first cross-over match was a different story. We came out ready to play and defeated a Mt. Hood team in two.

Our best play of the day came against the toughest team, East Valley, which we had seen all day. Even though we lost in three the girls really stepped up and improvement was seen across the board.

The setters on the team, Hailey Allais, Myriah Dombrowsky, and Karly Bridgewater did a great job with ball handling, with very few ref calls, and an outstanding job of moving the ball around. Our hitters, Tiffany Wend, Louisa Hanson, and Holley Vogel continue to improve, working hard on their approaches, their timing, and setting the block. Middle blockers Miranda Wilson and Allie Kestner are beginning to get a feel for their position. Their blocking is getting much better and we are even trying to run some quick 1's. Our back row players, Ali Maple and Chelsea Dwyer, and our libero, Brandi Malakoff, are getting an understanding of positioning themselves to make the good pass.

Both Lauren and I are looking forward to seeing continued improvement. We know that these girls will step up and solve the weaknesses as they move towards the level that we know they can attain Good Job!