An exciting weekend of winning for our young teams!
Competing in the final qualifying rounds for their age divisions in the SCVA this past weekend, the Santa Barbara Volleyball Club teams shined in the gym despite the rainy, overcast weather outside. The final outcome of these tournaments places the team in their starting divisions for the rest of the club season and earns points for their overall ranking throughout the season.
The 15 Blue and 14 Blue took first which places them in Division 1 (top 16 teams in the SCVA in their respective age divisions)!On Saturday, competing in the Gold Bracket of the 15’s, Greg Gibbons’ 15-Blue team made a quick day of it, beating their competition handily in 2 games. They won their pool by beating DSVC 15-1 25-15, 25-17, Diamond 25-10, 25-17, and SMBC 25-14, 25-11. According to Gibbons, “We had another good day and the girls played hard.”
The 15-White, coached by Kara Weirum, also had an excellent day finishing 2nd in their pool, beating Rancho Valley 15-Meghan 25-15, 25-18 and Baja VBC 15-1 25-11, 25-19, placing the team in Division 2 to start the season! Weirum was pleased with the results.
“We lost one match but played a great game against TCA-15 BLK 21-25, 14-25,” she said. “We had outstanding defense all day especially by Amanda Moriarty. Also Jaimie Mayner was aggressive blocking at the net. Ellen Hemming and Hannah Harris went on serving runs throughout the day with aggressive jumps serves.”
Also competing in the Gold bracket, Coach Jacky Yao remarked about his 15-Red team going up against some tough competition, “It was a rough day…we went 0-3. Ella Corpuz had a solid day from the service line and Leila Nathan played consistent defense throughout the day.” This places the team in Division 4. All the 15’s teams of the SBVC will start in the top 4 divisions (the top 64 of approximately 200 teams)!
The 16-Red team competed also on Saturday in their 2nd qualifying round and won their pool! The team went to 3 games with the first team in their pool. Coach Katherine Hopkins was excited to mention, “…we pulled out the win thanks in part to the killer attack on the outside from Emily Redfield. The second match of the day was a dominant win led largely in part by the serving of Arabella Weston-Smith. The last match we victoriously won in 2 very close games to finish the day 3-0 and first in our pool. Josie Ford also had an excellent day passing and playing defense which really helped in our team’s balance offensive attack.”
They will compete in their 3rd qualifying round later this month.
On Sunday, the 14-Blue and 14-White both won their pools, both with heart-stopping excitement in their last match of the day!
The 14-Blue opened up with two dominant wins in the Gold bracket over Kern River 14-Elite and Bakersfield Jamba 13-Candice. They started the final match against Beach Cities 14-Gold winning game one 25-8. Beach Cities came back with a vengeance and the teams played spectacular volleyball. Coaches K.C. Collins and Greg Novak praised their team, noting that “Every single player made key contributions to our success in every match! Katherine Crook was especially hot, leading in kills and digs all day. Emma Craine did a great job running a quick offense with her hitters and making some kills of her own with the dreaded setters’ dump. A thrilling 3rd match where in the deciding 3rd game, Beach Cities caught up with an excellent attack, but due to calm defense by all and some especially strong blocking by Frankie Lewis and Rachel Smith, we ultimately finished the game 17-15 with Smith definitively stuff blocking an overpass for the final point!”
The 14-Blue will start the season in Division 1.
The 14-White team also won their pool in the Sliver bracket, and coach Connor Hastings gave this synopsis:
“The 14-White survived pool play unbeaten for the first time this year, and in keeping with tradition won a thrilling 3-game contest in the last match of the day, maintaining a cool composure… Emily Lunt played with the speed of a cheetah, sprinting and diving all over the court in each match to save countless points for the team. Karly Lawrence supplied a spark off the bench with some laser-like serves, and Amy Davis was able to come up with a few stuff-blocks at the net. The rock, otherwise known as Mia Cattaneo, continued to anchor the defense at libero, making a number of dazzling digs.” The team will start the season in Division 5.
Also competing in the 14’s Gold bracket, the 13-Blue team competed against some tough competition and went 0-3, which will put them in Division 4 to start. Coach Ed Gover was impressed with the “…good serving by Holly Blair and Bailey Roach, and the solid setting by Sarah Scarminach and Teah Burdick”.
The 13-White team went 2-1 for the day beating Long Beach 14 Lightening and TCA 13-Black, while losing to Omega 14-1. They were in a 3-way tie for first but took 2nd on points ratio. The team will start the season in Division 10. Coach Jessie Fahey remarked that the team was down 2 key players, but adjusted and played amazing. “Melissa Scott showed so much improvement as a middle blocker. Jackie Starnes had some amazing digs back row. Brenna Geiger led the team with her serve receive. We were loud and it had a tremendous impact on our play.”
The 17-Blue, 18-Blue and 18-White teams head to Vegas this weekend for the annual Las Vegas Invitational, one of the most highly college recruited tournaments. The 17-Blue will compete in the 17’s Open Division while the 18-White and 18-Blue team both compete in the 18’s Open division. The 18-Blue enters the Open division as the 3rd seed overall.
