This past weekend the Santa Barbara Volleyball Club 18’s, 15’s and 12’s teams competed in Anaheim at a regular Mandatory tournament. The 18 Blue and 15 Blue, after coming off a 3-day intense tournament the weekend before, both took 3rd for the day in division 1 of their age brackets.
Coach Liz Towne-Gilbert was pleased with the results of her 18-Blue team, “The team played solid all day …Hitters Mimi Cuttrell and Samantha Wopat had great days offensively. Setter Sammie Brown did a great job running the offense and libero Katherine Keller dug every ball in the gym!”
Playing for the third weekend in a row, Greg Gibbons was thrilled with another good day for his 15-Blue team, “…a good win against Wave in 2 games…lost in the semi-finals to Sunshine 23-25 to place 3rd overall. We had another good weekend!”
The 17-Blue and 15-Red teams also placed 3rd for the day in their pools. Coach Desiree Partlow praised her team for coming together so well despite having only 8 players for the tourney.
Partlow highlighted the play of several players, “Sarah McKinney, Ayla Nelson and Susie Weaver dominated the net with solid blocking and Caroline Stoll and Leila Nathan played great defense for us. Lindsey McFadden stepped up and did a great job setting for us as well.”
Tina Brown’s 12-Blue team won their pool grinding out 3-game matches, but lost the first playoff round which would have moved them up to division 1. According to Brown, the team played great over the long day and remains in division 2.
The 18-White and 15-White, having placed in the lower half of their pools, lost the first playoff match in their respective age divisions, and both teams will move to Division 3 for their next competition. The 16 Blue, 16 White, 14 Blue, 14 White and 13 Blue teams will all compete this weekend in Anaheim in the Junior Olympic Qualifier for their age brackets starting this Friday!
