Lexi Rottman was named to the All-Tournament Team in Dallas.
With an overall 5th place ranking in the Southern California Volleyball Association, the Santa Barbara 16-Blue earned itself a regional bid invitation to the National division of the USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championships in Dallas, Texas.
In a field of 48 teams, the team came in ranked 42nd for the 4-day tournament over the 4th of July Holiday and finished 5th overall, losing the quarter-final match to the eventual tournament champions.
According to Co-Coach Paige Craine, ?Our team came out fighting and ready to take these teams on. We won our pool with teamwork and hustle that transferred into our playoff matches!?
In a pool of 7 teams over the first two days, the 16-Blue opened up Day 1 a bit nervous with a tight loss to Blackswamp from Orlando 32-30, 25-23. The team regrouped and found its game and swept the next five teams through Day 2, beating Texas Eclipse 16-Green, Arizona Storm 16-Thunder, Advantage (Georgia), and Premier 16-Black (Nebraska), all in two sets.
?The team?s success was sparked by great passing and defense from the team as a whole, and specifically from libero Dane Miller. We battled with some of the top teams in the country,? remarked Co-Coach Tina Brown.
Day 3 was a momentous day, in a pool of three teams, only two teams advance to the Gold round challenge match. It looked like smooth sailing when the 16-Blue quickly dispensed of Puget Sound 25-19, 25-22. However, Puget Sound then beat Colorado Jrs 16-JJ and the 16-Blue subsequently suffered a defeat by Colorado Jrs 25-21, 25-15 causing a 3-way tie and a one game rematch tie-breaker with Puget Sound. Not to be undone, the 16-Blue came out swinging and won handily 25-19 to continue on to the challenge match. Now running late, with no break in between, the 16-Blue immediately went into the challenge match beating Texas Image in a nail-biting 3-set match 25-16, 26-28, 15-11.
?One of our best matches overall was against Texas Image to get to the elite 8,? continued Brown. ?They call it the ?death match? for a reason with both teams literally leaving it all out on the floor. Led by fearless and energized setting of Lexi Rottman, our hitters were able to play very aggressive and smart, which is not easy to do by day 3. We saw some standout performances from McKenna Goss and Anika Wilson, and Jacqueline Starnes came up with some huge points at critical times. Middles Emma Harrah and Caroline Anderson worked hard all week having one of the most difficult jobs in the game, providing blocks and kills at pivotal moments. Hailey Yates offered some key points with her tough serving and Hillary Bean was a great spark when the team needed her.?
Early morning on the last day, playing to get in the medal rounds, the team competed in a barn-burner against Ocala Power (Florida). It was point for point, with each team trading off leads in each set, but Ocala eeked out the win in the final moments of set 3 (25-22, 23-25, 15-11). Ocala went on to win the tournament beating Premier in the finals.
