Katie Kim of the SBVC 18-Blue hammers a spike as Allie Sundara (12) looks on.
Coming off a three-day qualifier tournament and a week of spring break, the Santa Barbara Volleyball Club’s 18s and 16s teams took to the courts in Anaheim.
The 16-Blue finished with a 4-0 record and bumped up a division.
“They are making incredible strides, working hard in practice every day and it really showed this weekend,” said Coach Tina Brown.
The team beat Bakersfield 16-Jill, SoCal 16-Bjorn and Coast 16-Cody, before winning the playoff match over Genuine 16-Marc 28-26, 25-17 to boost the team back into division 2.
“We were led with the all-around play of Chloe Allen, hitting, defending and passing nails all day. And with the support of some awesome defensive play from Lauren Suh, we were able to go undefeated for the day. Lourda Weger had a big final match, hitting 10 kills in 12 attempts and taking her game to a new level. All in all, as always, it takes a strong team effort to be successful,” said Brown
The 16-White and 16-Red teams both finished second to remain in Division 6 and 11, respectively.
Jacky’s Yao’s 18-Blue team opened the day with a win over TCA HB 18-Black, but subsequently dropped then next two matches in pool play to Sports Shack 18-Asics and Pacific Jrs 18-Rox to finish third in pool play.
“Our focus at practice has been about getting better at the little things and focusing on the process of getting better technically instead of stressing about the results and outcomes of every play,” coach Jacky Yao. “I feel there were glimpses of good things happening but we still have to figure a way out to be much more consistent.”
The team entered into the “death match” and pulled out the win over LAVA West 18s, 25-23, 25-27, 15-13, to keep itself from moving down a division. “Katie Kim was very good for us during our match against a well-coached LAVA; she came in and was able to block a couple balls right away and scored during a couple very critical parts down the stretch of games 2 and 3,” Yao said.
“Natalie Klapp had a coming-out party of sorts against LAVA as well. She played with the most confidence she has all year and that showed through her attacking and aggressive defensive plays. Emily Allen filled in on the left side and was extremely efficient throughout the whole day and tooled the blockers time and time again. Allie Sundara has worked tirelessly and contributed in whichever facet of the game that she is asked to, and this weekend she was a huge part of our team’s serving game and was instrumental in many momentum-shifting runs from the service line.”
The team remains in division 3 for the next regular tournament.
