Blue Crush Glamour Gallery

 

 

 

REGION TOURNAMENT #6

 

Not much to say about this tournament.  We showed up without much of our game.  We could not serve or serve receive very well.  We did however, win our last match against a team that struggle more than we did!

 

 

REGION FINAL TOURNAMENT

 

We started the Region Final Tournament at ASU in a pool with Dinamo 14 Aideen and Aspire 13 Black.  We were able to take down Dinamo quickly in two games behind the great team serve/receive passing.  The highlight of the match was Jimena’s serving to close out game two.  She was able to hit spots on her serve and then blast a serve for game and match point.

 

Up next was Aspire 13 Black, the number 4 seed in the tournament.  Once again we played a very strong match.  Lead by the strong hustle and net play of Ashley and the mixing up of good sets by Hannah.  We fell in two very competitive games to a very good team, 20-25, 22-25.

 

By finishing second in our pool we played Eastside Spikers 14 in the crossover match.  We played very strong in this three game match against a team that whipped us in two games during the last tournament.  However, we could not finish.  We let the first game get away from us losing 24-26.  Led by Taylor’s defensive plays we blasted Eastside in game two 25-17.  We had control in game three until that #6 from Eastside made the play of the match running down a shanked pass to get the ball back over the net.  That play gave Eastside the momentum it needed to get back in the match.  Although we served twice for the match in game three, we ended up falling 15-17.

 

Our results in the morning pool play landed us in the Flight 1 Division.  We faced Arrowhead Venom 13 in our first match.  It was a match where friends and school mates were playing against each other for summer bragging rights.  We started off good in the first game behind Jimena’s serving, however we fell apart in the end losing 25-27.  We came back strong in the second game behind Rylee’s best all-around game of the year to win 25-20.  We then blew out Venom 15-7 behind aces from Hannah, Jimena and Miquie and very good team serve receive.

 

After that match the coaches were wondering how much gas was left in the team’s tank.  We had enough gas for a 25-22 game one victory over AZU 14 Green.  Running only on the fumes left in the tank we fell 19-25 and 10-15 in the next two games to lose the match.

 

Further evidence of being out of gas was losing a consolation game 14-25 to Verde Diggers 14, a team that we had beat twice previously in the year.

 

We finished in 22nd place in the 14 Club Division.  We ended up being the second highest 13’s team in the 14 Club Division.

 

 

SEASON FINAL COMMENTS

 

It’s hard to believe that the season is over already.  It seems that it just started a few weeks ago.  The old adage “time flies when you are having fun” was certainly true this year.  Although we fell a little short of our goal to be the best 13’s team in the 14 Club Division, second best is nothing to sneeze at!

 

Girls you were great.  You bonded together as teammates and friends.  You were very coachable.  You made your coaches proud of you as your hard work throughout the season led to tremendous improvement in your volleyball skills.  It was great to see your confidence soar.  You made your coaches laugh throughout the year (although you did at times give Coach Doug some grey hairs).  THANKS GIRLS AND GOOD LUCK IN FUTURE BOTH IN AND OUT OF VOLLEYBALL!

 

Parents you were great too.  Thank you for allowing us to get to know and coach your daughters.  Your support for your daughter, her teammates and coaches were outstanding and appreciated.  Investing your time throughout the season to support your daughter will pay off down the road, if it has not already.  Special thanks to Marci, team mom, for all the coordination and hosting activities.  Also special thanks to Greg, our team photographer, awesome pictures and DVD!  THANKS PARENTS!

 

Finally, a very special thank you to Megan, my daughter and assistant coach.  You bonded well with the girls, ran practice drills to perfection and provided key input that aided in coaching decisions throughout the season.  Your efforts had a major impact on the Team’s successful season.  I really enjoyed our coaching adventures this year and will remember them always.

 

 

 

2nd PLACE FINISH - REGION TOURNAMENT #5

 

Region tournament found us back at the familiar Atkinson Pavillon complex.  Poor serving and serve/receive led a game one loss to Dinamo 14R Aideen.  We battled back winning the second game 25-18 behind Kaitlen’s serving and hitting and Ally’s serving and hustle plays.  In a very competitive and exciting match, with each team serving more than once for the win, Blue Crush prevailed in game three 19-17 to win the match.  Game three featured very good serving and very good team serve/receive.  Up next was the Verde Diggers 14 Red.  This is a team we defeated in the championship match of the previous tournament.  They gave us another tough match, but we prevailed in 3 games to move on to the championship match.  We played Zona 14-3 in the championship match.  For the second time we loss in three games to Zona.  This was a tough loss as we lost game one 24-26, won game two 25-18 then lost game three 15-11 after starting out with an 8-2 lead.  Overall a very good tournament which saw the girls improve their serving as the day went on and with the exception of the first game of the first match and the last game of the last match, serve/receive was pretty good.  Led by Taylor, Rylee and Becca, the team was all over the court to dig balls.  The middles, Jimena, Ashley and Brooke, hit consistently all day.  Once again Miquie and Hannah ran the offense very well.

 

 

Kaitlen taking a nice swing, going for a “kill”

 

Ally’s serving, she led the team in aces this tournament!

 

Jimena, one of our middles, taking a swing

 

 

ANOTHER 1ST PLACE FINISH - REGION TOURNAMENT #4!!

 

For Region tournament #4 Blue Crush traveled to Queen Creek’s Barney Complex.  Our first opponent was Tempe Y VOS 14’s.  Not much went right the first game as we lost the game 21-25.  Behind excellent serving by Ally and Brooke and strong team serve receive passing we won the second game 25-20 and the third game 15-8.  Up next was AZVC 14 Travel.  We were very much in control the entire match with strong play from all 11 players, including some very good hits by Hayley and Rylee off sets from Miquie and Hannah, winning the match in two games, 25-20, 25-20.  With two wins under our belt we played Verde Diggers 14 Red for first place.  The first game saw us fall behind early but recover in time to win the first game behind some key defensive plays by Kaitlen, Becca and Taylor and some very well placed hits Jimena and Ashley.  In the second game Verde Diggers picked up their game and took it to us winning 15-25.  From the first serve in game three by Ally the team kept the pressure on Verde with great serves, fine defensive play, good sets and aggressive swings.  Before Ally’s serve was broken, we were up 10-0, cruising for the match win and first place 15-5!

 

Jimena, Brooke, Ally and Hannah getting ready to receive serve.

 

Brooke getting ready to block.

 

Ally digging as Ashley looks on, ready to support the pass.

 

 

 

REGION TOURNAMENT #3

 

Fresh off a 1st place finish in Region Tournament #2, Blue Crush showed up at Atkinson Pavillions ready for another strong showing.  The tournament day started out with news that Blue Crush would be short two players due to illness.  Haley, Hannah and Taylor stepped up and gave their best efforts to cover the missing players.  Blue Crush lost the first match to AZU 13 premier in two games and won their second match against SVA 14 Rampage in three games.  In a match where the winner would remain in Division 4, Blue Crush lost to ZONA 14-3 in 3 games.  Against ZONA, Blue Crush served twice for the match win, but couldn’t quite pull out the “W”.  Blue Crush will work hard in practice on serving, serve receive and attacking to improve these parts of their game for the Region Tournament #4.   

 

 

Hannah setting to Jimena

 

Taylor setting Haley

 

 

 

 

BLUE CRUSH FINISH FIRST IN REGION CLUB # 2 TOURNAMENT

On Saturday Blue Crush started off the weekend with a win against Club Views 14’s. The first game was lead by Ally with 8 consecutive serves and from there the girls never looked back. In the second game we struggled a little with our serves, however Haley and Jimena had many great swings that kept up the momentum throughout the game.  The second match was a little tougher, going to 3 games against Zona’s 13-1’s. With good serve receive passes from Becca and Miquie mixing up the sets we fell short 21-25. However, wanting to finish in the top 2 the girls took game two with great hits from Rylee and Brooke, and great sets and defense from Miquie. In game 3 we came out with another win with great hits from Kaitlin, Jimena and Ashley. Our third match against Arizona Primitive was won in two games. The girls all played very well together, deserving our first place finish.

 

 

 

 

AND THE CAPTAINS ARE…

 

Recently the Blue Crush players picked their team captains.  After carefully consideration the players voted Hannah and Miquie captains.  Hannah and Miquie were very excited and enthusiastically accepted the responsibilities that go along with being a captain.

 

Blue Crush Captain, Hannah and Miquie

 

TEAM SLEEPOVER

 

At our team party we had alot of fun.  We made cool flip-flops in our team colors and had a "crazy sock" exchange.  At night we ran outside and sang Christmas carols in Hannah's neighborhood.  After midnight a few girls went to sleep, while the rest of us went crazy and played tag and hide-and-seek in the house.  We were pretty loud and got in trouble a couple of times, but it was still fun.  We tried to come up with nicknames for everyone, but it was harder than we thought.  Overall, we ate alot of brownies, didn't sleep much and had a good time!. 

 

By Becca

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AND THE WINNER IS:  BLUE CRUSH

 

Zia 13 National went through the process of selecting a team name this week.  It all started with 28 suggestions from the players.  Of the 28 suggested names, Blue Crush, Volley Vipers, Net Threat, Skyhawks, TNT and Legacy survived the first round of voting.  The second round of voting saw Blue Crush and Volley Vipers make the cut advancing to the final vote.  By a vote of 6 to 5, Hannah’s suggestion of Blue Crush won out over Volley Vipers.