zia volleyball

The Li’l Chicas That Could

Region #3

Cooking with the Li’l Chicas

Welcome to Chez Zia, where we dined for our third regional tournament!

For appetizers we started with Zona 14-2. Game 1 was a little spicy, since we peppered them with serves and aces. Charley and Tayler led the way with a combined 9 aces, while Sam, Cheree, Leah, and Taylor contributed to 92% serving and a quick 25-10 score.

We finished our first course with serves by Lindsay B. (4 aces), great sets by Heather, awesome passes, digs, and tips by Carrie and a blazing attack by Bree, Lindsay O., and Brittany that left us with foreheads perspiring and beckoning the waiter for more water. We win 25-12 but still have an appetite for more.

Our entree is Joy 13-Green and, while anything green for a main course doesn’t promise to satisfy, this dish was very tasty. These greens have a reputation for robustness, and are best smothered in aces, courtesy of Brittany, Charlie, and Heather. A dash of hustling defense by Tayler and Sam complement a sprinkling of kills by Leah, and we win Game 1, 25-12.

But something isn’t settling so great. We feel a little queasy from our cold serve receives and drop the next game 11-25. We cleanse out palates with fine bottled water and attempt to finish this portion in a tie-breaker. Perfect serving (that’s 100%) and supreme hustle settle us down, and we take the match 15-9. On to DESSERT!

Our final course needed to be something special, yet familiar. Something to make the dining experience truly divine. We met our old buddies, AZ Sky Blue Thunder. Li’l Chicas defense whip the Thunder into a light, airy mirangue in Game 1, with rapid fire hits and BAM! A sweet back row approach and kill by Heather. The soufflé that was Blue Thunder falls by a score of 25-12.

In Game 2, our rhythm continues with another Chicas combo, adding butter smooth passes, sets, and hits. We serve almost perfectly (91%), and BAM! Laura kicks it up a notch with an awesome return of a blazing Sky serve, for a set and kill to finish 25-12. We are No. 1 again.

This was truly the best performance of the year by all 13 Li’l Chicas. Overall, Iron Chef Tim is pleased. It whets my appetite for more, but I better consider making room for our next culinary adventure—Division 6.

How do Li’l Chicas like their volleyball? WELL DONE!

Region #2

Question: Why did the Li’l Chicas cross the road?

Answer: To play volleyball, of course!

Tucson isn’t home, but it feels like home court after another victory filled Saturday. Even getting up at O-dark-thirty doesn’t seem to slow these girls down as they continued to defeat every challenger that came their way.

Match #1 pitted us against Zona 14-3’s. We served them into the ground with aces by Heather, Charlie, Brittany, Taylor and Sam (5). Whenever Zona did return our serve it ended in a kill by Leah. Game one all ZIA.
The second game continued our parade of aces by Cheree, Lindsay O., and Taylor. Perfect serving by Lindsay B., Carrie and Bree left Zona in the dust and we finished match one in two games straight.

Match 2 with AZ Sky 14- Blue Thunder provided more of a challenge. With only three aces we had to use our other forte’- defense, to stop Sky in their tracks. Laura, Sam, and Lindsay B. covered the court like a carpet, so Brittany could set Charlie, Leah and Tayler for kill after kill Li’l Chicas style. Game one goes to Zia.

Game two saw the Sky steal our ace machine and use it effectively against us. Even though we served well (88%), we dropped game two and moved onto the tiebreaker. We sucked it up in game three and wrestled the match from Sky making us 2-0 for the day.

The only team left standing between us and first-place was Falcon 14-blue. We came out serving and busted the Falcon’s chops in short order by a score of 25-13.

The Falcons are a scrappy bunch, though I don’t know if the magnetic poles suddenly shifted or what, we lost our bearing in game two. A very un-Chica-like performance with missed serves and a vanishing act by our D left us flattened by a score of 12-25.

A tiebreaker leaves no doubt who the better team is. After a quick Heimlich maneuver, the Li’l Chicas sprung back to life and quickly toasted the Falcons. When the smoke cleared from Brittany serving the last 7 points straight, the scoreboard read ZIA-15, FALCONS-2! I could get used to this. Next Saturday we move up to play the welterweights of Division 7. Stay tuned for more, as the Li’l Chicas continue their rise to the top of the 14’s.

Region Tournament #1

It was a short journey to Kingdom Courts, site of our first region tourney, on a crisp January afternoon. With Tucson now a hundred-mile memory, we press on in our newest quest- to climb to the top of division nine.

Crossing the moat of volleyballs and jr. high athletes, we enter the gym to meet our first challengers. We burned SEVC-14 in two straight seven days ago, and this time is no different. We breach their defensive wall with aces by Taylor L., Charlie and Heather, and launch an assault with Cheree setting, and Tayler B. and Leah hitting. Game one 25-12. Not to be out done, game two produces 10 aces, (five by Brittany). With Sam and Carrie setting, the combination of Bree and Laura digging, and Brittany and Lindsay O. performing textbook approaches for kills, we took the match 25-18.

Match 2 opponent Black Mountain 14-1 steps up next, and is dispatched in short order. With 22 aces we stay focused and hustle our way to 2 wins and a shot at being #1.

AZ sky 14 Blue Thunder is all that stands in our way now. 95% serving launches us to a 25-7 win in game one, but it takes a total team effort by all 12 Li’l Chicas to battle from behind in game two and snare a 25-23 victory. We storm the tower and seize the victor’s crown, and move up to Division 8 for our next tourney.