A slow first set opened the day for us, with the team suffering the worst loss of the day against a team which they have beaten in the past (GA-5).  Not much needed to be said by me, as Bethany took over in the huddle and galvanized the girls into action.  They played great and came back to win the next set, and the stage was set for the rest of the day.

This tournament saw us draw together as team, and Coach Angela summarized it perfectly as a day of “heart and hustle”.  From a coaching standpoint, we have a lot of things to continue to improve, but one thing I can’t teach is “heart and hustle” and these young ladies had a TON of it on the court!!  The next match against N Atlanta the girls came out on fire and won both games…we had some great defensive play from Dee and Ahsha, and April was a blocking machine at the net.  Hannah, and Allison were hitting hard, and Bethany was making some very athletic sets out of some not-so-great passes.

For match three we found ourselves against an elite team from A-5…these girls were near flawless in form and technique, were always where they were supposed to be and could hit!!  Our girls gave them a run for their money though and we dropped both sets with very close scores (last one was 25-22).  The girls played hard and our hitters really stepped up their game.  Ahsha and Dee were again all over the  court, and Dee really earned her Libero jersey with some spectacular digs.  Kiah came to life and really put some balls down for us…the best I have seen her play!!  April again proved a dominant factor at the net, and between her and Hannah, pretty much kept their middles out of the game.

Match four was the make or break match for us…if we won we could secure second in the pool and advance to gold bracket.  If we lost, we could end up in Silver.  The girls came out a little slow versus the Columbus Juniors and finally pulled it out at the end of Set 1 to secure the victory.  Set 2 was a different matter as the girls just played well overall, and even though it was close, everything looked great, and it was a solid victory.  With those wins we found ourselves in the Gold Bracket for playoffs!!

Of course, how could we travel to Atlanta and NOT play a BOOM team?  So we found ourselves paired up against Atlanta Boom 18-1 team for the Semi Final match of the Gold bracket.   They have the tallest team in the Southern Region with most of their 6 starters over 6’!!  It was a great lesson in ball control for us…if we overpassed we ate it!  If we served easy we ate it!  If we didn’t swing hard, we ate it!  I think the girls were “full” by the end of the matchJ Our defensive players will probably attest that they saw the hardest hits of their volleyball careers in that match (and the one against A-5!).  The girls played with heart and hustle, but we couldn’t match the big guns. Hannah and Bethany had some great blocks, April owned her section of middle, and our hitters were swinging away, but the height and power advantage was too much for us to overcome! 

Great 2^nd tournament for us with a 3^rd place finish! The girls worked hard all day, showing spectacular teamwork and unity on and off the court. I was very impressed and happy with our play, and the girls held up well in a long day of volleyball. 
Super job ladies!!