It was an extra busy weekend of volleyball for SBVC teams this past weekend as the 18 Blue and 16 Blue teams flew to Denver to compete in the 3-day Colorado Crossroads tournament! In addition, the 12 Blue and 13 Blue teams both had their first SCVA Mandatory tournament of the season.

The 18 Blue team had a great time at the Colorado Crossroads tournament! On day one the team went 2-1, with wins over Tampa Elite U18 Columbia (25-15, 25-17) and NRG VBC 18 Asics West Coast (25-18, 25-15), before a tough loss to Club V 18 Red (25-23, 19-25, 10-15). As part of a 3-way tie for first place in the pool, SBVC advanced due to their best set record.
On day two the team had a little harder of a time finding their rhythm and went 1-2, with their sole win over NNJ 18-1 (25-16, 25-17), and losses to Rise Ventura 18-Janee (25-15, 19-25, 9-15) and Slainte VBC 18-1 Black (20-25, 21-25). Once again in a 3-way tie, this time for second place in the pool, the team entered into a single game playoff to advance out of the pool. In a rematch versus NNJ 18-1, the team once again pulled out a win (25-16) when it counted most!
The second place finish qualified the team for a crossover match, with the winner getting a spot in the Gold bracket, top 16 teams. SBVC battled against Vegas Aces 18-Black, and after falling just short in game one, couldn’t find momentum to fight back, and fell in two (25-27, 15-25).
On the final day of competition in the Silver Division, the team lost its final match to Amarillo Xtreme 18 National (21-25, 18-25). Coach Kat Niksto said of her team’s performance, “overall I am so proud of how our team played and competed in this tournament! We talked a lot beforehand about being aggressive, and leaving it all on the court – and I feel like we did that to the best of our ability. Caylin Zimmerman had a breakout performance this weekend. She proved that she can be a terminal hitter throughout the course of a match, and started working on a very aggressive jump serve as well! Sophia Fay also really stepped up her game and took over the court defensively, digging balls left and right and asserting herself as a leader on the court.” The team finished 21st out of 90 teams overall in the 18 USA Division.

The 16 Blue team also travelled to the Crossroads tournament. On day one the team faced tough competition and ended up going 1-2 to finish 3rd in their pool. Their two losses were to JJVA Team Rox 16N (19-25, 12-25) and NW Reign 16-1 (17-25, 18-25) and their win coming over Canyon 16 Black (25-18, 25-15).
On day two the team took another 3rd place finish, going 1-2 with their win over Club Idaho 16-Premier (25-19, 25-13), and their two losses to Club Legacy VBA 16-Rox (25-20, 11-25, 7-15) and Rocky Select 16-Select (25-14, 22-25, 11-15).
On day three in single elimination bracket play the team won their first match of the day playing some of their best volleyball of the tournament against Team Colorado (25-19, 20-25, 15-10), before dropping a close, highly contested match against Ballistic VBC 16-Jonathan (17-25, 25-22, 15-17).
Coach Justin Hertlein said of his team, “we had a tough tournament in Denver this past weekend. Between the ups and downs, consistent offense from Kendall Williams and Jayne Wood kept the matches competitive. Tough serving from Georgia Brace, Taylor Robertson, and Molly Kirkbride allowed us to pull out a couple wins while setters Maddie Walker and Ellie Chenoweth found rhythm late in the tournament to create more offensive opportunities.”

In SCVA play, the 13 Blue team went 1-2 in their first mandatory tournament.  The team opened the day with a win over SCVC 13-Roxy (25-19, 25-20), before dropping the next 2 matches to Epic 13-Maike (19-25, 25-22, 10-15) and Offshore VBC 13-1 (18-25, 16-25). The team took 3rd place in their pool. Coach Ed Gover said, “unfortunately, we had two players sustain an injury in the first match and we had to make major changes in the lineup. Emma Zuffelato had her best tournament of the year, while Charlotte Caesar did a great job in the Libero position.”

The 12 Blue team was also competing in their first mandatory tourney of the season and according to Coach Tina Brown, “had a solid day competition. The team battled every match, winning two very tight matches in the 3rd game.  We ended the day 2-1 with some great overall performances from Chloe Hoffman, Devyn Brunet & Hannah Bordofsky.” The two wins were over Offshore VBC 12-1 (13-25, 25-12, 15-6) and Prime 12-Asics (25-22, 20-25, 15-5), before dropping their last match of the day to DSVC 12-Dana (15-25, 16-25). The team finished 2nd place in their pool!

This upcoming weekend is a quiet one for the club, with only the 16 Blue team competing in their next SCVA mandatory tournament down in the San Diego area.