16-1 Elite

Roster

Season Record

SMV 16-1’s in Dallas June 30th through July 5th, 2008: The 16-1’s capped off a very successful season against some very tough competition in the USAV Nationals in Dallas Texas.  I have to say that even though the win/loss record was not what we had hoped for, the girls finished their season with class.  We knew going in that the competition would be tough so after winning our first 2 matches, we felt pretty good.  Day 2 proved to be much tougher but we did make it to the top half, taking 3rd in our pool of 6 by 2 points.  In our next pool of 3, we played East Carolina Juniors and IPVA out of Iowa.  These 2 teams went on to finish tied for 3rd overall.  We ended up in the finals of flight 1 by beating Wisconsin Select who we lost to in the Spring Tournament so that was a nice win for the girls.  Our last match was a loss to Mavericks out of California and our final finish was 22nd out of 48.  The girls were a little frustrated with their level of play knowing that every team we played was beatable but they held their heads high and stuck together as a team.  I was very proud of them and their accomplishments throughout the season.  Our final record was 63 wins and 26 losses but their personal growth and skill development were immeasurable.  This is an amazing group of young ladies both on and off the court and I enjoyed every minute of every practice, game and in between match time spent with them. 

A special thanks to our great and loyal “Super Fans” who supported us all year. 

The 16-1’s ended up holding their seed throughout the tournament in Orlando the week of June 23rd taking 9th out of 96 teams.  I would have to say that in the 8 years that I’ve been to AAU’s, this has been the toughest competition any of my teams has faced throughout the whole tourney.  With the exception of the first team we played from Louisiana, we had to play our best to win matches.  We ended up 6 and 4 and 2 of the loses were to the teams that finished 2nd and 3rd overall and those matches went 3 games.  The other 2 losses were 3 game matches that could have gone either way but as one of the girls wrote in her journal, it just didn’t go our way.  We played probably our best match of the year (excluding our win against NL 16-2’s at regionals) against Sky High out of Illinois, winning in 2 games (they ended up 5th overall).  I was very proud of all the girls with the way they represented SMV.  I had a coach from one of the clubs we were reffing come up to me after and tell me that our girls did the best job lining that he had seen in a long time. 

Much fun was had off the court as well at Islands of Adventure, Cocoa Beach and Sea World…not to mention the fun and games at the house.  I’m sure the girls will remember this experience for many years to come.  For a couple of the players, it was even their first time flying. For me, it was fun to see the things we take for granted be so special to those experiencing them for the first time.

SMV 16-1’s…coming off a very successful weekend of VB!! Saturday, April 5 we played in our last Power League at the NL warehouse.  We were in the top pool playing a cross pool bracket format.  In the first match we beat Burnsville Thunder 18-1’s who we’ve split with our first two meetings.  This gave us the opportunity to play NOMA again (4th time) having lost to them all 3 times we’ve met them.  They were at full strength with their big middle hitter back but the girls were determined to take it to them.  We beat them in two games!!  We thought we were finally going to get to play NL 17-2’s who have dominated all year in the PL but they fell to their 17-3’s team.  Against the 17-3’s in the finals, the girls lost the first game 23-25 but came back strong winning the next two games 25-19 and 15-12…winning the 18’s Power League!!!!!

Sunday, April 6, was the NCR Regional qualifier…the event we’ve been training so hard for the last 3 months for…a chance to qualify for the USAV National tournament.  In our 3 team pool, we beat M-1 16 Navy which guaranteed a spot in the gold division playoffs.  We then lost to NL 16-2’s in two games.  First round of playoffs we played M-1 16 East knowing if we won the match, we would be assured a bid to nationals.  It was a hard fought match and we won 25-23 and 25-18.  You would have thought we won nationals…not just the chance to compete there.  In the semis we played the top seeded M-1 16-1’s and lost in two.  Although they were a very strong team, the girls were disappointed with their performance.  They regrouped and came back for the 3rd place match ready to play and got another shot at NL 16-2’s.  This time, we were the better team winning the match 25-20, 16-25 and a thrilling 15-13 game three victory. 

SMV turned some heads this weekend.  If you would have walked through the gym and looked at some of the other teams, they were bigger and stronger but none of them have as much heart as this team has.  I would not trade any of them!!!  Win or lose, they stick together and their character is unmatchable.

My thanks to the other teams in the club who have taken the time to scrimmage us, helping to prepare us for this level of competition!! Also, a big THANKS to our great fans who made the bleachers rock with their cheering!!  We could not have done it without you!!