Geoff Davis, director of H2 Saint Louis, announced that Alli Beining, assistant varsity coach at Lutheran High School South, will serve as head coach for the 18 Cardinal team this season! You can hear from Alli herself on her plans for the season by visiting her link on H2TV1 on the website.
We are thrilled to have such a talented young lady join us for what will surely be a great season!
H2 Saint Louis 14 Cardinal and H2 Saint Louis 14 Crush represent at USAV Nationals! Good luck girls!
H2 14 Black player Claire Whitehouse has been named to the USA Volleyball High Performance National A2 team. Claire tried out for the USA High Performance program at the tryouts held during the Mideast Qualifier. While this is Claire’s first time on a national team, she is no stranger to the High Performance program, being selected for a Midwest region team last year. Claire’s selection to the National A2 team places her in the top 200 players in the country.
The High Performance Program works to advance volleyball talent and build a broader and stronger pipeline of athletes and coaches for our USA Olympic Teams. The High Performance Program bridges the gap between our USA National Teams and youth volleyball programs across the country. This is done through a system of national tryouts which then qualify athletes for training programs, camps, and Youth and Junior National Teams. The HP Program at USA Volleyball is the “Pipeline” for volleyball athletes who aspire to reach the elite level of their sport and is intended to grow the pool of talented young players who may someday compete for a spot on the USA National and Olympic Teams.
Great job Claire!!
The girls of 14 Cardinal prepare for the trip to USAV NATIONALS Representing the Gateway region in a couple of weeks in the 14u open division. Good luck Girls!
There is still time for you to attend. Contact Roni Jackson at roniquejackson@hotmail.com.
18 Crush wins the 18 USA Emerald bracket at the MEQ in Indianapolis! Crush overcame adversity from day 1 and pulled together as a team to win 5 out of their last 6 games. Way to go 18 Crush!
18 Cardinal Outside hitter Mary Grace Masters signs with Jefferson College!
18 Cardinal Middle blocker Emily Beining signs with Webster University! Congratulations!
16 Cardinal takes 1st in gold at 17’s Tournament at Principia College this weekend! Awesome job ladies!
The girls of the 17 Black team played excellent in the 17U H2 UA tournament on 3/8/14. We started out seeded #1 overall and the girls made sure that we stayed there! They played some great games showing off their skills, they did a ton of spot serving! All of the girls were firing on all cylinders making for an exciting and fun time. We had our ups and downs, playing down to a lower level at times, but the girls showed their mental toughness skills and shook off the laziness to continue to play at up to their level. The championship match was the best match we had all day. We played the Flying Jays 16’s team. While they were shorter, they had excellent defense and serve receive. It put our teams skills and mental toughness to the test. We had to overcome them digging almost everything we dealt them and then combat their perfect passing! In the end the girls just continued to do what they do best and that is pound the ball at the other team. Molly and Megan just continued to beat the ball at them from the outside, Victoria and Jessica put up continuous blocks and hits as well. Emily came alive in this last game putting up great blocks and kills while Lexie and Kelsie did an amazing job in the backrow ensuring that their passes to Anna were perfect 90% of the time! Anna continued to show her skills mixing up the setting while ensuring that we kept getting kills and great hits! It was an awesome display of volleyball, with H2 coming out on top in two sets. Way to go H2 17 Black!!
H2 Saint Louis 15 South officially forms as a team and joins our H2 family of players this week. Selected to play on the team are five Lutheran High South freshman basketball players, Sarah Rivers, Emily Miller, Mollie Schultz, Erin Moellenhoff and Abigail Howard. Also joining the team are Elizabeth and Erica Unnerstall, who are freshman at Christ Our Savior High in Prairie Du Rocher, Ill. Currently, 15 South is open to adding one or two more players. The H2 family is large enough that as our schedule unfolds, opportunities will likely exist for some additional H2 members to play with the team as their schedule permits.
Primary practice locations will be at Our Savior Lutheran in Fenton, & Ladue High School, but we plan on having the team venture to scrimmage other teams in the club as well.
16 Highland won the silver bracket championship in the Heart of America Silver Heart Challenge in Kansas City. After an undefeated day one, H2 16 Highland, came back on day to to split three matches and then dominate in bracket play taking both teams in two sets each. Congrats H2 16 Highland!
Photo by Bill Brinkhorst
Congratulations to Colene Hamilton (OH -15 Cardinal), for being selected to the 2014 Presidents Day All-Tournament Team. Your stellar play, show of good teamwork, sports-woman-ship, and desire to win showed through. With the few that were nominated, and still fewer that were selected, you were noticed and recognized, for what you showed on the court. For that you should be proud!
Again, CONGRATULATIONS to you and thank you for representing, yourself, 15 Cardinal, family, and H2, SO WELL..WELL DONE AND GOD BLESS!!
On Feb. 15, 15 Highland demonstrated that teamwork and perseverance pays off. After winning the playoff game in an amazing 3 set match, they headed to the finals against St. Charles Elite taking 2nd place in the Gold bracket! This talented group of champions found out that good team work is the key to success on the court. Keep up the good work!
18 Cardinal player, Hayley Richardson, signed her letter of intent to play collegiate ball for Jefferson College! Congratulations Hayley!!
One definition of “teamwork” is “the cooperative effort by the members of a group or team to achieve a common goal”. This is exactly what the girls of H2 14 Crush are…a team. These team members are from all over. They represent Hillsboro, Lesterville, Dexter, Farmington, Arcadia Valley and Ste. Genevieve. The girls on this team have meshed together beautifully. They all get along and play well with each other. One of our dad’s said it best, “The thing I like BEST about this team is that there are no ‘SuperStars’ on it. All the girls can play ball and no one tries to outshine each other.” That is what being a player for H2 14 Crush is all about…being a team player.
H2 14 Crush has competed in 4 tournaments since January. They have brought home 3 1st Place medals and 1 2nd Place medal. They placed 2nd (Gold Division) out of 20 teams at the 2014 Girls Fest at Kirkwood High School. The team’s record is 20-2. The parents are very proud of this team and what they have and will accomplish this club season.
H2 16 Highland proved to be a team to be reckoned with at the Gateway Girls Fest on Feb. 1st and 2nd. With a 3-1 record on day one of the tourney the girls came back strong on day two to beat Missouri Thunder 25-19, 15-25 and 15-12. Powerhitters 25-19 and25-17 and finally Franklin County in the the championship match 25-21 and 25-20.
Congrats on your accomplishments H2 16 Highland!
A cold, dreary Sunday didn’t slow down H2 11U Cardinal as they won the 11 team Under Armour Challenge at the St. Peter’s Rec Plex on February 9. The Cardinal went 5-0 in matches and 9-2 in sets. The quality of play in the gold bracket was very solid. There were many comments from parents and other fans on the level of play and the amount of action that was in system from all the teams. Numerous times there were exciting rallies of pass, set, hit from both sides that had the crowd on the edge of their seats.
The tournament started with Cardinal as a second seed in their pool, however they flipped the seeds as they went 5-1 to win their pool and get the first round bye in the six team gold bracket. First up in the semifinals was a match with a strong St. Charles Elite team. Elite came out fast and took set one handily. Between sets, Cardinal decided that they weren’t ready to go home quite yet and battled to a second set win and also took set three to advance to the finals. The finals were against a talented Harvester Hurricanes team but Cardinal kept their momentum from the semis and fought to a two set win and the gold medals.
After a victory celebration of Dippin’ Dots from the concession stand, the girls will get back into the gym to sharpen the skills as they continue play in the Premier League where they are currently 3-1.
Starting Saturday with two easy victories over Harvesters Hurricanes 16s 25-11,25-4 and Aftershock 16 Black 25-14,25-11. The afternoon pools found 14 Cardinal up against Peak Performance 16 Black of Oklahoma. Winning 25-17,25-12 and then downing STL Powerhitters 16-1 25-8,25-11.
Sunday proved to be a challenge. Starting with a very good Midwest Xplosion 16-1 from Springfield MO 14 Cardinal found themselves in a fight, falling in 3 sets 20-25,25-23,9-15.
14 Cardinal came alive in bracket play. Consecutive victories over Rockwood 15 White 25-11,25-15 and then defeating CYC 14-1 25-19,25-16 in the semis to reach the championship match against the tournament’s top seed TESL 15 Red. After getting kicked around early in set one down 4-14, 14 Cardinal turned it around to battle back and win set 1 28-26. Set 2 14 Cardinal again dug out of a huge whole 2-12 to pull out a thrilling final 25-23. What an incredible comeback by the girls to win this over a very tough TESL team.
H2 Saint Louis 16 Black Jubilation
H2 headed to Memphis this past weekend for the Annual MLK Volleyball Tournament and kicked off a great start to its 2014 season! Our teams played well. We found a lot of success in what we are doing and will continue to grow from here. Good things are happening all over the club!
This weekend finishes included five outright first place victories. They were:
| 14 Cardinal | 1st Gold | 15 Power |
| 15 Cardinal | 1st Gold | 15 Div |
| 18 Cardinal | 1st Gold | 18 Power |
| 13 Cardinal | 1st Silver | 13 USA |
| 13 Highland | 1st Bronze | 13 G2 |
Additional top finishes included:
| 18 Crush | 3rd Gold | 18s |
| 16 Black | 5th Gold | 16s |
| 14 Black | 2nd Gold | 14s |
| 13 Cardinal | 1st Silver | 13 USA |
| 14 White | 13th Gold | 14s |
14 Cardinal
Last weekend 15 Cardinal as well as numerous other H2 teams traveled to Memphis, TN to play in the annual MLK weekend tournament. After arriving the whole team took a trip to Beale Street for some sight-seeing and dinner at an old school diner called Dyers. Old school should be taken very literally as the grease they used to make the hamburgers is the same grease they have been using since 1912! Happy with a full belly the girls traveled back to the hotel to dream of volleyball and gold. The next morning the girls came out ready to play with the pursuit of gold in mind, and ended up with a record of 3-0 sending them to the gold bracket. Sunday morning the girls started off a little slow, but were able to keep it together and win their first match. After that each game got better and better. There were some hiccups in serve receive and coverage, however the defense was passing nails allowing our offense to really shine. Midway through the day one of our setters got ill, but the girls rallied together and persevered heading into the final match without skipping a beat. This was one of the best games 15 Cardinal has played. The middles were a force to be reckoned with at the net, both in blocking and hitting, with a very memorable kill for Hilary Hightower. The defense was very aggressive and the offense was smart. With both aspects working well together 15 Cardinal was able to get the win and the gold! The team is now 39-3 and has won all three tournaments they have participated in. The coaches were really impressed with the strong serving they saw all weekend, it was key in getting the girls out of some jams. We also want to congratulate all of the other H2 teams on their success!
On January 25th, our H2 Highland 15’s team staged an amazing comeback to finish 2nd at the Greenville Classic! The team’s perseverance and team work help them take playoffs games in two sets each leading to the final game placing 2nd place against Metro East Fire 15. Congratulations on this win and keep it going H2 Highland.
17 Cardinal kicked off its 2014 season with an 18s tournament at Greenville College last Saturday. Despite falling to Rockwood 18 Mizuno in the final match, H2 17 Cardinal finished with second place honors after a tremendous semi final match against the current first place team in the Gateway Region, Show Me Rox 171. With the help of Madison Ruble from 17 Black, the team was able to over come two injuries and defeat Show Me in two sets (19-15, 19-14). “I’m really proud of how the girls came together in that match,” say head coach Alex Hess. “Every single player contributed to this victory. We still have a few kinks to work out, but this was certainly a terrific way to start to the season.”
18 Cardinal played their first tournament this past weekend at the MAC Classic. After placing first in their pool the Cardinals went on to beat an impressive H2 16 Cardinal team and then knocked out Rockwood 18 Navy in 2 sets for the championship! Great job ladies!
Sunday marks the 6th anniversary of the H2 MEGA SCRIMMAGE. You will be sure to want to participate fully as we ring in a new year with the greatest and most skilled coaching staff to date! Come meet all of us this weekend and share in the beginning of our greatest campaign ever!
See you Sunday !
Coach Liz Haeckel, Karen Fletcher & Linda Ehlmann share in some holiday joy during the end of practice this week. The girls will get together with the rest of the club on Sunday for the reffing and score keeping clinic, before taking some time off for some holiday cheer with family and friends! Thanks for sharing your magic with us!
Rose Obunaga, poses with members of 15 Columbia. It’s the first year for our organization to field a team in Columbia, Mo. Rose, a two-time Olympian and veteran to H2, has great hopes for the future of our volleyball program expansion in Columbia. Go H2!
16 Cardinal celebrates Christmas with dinner and a secret Santa gift exchange after a fun practice Sunday evening. The girls will play January 4th in an 18’s tournament to kick start their season!
