H2 16 Black entered the Spring Fling tournament at the TESL Center this Saturday following up a good performance at the Mideast Qualifier. One goal that was stressed this week was starting out strong. A huge demon that has haunted us is the early morning match. Most tournaments we have dropped the first set by making uncharacteristic mistakes and communicating poorly in the AM.
This weekend was not the case, our girls started off 4-0 before meeting up with RC Flyers, who were ranked ahead of us in Gateway. We took the first set convincingly and had 1st in the pool sealed up before playing our 6th set. Unfortunately we weren’t able to close the pool 6-0 because of some improved play by the Flyers and some errors on our part.
However, 5-1 in pools is nothing to be mad at as we headed to gold to face TESL 15 Red. Yes, these girls were a year younger but they could hit the ball as well as any other team in the tournament. Too many errors lead to an 0-2 performance and some disappointed girls.
It’s starting to feel like the girls are realizing they are a good team, a thought that never crossed their mind in November. It has taken months but they have expectations to win and are upset whenever it doesn’t happen.
This tournament was just a practice run for the Show Me Qualifier in Kansas City next week and it showed us several areas we can improve on. We will have three great practices before heading to Kansas City to try and earn a bid!