This weekend our girls traveled to Principia College for a Stratman Series tournament. A long drive for most of our girls, but they were all excited to play!
The girls came out a little slow and lost their first set of pools to Hometown Hitters 10-19. After some motivation from the coaches and among the girls, they were ready to play the rest of the day. They came out and won the second set 19-16. The girls then powered their way through their pools. The next match was against Rapid Fire 16 and then HP 16 White. They took care of business and finished their pool 5-1, tied for first with Hometown Hitters.
They were seeded second in gold due to a tie breaker which set up a great match with High Performance 14 Royal. Even though they were 14’s, these girls were bigger than us and were a serious threat in the tournament. They finished their pool 6-0 with a differential of +50. The girls were not afraid though!
The first set ended 17-19 in favor of Hi P. A few big hits and some unfortunate errors led to an exciting first set. Then the girls came out ready for the second. A string of amazing serves by Braeden Lackey set the girls up with a 9-0 lead, forcing High Performance to use both of their timeouts in the first 9 points. They carried their Momentum to a 19-9 victory in the second to set up game three. The third set was neck and neck for the most part and the score was 7-8 when the teams switched sides. Unfortunately Hi P had some brutal serves and a big row of hitters that ended the set 9-15.
Although we came up short of our initial goals, the girls learned some valuable lessons and grew closer as a team. With three practices coming up before our next performance in Premier League, coaches and players are all excited to get back into the gym and work even harder than ever. All coaches were incredibly proud of the players. No one quit on us and we went down playing our heart out! In the end, that’s all we ask of them!