Brookhaven Tourney Recap

We had a very positive weekend up in Dallas on Friday and Saturday.  We started the weekend off against Trinity Valley.  They are a brand new program and between the two of us we had 3 sophomores.  Total.  The girls started off a little hesitant and passive.  I think was a combination of it being their first real college match (for most of them) and that we didn't know what to expect from TVC.  We lost the first game but the girls did a great job of adjusting their effort levels as well as following the adjustments the coaches made and we won our first match in 4 games!

Our second match on Friday was against Western Texas.  This was another team that had a brand new coach and system and we only had a little time to prepare.  This time the girls came out very focused and we won in 4.  Want to give a big shout out to Brittany Berry, who came off the bench when one of our middles sprained her ankle and did a great job.

After a great dinner at Pei Wei and a good nights sleep, we played Paris Saturday morning.  The girls were extremely prepared for this match.  They followed the scouting report to the letter and we jumped out to a 2-0 lead.  Unfortunately, did not close out Paris in game 3, and they beat us in 5.  This is a learning experience for our young team and they will get better.  We will also play some more "Choke or No Choke" in practice (the girls know exactly what drill this is).

Finally, we played the host team, Brookhaven.  I was a little concerned with how we would respond after a tough loss and we started out very slow and lost game 1.  Coach Loop and I decided to change the line up after game 1 to give us some more offensive firepower.  Taylor Jones came in at our L2 spot and a fantastic job, hitting .500 in games 2 and 3, which we won.  In game 4 it was tied 23-23 and we called a time-out.  We put an emphasis on denying Brookhaven the line shot and told our pin hitters to hit deep down the line.  Sure enough, we got a stuff block on their outside to give us match point, and then we got a transition kill down the line from Mariah Everitt to win the match!!

All in all it was a successful weekend.  I'm sure the girls would be the first to admit that there are a lot of areas we can improve in, but our effort level was very solid.  I can't wait to get back into the gym tomorrow and see us improve.  Our first home match is Wednesday at 6 pm.  Hope you can make it!

Here's a picture of our team outside our bus before our dinner at Chilis!  Yes, the sun is in our eyes.