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Head Coach:  Whitney Luchau

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Tournament Schedule

Date	Tournament	Location	Division	Finish	Notes
Jan 6	Salem VBC	Salem, OR		4th
Jan 19-20	MLK Invite	Juanita H.S.		23rd
Feb 3	Mid Season Classic	Yakima, WA		5th	Note 1
Feb 16-18	OJVA	Beaverton, OR			Note 2
Mar 9	Cheney VBC	Cheney, WA
Mar 15-16	NW Jamboree	Yakima, WA		21st
Apr 13	Best in the West	Spokane, WA		9th	Note3
Apr 26-27	Evergreen Regionals	Spokane, WA		1st Silver Div.	Note 4

Competition Notes:

Mid Season Classic, Yakima--Thanks players and parents for the excellent job in clean up following the Sunday tournament and for the extra officiating in the final matches.  

Note 2: Feb 16-18, Beaverton--We have been struggling for the past few tournaments. We seem to start off slow and then do some great things to finish strong.  In volleyball, we find we need to be consistent, to start strong, to stay strong and to finish strong. The girls are celebrating more and more each tournament and playing more as a team.  They seem to enjoy themselves on and off the court. They are incredibly smart players and have excellent knowledge of the game. They understand what they need to do to fix their mistakes and that is the start of an incredible team. 

-Jenessa is a solid player with everything she does; from her serving to her passing and her hitting. She plays with finesse and maturity for her age.  We are lucky to have a solid player like her.   -Olivia is improving more and more with each touch. Her setting has become more aggressive and her play is getting more intense as well. She is quick and is getting much more consistent.   -Ashtin is getting into her groove again. She is quick on transitioning and never forgets about her job on the court. She is a very coachable player.   -Elise's defense is amazing. She is a very quiet player which is unusual for a libero but she digs up everything. She recovers from any mistakes fast and is the first person to admit errors. She is an awesome defensive player.   -Nicole is a feisty player. She will play any back row position I need her to do. She understands and loves defense. She has a killer serve that gets her a high ace percentage. Her defense gets praised by many coaches.  She is one of the players that will come out of nowhere to get the ball up when you think it is going down.   -Mercy is a player you would look at and thing she is strictly a defensive player, but then you see her jump.  She jumps out of the gym. When she gets on top of the ball, you know it is going down.  She is a very smart player all the way around.    -Kimmy is a great player to have on your team. She can make you laugh even when she might make a mistake. When it happens, she recovers and pounds the ball. She improves every touch of the ball.   -Kendra has a lot of power. It is a little surprising to sit back and watch her pound balls down. She improves every practice and is one of those players that will play wherever she is needed.   -Haley is a player that works hard all the time. She wants to improve and you can see that in her play.  She is able to play right side and middle, and can adapt to both positions.  Her defense and serving is becoming amazing.   -Rachel is hilarious. She is the only player I have ever coached that will miss a serve and can still make me laugh a little. She knows why she missed that serve. Her defense is getting better every time we play. She has improved so much from last year and works hard. She is a smart hitter and has such "tight" serves.   -Kayla has improved so much from the first day of our season. She wants to run plays and executes them. She is getting on top of the ball more and more. 

I am excited for our next tournament and expect to place high in it. Thank you to all of the parents for everything. And a special thanks to Team Parent Shanna Messenger...you are an amazing team mom. --- Coach Whitney

Note 3: April 13, Best in the West--The team has never played better than today.  The energy on the court was amazing. We were running plays and celebrating after everything. Olivia did a great job at squaring up with her shoulders to the target every time. It was fun to watch. Elise made amazing save after amazing save, talking more, reading better and being a solid defensive player.  Rachel owned the net this weekend. She had block and fed off them to gain momentum for herself and the team. She stepped up her play immensely this weekend and pounded any overfeed ball that came her way.  Haley (Clay?) improved throughout the weekend as well, and played so well on defense when she had the opportunity.  She and Olivia are working hard to connect on the court and their chemistry becomes better with each play. Jenessa had another solid tournament all the way around and playing both right side and outside. She is a great person to have available to get the job done on the court.  Ashtin had another great tournament as well. She took a run with her serving--showing that when she is on, she is really on. Her hitting was stronger, in large part to increased confidence to swing away.  Kendra is our "little short kid with power". She can hit and serve the ball tough, and where that power comes from we do not know.  She does a great job at staying low on defense. Her vertical has increased some last season and it shows in her hitting.  Mercy did awesome playing right side and getting blocks. She did a great job at wowing coaches with her jumping abilities along with being able to put the ball away with power. 

Every coach should want my team. They are amazing and so much fun to be around. You can tell that they truly enjoy each others company. They work hard. They win important rallies.   A big Thank You to Clay and Sinjai's families for taking care of me this weekend. And of course, a big Thank You to Shanna for being the best Team Mom in the world.  -- Coach Whitney

Note 4:April 26-27, Evergreen Regionals--So...my theory of starting strong, staying strong and finishing strong did pay off for our team in the end. We had a rough start with an even rougher middle, but thanks to hard work and dedication we pulled it together and finished stronger than I had imagined.  I am so incredibly proud of this team.  Everything fell into the right spot this weekend. The girls have been working together more than ever and they deserved to take 1st.  The chemistry on the court is amazing and the trust they have in each other really shows.  I got a lot of compliments from other coaches on my team that they could tell we really liked each other and how amazing our defense was.  This team is awesome and SO much fun to be around.  I could not ask for a greater group of girls to coach.  They are the best!!!!!

Jenessa struggled a bit in her serving this weekend but more than made up for it in her all around play. She stayed solid and smart all the way around. Ashtin's defense was on this weekend as well. She did great things for us in both the front row and the back row.  Kendra pounded balls and moved well on defense. She has improved so much from last year, it is amazing to see the difference. You can tell she is a player that jumps at the chance to improve with every touch. Mercy is such a stud and is so much fun to coach.  I was able to move her around and watch her excel at the different positions. She is a player that every coach drools over. Olivia's play was exceptional. Her setting became more aggressive and she looked more comfortable with the team. She served under immense pressure and succeeded.  She definitely brought her "A" game.  We were so lucky to have Elise as our libero. The funny thing about Elise is that she does not realize how good she really is. She moves and reads better than I think she realizes.  She is fun to watch.  Rachel pounded balls this weekend. She owned the net and is becoming more aggressive too. Haley improved so much this weekend. Her serves helped us catch up more than a few times. She did not crumble under pressure and she also was more aggressive this weekend.    Thank you parents for letting me coach your daughters. There were so much fun to be around and at the end of the year things really came together for us.  Thank you for being patient and being so supportive.  Thank you Shanna for everything you have done for the team as our Team Parent.  You have me so many times!  I could not thank you enough for everything over the past two years.  You are easily the best Team Parent a team could have. -- Coach Whitney

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