July 22, 2009
Magic
Magic, like the past few seasons, again competed at the USA Volleyball Nationals in Miami. They had a tough first 6 team pool. The girls started out well, beating Club ONE 2-0. Magic struggled to terminate and piled up too many hitting, blocking and serving errors during the second match to pull out the win. The third match, again, the team played somewhat inconsistently, winning the first match easily, dropping the second due to too many errors and pulling away in the third for an easy win. On the second day, the team dropped both matches with too many missed opportunities. Magic finished pool one 2-3, coming out fourth, losing to the overall 5th, 9th and 10th place finishers.
Going into day three, Magic was now in the bottom half, but determined to win out - especially because it was the last tournament for the 5 seniors. The team went 2-0 in the three team pool in addition to winning the late-night crossover match. Into playoffs, Magic dropped the first set but then was reminded of the limited time together. The girls picked it up tremendously for the second set and carried their passion for each other into the finals.
The 2008-09 Magic Team had fun throughout the season on and off the court. With their final adventure in Miami, the team not only played volleyball, but they also enjoyed each other one last time. With the hotel's elevator being broken, Magic found fun in climbing many stairs over the four days, going to the beach, playing in the pool with Emma and Jack, and an extreme game of KanJam. On the final night, after a beach photoshoot, Liz, with the help of Rob and several parents, climbed palm trees and retrieved coconuts for all the girls. Magic shared endless memories and friendships this year at nationals and throughout the season.
The seniors, and all they have done for the team, will be missed very much next year when they will be playing at their new college homes. Libero Kelsey Maving is headed to the University of Connecticut, right side setter Megan Turner will continue playing volleyball at the University of Cincinnati, middle Lexie Hartnett will be at Ohio University, middle Sam Good is going to Canisius College and outside hitter Sam Palka will be playing at Coastal Carolina University in the fall.
Congratulations to Magic on finishing 25th at Nationals and good luck to all the seniors headed off to college next year!
Mantra
VolleyFX Mantra 16-1 headed to Nationals in Miami, Florida as a 39th seed out of 48 teams in the club division. Mantra was a 5th seed in a six team pool which included four teams from California. The first day of competition was disappointing as Mantra played tentative and did not come out as strong as they hoped, losing all three matches. Granted the three teams they lost to finished in the top 25 (one at 10th and one at 13th), but Mantra definitely did not play up to their capabilities.
They rebounded on day two picking up a victory, but lost unfortunately to another California team (Wave 16 Katie) who ended up winning the whole thing. This placed Mantra in 5th place in their pool and dropped them to the bottom half of the bracket. They went on to win four out of their next five matches including a three set victory over a Virginia Elite team that they had battled with in Baltimore at the NEQ to win Flight Four. It was an exciting match with two very good teams battling it out and it was great to see Mantra play together as a team and play with passion. It was a good conclusion to Nationals for Mantra, finishing 33 out of 48 teams, thereby beating their original seed by six spots.