February 22, 2005

VolleyFX sent 7 teams to Columbus, OH this past weekend, to get an early look at national competition. With all age brackets 15 and up represented, almost 70 Western New Yorkers took to the courts in a sea of Blue and Black. Some came to gain experience in their first out of region tournament, others came to prove themselves on a national stage. Below are just a few of the stories.

“Magic” Continues at Early Bird

Magic swept through pool play on day one undefeated winning easily over PIT 3-RIV 18 Black, Allegro 18N and RI Juniors and advanced in day two as a first place seed. Day two opened up against Digs 18-1’s and the heat was on. Losing their first match but rallying on to beat Advance Approach and NC Challenge, Magic ended their pool in a three-way tie for second. Coach Rob Werkmeister said, “The girls knew what they had to do in the tie breaker and they rallied together to get it done.” Magic easily won the tiebreaker 15 – 8 over Dig placing them as a second place seed in the Gold racket in the finals.
Magic faced off in their first game at finals against Matchpoint 18-1 Red and easily advancing winning in two 25 – 15 and 25 – 20 moving on to the quarter’s for the match that everyone at the tournament was waiting for: Renaissance National Black and VFX Magic! With spectators 3 deep on Court 1 the battle began! In a hard fought match that went back and forth Renaissance took game one 25-21, but Magic rallied in game two winning 25 – 23. Game three was a tough battle and ended with Renaissance winning 15 – 9. Right side hitter Kate Love said, “This is the team we came to play and we played them tough we would love to face off against them another time.”
Magic finished the tournament 5th and now looks forward to the VFX Winter Challenge March 5th and 6th. “This is a great team”, Candi Werkmeister said, “These girls have what it takes to be a dominating team as we move on our tournament and the Crossroads Qualifier in Denver in March.”

Rapture’s Adventure at Early Bird

The 17 Rapture team had a good weekend that ended with a great match that had a little bit of everything: great play, a yellow card, a red card, a celebrity referee, and an ejection.
It was the pre-quarters, a match on court one, directly following 18 Magic’s match with Renaissance 18-1. The winner would move on to face the #1 seed R&B Select. But first Rapture faced off against Renaissance 17-1. The match started like any other…with a serve. The feisty Renaissance coach voiced his opinion over a number of calls. Renaissance jumped out to an early lead, but Rapture came back, and closed the gap gaining momentum, but dropped game one 22-25.
The teams battled early in Game two, 5-5, 10-10, when the Renaissance coach suddenly said too much, which resulted in a yellow card. The game resumed with more great plays, 15-15, 20-20, 25-25 and then overtime. With some great hitting from Caitlin Richardson and defense from Alicia Voll and Marissa Kamholtz, Rapture pulled out game two, 28-26. Then the Renaissance coach again began voicing his opinion and the ref pulled out the RED CARD. He had been ejected from the game.
Game three started with a substitute coach sitting on the Renaissance bench, with Renaissance jumping out to a 7-4 lead when the down ref blew the whistle and stopped play. Renaissance had the wrong players on the court. The refs huddled together and stripped Renaissance of three points, evening the scoreboard back to 4-4. The ref got back on the stand and continued the match 5-5, 10-10. As Rapture was gaining momentum Renaissance takes a timeout. Rapture then sets up the team for the next play by moving Caitlin Richardson to block on the outside, and Jenna Gabello to block in the middle, anticipating the slide from Renaissance. The strategy worked, the Renaissance middle ran her approach right into Caitlin, the hitter made an adjustment and hit the ball nine feet out of bounds. There was celebration from Rapture12-13, but then the call - net. So, instead of 12-13, the score changed to 11-14. Rapture dropped back to receive and quickly sided out. It came down to this, 12-14, then with a side out 13-14. One more serve, pass, set to the OH, a shot to the far corner just out of Rapture’s reach, and like that the game ended 13-15.
“There a great team” said Coach Jason Parisaeu “there ability to step up to the plate and play the game was very evident all weekend.”

Mantra takes Fifth at Early Bird Extravaganza!!

Mantra swept day one winning easily over Kaepa Whoosh and Pit 16s and took the Kaepa Lions Pride team to a nail biting 3 games but stormed ahead in games three winning 15 – 8 and finishing first in their pool on Day One. Day Two was also a clean sweep beating Columbus and Xtreme Synergy in three and TVA in two, placing Mantra as a first place seed in the Gold Finals on Monday. The Finals brought a challenge for Mantra facing the Ace National’s 16-1 team. The girls rallied together but ended up with a two games loss, but finished 5th in at the tournament over all. Coach Chris Parks said, “These girls always put team first.  It's rare that such a talented group of players is able to focus on team efforts so greatly.  All of the girls had great individual moments throughout the tournament, but each one always worked for the good of the team.”

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