Woodland Tourament Action Final

All the games were pretty good tonight! Oak Ridge and Saxony Lutheran surprised me; I thought they would have been much better, especially tonight for Oak Ridge since Lauren played, and I heard the same thing about her shoulder as the reason why she didn't play the night before, but she didn't have a very good night tonight, either. I don't know her name but I think the tall blonde girl (#17) from Oak Ridge had the best performance at the tournament (from Oak Ridge); I wouldn't be surprised if she receives All-Tournament team. I didn't get to see the Greenville-Meadow Heights game, but we play Greenville later this season so I'll get to see them play, then.

I won't comment much on the Leopold-Zalma game. All I will say is that we didn't play up to our full potential, and I blame most of it on our team's mentality tonight (they were scared and pretty intimidated, which they always are when they play Leopold and/or Bell City) but it was a really good game and I was surprised at how close the score was. Leopold's defense isn't as good as it normally is but they make up for it with their powerful hitters and strength at the net.

The Advance-Woodland game was also a really good match (well, at least the first set). Advance is pretty scrappy as well and inconsistent, but I think their strength is in their serves: Sara Mace and Liza Gray, especially. If they play up to their full potential, I could see them giving Leopold a run for their money, but right now I still give the edge to Leopold. We'll see what happens!

Marcia, where are you? I've been waiting to read your updated blog ever since I got home a couple hours ago! I'll go ahead and leave my comments, though, in anxious anticipation for your new blog!

The Meadow Heights-Saxony Lutheran consolation game, I thought, was never going to end! It kept going back and forth with missed serves and all three games were really close but I was glad to see Meadow Heights, a fellow school from Bollinger County, eek out a victory.

As for the Woodland-Zalma game, I was very impressed with our girls' performance tonight. I don't know what happened with us that first set that we lost 19-25, but it seemed to be a repeat of the Meadow Heights game in which we lost the first set but recovered in the second set, which we won 25-17. We found our motivation and momentum in the second set and we kept it going in the third set during which we held a slight lead throughout the entire set. Woodland picked up the pace a little bit but we quickly responded with some good hits by Angela Dickinson (#5) before finishing it out 25-22. It was a grand victory both for the girls and our coach, Cindy Wiseman, whose sister Mary Kay Stoneking is the coach at Woodland. You can bet your bottom dollar that Woodland will be out for blood when we play them in regular season (which we play them on our home court, though, so we'll have an advantage)!

The Leopold-Advance game surprised me; it was a totally different Advance team that played tonight. I think their problem was what our girls' problem is when we play Leopold: mentality. You could tell just by looking at Advance that they were so nervous and shocked when they were playing Leopold. Leopold also seemed to want it more than Advance did, which was evident in both their team's performance and the cheering section in the stands tonight: the orange and black chants were all but drowned out by the Leopold Spirit Leaders (I think is what they are called) who pepped up the crowd. Advance just wasn't with it tonight. They had so many missed serves and hits in the net but the few times they actually stepped it up and hit at Leopold, they made a good run at it. Leopold is always good at volleyball, don't get me wrong, but their defense seems to be their weak spot this season. Basically, if you can get a strong hit or kill and break the tall Leopold blockers, that's how you can beat them because that seems to get them down a lot. You can't get a good hit without good defense. Can't remember the scores to the other games but I'm sure Marcia will post them as soon as she starts her blog.

Congratulations to all Bollinger County teams tonight for their stellar performances and a special congratulations to the Zalma Lady Bulldogs for their victorious upset of the Woodland Lady Cardinals tonight! For a team that was seeded 5th to upset two teams in a tournament, I think, is something to be really proud of, and knocking off a team that was seeded second and is the host of the tournament and whose coach is an alma mater of your school and is your coach's sister is all just the icing on top of the cake. Oh and also congratulations to all the wonderful athletes who made the Woodland All-Tournament Team (special congrats to Zalma's Lesta Newberry who made it!)

TOURNAMENT RESULTS

*Consolation - Meadow Heights (No. 4) defeats Saxony Lutheran (No. 7) in three sets.

*Third Place - Zalma (No. 5) defeats Woodland (No. 2) in three sets.

*Championship - Leopold (No. 1) defeats Advance (No. 3) in two sets.

*Sportsmanship Award - Greenville Lady Bears.

I enjoy your blogs as well, Marcia. I sent an application in to start a blog but haven't heard anything back from them yet. I hope they respond soon because I'd like to do a blog for this upcoming weekend and the big SEMO Classic Tournament. We also play Bell City Tuesday night at home (which I'm sure will be a good game) and then head to Marquand Thursday night (which I'm sure will be a short game, ha) before we start pool play in the Classics. Last year in the Classics we were put in a pool where we had to play Notre Dame-St. Louis and I was so impressed with how our girls played. It was one of the few times where they weren't intimidated by playing a bigger and better school and they almost won; the scores were 19-25, 24-25 if I remember correctly. We made it all the way to the quarterfinals of the Silver Bracket last year, defeating Southland in the first round in two sets and then triumphing over our all-time arch rival Advance in three sets before losing out to Woodland in two close sets. Notre Dame-Cape Girardeau went on to defeat Woodland for the Silver Bracket Championship. It's amazing how I remember all of this :) ha. Have a good weekend, Marcia!

Great Coverage Marcia!! I love to read your blogs!!

littlefuturejournalist, I was surprised at the Advance Leopold match up Friday night. I thought Advance would give Leopold a handfull and be tougher compition, giving Leopold a chance to show off their defence. I don't see Leopolds defence as weak either.