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16′s Gold at MLK Tournament, January 19th – 21st

OJVA’s 16 Gold team tied for 5th place at the Oregon MLK tournament this weekend at the University of Oregon.  It was a three day tournament with 72 teams.  Day one, we played at the Matthew Knight Arena.  There were only two courts set up there,  so it didnt have that big tournament feel.  We finished seconded in pool on the first day.  We beat both Washington Volleyball Academy and Boss (the only team from our region in our pool)  playing very well against both teams.  The last team we played in our pool was Puget Sound.  They were the best team we have played against this year.  The girls played with a lot of emotion and intensity, but were very tight.  This really showed itself in our ball handling and communication,  in particular in our serve receive.   We ended up losing in two sets, 17-25  and 19-25.  Everyone was disappointed,  but we had to regroup to come back for day two.

We were seeded second in our pool on Sunday,  and played two very solid matches against Rimrock and DSK.  I was proud of how the girls rebounded from the loss the day before to come out strong in the first two matches.  The last match of the day was against a very talented Kent Jrs. team.  This was our best, and most exciting match of the tournament.  We lost a very tight first set 23-25.  Then we got down right away in set two 2-10.  After a time out where we talked about staying relaxed and disciplined and how we needed each other,  we made a great run to come back and win the set in an exciting 28-26 score!  Our serving was tough and took Kent Jrs completely out of their game.  The third game saw us coming out strong and confident and dominating the game, winning 15-5!   So much fun, and it showed such great character and teamwork.  I was super proud of the mental switch the girls made after falling so far behind in game two.  They could have let it just continue and fall completely apart, but instead they battled back together.  Good job girls!

Winning the pool put us in the Gold Bracket for bracket play on Monday.  We played Excell NW  16-1.   We lost the match 18-25, 18-25,  and just never got out rhythm.  The effort was definitely there as the girls played hard,  but the teamwork and trust and discipline started breaking down.  I think day three was a  good learning lesson for us.  The third day of a tournament is hard,  and discipline and technique start to break down as you get tired. It’s a  mental challenge to fight through this in a positive way and to stay together as a team when things are not going well, either for yourself or your team.

Overall,  the good moments outweighed the bad, it was just hard ending on a loss where we didn’t feel like we competed well.  But we did some really good things over the weekend and showed improvement both individually and as a team.  Hopefully its motivation to work more mindfully when we get back into the gym, as we will be seeing many of these teams at the next Power League in the Platinum Division.

16 Blue President’s Day Tournament- Thanks Tanya

Navigating OJVA Volleyball News and Pictures

Welcome to the new Oregon Juniors Volleyball Academy blog.

You’ve arrived in the portion of our site dedicated to news updates, tournament reports, pictures, and just about anything else we want to post for everyone to see!

You have a few options for viewing posts here.  First, you can just read through all the posts in chronological order.  The most recent posts shows up at the top of the page.  You can also jump to prior months by clicking on the archive links to the right.

If you are interested in a specific team, click on the team’s link to the right under “Categories” and all stories, pictures, etc., dealing with that team will come up.

If you are looking for information pretaining to a specific tournament, click on one of the teams that participated in that tournament, then, at the bottom of the post, click on the tag related to the tournament.

Finally, you can search for terms by using the search dialogue in the upper right hand corner.

Enjoy the new site, please come back often, as content should be updated frequently, and don’t hesitate to leave comments!

Team pictures are online!

Check out the team pictures on each team’s page.

16 Blue PL Qualifier

OJVA 16 Blue team completed its first day of competition on January 22, 2012 with success. Ranked #23 entering the tournament, the players were very steady after the first match and finished 2nd in pool play elevating them to an opportunity to stay and play in the Gold division for the first Power League date.  Although the first cross-over match was incredibly close with all players demonstrating their competitive abilities, the win went to NW Reign in the third set 15-13.

The win would have placed us in a match-up with the 16 Gold team. Still, there was an opportunity in the last cross-over match to stay in the Gold Bracket with a win over Rose City 16 Black.  The last match was a learning lesson for the team as our errors increased and ability to compete the entire match decipated. Summarizing our successful day by simply the number of spots we moved up is evident.  The closer look revealed a competitive, determined, and at times, disciplined team. The coaches agreed that it was an excellent base to build on with a bar set at an appropriate level. The most impressive skill of the day was the aggresive serving by all members of the team. We look forward to continued progress toward the team and individual goals. Excellent way to start the season ladies finishing 13th!

OJVA Monday Skill Practices

We have started skill specific practice on Monday evenings from 5-7 PM.  Setters start at 5 PM.  Liberos start at 5:30 PM.  All hitters start at 6:00 PM.

These skill practices are currently open to 18 Gold, 17 Blue, 16 Gold, 16 Blue, and 14 Gold teams.

If you have questions please email Marty or Steve. Or call 503-646-7905.