Team Meeting

On Wednesdays the team watches film and does weight lifting first, and then starts practice at 4:30. This Wed. Sept 30, Tim had put together a video camera set up that allows the camera to be extended on a pole so that the camera angle is looking down on the top of the net. From this angle it is easy to see if the blockers on penetrating over the net and where the position of their body is in relation to the net. Tim showed up to help set it up since they had never used it before, and to show Coach how to do it. The girls had come in to set up the net, but before they could do any more warmups, Coach had them sitting on the floor in a circle talking, in very serious tones. Tim did not need nor want to be involved in this team meeting so he went outside after he had hooked everything up. Over an hour later, they were still talking. I had showed up to meet Tim to go to dinner, but he was still hanging around outside, thinking that any minute they would end. Finally, after an hour and a half they started warming up and practiced 45 minutes later than usual. We left to go eat dinner and Erin went straight to youth group at church after practice. We were dying to know what had transpired at the team meeting. We kept spectulating of course about all they could be talking about. After the big loss to La Serna the week before there were still some raw feelings. We hoped and prayed they were getting it all worked out. When Erin finally arrived at home that night after church, she said it was mostly about drama from 2 of her teammates that she knew nothing about beforehand. Their insecurities were an eye opener to Erin and caused her to have compassion on them. But it was good to get it all out in the open and they had a good pratice after they had cleared the air. Whew. Who knew being part of a team would be so difficult and provide so many life lessons!?

Sept 29th Valley Christian Match

Every year we play Valley Christian we are never quite sure what to expect. Will they be tough, or will they be a little easier than they were the year before? We beat them last year in fairly easy fashion, but you don't want to be over-confident and then be surprised. But once again Valley was not a match for our WC girls. WC won in 4, but the third game they lost because Coach had put in much of the 2nd string and they couldn't quite pull it out (24-26). At times there seems to be a big gap between 1st and 2nd string, but not always on the basis of ability, more in confidence. Erin had a respectable 8 kills and was pleased to have an easy win after such an emotional loss to La Serna the week before.

Sept 24th La Serna Match

The WC girls showed they were fallible on this night. They lost in 4 games to La Serna. And it was heartbreaking for the team, mostly because they did not play their best. The passing was not the usual stellar passing they have become famous for, so consequently much of their offense was not run well or efficiently. To their credit, La Serna played well and did not let up. They also picked on our weakness at middle blocking and caused multiple hits to kareen off the blocks, unplayable from our side. If WC would have played their best it most likely would have gone 5 games, and perhaps they could have pulled out a win. But that didn't happen. Afterwards, Coach put a lot of blame not only on the passing, but on the captains. That really affected Erin. She played her heart out and felt she played to the best of her ability. She was not at all ashamed of her personal effort. But when Coach questioned it, it kind of crushed her. She kept asking, what more could I do? I did my very best! The team had the weekend off afterward, a much need rest and a time to reflect on not wanting to lose again. If there was a good time to lose, then perhaps this was it. Before heading into league play and eventually to playoffs, this is the time to get the kinks out, and figure out what needs to be done to get the girls to play to the best of their ability in every match. A team grows through adversity, and by God's grace, this may be the most adversity they face this season: the adversity of themselves.

Sept 22 Maranatha Match

The Maranatha match turned out to be a personal highlight for Erin. WC won in 4 games, but Erin had a match high 16 kills, as well as a .465 hitting percentage for the night. She was on fire, and she kept getting set from her setter, Stephanie, so it made for a memorable night. Afterward Erin was kind of ho-hum about the whole match, and we (Tim, Lindsay and I) insisted that she played a great match. The next day before the team watched film of the game, Coach told Erin her hitting percentage and other stats. Tim and I had just delivered popsicles to all the volleyball teams that were practicing that day because it was another extremely hot day. Erin came running out of the team room, so excited to tell us her stats from the Maranatha game. I am so pleased that she is physically able to play without pain this year after seeing her play in pain most of last year. I only pray she can continue to play to the best of her ability and have a blast doing it.

Arcadia Tournament

Saturday, Sept 19th we got up at 6:30 am in order to be at Arcadia High school by 7:45 am to get ready to play in the Arcadia high school varsity tournament. The first match started at 8:30 am against Bell Jeff high school. WC easily won in 2 games, with many of the second string getting some playing time. After the first match, Erin complained of being tired and not feeling well, just an overall weakness and tiredness. But she had to push through it. I kept praying God would give her a second wind. She ate and drank some water. The second match was against Diamond Ranch high school. Again we won easily in 2 games. The were off for 2 matches after that and rested and played card games. Some of the parents had brought two Scrabble boards and were playing at one table. We got to camp out under an open structure that housed 10-12 lunch tables at Arcadia high, which were next to the gym. It was great because it provided both shade and tables! The 3rd match of the day against Monrovia high school proved to be the biggest challenge in pool play. They had a great hitter who hit well from any position. But once again, although it was a bit more difficult and took more energy, they were able to win in 2 games. Afterward, Erin was shaky and weak, and felt like all the food in her stomach was just sitting there in a knot. We had to wait for all the other pool play to finish before we started playoff games, so she rested, and drank some Gatorade, and whimpered about not feeling good. She had brought along her overnight stuff because she was planning to go with Katie Hunter and a couple of the other seniors on the team to a Senior class campout at the beach that had started earlier in the weekend. But as the day wore on, she knew she wouldn't be able to make it to the campout. She was just too tired and not feeling 100%. Before the first playoff game, she finally told Coach Hunter that she wasn't feeling good, so in that game against Western Christian she only played front row, then Holly came in for her in the back row. We won fairly easily. Lindsay and I sat next to a lady who had coached Erin at Upward Basketball when she was in 6th grade. It was fun to reconnect with them. Their daughter is Erin's age and played on the Western Christian team. Soon after that match, WC played their second playoff game against El Rancho high school, and again won in easy fashion. So then we found ourselves in the championship game against the host school, Arcadia. By this time it was 5:30 pm, and it was a very hot day. The girls sat on the gym floor and drank water and gatorade and watched Arcadia finish up their playoff game against Monrovia high school. We were all a bit weary and wilting from the heat. After about 15 minutes, they started the championship best out of 3 match. The girls came out a little slow, making more than the usual unforced errors, so they lost the first game 18-25. But they regrouped, and decided they did not want to give up quite yet, and came back to win the second game. In the third game, they again had some unforced errors and had trouble passing on serve receive, so got down early 0-4 when Coach called a timeout. They proceeded to make up their lost ground and tie the game and then move into the lead. They were ahead with game point 14-11, when Arcadia made a short comeback of 2 straight points, before Stephanie set the middle, Rebecca, and got a kill for the victory. It was such a relief to have it done, and to have won the championship! Arcadia had a jungle-ball style of play that drove us all crazy. They didn't run an offense very much so it threw our defense off a little bit, until our girls started to adjust to Arcadia's unique junk ball style. WC continued to run their offense however, and justice was done when they were able to win because they played the game with integrity and strategy. We finally left the gym at 7 pm, exhausted and emotionally drained from a long, hot day of volleyball. When we got home, we turned on the air conditioner, ate a little bit, and went straight to bed. Yet another 12 hour day of volleyball in a long list of others.

Cal High game Sept 17th

The match at Cal High on Sept 17th was somewhat uneventful. We expected to be able to handle them easily and we did. The first game was 25-10, with the starters playing the whole game. Into the second game the second string started coming in, but still won 25-15. In the third game the second string played the entire time, but had a but of a rough time holding on to the lead, but finally pulled it of 25-22. Erin had stayed home from school earlier in the week because she was tired and not feeling "normal". She rested and started feeling better later in the week. They had no match on Tuesday night this week because of Back to School night, so they got a bit of a break. But from now on, it's going to be every Tues and Thurs matches, with a late practice on Wednesdays because they will do leadership training and watching game video before practice at 4 pm. We will be getting to the heart of the season soon, starting league play at the beginning of October.

University Tournament

September 11-12 found us at University High School in Irvine, CA for a two day tournament. There were 5 teams in each pool (4 pools) and so on Friday afternoon WC played one match, and then we returned early Saturday to start playing again. On Friday they played Elsinore high school, which is ranked 5th in CIF Division 2-A (WC is in Division 4-AA). The girls started slow but picked it up in game 1, eventually losing. Then won game two which was neck in neck, but then lost game three. So it was WCs official first loss of the season, but it was to a good team. On Saturday, the rest of the pool play was fairly uneventful, WC winning in two games to all they faced (Cypress high, Sunny Hills, and University High). Then in the afternoon playoffs began, in which each playoff was just one game to 25, not a match. WC had earned their way into the winners bracket by placing 2nd in their pool (Elsinore placed 1st). They were matched up against the 1st place finisher in another pool, which was Capistrano Valley high school, whom we later found out is ranked 8th in CIF Division 1-AA (the big girls!!). Coach did a good job preparing the girls to play Capo, because Capo was tall and intimidating physically. Our girls came out ready to fight and to show them what they had. Capo on the other hand, came out flat and not able to put many plays together. WC got up by 5 points early on, and never looked back. Capo struggled to get their act together, and their coach was yelling, calling time outs, putting in substitutes; anything to try and get his team to work the way he knew they could. But WC just kept the pressure on and eventually won the one-game playoff 25-18. The parents were elated that our girls could pull off a victory against such a good team. We had a short break, and then faced playoff game number 2 against Bishop Montgomery high school, who was ranked number 4 in CIF Division 2-AA. They were a good team, ready to play, while our girls came out flat. Our serve receive passing had all but disappeared and we got down early by 5, and never recovered. Bishop Montgomery won and went on to play in the chamionship game of the tournament. WC was supposed to play one more game for 3rd place, but Troy high school had already gone home, so by default, WC got the third place trophy. It was a great tournament in that WC got to play a lot of teams from bigger schools and prove that they could hang with them, and even beat them. It helps a team grow when they are challenged, and there was enough challenges in this tournament to make it worthwhile.

WC 3rd place University High School Tournament

Calvary Chapel Murrieta Rematch

On Thursday, September 10th, WC officially opened the season with a rematch against Calvary Chapel Murrieta to whom they had lost to in the CIF finals game of the previous season. The girls were excited to see if they could come back and beat Murrieta after Murrieta had graduated 5 seniors, and WC only graduated 3 seniors. Little did we know before the match, that Murrieta had not only lost 5 seniors to graduation, but they also lost 5 returners that left the school due to financial hardships. Needless to say, with Murrieta's team not even close to the same team that WC played just over 9 months ago, WC easily won the match 25-15, 25-17, 25-19. The girls came out nervous, and Murrieta served first with their best server doing the honors. WC had trouble returning serve the first 4 points of the match, when they finally did get a good pass, Stephanie set Erin on the outside and she put down a great tip to give them the first point of the season. They all relaxed from there, and cruised to a victory that was sweet with relief, and a little revenge.

The gym was packed with spectators, only the likes of which we saw during playoffs last year. One section of bleachers were filled with loud, rowdy students who cheered and stood the entire time. There was a very small section of Murrieta fans, and 2/3s of the stands were family and friends of the players. Erin had a fan club of Dave Velasquez (who has helped get her neck and her shoulder back into great playing shape this year), the Sanborns, the Mers, and several high school friends. It was extremely hot in the gym that day, well over 100 degrees, so we all sweated it out together. As the match went on, and it became obvious WC was going to easily win, the cheering became less intense because we were all trying to conserve energy and stay cool, which was next to impossible anyway.

First newspaper article of the 2009 WC vball season

Today the Whittier Daily News published an article about the Whittier Christian girls volleyball team. Check it out here. Go Heralds!

Surprise Visist

Yesterday at 3 pm, my dad called and said he and mom were on there way to So Cal to pick up a bus for the bus company he works for. They found out about this trip at 11 am, took 30 minutes to pack and started driving, hoping to make it to the bus company in Los Alamitos before they closed at 5 pm. When they got to Pasadena, and were going 35 mph on the 210 freeway, they got a call that they could not pick up the bus that night because proof of insurance had not been figured out. So they came straight to Whittier Christian High School where Erin has playing her first volleyball match of her senior year. What a fun surprise, for them and for us! WC played Sunny Hills and won easily in 3 games. Another random thing that happened last night during warm ups of the junior varsity game, one of the WC girls hurt her knee and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. And so another vollleyball season is underway!

WC volleyball

Today was picture day for the teams at Whittier Christian. I went to take some casual shots and head shots of the girls and teams for the program they will be selling this year. It was incredibly hot today, over 100 degrees inside the gym and outside. The girls did great considering they were sweating just standing there! Next week they will finally get to play their first matches and a tournament after a little over two weeks of practices.

The Beginning of the End. . .

. . . the first of the lasts. However you want to say it, today our last daughter started her first day of her last year of high school. It is a day with mixed emotions: joy, pride, relief, disbelief. Time surely could not have traveled this fast. I distinctly remember a scared little 2-year-old Erin hugging her little purple stuffed Barney while seeing her older sister Lindsay off to Kindergarten. And just a few years later, Erin ran to be the first in line to go off with her new kindergarten teacher, unafraid because she had seen big sister do it and survive. Perhaps that is the advantage of being the second born: learning and watching what is just ahead for you. And Erin has done a good job of observing. She is ready for this Senior year of high school. She has been looking forward to it since her freshmen year, when sister Lindsay was a senior. Erin looks forward to having one fewer class than those lowly underclassmen, getting to go off campus for lunches, and leading her volleyball team to the goal of winning a CIF championship. Hopes are high, expectations higher, the whole year lays open before her. There is much to do in the nine months to come: homework, tests, college apps to send in, decisions to be made, practices, games, friends to hang out with, trips to take, and when it is all done, it will seem it just started.