With two Power Leagues, two friendship tournaments and Colorado Crossroads, it was all hand’s on deck this past weekend.
Power Leagues
12u
Our “Leaders of Tomorrow” aka “Keiki Wahine” aka 12-1 cheered their hearts and lungs out all day. The bench led the way with a constant flow of high and positive energy, giving the players on the court the confidence to fight through nerves and fatigue with money serves, mad defense and fearless swings. It was truly a full team effort as they pulled off four straight wins including a close final three-game match – started off strong with a run of bullet serves by Daphne and finished off by a heart-stopper let serve that just barely made its way over the net by Chloe – to a championship! Now ranked #11 and moving up to Silver for the first time in Hiki Nō 12’s history, these young ladies are attacking this Hiki Nō curve with some BOOOOOM! In the words of Coach Tino, got that?!?
14-1 We aint all bad
What a competitive weekend the 14-1 had. Losing and learning after a couple of heart breaking matches created a handful of positive moments. After fighting back from
Being down 24-16 and WINNING 28-26 the girls got a taste of playing well and everyone being focused on their jobs. The question for them is “Now what do we do about it?”
14-2
The team has some character this weekend. I’m very proud of how players carried themselves with positivity and lots of energy throughout the day rather than focusing on the outcome of the matches – we all know how difficult it is and not to get down on ourselves when things don’t go our way even as adults. We had a great team discussion, “what teammate do you want to be?” and looking forward to grind through the journey to become better players and teammates that can make other players play better.
Friendship Tournaments
15-1
The 15-1’s played all around solid volleyball this past weekend at the courts! Their game started off strong & got better as the day went on. They served incredibly tough, had great defense, and some sweet offensive plays all day. Any time they got in a rut they found a way out of it. They fought hard in the championship match, and lost, but not before coming back from being down 18-6. Overall the girls had a great weekend!
16-1
The 16-1s played up in the 18s division. It was fun getting to coach a new group of girls. We ended up facing our own 18-2s in the championship. Overall, the girls worked really well together and beat up on some 18s!
16-2 Embrace the Weird!
When Grace Beilfuss was playing outside hitter (and doing well) you know it was one “weird weekend.” The 16-2 had many great moments that helped them get better as a team. Not only did we play well but we played well against good competition. It was nice to see high numbers of parents in the stands rocking the Hiki Nō gear!
18-2
18-2 was joined by Grace who helped round out the team as we were missing several players. Only having 7, it was a great day for everyone to get lots of court time and lots of touches. Coach Suz was back on the bench after missing some events with her broken leg and she loved being back with the girls. Coach Diana and she saw some growth in many areas and had fun hanging with our team. They played very well in the final to WTD and it was a good warm up for PL and Spokane.
Colorado Crossroads
18-1 Doing our thang in Denver!
After battling hard & for the first time, showing some fight & focus for extended periods of time (one of our team challenges), we were able to go 2&1 for both first two days earning ourselves an afternoon challenge match with the very well respected & well coached team from Club Zona (head coach Matt Duyck). After winning an EPIC 3-set comeback thriller, our girls were in the 18 USA GOLD bracket for the very first time in THN history! Losing our quarterfinal match hopefully sent us a reminder that we need to “bring it” every single time we step onto the court. Overall a solid wknd & now onto our March PL & then Spokompton! #HNLG