The end of year Ohio Valley Region (OVR) Championship Tournament is a very unique event. At the 16s level there were 22 National teams, 64 American teams, and 111 Regional teams. In terms of results, the Cliffs Notes version is that we played well and ended up tied for 5th out of 64 teams in the 16 American Division.
Let’s Get This Tournament Going!
As noted above, there were 64 teams in our 16 American Division. The 32 top ranked teams were seeded into eight pools of four teams each. First place finishers in each of the eight pools went to Gold, second place finishers to Silver, third place finishers to Bronze and the fourth place finishers to the Copper Bracket. The lower 32 seeded teams were placed in 8 pools to compete for Nickel, Platinum, Aluminum and Chromium Brackets. There was no room for error since only one team from each of the top eight pools went to Gold. The competition is tough since the top 32 teams are all there and there are usually no easy wins. Many matches go 3 sets, making it a long day.
We started out a little shaky, losing the first set before fighting back to take the next two sets against Elite VBC. Scores were 21-25, 25-23, and 15-12. Next up was Force VBC. We won the first set handily, 25-9, before the wheels fell off in the second set. Five service errors and too many balls hitting the sport court on our side resulted in an 18-25 loss. We recovered very nicely in the third and deciding set, winning 15-5. That set up a match against Orange Crush VBC out of Cincinnati for the right to advance to the Gold Bracket. A solid performance resulted in a two set victory, 25-18 and 25-22. Our quarterfinal match was against the number two ranked team in the OVR, Southwest VBC out of Cleveland. They played up to their ranking and took us in two straight sets, 25-18 and 25-14, leaving us with a 5th place Gold finish.
May the Force (VBC) be with you.
Although we certainly never like to lose it was a very good overall tournament. We took care of business in our pool and persevered to attain Gold, with two matches pushing us to three sets. We have had more than our fair share of injuries and illnesses this year and it was nice to see the players end on a good note. We would like to give a special shout out to the parents and families for their support. Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank middle hitter Alissa for playing in this tournament despite her illness. She woke up sick and did not think she would be able to play. Her absence would have created a huge ripple effect on player positions so she gutted it out in support of the team. Way to go Alissa! Sad to see the books close on another club season. The coaches would like to wish all the players a great summer and a fabulous fall high school season.
Thought for the Tournament
“Remember the banana — when it left the bunch it got skinned.”
Lauren and Summer show us how to celebrate!
Carleigh applies the coaches motto: Jump High, Reach High, Hit High
Abby doing what Abby does!
Summer with a positively poised precise perfectly placed powerful pound past the perplexed MB.
A precious pleasant pleasingly productive pass by Ella.
An aggressive accurate authoritatively alert and awesome attack by Alissa.
A lovely luscious lively lunge by Lauren.
Krystal sends the set off with a good luck kiss.
Who says a tall MH can’t get low and pass? Demo by Brianna.
Mackenzie with many multiple matches of masterful mammoth attacks thru the block.
Carefully crafted clever colossal combative crazy cruel kills by Corinn
Kills by Carleigh
The passing of Abby
Pounds by Summer
Save by Ella
Miss Versatility – Lauren
Krystal-ized Sets
Serve and Pass Brianna
Setter/OH Mackenzie
Corinn’s Cranks
The Oakwood Block — Alissa and Carleigh
The Ice Block
The Bluegrass Tournament is very unique in that there are 116 courts under one roof with well over 700 teams entered. There are multiple age groups (10s-18s) and various divisions (Aspire, Classic, Club, Premier, Open) in each age group. Dayton Juniors had ten teams attending, almost all our Gold and Blue teams. Our team went into the tournament a little shorthanded with middle hitter Alissa out with mono, middle hitter Brianna restricted to back row duty due to an injured shoulder, and Ella participating in the State Science Competition. We needed another attacker in order to compete and since all the Dayton Juniors teams were playing we went outside the club to find a player. Fortunately we were able to sign up Lydia Henry of Greenon. She was able to practice with us for three sessions and then participate at this tournament.
The players and coaches work hard all season long so I always look at the Ohio Valley Region (OVR) Championships with a little trepidation. You want to “go out” on a positive note but many things are outside of your control as a coach. The Championship Tournament is usually very competitive since the OVR groups together teams with similar rankings. For this tournament the OVR placed the top 16 teams into the 16 American Gold and Silver Divisions. There were 4 pools of 4 teams each. After pool play the top two finishers in each pool moved up to the Gold Playoffs and the bottom two went to the Silver Playoffs.
I believe it is interesting to look at a few facts regarding the tournament. The two teams we beat in our initial pool, Borderline and Utopia, went into the Silver Playoffs and both teams made it through to the Silver Finals where Borderline beat Utopia. There were 62 teams entered in the 16 American Division of this tournament. We finished tied for 5th out of the 62 teams. A very good result overall. It was nice to see the two teams we beat in pool play make it to the Silver Finals and the team we lost to in three, Southwest White, finish 3rd in Gold. An especially nice showing for our pool.
players to some mint chocolate cupcakes. With players missing we had enough to share with a few players from the team we scrimmaged. The players were in rare form this evening. The fact that it was our last practice together made it special and they were pretty revved up when they heard cupcakes awaited them in the break room. A few pictures from the feeding frenzy.
With all the concentration on volleyball it is sometimes easy to overlook the fact that the players have other special talents and interests. In terms of other sports we have players on our team participating in high school basketball, track and field, and softball. One of our players, Sydney, is part of the Bellbrook High School music department and has devoted a great deal of her time to the spring high school production of “Annie”, the story of an orphan living in New York in the 1930’s. Sydney is a member of the Annie orchestra and plays the bassoon. Annie is being presented by the Bellbrook Theater Department and is playing this weekend in the school auditorium — Friday (7 PM), Saturday (7 PM) and Sunday (2 PM).
Several members of our team were able to come out to Friday’s performance and support Sydney’s efforts. A very nice gesture and they were also rewarded with high class entertainment. If you think you need to visit the big city or venture downtown Dayton’s Schuster Center to see a wonderful theater production you are missing out. They are occurring all over the Miami Valley at the local high schools and community theaters. We are proud of Sydney’s contributions and the success she has achieved in her musical pursuits. The pictures below capture a few moments of the night’s event.
If you are a frequent reader of this website you know that my wife typically takes a ton of pictures at our tournaments and I sort through them, edit and write a blog post about each tournament. My wife has many other talents and interests — one of them being a passion for African Violets. This weekend’s tournament conflicted with a large African Violet Show and Sale at the Cincinnati Eastgate Mall. As you might imagine, volleyball took a back seat to African Violets this weekend so I figured I would not have the benefit of her volleyball action photos when I constructed this blog.
We were not quite sure what to expect at this tournament since virtually no teams were entered in the 16s Division. As it turned out they consolidated all 16s, 17s and 18s teams into one 18s Division. Our initial pool featured teams from Toledo, Michigan and Canada. We played well our first match against a strong Toledo 18s team but dropped two straight sets 21-25 and 17-25. All the phases of our game seemed to improve as we handled the Hurricanes 17s (Michigan) and Skillz Finest 16s (Canada), each in straight sets, to finish second in our pool
We ended Sunday’s April 2nd practice with a short celebration of Coach Megan’s birthday (which is actually on Monday). It took a bit of finagling to make it a surprise. A couple of parents helped set the table and the players signed the white board during their water breaks. Near the end of practice they had one player feign sickness and another player asked Coach Megan to come out into the lobby to tend to her. Not sure if it was too convincing but she did appear to be surprised by the proceedings.
I cannot remember the Cincinnati Duke Energy Convention Center ever hosting a large volleyball tournament before. I was especially interested in what it would be like since Dayton Juniors will be moving the Dayton portion of the Presidents’ Day Cup to the Cincinnati Duke Energy Convention Center for the February 17 & 18, 2018 tournament. There was a lot of room for the courts and the facility seemed to do a good job of hosting the tournament so hopefully that bodes well for next year’s PDC tournament. I would note it was also nice to find a $6 parking garage less than a block away. Certainly better than the $28 I paid at the Indianapolis Convention Center earlier this year.
This was also the first year for the JVA Buckeye Battle so it was somewhat of an unknown when we signed up for it. Within the USAV Ohio Valley Region (OVR) we have three levels of volleyball — National, American and Regional. Other USAV Regions use other categories/names to denote their various levels of play, as does the competing Juniors Volleyball Association (JVA) organization. It can be very confusing to those not directly involved. Very large JVA and USAV tournaments usually have a somewhat small Division of “Open” teams — teams that are the best of the best. The next Division “down” is usually called “Premier” and it typically has a mixture of good National and very good American level teams in it. The next Division “down” is called “Club” and it usually has a mixture of American and very good Regional level teams in it, although at large tournaments there are quite a few National teams playing in the Club Division too. Below the Open, Premier, and Club Divisions you may also find the Classic and the Aspire Divisions. There is no real forcing function to ensure teams are placed at the correct level so you will sometimes find many teams playing somewhat below their capability — most probably because they want to ensure a winning record. In each age group very few OVR teams are Open Division caliber (maybe 10 or so teams) so you will typically find the majority of OVR National and American teams playing in the Premier and Club Divisions at these big tournaments. Sorry to digress into these details but hopefully it helps put the various tournaments into perspective. We have played in the Premier Division at the JVA Central Zones, the American Division at the large USAV Presidents’ Cup, the Club level at the huge JVA Bluegrass (where we had two National teams in our first pool), and now in the Open level at the JVA Buckeye Battle.
The JVA Buckeye Battle was not a super large tournament and it was in direct competition with the huge USAV Mideast Qualifier Tournament (16-18 year olds) in Indianapolis this same weekend. So the JVA chose to host a small Open Division and a large Club Division tournament. We played in the twelve team 15-16 Open Division which certainly guaranteed excellent competition. In our first pool we had Premier VBC and Elevation VBC’s top teams, as well as a very nice team from Canada. We lost all three matches in similar fashion — playing with them at times but falling victim to several streaks of poor execution. We were at less than full strength with players unavailable due to injury and conflicting high school sports schedules. It made the task at hand a little harder but it also enabled the available players to experience some new roles.
2018 Dayton Juniors 16 Ice 