Week 12, Banquet, no Football ...

The end-of-season Team Banquet will be held Thursday night in the Cafeteria.  We will setup the facility from 6:30 until 7:00 pm, and festivities will begin at 7:00 pm.  We should be done by 8:30 pm.   Each team is to bring the following items:

Don't forget to turn in your uniforms.  We will be in the gym Thursday and Friday from 2:30 until 3 pm to check in your items.  The following players have completed this process:

We will not be playing either Thursday or Friday afternoon.  See you all at the Banquet tonight!

Week 11, West Central Districts

Nov. 5th, 2003:  We will play at 4 pm on Thursday, either at Columbia Jr. High School or Fife High School, depending upon North Mason High School's final position in the Nisqually League.  North Mason's final position is not known as this is written.  If Chimacum defeats Port Townsend tonight, then North Mason is 5th, and we play at Fife High School.  Otherwise North Mason is 4th, and we play at Columbia Jr. High School.  Hopefully we will know where to go by the time the bus leaves tomorrow at 2:15 pm.  But if not, the two sites are only about a half mile apart, and we can shuffle on over to the correct site in time for the 3:35 pm coin toss.

We have had some great practices this week.  It looks like everyone will be healthy, and we plan to play a lot of volleyball tomorrow.  Remember to bring a sandwich and some other good stuff ... we are going to need plenty of energy by the time the last game rolls around ... hopefully at 9 pm!  The following links are maps to the two possible playing sites:

I hope we have a good group of parents and fans tomorrow.  Our most likely opponent at 4 pm is Sequim, and we will be at Fife, and this should be a great match.  If Chimacum loses, then we play at Columbia Jr. High School against Washington.  If we prevail in the 4 pm match, then we go on to play another great match.  Depending upon the first round, our second round will either be against Fife or Highline.   And this second match is NOT a loser-out round.

Serve IN, serve TOUGH, dig the ball, and DO YOUR JOB!  The rest will take care of itself!

Team Notes and Schedules

Week Ten

Oct. 30, 2003:  We just learned that our first match at West Central Districts will be on Thursday, Nov. 6th.  This is a change for our previously posted date of Friday, Nov. 7th. We will be playing at Fife High School or nearby Columbia Junior High School, and our opponent is likely to be Sequim, Washington, or Mt. Rainier.  We will begin play at 4 pm, so we will need to leave Lindbergh sometime around 2 pm.  We have yet to schedule the bus, but the departure time will be posted as soon as have confirmed our transportation schedule.   We will not know for certain who our opponent is until the Nisqually League finishes its regular season play, perhaps as late as the middle of next week.

Oct. 30, 2003:  We received the Crossover schedule, and as anticipated we will play at 10 am Saturday morning.  Our opponent will be Clover park.  We need a parent to volunteer as our lines person for the match, and we should plan on arriving at Renton at 9 am.  Because this is "within" the Renton School District, the District will not provide a bus.  However, we have reserved the school van, and if some of you need rides, we can pick you up at Lindbergh at 8:45 am.  You must let us know by Friday at 4 pm if you need a ride.  No requests by 4 pm, no ride Saturday morning. 

Oct. 25, 2003:  Our victory against Tyee on Thursday, and Evergreen's loss to Kennedy on Friday night places us solidly in fifth place in the King Division.  Hazen defeated Renton on Friday night, so they have locked-up fourth place.  Mt. Rainier lost to Highline, so Highline will finish in second and Mt. Rainier is third.  Kennedy wins the Divisional title with a record that can be no worse than 12-2, and is likely to be 13-1.

Our 5th place finish qualifies us for the League Crossovers on Saturday, November 1st, at Renton High School.  The results of the Crossovers are used to seed the top five Divisional finishers into the West Central Districts the following week, Nov. 7th and 8th.  Our Pierce Division opponent at Crossovers will be either Lakes or Clover Park.

The crossover matches for the Divisional 3rd-, 4th- and 5th place teams determine the opening round, loser-out match-ups at Districts.  We won't know exactly who that opponent will be until the Nisqually League regular season is finished, which could be as late as the week after Crossovers.  North Mason plays on Nov. 4th, but we may find that their overall standing may be determined before that.  One possible scenario would have us matched with Mt. Rainier, Sequim, or Washington in the first match at Districts.  But if Sequim manages to win the Nisqually League (they are presently in second place behind 2A Steilacoom,) then they would push one of the Pierce- or King 2nd place finishers into a loser-out match, which opens the flood gate of possibilities for our first round opponent... Fife or Highline, as well at those mentioned above, for example.

In any event, we still have lots of volleyball ahead of us.  

1. We have Mt. Rainier on Tuesday at Mt. Rainier.  This will be a "6 pm JV/7:15 pm Varsity" scheduled match (no C,) and we will leave Lindbergh at 4:20 pm.

2. We then we play Saturday morning at Renton in the Seamount League Crossovers.

3. We will have four days of practice the following week, and then we head south to Fife for the the first round of the West Central Districts on [Thursday], Nov. [6]th.
   (note:  The day of the  first round of Districts has been changed, it will be on Thursday, Nov. 6th, as modified above.)

4. If we win the first match, then we go on to an eight-team double elimination round to pick the District's three entries to the State Championships.

5. If we make it to the final three, then it's on to the State Championships in Everett on Nov. 14th and 15th!

So keep your schedules open!

And for the C and JV players, we will begin our post season intra-squad league play following the Mt. Rainier match on Tuesday.  So be ready to play some great volleyball from 2:30 to 4 pm beginning Wednesday, Oct. 29th.  The league will continue through November 14th.

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Week Nine

Club Volleyball Link

Oct. 24, 2003:  The Puget Sound Region of USA Volleyball has a list of all the clubs that participate in Junior Olympic Volleyball in the Puget Sound area.  This list is at this web site:

http://www.pugetsoundvb.org/jdivision/clubs/jrclubs.htm

The clubs in this table support teams for girls ages 11 to 18 that compete locally and nationally.  Competition is by age level ("15 and Under" for example,) and the girls play in tournaments  that are usually held on Saturdays and Sundays.  The clubs hire coaches, provide uniforms and warm-ups or sweats, pay to enter their teams in tournaments (about $100 per day,) and rent practice facilities.  Most clubs provide 2 to 4 hours of practice a week, and their teams play 2 or 3 days of tournaments a month.  If you add up all the costs over the season and divide by the number of hours of practices and tournaments, it works out to a few dollars an hour for regional teams, and ten dollars an hour or more for teams that travel to other Regions (Southern California, Las Vegas, Colorado) in hopes of qualifying for the National Championship Tournament.

All our teams (Varsity, JV and C) played in tournaments this fall, and as we have all seen, one tournament is the equivalent of four or five matches, or one quarter of our regular season in terms of games- and opponents played.  So playing club ball from January through May, or even beyond into July if the club goes to Nationals or the Volleyball Festival, is a great way to acquire experience and develop the individual skills that are so important in becoming an impact player.

The table in the link above is currently in the process of being updated by the clubs as they complete their plans for the 2004 season.  Use the links in the table to gather information about club costs, tryout times, and location.  Some clubs that our players may be interested in checking out are Saturday's Warriors, KJ, Sudden Impact, Island Thunder, South End Juniors, Club Wahine, Puget Sound Volleyball Club, and Eastside Volleyball Program.   And there are many others that such as Space Needle or Rain City that are a bit farther away, but may still be of interest.

We will have a meeting for interested parents and players on Thursday night, Oct. 30th, from 6 until 6:30 pm in the main gym at Lindbergh to discuss the club volleyball options.

Thursday Night's Match with Tyee

Oct. 23, 2003:  Good job girls.  Our match with Tyee was certainly hard fought.  With Tuesday's injuries to Sara and Michelle, we knew we had to overcome a lot of adversity.  But we stayed cool and pulled out this important victory.  Marie and Chelsea have now been moved to Varsity full-time as a result of the injuries and our need to give them more experience with Varsity play.  In the Tyee match, Janna set for 5 Assists, scored 8 Aces and rounded out the evening with one Kill and a Dig. This is a great effort considering that she was coming back from a two-week rehab and hadn't played with Varsity until Tuesday's match with Highline.  Liz and Nela each tallied 16 points in Aces, Kills and Blocks; Sonia and Erin combined to give us 10 more points in Kills and Aces.  Tiffany scored 2 Aces and 7 Assists.  Plus her steady serving in the fifth game allowed us to run a bunch of points and put a huge amount of pressure on Tyee;  Marie and Chelsea did a super job of giving Liz and especially Michelle a breather in back row, and Marie served for 3 Aces.  Michelle, playing on that painful ankle, came through in the clutch to give us a 14-12 lead in the fifth game when she soared up to kill that blocked ball that bounced high above the net at mid-court.  The JV's had to play without Chelsea and Marie, but they gave Tyee a good battle. We had hoped to give the C team the third game against Tyee, but Tyee was so short-handed that they couldn't play the game.  They needed to save games for the Varsity match.

And a big "Thank You!" to Co-Captain Nela Thomas for organizing the Senior Farewell.  It is wonderful to see our team working so hard to support each other.  From Michelle's open letter two weeks ago, to Sammi's cards, to Ariana's Dad making all the great programs with our player photos, and now to all the preparations for our Senior's big night, including Liz's beautiful singing of the National Anthem, we are continuing to build in the right direction!

No practice tomorrow (Friday.)  Have a great Homecoming on Saturday!

C Play Day

Oct. 22, 2003:  Good job to Varsity and to Sammi and Marie for helping out with the C Play Day Tournament.  Our C's lost to the Renton JV's and defeated the Hazen- and Renton C teams.  But the Renton JV's lost to Hazen, and when all was said and done, the four-team round robin ended in a three way tie for first place ... Lindbergh C 2-1, Renton JV 2-1, and Hazen C 2-1.  The Renton C's didn't win a match, but they gave everyone some great games.  The four coaches all thought this was a fun day, and we plan to do something similar next year.  Perhaps twice during the season.  Once in the early weeks to help us prepare for competition, and then in the closing week to complete our 16 team schedule.

We play Tyee tomorrow.  The C and JV team is to be at the gym at 3:30  for setup duties, and the Varsity is to arrive a bit before the normal 4:30 time to be sure the Senior Farewell program is all ready.

Tuesday's Match with Highline

Oct. 21, 2003:  We play at Highline this evening.  The bus leaves Lindbergh at 4:20 pm.  JV and C play at 6 pm, Varsity at 7:15 pm.

On Wednesday we will host the Hazen and Renton C teams for an afternoon of matches between our Renton School District teams.  Play should commence a little before 3 pm, and finish around 5:30 pm.

Thursday is our Senior Farewell Match.  The JV's will play at 5 pm, and the Varsity will play at 6:30 pm.

We learned today that the League Crossovers, scheduled for Nov. 1st at Renton High School, will include the 5th place teams as well as the top four as originally planned.

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Week Eight ... Hazen, Kennedy, C Tourney

Oct. 18, 2003:  The C team got some great experience against some of the top 3A schools in the State (Cedar Crest, Blanchet, Bear Creak, Skyline, and our own Kennedy and Highline High Schools.)  We learned how important it is to      play our position ... serve in ... hit the ball hard ... be ready to block ... set the ball in front of our hitters ... pass serve to OUR setter ... and be careful when moving the ice chest!  Good job girls! 

Oct. 17, 2003:  Our scores against Kennedy:

All the teams played well at times.  We continue to make progress toward becoming solid volleyball players.  I think a lot of us are beginning to understand the demands of the game, and I expect another surge in our playing levels as we close out the season (C, JV and Varsity.)  And a big "Thank You!" to Ms Chappell for coaching the JV team in Coach Aio's absence.

Everyone did a super job in helping set-up, transform and take down the gym.  And I liked the program Dave Ransdell made.  I hope everyone had a chance to see a copy.

C team parents:  We will arrive at Kennedy as the gym opens, but I just learned that we will not play until 10:30.  We will probably have ref/scoring duties before then, so the girls will be busy, but the spectator opportunities won't begin until 10:30 am.  We should have 10 girls at the bus at 7:20 am at the upper parking lot  Be sure to bring a light snack, a sandwich or something else that is a little more substantial and nutritious than a few cookies or a bag of chips, and a water bottle.  Please bring both shirts..

Oct. 16, 2003:  We play Kennedy tomorrow at home.  JV and C players will setup the gym at 3:30 pm, and the Varsity will arrive at 4:30 pm to help with JV- and C match duties.  Coach Aio is gone on family leave, and we are going to have to pull together and get the job done without him.  Tiffany Wong will help Coach Cappell with the JV match.  C Team players don't forget that we have a tournament this Saturday!

The Renton girls defeated Evergreen on Tuesday, and they took a game off Mt. Rainier this evening (Thursday.)   We are still planning on the C Team Play Day on Wednesday, October 22nd, and hopefully we will have one or two teams from Renton as well as the Hazen C team.  We are hoping to get one more school to participate.  (Highline and Evergreen are not able to come.)

Oct. 15, 2003:  Tuesday's matches with the Hazen squads:

There were lots of highlights on all three teams.  Jacki did a super job of serving for the closing points in the JV's critical third game.  She served for several aces, and the JV's really hustled to play the balls that Hazen returned.  The C team played very well, and collected a whole lot of kills and blocks, as well as aces in their sweep of Hazen.  The Varsity lost, but we are beginning to use some of the new offensive ideas we've been working on.  But we need to learn to stay steady and stick to the game plan in the closing moments of crucial matches.

The Varsity is now 4-6, and is in 5th place, which qualifies for Districts.  But fifth isn't as neat as 4th.  Last we heard there were no plans for a crossover match with the Pierce Division's 5th place team on November 1st.  And we have lots of volleyball left before we know the final standings.  Tyee and Evergreen were 2-7 going into tonight's matches.  Evergreen plays Renton and Hazen this week.  Tyee plays Mt. Rainier and Highline this week, and plays Evergreen next Tuesday.  Tyee plays us at home a week from Thursday, and Evergreen finishes out against Kennedy and Highline.  There's no telling what Tyee- and Evergreen's records will be two weeks from now.  We need to keep improving.  It's likely that our match with Tyee will be another critical test... and a chance to see if we can stay focused when the heat is on. 

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2003:  JV and C players please be at the gym at 4:30 pm to set-up the courts.  Varsity, arrive no later than 5:30 pm to help with last minute details and to help score and "line" the JV and C matches.  JV and C play at 6 pm, Varsity is scheduled to play at 7:15 pm.  Don't forget to bring a water bottle.

Oct. 12, 2003:  The stakes for the Varsity team continue to rise.  After losing a hard fought battle with Renton last Tuesday, we rallied to defeat Evergreen on Friday.  As a result, we are currently tied with Hazen for 4th place in the King Division, each team having a 4-5 record.  But Hazen currently has the tie-breaking advantage as they beat us 15-12 in the fifth game in our first meeting three weeks ago.  This coming Tuesday we host Hazen in what is obviously a critical match for possession of fourth place.

Remarkably, the JV team is also tied with Hazen going into Tuesday's match, and with the same 4-5 season record.  At our first meeting, the Highlander JV's won the match in two, but the scores were about as close as you can get, 26-24, 26-24. The JV match is going to go to the team that can play with the most poise and confidence.  The JV's have made a lot of progress in the last two weeks, especially in the tournament at Tyee.  Let's use this experience and play a super-solid match against our cross-town rivals..

The C team has an opportunity to improve on its 4-2 season record.  But it won't be easy.  Our first match with the Highlanders went deep into the third game before we finally snatched a 17-15 victory.  We need to keep working on our team play.  In the last several matches we have been very successful in running a "JV-like" offense, and we need to keep moving in this direction.

At every level, Varsity, JV, and "C", our teams have improved a lot in the last seven weeks, but so have the Highlanders.  It will require a lot of focus and hard work to defeat Hazen.

The Friday match with Kennedy will be a fun test for all three teams.  The Kennedy Varsity fell to Mt. Rainier on Friday, so they are not invincible.  The Lancers are sure to be focused on their games this week, and they will be ready for us.  Their JV and "C" teams are undefeated.  All the Kennedy teams are solid.  But they can be beaten.  We must take care of our responsibilities, and play with confidence in our team.  The rest will take care of itself.

On Saturday, the C's have the Alice Boyle Tournament at Kennedy.  We'll meet just about at dawn (at 7:30 pm) in the upper parking lot and take a bus to Kennedy.  This was a fun tournament last year, and we should have a great time at Kennedy.

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Week Seven ... Renton & Evergreen

Oct. 10, 2003, Friday:  Evergreen plays at Lindbergh today.  The JV and C teams will set up the gym beginning at 3:30 pm, and their matches start at 5 pm.  The Varsity is to arrive no later than 4:30 to provide scoring and line calling assistance as needed.  The JV's and C's are asked to stay for the entire Varsity match, although some exceptions are possible, as we discussed at our team meetings.

Oct. 7, 2003, Tuesday:  The JV and C Teams are to begin setting up the gym at 4:30 pm today in preparation for the Renton match.  Warm-ups will start around 5:15 pm, and the matches are scheduled for 6 pm.  The Varsity is asked to arrive at 5:30 pm to help with any last minute set up problems, and to help with the scoring and line calls during the JV and C matches.  The Varsity match is scheduled for 7:15 pm.

Oct. 6, 2003:  This will be another full week of volleyball.  All three teams will play on Tuesday and Friday.  Tuesday's match is with Renton.  The Renton varsity played very well last Friday, losing a two-and-a-half hour match with Tyee in the 5th game, 12-15.  And Friday's opponent, Evergreen, has defeated Renton and Hazen, and they are right behind us in the standings.

We have promoted Janna Wai to full-time Varsity status for the rest of the season.  With Janna's promotion,  the JV's will need to elect a new Captain.  We have no tournaments this weekend.  Both Varsity and JV have now completed their allotment of two tournaments in the regular season.  The C Team will play at Kennedy's Alice Boyle C Tournament a week from Saturday, Oct. 18th, and we are planning a C "play day" on Wednesday, Oct. 22nd.  This will be a tournament-like event that begins in the afternoon, and we will play two or three opponents.  Varsity and JV players will be scoring and helping to run the event.

Current match records:

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Week Six ... Tyee, Mt. Rainier, JV Tournament

Oct. 6, 2003:  The Varsity and JV split the Tyee and Mt. Rainier matches,  and at the end of the first round of play against King Division opponents, the Varsity is tied with Hazen for 4th place with a 3-4 match record, and the JV's are in 5th place with a 2-5 match record.  The C team didn't play this week (neither Tyee nor Mt. Rainier have C teams,) and their match record is 2-2, which puts them in 3rd place behind Kennedy (5-0,) and Highline (3-1).

The JV's played very well at the tournament at Tyee High School on Saturday.  We defeated Liberty (32-20, 25-12,) and Franklin Pierce (26-24, 25-20,) lost to Shelton (9-25, 8-25,) and then lost to Ingraham (15-25, 21-25,) in the semi-finals.  Lisa had to switch from Libero to outside hitter for the last match when Katherine, who was playing with increasing discomfort, was given a rest.  It took a while for everyone to get used to their new roles, but we finished playing hard.

A note of thanks to Dave Ransdell, Ariana's Dad, who has been helping us with the game-day programs.

Sept. 30, 2003:  At Tyee's request, we have rescheduled the second match with them.  We had been scheduled to play on Friday, Oct. 24th, and we have moved this forward a day to Thursday, Oct. 23rd.  Please see the schedule (below) for details.

Sept. 29, 2003:  Our first home match was on Friday versus Highline, and things went fairly well.  The baskets were up, the court was in good shape, and the new bleachers looked pretty nice.  We should be able to complete the season without further home/away flip-flops.

This week is another one with plenty of great volleyball action.  On Tuesday we travel to Tyee for a very important match.  Tyee defeated Evergreen on Friday.  And Monday night, Sept. 29th, Mt. Rainier defeated Hazen.   We are now in a three-way tie for fourth place with Evergreen and Hazen going into Tuesday's match.  And Tyee will want to make this a four-way tie.  On Friday we host Mt. Rainier.  We played the Rams at Bremerton, and we know they will be a challenge.  Then the next morning, Saturday, the JV's play in the Highline JV Tournament, which is being held at Tyee High School using all three of Tyee's courts (including the small court that is down the long hallway that runs west from the main gym.)  We should have eight players for that tournament, and we will take a District bus from the upper lot, again at 7 am, to get to Tyee.

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Week Five ... Kennedy, Highline, Varsity Tournament

Highline Tournament

29 Sept. 2003:  With six healthy Varsity players, and just ten hours after playing a solid two-hour match against Highline Friday night, we left Lindbergh before dawn on Saturday and battled all day at the Highline Varsity tournament.  In pool play we lost to Vashon Island, split with Lakeside, and defeated Tyee.  In the playoffs, we defeated Renton, and lost a heart-breaker to Hazen (14-25, 26-24, 15-11) in the semi-finals.  We then ref'ed the Silver Division finals (Roosevelt defeated Hazen) before finally heading home at 6:30 pm, capping a 24-hour volleyball marathon.  Vashon Island ended up winning the Gold Division finals, defeating Eastside Catholic. 

For the day we were 2-2-1 in matches, and 6-5 in games,   Our offensive efficiency was terrific, everyone had more kills than hitting errors.  The team as a whole had 84 kills versus 28 hitting errors.   The blocking was ok, and our defense and passing were exceptional.  The one problem for the day was our serving.  We racked up 28 aces, but made 30 serving errors in the process, thus netting out negative in this category.  But we played some great volleyball, and a lot of the pieces are starting to come together.  It seems like ancient history, but it was just three weeks ago (Sept. 6th) that we played our first matches in the Bremerton Tournament.

First Home Match on Friday!

25 Sept. 2003:  Everything is in place for our first home match.  We may have some hanging basketball backboards, and one of the scoreboards may not be operable, but the lower gym is ready for the "C" match, the upper gym can handle the JV and Varsity matches, two refs are scheduled to show up in time for the 5 pm JV and "C" matches, and the Highline Pirates have confirmed that they will be there.  It should be a good time for all.  The JV/C players are to arrive by 3:30 pm to setup the gyms, and the varsity will arrive by 4:30 pm to cover any last-minute crises that may arise.  Each squad, Varsity, JV, and C has the opportunity to move up in the standings with a win on Friday.

Inter-Squad Scrimmage

22 Sept. 2003:  We will have JV/C, C/Varsity, and JV/Varsity scrimmages on Wednesday afternoon from 4 to 6 pm.  Pictures will be in the morning between 10:30 am and 11:30 am.  The JV "swing" players (Janna, Marie, and Chelsea,) are asked to bring their Varsity jerseys as well as their JV jerseys so they can appear in both team photos.  We will also have a new secret pals drawing.  And we decided today that we will give our secret pals gifts on Tuesdays only.  Tuesdays are late night matches, and a little 8 pm snack is greatly appreciated following the JV and C matches.

Site Change for Kennedy Match

21 Sept. 2003:  Just time for a quick note.  The match with Kennedy has been moved to Kennedy on Tuesday.  The bus for Kennedy will leave Lindbergh at 4:20 pm, and the JV/C matches begin at 6 pm (Varsity at 7:15 pm.)  We are still hopeful that our match with Highline can be played in our gym, but this will be determined by the progress on the bleachers, repairs to the "C" match court downstairs, and the condition of the floor in the main gym, which we won't be able to determine until we get a chance to play on it.

We will have a sample of the Medium sized warm-up jacket on Monday.  Those players who have ordered Large, Medium and Small warm-up tops will be asked to verify that the size is correct.

The blue t-shirt jerseys will be ready for Friday's match, but not before.

There is still time for last minute orders of the sweatshirt.  We will discuss the color of the sweatshirt on Monday.  Red and gray are probably going to be the options.

Team pictures are on Wednesday morning.  This is a half day, and the pictures are scheduled for 10:30 to 11:30 am.  We will wear the red jerseys and blue shorts for the photos, so you may need to wash them after the Kennedy match Tuesday night.

The Varsity will play at the Highline Tournament this coming Saturday.  We are scheduled to play in Pool D at Tyee High School in the morning.  Our pool opponents are Vashon Island, Lakeside, and Tyee.  Our first match is scheduled for 8:30 am against Vashon Island.  If we finish in first or second place in the pool round robin, then we will play the afternoon matches in the Gold Division at Highline High School.  Otherwise, we will play in the Silver Division at Tyee.  The District is providing a bus to transport us to Tyee.  We leave Lindbergh at 7 am and will share the bus with Renton.

The JV's will play the following Saturday (Oct. 4th) in the JV tournament which is currently scheduled to be held just at Tyee High School.  This tournament has a similar schedule to the Varsity tournament, and we have identical transportation arrangements.

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Week Four ... Evergreen, Hazen, JV Tourney

21 Sept. 2003:  The JV's made a lot of progress at the Mariner H. S. tournament on Saturday.  Departing from LIndbergh before the sun rose, we returned about 7:30 pm.  We started off a bit overwhelmed with the whole thing, but by the end of the day Jacki and Sammi were setting well, the team was passing well, and we managed to play some real pass-set-spike volleyball against all our opponents.  We seemed to be very intent on getting to the ball, and our opponents hardly ever scored against us without a couple of us touching the ball.  A rash of minor injuries (wrist, lips, backs, ankles) attest to our determination to get to the ball.  We need to work on our control and our offensive transitions so that we can turn these "touches" into offensive plays.  Lisa, Sammi and Chelsea all learned how to score the rally point games, and we did a good job of cleaning up as we departed for home.

Varsity and JV Fall to Hazen, "C" Team Wins

The Friday night matches against Hazen were exciting and everyone played with a lot of intensity.  It was disappointing to lose the Varsity match.  We won games 1 and 3, and came very close to taking the 5th game.  In those games that we won (1 and 3) we served about 90% of serves in, and we scored 8 points on aces against 5 service errors.  In games 2 and 4, we only got 80% of our serves in, and we scored 6 points on aces while making 6 service errors.  Success hinges on just such small differences.  The JV's lost two deuce games 24-26 to lose their match to Hazen.  The "C" team won a very close match when Donna  served the last two points in the third game to give us a 17-15 game- and match victory.  A key point to Donna's success was her decision to take advantage of the "serve over" rule.  After serving for one point, she tossed the ball for her second serve but made a bad toss.  Fortunately, she decided to let it drop.  Good choice ... the next toss was better... Donna served tough, and we won the match!

Map Link to Mariner High School:

    Mariner High School
    200 120th St SW, Everett, WA 98204

The nearest I-5 exit is milepost 186.  Take 128th ST SW to the west for one big block, turn right on 4th Ave. W, and go north two blocks to 120th St SW.  The school is on the right. Look for lots of school buses and vans!

We play our first match of pool play at 8 am, and will have two more matches following this.  Pool play will finish around 2 pm, and we will then play in a single elimination playoff.  If we win, we stay, if we lose, we ref and go home.  Sorry we can't be more specific than that.

The school van will be at the upper parking lot at 6 am, and we will leave at 6:15 am.  One player doesn't have a ride to Lindbergh, so we will swing by her house to pick her up on the way to Everett.  Bring a water bottle (most important!), snacks, some fruit, and a sandwich or something a little more substantial for lunch.  With just seven, we will be a tired bunch of volleyball players when the ref blows his last whistle on our match.

JV Short-handed for Mariner Tourney

Sept. 18, 2003:  The JV team is scheduled to play at Mariner High School Saturday morning, and we just learned that a couple of girls can't make it due to sickness or prior engagements.  We may need to make some last minute arrangements with "C" team families so that one or two girls can participate in the tournament.  We will leave Lindbergh at 6:15 am Saturday morning, play four or five other schools at Mariner High School in Everett, and return to Lindbergh Saturday evening.  Please discuss this with your daughter to see if she would like to participate.  We will talk about this following the match at Hazen.   This will not affect "C" team player's participation in the Alice Boyle "C" Tourney at Kennedy in October.

Next Tuesday's Match Moved to Kennedy

Sept. 18, 2003:  The bleachers are still under construction, and the Athletic Director has indicated that the match with Kennedy will be moved to Kennedy this coming Tuesday.  The bus for Kennedy will leave Lindbergh at 4:20 pm, and we should be back to Lindbergh by 9 pm.  The Varsity, JV, and "C" teams will be playing.  The match times at Kennedy will be JV/C, 6 pm, Varsity 7:15 pm.  We are still not certain about the match with Highline next Friday, Sept. 26th, which is still scheduled to be played at Lindbergh.  It is possible that this match will need to be moved to Highline.  The Varsity , JV and "C" teams will be playing.

Varsity Wins, JV's fall to Evergreen

Sept. 18, 2003:  The varsity played a super solid match against Evergreen.  Our offensive efficiency was good, our serving continued to improve, and we responded to the challenge of the tough Evergreen serves.  There were lots of highlights.  The keys to the match were two things:  our middle blockers did a great job blocking, and everyone else did a great job picking up whatever managed to get through.  We played steadily, and never got flustered.  This was a first class effort, and we were rewarded with a win.

The JV's played hard, and actually outscored Evergreen in a losing effort.  We lost the first game 23-25, ran away with the second game, 25-12, and then fell 11-15 in the third game.  Six of our players served in the last game, and five of us made service errors to terminate service.  Four of these errors were serves in the net.  This is not characteristic of our JV's.  This is just going to have to be one of those painful lessons that is learned the hard way.  Serving is important, so be sure you take emotional control of the situation.  Don't be rushed, don't be hurried.   If you make a bad toss, let the ball fall and take another whack at it. 

Friday's Match Moved to Hazen

Sept. 16, 2003:  It was confirmed Monday afternoon that the bleachers will not be completed by Friday, and probably won't be for another two weeks.  Hazen had been scheduled to visit us this Friday.  Because the facility will not be ready we have flipped the home and away matches with Hazen.  It is likely that the the Kennedy and Highline matches scheduled for next week will also be flipped.

No C at Evergreen this week ...

Sept. 13, 2003:  We travel to Evergreen on Tuesday for Varsity and JV matches.  Due to late signups and the WIAA 10 practice rule, Evergreen will not have a C team until the next week.  The C's will therefore practice right after school on Tuesday.  Attendance at the Evergreen matches will be optional for the C's (meaning C players are welcome to come if they want to.)  The bleachers are probably not going to be done by Friday, which means that there is a pretty good chance we will end up playing at Hazen instead of at home on Friday.  This decision hasn't been made yet, but it looks like this is what will happen.   All three teams will play against Hazen on Friday. 

And the JV's will be playing in a tournament at Mariner High School in Everett on Saturday, with a break-of-dawn departure.

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Week Three ... Jamboree & Renton

Sept. 13, 2003:  Congratulations to the following players who were elected Captain by their team-mates this week:

We have also drawn for our "Secret Pals", and everyone seemed very pleased with their motivational and nutritional (?) gifts on Friday.  We have two new student volunteers to help us with our match duties.  Joining Rowan Dart as Manager is last year's Varsity Manager, Merrie Sharf.  Merrie brings a lot of experience with her, and we're really happy she will be able to find the time to help us out again.  Robert Hernandez will be one of our scorekeepers.  Merrie and Rowan helped him keep score at the Renton match, and all went well.  We are still in need of one more scorekeeper, so if you know someone who would like to help out, please contact Coach Aio or Coach Stewart.

The Jamboree and our first match are now behind us, and we have made a good start on the Regular season.  The "C" team played a very competitive match against Renton's "C"'s.  The outcome was in doubt until the final points were tallied, but in the end our tenacious passing and tough serves proved to be the winning margin.  Mari did a great job passing and scored several points with her attacks.  Vanessa served very well, and made a couple of good approaches to spikes.  Gemma played steadily, and scored four aces with her underhand serve.  Kaylee set very well, and led the team with 16 serves that scored 8 aces against 4 errors.  In general, everyone had a few highlights... either serves in, or a good pass on serve receive, or a defensive play saving an errant first pass.  We have made a huge amount of progress in the last three weeks!

The JV's served really tough, passed Renton's serves when they had to, and scored 11 kills off Jacki's sets.  This was a continuation of our play at the Jamboree, and we won the match 25-6, 25-7.   Everyone had a great match.  Lisa played the Libero position very effectively.  Janna served for 12 aces, and made 3 kills.  Marie had 6 aces and 4 kills, and Chelsea scored 4 points off aces with 1 kill.  Jacki and Janna set well, and Sam, Justine, Katherine and Soffia all contributed good coverage and some great digs, serves, spikes and blocks.

The Varsity put together a solid match against Renton.  We eliminated our offensive errors, we served tough, and we passed Renton's tough serves very well.  Erin was super-effective with her well placed "slam-dinks" deep into the Renton defense, and she served for 3 aces, Liz provided a steady threat in the middle and scored 9 kills.  Sonia saved the day in the first game when she served the last five points to take us from down 20-22 to a 25-22 win.  Nela played the outside hitter/relief valve position to perfection, jumping high over the block and placing her shots all over the court.  Michelle's block made the Renton hitters a little tentative, forcing some hitting errors, and Sara and Tiffany did a great job getting to the pass and setting the ball for our hitters.  Sara served 17 times, made one error, and scored 6 aces.  Marie "swung" up from the JV match, and scored seven aces in her two games.  Her serving really gave Renton fits in the second game.  And everyone on the bench was super enthusiastic and attentive.  This was a great team effort!

Scores:

Have a great weekend everyone.  We've been working very hard since August 25th, and a couple of days without practices, or car washes, or early-morning trips to Bremerton is going to be a much appreciated break!

No C Match Tuesday, Sept. 16.

We received word that Evergreen will not have enough WIAA practice-day eligible players to field a C team this Tuesday.  We will try to reschedule the C match later in the season when all their C players will be eligible.  For Tuesday, we will have a C practice right after school, 2:30 - 4:00 pm.  C players who want to watch the JV and Varsity matches are welcome to ride the bus, but attendance will be optional.

Sept. 7, 2003:  The Varsity plays at Tyee and the JV plays at Mt. Rainier on Wednesday at the King Division Jamboree.  The latest version of Jamboree schedule for both Varsity and JV divisions is posted in the Seamount Schedule page.  The Varsity's first game is against Tyee at 5 pm, and the JV's play the Tyee Junior Varsity at 5:30 pm.  On Friday, the Varsity, JV, and "C" teams play at Renton.

Tuesday, September 9th,  was to be the final day for uniform orders.  As you may recall, we must collect all the funds before we can submit a purchase order for approval by the ASB,   We currently need several more orders for the blue t-shirt jersey if that is going to be the alternate jersey for the JV and C teams.  The other items have orders that total in the five to ten range at present, and we expect them to increase a bit.

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Week Two ... Back on Campus

Sept. 7, 2003:  We got our first taste of Varsity competition at the Bremerton Tournament on Saturday, Sept. 6th.  Our passing and setting improved throughout the day, and everyone made progress.  Despite the won/loss record (0-4,) this has to be counted as a victory for our young team.  The Yelm team was our first opponent, and they served very well.  We gave them a good first game despite having some real difficulties passing serve.  We lost seven points to service aces, but our offense provided 5 kills versus just 3 hitting errors, and that kept Yelm off balance and out of their game.  We lost the game 20-25, but a few more good passes, and one or two more good serves (4 errors in 13 attempts,) and game one would have been a different contest.  But in the second game, our passing collapsed.  With no passes, we weren't able to run any significant offense, and they defeated us rather easily.  Yelm finished pool play with a 3-0 record, and defeated 4A Stadium to win the tournament.

Our match against North Mason followed immediately afterwards and it was a let-down.  In the first game, we started to make spiking errors, and we compounded the problem when we made 5 service errors.  With the result that despite our improved passing, we fell rather quickly to them in game one.  In the second game, our passing continued to improve, but our offense failed almost completely, making seven hitting errors versus just three kills.  North Mason came away with a fairly easy victory.   We then helped ref a match (scorekeeping and lines duties,) and got to rest for a match.

We then played Mt. Rainier, and despite the loss, it was an interesting match.  We passed serve fairly well, and when were able to attack the Rams, we were successful.  We never stopped Moana Sau, but when we attacked the rest of the team, we held our own.  Mt. Rainier finished second in pool with a 2-1 record, and went on to defeat 4A Bremerton High School in the match for 3rd place overall.

In the final playoff, we met 4A Port Angeles, and we played them very well, at least in the first and third games.  In the first game we gave up just one point to service aces, and although we missed five serves, we earned five points with our own aces.  Our offense was effective, especially Nela and Liz with 2 kills apiece, and we defeated them 27-25.  We lost our focus completely in game two, making 6 offensive errors and missing 6 serves.  The third game was very close.  We battled hard and took the score to 10-8, then they ran off four points to make it 10-12, then we each sided-out to make it 11-13. Then they scored a point before we sided-out at 12-14.  We finally fell 12-15.  This close game was decided by two things:  our failure to score any points on aces while at the same time making two service errors; and we gave up three points to their aces.

With this tournament behind us, we can see that improvements in our service and serve receive areas will help a lot.  And we need to keep working on our offense.  There were a number of bright spots, for example, Nela had a great day with 10 kills and 2 aces, and Freshmen Chelsea and Marie, who came up from JV to fill some temporary vacancies, scored a total of 4 aces between them while getting 86% of their serves in.  And as a team, we played good ball-control volleyball once we got past serve receive.  But our overall serving average (73% in) needs to be brought up to the 85- to 90% level, and we need to limit the number of points lost to opponent's aces to 3- or 4 per game.

The Jamboree this coming Wednesday will give us a great opportunity to see how much we can improve with a day's rest and a couple of days of focused practices.

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Practice Site

Sept. 3, 2003:  We plan on practicing on campus for the rest of the season, but it is still not clear when the bleachers in our main gym will be removed and replaced with a new model.  The south bleachers have been partially disassembled, but there appears to be lots of work left to do.  And then we have the north bleachers, and maybe a floor refinish.  Depending upon the various projects, we may end up rescheduling some of our home and away matches.

Sept. 7, 2003:  The wood from the central bleacher sections has now been removed, as has the steel framework of the central part of the northern bleacher.  But the frame of the southern bleacher is still standing, and the end sections of the northern bleacher have not been touched.  Things do not look promising for our first home match against Hazen, although we have received no official word about the gym availability.  We will update our schedule as soon as we learn what is to happen.

Parents Meeting

We have scheduled a parent's meeting for 7 pm Thursday night in the main gym.  We will talk about the schedule, transportation, and the need for various kinds of help over the course of the season.  All parents are asked to attend.  The players were given their "contracts" at practice on Tuesday, and we ask that all contracts be returned by Thursday at the latest.  It must be signed by the player and her parent/guardian.

Schedule Change

The Alice Boyle "C" Tournament has been moved to October 18th due to a home coming conflict on the 11th.  It is still on a Saturday, and the tournament uses a round robin format with time-limited matches.  It runs fairly quickly, say from 9 am until 5 pm (as I recall.)

Upcoming Events

The Varsity plays this Saturday at Bremerton High School's tournament.  We are scheduled to play in a four team pool in the morning.  The four teams in this pool are Yelm, North Mason, Mt. Rainier and us.  We will play one match in the afternoon against the team in the other pool that finished in the same place.  We may be taking just seven players due to transportation problems.

The following Wednesday, we play in the evening wave of the King Division Jamboree.  The Varsity will play at Tyee High School, with it's first match at 5:00 pm, and the JV's will play at Mt. Rainier High School with their first match scheduled for 6:00 pm.  The Jamboree schedules are posted on the Seamount Schedule page.  The C team will practice that Wednesday from 2:30 until 3:30 pm.

Our first League match will follow on Friday, Sept. 12th, when we travel to Renton.  The team bus will leave Lindbergh at 3:50 pm, and the JV and C matches will begin at 5:00 pm.  The Varsity match begins at 6:30 pm.  And parents and visiting team fans bring your wallets, you will be charged an admission fee. 

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Week One ... A Great Start for 2003

August 30, 2003:  We've finished our first tough week, and things are on track for a season of great progress and development.  Our practices at Nelsen Middle School went very smoothly.  The staff at Nelsen handled the myriad access-, scheduling-, and coordination issues like real pros.  We really appreciate the "can-do" attitude of the Nelsen staff, especially considering all the problems that our sudden descent upon their school created in the midst of the sixth-grade orientation program.  We contacted them on Friday at 3 pm with our problem, and we had our first practice at Nelsen on the following Monday, August 25th at 9 am, without a hitch.   And it must be said that the Nelsen gym is terrific, and the weight room and the audio-visual equipment is first-rate.  A great place to coach, learn, and play volleyball!  Thank you Nelsen for letting us use your gym! 

This morning, Saturday, we completed our first Varsity practice in the Lindbergh gym.  It took a while to clean the floor, and the Cross Country team helped out with some heavy lifting, but we managed to set up our game court, and things seemed almost normal.  In fact, the lighting is a bit better than normal!  The new lights are the  first payoff for the all the work that is currently underway.  We are certainly looking forward to the time when the renovations are completed and we can begin to establish a routine!

The team selection was very difficult, and we had to make some very hard choices.  We were very fortunate to have such talented athletes try out.  We don't have a huge amount of experience, but we have a ton of potential.  The Varsity, Junior Varsity and "C" Team rosters are listed below.  We have five Seniors and four Juniors on Varsity, one Junior, five Sophomores and three Freshmen on Junior Varsity, and six Sophomores and five Freshmen on the "C" team.  We are going to get better and better and as the season goes on!:

As you can see, we have room for two managers, so players, please contact any friends that might like to get involved with our program.

We have a Varsity practice from 6 until 7:30 pm on Monday night, and then we will begin to swing into the the regular school-day schedule.

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2003 Season Begins

First Week's Practices at Nelsen Middle School

22 August 2003:  We learned Friday afternoon, August 22nd, that we will not be able to use the Lindbergh gym on Monday, August 25th, and perhaps for the rest of that week.  Work is still in progress, and the building has not been given the necessary safety certificates to allow use by our students.  We have made alternative arrangements to use the Nelsen Middle School gym, and with the gracious help of the Nelsen school administration, we have been able to keep to the same schedule as shown below.  However, there are likely to be other schedule changes during the week because Link Crew, Registration, and other start-of-school activities may require rescheduling due to the delay in opening up the gym.  Try to keep your commitments to as small a number as possible.  This is just the first of several changes that are likely to occur during this first week of our practice, and all we can do is be flexible..

Although we have called most of the players who we know are turning out, it is possible that some will not get the message and they will show up at Lindbergh, at the gym, at 9:00 am on Monday morning.  Therefore, we will organize things Monday morning so that one coach will be at Lindbergh, and another will be at Nelsen.  At each site, we will distribute revised schedules for the week to parents dropping of players.  Parents are asked to transport their daughter to Nelsen if possible.  We will leave Lindbergh shortly after 9 am, so if you arrive at Lindbergh, and no one is present at the gym, please assume that we have left and are at Nelsen.

These changes will delay the start of Monday's first practice.  We hope to be underway by 9:30 am, Monday, but we will be flexible knowing that some of our players may not have gotten the notice until they arrived at Lindbergh.   The good news is that  things should be under control and running smoothly once we get set up at Nelsen.

To go to Nelsen from Lindbergh, please go south (left) from the Lindbergh parking lot onto 128th Ave SE and proceed to the intersection with  SE168th St.  Turn right at the stop sign onto SE 168th, and go west about 1.2 miles to 116th Ave SE.  Turn right and go about 400 yards to SE 164th St, and then turn left, west.  Proceed about a half mile west to the stop sign at the intersection with Jones Ave. S.  Turn right at the stop sign to enter the Nelsen Middle School campus.   The road will branch as you enter the campus.  Proceed straight ahead toward the playing field and turn left as you approach the baseball field.  The entrance to the gym is up the small hill and on the left.   We should have a door open.  After dropping off your athlete and picking up the revised schedule, proceed straight ahead and exit the campus via the road that skirts the west edge of the soccer field on the hill behind the elementary school.  If all else fails:

See you Monday morning!

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Season Schedule

25 Oct. 2003:  We have qualified for the Seamount Crossover matches and the West Central Districts the week following.  Please see the revisions to our schedule below, and check back every few days.  We have yet to receive the final schedules for the Crossovers and the Districts.  So times could change.  We have made reservations for the school van to transport any players who might have difficulties getting to Renton High School at 9 am next Saturday morning.

18 Sept. 2003:  The Lindbergh gym is still undergoing renovation, and the availability of the gym is uncertain.  There may be additional changes to the site locations as events unfold.

Updated 27 August 2003:   We have a much improved match schedule this year, with play on Tuesday evenings and Friday afternoons/evenings.  The Varsity is entered in a tournament on Sept. 6th in Bremerton, and a second tournament on Sept. 27th at Highline High School.  The JV is scheduled to play in tournaments on Sept. 20th at Mariner High School in Everett, and on Oct. 4th at Highline High School.  The C team has a tournament on Oct. 11th.

As you have seen if you visited the campus over the summer, we have a lot of construction going on.  We are anticipating a few schedule changes while new bleachers are installed in the gym, and some other upgrades are completed.  So parents, please be sure to check the schedule frequently if you plan on attending a game or other event.  The time and/or place are subject to change!

League Match Start Times:

Lindbergh Eagles 2003 Schedule
revised 10/25/03

Acronyms and Abreviations:  

Contact Information:

Bob Stewart, Head Coach::  206-248-1583, BobjStewart@att.net

Paul Aio, JV Team and Varsity Assistant Coach, on campus

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Last modified: 11/29/05