Medical Release
Tournament Results
CMass Coaches' Post-Tournament Write-Ups
Tournament results are submitted by team coaches following each tournament. Select a tournament date from the list on the right to view the write-ups.
May 4, 2008
- CMass 14's Open: Gold
- CMass 15's Club: Diamond
- CMass 15's Club: Opal
- CMass 16's Club: Platinum
- CMass 16's Club: Ruby
- CMass 16's Open: Iron
On the basis of a very successful “regular season”, Gold entered the Regional Championships as the second seeded team in the New England region. Our seeding put us in a pool with Great Bay, Mass Juniors, and Seacoast, all well-known opponents. For the second successive tournament, we began the day with a match against Great Bay. This time Great Bay was ready for us and playing at the top of their game, (their coach told me afterwards they committed only three errors in the entire game), defeated us handily, 25-18. Gold quickly turned the tables on Great Bay and defeated them in game two 25-19. Chandler, Taylor, and Alexa led the way in the second game with strong serving, attacks, and determined floor play. In our second match of the day we faced Mass Juniors, an A team that moved into the Open division midway through the season. They gave us a mighty struggle in both games making a variety of seemingly impossible defensive plays that left us shaking our collective heads but very impressed nonetheless. Gold managed to win both games but continually struggled with the inspired, though unorthodox, play of the Juniors. Melissa, Kaylee, and Katy led the attack with excellent spiking, serving, and setting. Our final match in pool pitted us against Seacoast Blue, a familiar and very formidable rival. We needed a split to win the pool and Seacoast needed to win both to make the Championship bracket. Seacoast, playing a very low risk game and taking the complexity out of their high powered offense, won both games forcing Gold into a one game playoff for second with Mass Juniors. Jenna, Rachel, Rachel (the Blue), and Natalie all made solid contribution albeit in a losing effort. Gold controlled the “play-in” game from the outset and defeated the Juniors handily, 15-4 behind strong and controlled serving by Chandler. The playoff seeding left us playing Andover Puma in the semifinals. Using a combination of excellent serve receiving coupled with strong net play, Puma defeated Gold in two straight games. Gold really never meshed at any point during the day and we found ourselves “going home early” for the first tournament in a long time. Gold should be proud of their accomplishments this season which included one tournament win, two second place finishes, along with two thirds. All this added up to a number two ranking in the final NE Region poll. I thank them for all for their hard work and dedication during the season. Hopefully they will be able to apply what they learned during next year’s high school season. Good luck to you all.
CMass Diamond started the tournament with a bang, playing well together, serving strongly and beating Metrowest and Husky in our first two games. Consistant passing from Hannah and Kelsey L. keyed our offense in these early games. The middle of the day was our usual Jekyll/Hyde transition where we suddenly stopped talking and passing the ball on our way to losing our next 3 games. With the season on the line, facing elimination from the tournament in our final game, and down 15-10, Diamond brought it all together. We played our best volleyball of the year with strong serving and great defense to win convincingly 25-20. Instead of being eliminated as the bottom team, we finished as the top team in the silver bracket, missing placement in the gold bracket by just a few points. The finals showed us how far we've come this year. Every server put on a run at some point. Emily, Ili, Alex, and Kelsey B. were ripping serves in addition to our usual strong servers Kelsey L. and Olivia D. Hannah, Kelsey L, Ili and Alex took control of our passing and Mary and Gabby were at their most confident, putting up good sets from all over the court and running the offense. We had big blocks from Annie and Kelsey and Olivia U. put the icing on the cake with a thunderous stuff block for a kill in the deciding 3rd game as we won the silver bracket for the 3rd time this year. Thanks to the parents for all their support and to the Diamond players who made it fun all season long!
CMASS Ruby had an extraordinary day and fought hard to get to the finals of the championship. We split the first two matches to SMASH and Mass Juniors, and took two games convincingly from NH Seacoast. This put us in second place due to points with a 4-2 record. Our semi-final match was against a Great Bay team with a lot of talent. It was the best played match all day long, and we won in three games with the final score 15-11. The girls brought everything that had into that game - strong serving, great defense with unbelievable ups, beautiful sets, powerful hits down line and cross court, and all around smart play. In the finals, CMASS was thrown off by the unconventional play of the Ocean State Spikers and lost in two games. Thank you so much parents for supporting your girls - whether it was by arguing points, taking pictures, or clapping loudly - it was well received. And thank you girls for being one of the best teams I have coached in more ways then one. You all are amazing people and will have amazing volleyball careers if you keep practicing and playing hard.
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