Here is the club picture that we took at our tournament on Saturday.  If you click on the picture it will take you to the full resolution image that you can download if you want a copy.  Or you can just right click and select “Save Target as” and save the full resolution image to your computer.  The full image is 5.7 MB.

A Special thank you to David Schoenberg of David Schoenberg Photography for the picture.

Congratulations to all our Ridgecrest Starlings players and alumni and their high school teams for making the CIF volleyball playoffs:

Candace, Ashley, Bridget, Savannah, Jessica, Lindsey, Rebecca, Michaela, Alyssa, Allie, Colleen and Jazmine at Burroughs High School as they travel to play Sierra Canyon High School in Chatsworth on Tuesday.

Liz and her Trona teammates who have a bye in the first round and will host a home game on Thursday in the second round.

A link to the entire CIF-SS brackets is here:

http://www.cifss.org/admin/images/news_file/1320518534_PR%20Eleven.pdf

Burroughs and Trona both have home games on Tuesday.  ICS is on the road on Tuesday

GO BURROS, GO CRUSADERS, GO TORNADOS!!!!!

Parents,

Each team’s coach will have a CD with team and individual pictures on it that were taken a few weeks ago at picture night.  Anyone who would like a copy may borrow the CD from their team’s coach and make copies.

14s Purple Qualifier 3 Notes:

Match 1 versus 900 square feet

The third qualifier for the starlings had them as the second seed playing at CSU Dominguez Hills.  Very nice facility:  4 courts with plenty of room and seating around the edges and very good lighting.  Very rarely did we see a ball from the next court interrupt the game.

First match was against 4th seed 900 square feet.  It took a while to figure out that  900SQFT is the area of ½ the court.  This team, at warm-up, appeared to the stiffest competition, especially with 900SQFT coming off a victory from qualifier 2.   The Starlings, apparently unfazed by the 4:30 departure time, came out firing on all cylinders during the first game.  Strong service runs by Jazmine Stenger-Smith, Brooke Nelepovitz and Michaela Metcalf combined for 7 of the 9 total Starlings aces lead the way.  A key play, with the Starlings showing great hustle had Brooke diving to make a pass off a tough hit with the pass heading towards the back of the starlings service area, Michaela followed up with a great pass that directed the ball back towards the playing area and a nice play by Allie Sliva got the ball over the net.  900SQFT was unable to return the pass for a nice point for the Starlings.  Starlings won 25-17 with only 3 service errors.  Game 2 feature 4 kills by Michaela Metcalf, strong defensive play by Grace Tesdall and Hannah Farmer and a spinning kill by Bridget Ingle where the ball traveled along on top of the net before settling in on the other side of the court untouched.  Starlings went on to win 25-18 with 4 services errors.

Second Match was against 3rd seed Triumph.  During the first game, the starlings struggled a bit in passing and hitting, committing enough unforced errors and 6 service errors.  Some key aces by Becca Stoffel and Bridget Ingle and kills by Michaela Metcalf and Jazmine Stenger-Smith rounded out a nail-biting 25-23 victory.  The Starlings played similarly in Game 2 and there was a bit of a distraction due to a urinary emergency that had to be held in.  We couldn’t sub anyone out, so the starlings played under a lot of stress.  Strong serving by Becca Stoffel, Jazmine Stenger-Smith and Allie Sliva rounded out a gut-it-out 25-22 victory. 

Observing  900SQFT during their other matches demonstrated how tough the Starlings played them in game 1.  Tough serving by the Starlings did not allow  900SQFT to run the offense they were putting up against the other teams. 

The Third and final match was against SMBC.  The first game was a total team victory for the starlings.  Michaela Metcalf with 4 serves, 2 aces and 2 kills; Becca Stoffel with 4 serves and 1 kill; Grace Tesdall with solid defense and passing to the setter allowing the kills to occur, Jazmine Stenger-Smith with 7 serves and 2 kills.; Hannah Farmer with good defense and a diving pass over the net for a kill; Brooke Nelepovitz with 5 serves; Allie Sliva with 3 serves and 2 kills and Bridget Ingle (fighting off a sore ankle) with some solid blocking and a key kill rounded out the Starlings 25-15 victory with only 2 service errors.   Since SMBC won their first match in 3 games; and  900SQFT finishing 2-1 with 4 game wins and 2 game losses, this game 1 victory in match 3 guaranteed a first place finish for the Starlings.  However, the Purples were simply told:  “Win this next game”.  The Starlings served more aggressively now that SMBC seemed to be struggling to find energy.  Again the Starlings played solid all around.  Strong defense again by Hannah Farmer and Grace Tesdall, key passing and hustle by Allie Sliva, solid serving by Becca Stoffel and Bridget Ingle, a 6-point service run by Jazmine Stenger-Smith, 6 serves and 4 aces by Brooke Nelepovitz and the Michaela “The Kill Machine” Metcalf with 5 kills (at least 3 of which were untouched) rounded off a very solid 25-10 starlings victory.  6 of the 10 points were off Starlings service errors, but the coaches were untroubled as the Starlings had a commanding lead throughout the final game.

Now we know what qualifier 3 has brought:  A Division 9 start for Mandatory 1.

Match 1 versus Mile High

The second qualifier for the Purples had them placed as 4 seed and around 170th over all, thanks to their domination at qualifier 1.  Qualifier 2 featured a couple of teams moving down from the silver bracket and placed as high as 100th.  Definitely tough competition

Our first match as against 3rd seed Mile High.  Unlike the usual Starlings first games, the purples came out strong.  Strong service runs and a couple of  kills  by Brooke Nelepovitz, and strong serving by Michaela Metcalf and Bridget Ingle; coupled with quite a few long rallies and solid defense by Grace Tesdall were quite the crowd-pleasers.  Highlight of one rally was a kick-save by Allie Sliva. The starlings went on to a comfortable 25-6 win, with 2 opposing points off service errors.  Game 2 featured a nice service run by Jazmine Stenger-Smith with 13 serves, 3 aces and no errors.  Kills by Micheala Metcalf and Brooke Nelepovitz (who tipped some kills right to the floor), and an outstanding defensive play by Hannah Farmer and a roof by Bridget Ingle (her first) rounded out the Starlings 25-9 win, with 4 opposing points from Starlings Service Errors.

During the second match the Starlings struggled with serving first game and lost  26-24 the 3 service errors being the difference.  The team seemed a little down on the second game and struggled again with serving, but also with passing and hitting and lost 25-17

The first game of the final match against Hawthorne was a loss of 25-18.  The Starlings were playing better after a pep talk from the coaches, but the 5 service errors cost the game.  The second game was a bit closer, but Hawthorne put up some great defense, good hitting and strong serving and the Starlings lost again 25-18 with only 2 service errors. 

The Starlings ended up in third place.  The take home message that the coaches told the players was “you can compete against these upper-division teams; you just can’t get down on yourselves when things start going wrong”. 

We will see what Qualifier 3 brings.

The 2010 Season for the Ridgecrest Starlings Volleyball Club will get
started on November 16th, 2009.

We will start our season with a meeting to determine how many players
are interested in being Starlings volleyball players this next season.

This meeting will be for players and parents.

The number of teams and what age groups those teams will be, will depend
on the number and ages of the interested players.

Meeting Information:

When:  5:30 PM on Monday November 16, 2009
Where: Kerr McGee Center.

Schedule:

5:30 - 5:45        Sign in.
5:45 - 6:30        Introduction to Coaches, Club Volleyball -
Paperwork!!!!
6:30 - 7:00        Questions and Answers
7:00 - 8:45        Tryouts - Evaluations - Play Volleyball

Note:  Any player wanting to tryout, or be evaluated or play volleyball
will have to have all paperwork signed and submitted before being
allowed on the court.

Team rosters will not be decided at this meeting.

Schedule for the first week:

Monday Nov 16th 5:30 - 8:45 Kick Off Meeting - Kerr McGee Center
Tuesday Nov 17th 5:15 - 8:45 Continued Evaluations - Kerr McGee Center -
We will let you know before the end of the kick off meeting who should
attend this practice and at what times.
Thursday Nov 19th 5:15 - 8:45 - Kerr McGee Center - We will have teams
set before this practice.  Players will be notified what portion of this
practice to attend.

Paperwork:

Paperwork will be available at the meeting.  But if you want to get a
head start, I will have electronic copies of all paperwork on our
website by Monday Oct 26.  Please don’t download or fill out any paperwork before then, as they may be last year’s copies.  Forms will be at http://ridgecreststarlings.com/forms.html

If you want more information check out http://ridgecreststarlings.com

We are all very excited about the upcoming club volleyball season.  I
hope to see you all there.

It is important to all our players, coaches, parents and the national Starlings organization that we turn our players into more than just good volleyball players.  We also encourage them to try their hands at other activities in order to make sure that they grow up to be well rounded young adults.  We try to plan team activities the involve more than just volleyball.  We endeavor to acknowledge their academic achievements.  We support them when they try to play other sports, even though those sports may occasionally interfere or conflict with our volleyball activities.

Here are a few pictures from a middle school basketball game last Thursday that involved seven of our Starlings as players and a couple more as spectators.

Two Starlings Tip Off

I want to wish all our Starling’s players and coaches a very Happy Thanksgiving.

This year I am very thankful for our new coaches - Megan, Chris and Gary.  We are very lucky to have these three new dedicated coaches.  (Note:  They are not new coaches, they are just new to the Ridgecrest Starlings.)

I am thankful for the 29 young athletes who want to be Ridgecrest Starlings Volleyball Players.  That number is almost twice as many as I expected.  I am especially thankful for the 10 young ladies that will be playing on our 13s team with Mrs. Stokes.  Those young ladies will be the backbone and the future of our volleyball club.  A lot of folks spend a lot of attention on the older teams.   They have it wrong.  The younger teams are where the action is at.  They are always the teams that really know how to have a good time on the court.

Finally I am very thankful for the parents, grandparents, and family of all of our players and staff.  Without your support and help this volleyball club wouldn’t happen.