On Saturday Dec 29th the Ridgecrest Starlings Volleyball club held their first Friendship Tournament. This was a warm-up tournament for the long competitive Southern California Volleyball Association (SCVA) tournament season which starts the first weekend in January. The day started with a score-keeping clinic to assist new players and coaches with learning how to “keep book” for all their upcoming tournaments.

The tournament included Starlings teams from Ridgecrest, Bishop, Tehachapi, Oak Hills, Palmdale and Victorville. Following the four team pool format used by the SCVA the Ridgecrest Starlings hosted 12 teams divided into three age groups - u14s, u16s and u18s.

The under-14s competed at the Saint Ann Parish Center. Where the Tehachapi-14s won a close fought victory over the Oak Hills-14s in a final match of the day that went 3 games. The Ridgecrest Starlings-14s won a best of three contest in three over Lakeview to finish in 3rd.

The U-16s and the U-18s played at the Kerr McGee Center. Where the Oak Hills-16s finished first with a perfect 3-0 match record and a 6-0 game record sweeping all their opponents in two straight games. The Tehachapi-16s finished in second losing only to Oak Hills. The Ridgecrest-16s won a hard fought three game match over Palmdale to finish third.

In the 18s division the Tehachapi-18s had a great run, winning three straight matches in two games for first place. Palmdale-18s beat the Oak Hills-18s in the only three game match of the day for second, while the Ridgecrest-18s finished fourth.

It was a great day of club volleyball for our local Starlings Volleyball players and their fellow club players from their sister Starlings clubs in the High Desert area.

I want to thank all the players, parents, coaches and volunteers that made this tournament possible - especially the Parks and Recreation Department and the Kerr McGee Center and the Parish of Saint Ann for the use of their courts and facilities. We would especially like thank our volunteer referees for the wonderful job they did keeping us on schedule, playing and competing within rules of the game. Thank you Jim Ledbetter, Bob Maki, Robert McWhorter, and Amanda Cordes. A special thank you to Melanie Rossi and all the parents who planned, organized, and worked to make this tournament happen.

18’s Division

1 Omaha 18 Gold Champion

2 Hacienda Heights A

3 Monrovia

4 Hacienda Heights B

T5 Tijuana

T5 Nashville

7 City of LA Blue 18 Silver Champion

8 San Gabriel

9 Tempe

10 Cudahy

11 Clairemont

12 Oak Hills

13 Central Phoenix 18 Bronze Champion

14 Oakland

15 Oceanside

16 La Puente

17 Watsonville

18 Scripps Ranch

19 Ridgecrest 18 Copper Champion

20 Eastlake

21 National City

22 LA West

23 City of LA Gray

24 Skyline

16’s Division

1 Shonto 16 Gold Champion

2 Tijuana

3 San Gabriel Red

4 South Bay

T5 City of LA Blue

T5 Ridgecrest

T7 Hacienda Heights A

T7 Toledo

9 Tehachapi Diamond 16 Silver Champion

10 Cudahy

11 Nashville

12 Central Phoenix

13 South Central LA 16 Bronze Champion

14 SD City Rachelle

15 City of LA Gray

16 Oak Hills 15’s

17 Brevard County 16 Copper Champion

18 Hacienda Heights B

19 University City

20 Tehachapi Gold

21 Phoenix Doug 16 Flight 2 Champion

22 SD Navajo Dennis

23 Clairemont

24 Tehachapi Silver

25 Oak Hills 16’s 16 Flight 3 Champion

26 Oceanside

27 Eastlake Monik

28 Eastlake Lindsay

29 Oakland 16 Flight 4 Champion

30 San Gabriel White

31 National City

32 Mission Bay

33 SD City Will

34 Phoenix Kelly

14’s Division

1 Phoenix Nick 14 Gold Champion

2 South Mountain

3 City of LA

4 Tuba City

T5 South Bay

T5 High Desert

T7 Tijuana

T7 University City Dave

9 San Gabriel Red 14 Silver Champion

10 University City Aaron

11 Hacienda Heights A

12 SD Navajo Randy

13 Lemon Grove

14 Phoenix September

15 Hacienda Heights B 14 Bronze Champion

16 Santee

17 SD Navajo Marv/Ken

18 South Central

19 Phoenix Ben

20 SD Navajo Rich

21 Oceanside 14 Copper Champion

22 Tehachapi

23 SD Navajo Bob

24 Shonto

25 Ridgecrest 14 Flight 2 Champion

26 Eastlake Sandra

27 Oakland

28 Nashville

29 San Gabriel White 14 Flight 3 Champion

30 Oak Hills 14’s

30 South Bay

30 Clairemont

33 Oak Hills 13’s 14 Flight 3 Champion

34 Skyline

35 Eastlake Victoria

36 University City Liz

37 Eastlake Chelsea

12’s Division

1 Mobile 12 Gold Champion

2 Lemon Grove

3 Phoenix Adam

4 Monrovia

5 South Bay 12 Silver Champion

6 San Gabriel

7 LA West

8 Oakland

9 Phoenix Bernice 12 Bronze Champion

10 SD Navajo

11 Tuba City

12 Eastlake Ron

13 Tehachapi 12 Copper Champion

14 Eastlake Rachel

15 Phoenix Jen

Parents,

If you take pictures of your daughter and her team while they are playing at tournaments I would appreciate a copy of any pictures you take.  I would like to be able to include pictures of each team at each tournament.  But since I can’t travel to all the tournaments I need help.

If you are willing to give me a disc of your pictures I will use them to update the scrapbook page on the club website.

Thank you for your help and assistance.

We are taking all three teams to a Starlings tournament in Victorville on Jan 3 and 4.

January 3rd:  Division 16’s  8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

January 4th:  Division 14’s  12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The 16s will have to leave town around 6 AM and if they stop for lunch before heading home, should be home around 4 PM.

The 14s will leave town around 10 AM and should return around 8 PM.

All team members and parents should meet in the Vons Parking lot, 10 minutes before their departure time. Hopefully we can to minimize the number of cars we have to take to the tournament.

There is a possibility that the schedule for this tournament may change.  The organizers may move the 16s to Sunday morning if they do not get more 12s or 18s teams signed up.  Stay tuned for more details.

Sunday morning we left Ridgecrest around 5:30 AM and headed for Ganesha High School in Pomona for a Starlings Volleyball Tournament hosted by the Starlings Pomona Volleyball Club.

The tournament line-up included two teams from the Starlings Pomona Volleyball Club, two teams from the Starlings South Gate Volleyball Club and one team from the Starlings Ramona Volleyball Club in San Diego.

Our first match in pool 1 was against South Gate B team. I started our normal lineup and early in the game told our subs to rest and let the starters play all the way around for the entire game. Our main offensive threat in this game was Maggie’s and Laura’s serving. We won the game 25-8. In the second game I rested all three setters and let Maggie, Laura and Brooke take a turn at setting while Jazmine, Rebecca and Allie got to play all the way around for the entire game. In the middle of this game I suddenly realized that I had put a very young team on that court. In fact the average age of the players on the court was about 12 and a half years old. We won the second game 25-9, again behind strong serving by Maggie, Laura and Allie.

Our second match was against one of the host teams Pomona- Irene. We went back to our normal starting lineup with Allie playing the back row for Laura. We started out a little bit slow, exchanging serves with our opponents. On her second time at the serving line, Sammi hit a hot streak and fired off six straight aces in a row. But on her seventh serve in the set a young boy started to walk behind our court just as she started her serve. Sammi stopped in mid-stride glared at the kid for a moment, then when she was convinced that he was not going to walk in front of her. She finished her serve - straight into the net. Thereby providing a perfect lesson for her teammates that serving and boy watching do not mix. But the run was enough and we cruised to a 25-14 win. The second game was a 25-13 win behind strong serving from Ashley and Brooke.

The two match wins earned us a bye in the quarter-finals, along with the Ramona team in the B pool.

In the semi-finals we faced the South Gate A team, who, behind a lightening quick defense that refused to allow any ball to hit the floor, ran up a quick 9-3 early lead in the first game. But we, rallied behind the strong front row hitting by Ashley, Alyssa, Maggie and Laura to tie the game up at 12-12. Once the game got close, Brooke and Ashley each put together good serving streaks as the team cruised to a 25-15 victory in the first game. The momentum from the first game carried over to the second with Sammi rediscovering her serving form and turning in a fantastic defensive performance. We blew past the South Gate A team in the second game, 25-11, to earn a spot in the finals.

In the finals the we once again faced the Pomona-Irene team that had upset the number one seed pool B winner, Ramona, in a hard fought three game semi-final. With Ashley putting on a dominate performance at the net and Sammi at the serving line the team cruised to a first game win 25-14. In the second game, smothering blocks by Ashley Sherrick and powerful hitting by Sammi and Maggie coupled with 14 consecutive serves (which included 7 aces) by Alyssa led us to a 25-10 final score and the tournament championship. We finished the day in first place with a 4-0 match record, an 8-0 game record.

Notable performances for the day were Alyssa’s 97% serving percentage which included 12 Aces. Brooke’s 94% serving percentage. Sammi’s 45% Ace percentage serving and the not-moving-fast-enough-but-pulling-off-a-miricle play of the day when she bounced a hard driven ball off the top of her foot, over the net and into the back right corner of the opponents court. Ashley was a force at the net, out dueling several of her opponents best hitters and blockers, including two key blocks (one solo and one with Sammi) in the finals against a big middle hitter with a 5 inch height advantage.

The schedule for Sunday’s Tournament is out.

We are a number four seed in a division 12 pool. So we did move up a division. We play on Sunday at 8:00 AM at El Camino College in Torrance.

EL CAMINO COLLEGE - 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance
405 Freeway to Crenshaw Blvd. - North on Crenshaw Blvd. to Redondo Beach Blvd. - West on Redondo Beach Blvd. to parking lot on right - $2.00 parking lot

As the number four seed we will play in the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th matches of the day and we officiate the 6th match. So we will need to be at El Camino College no later than 8 AM in the morning. Google says it should take about 2 hrs and 45 minutes to get there. I would like to plan on three hours travel time. So we will need to leave around 5 AM Sunday morning.

REMEMBER SUNDAY IS DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME SO SET YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD ONE HOUR ON SATURDAY NIGHT

Lets plan on meeting in the Vons parking lot at 4:45 for those who want to car pool down. I would like a ride that day if one is available.