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.