Coaches
Sherrilyn Hanna - Head Coach
Betsy Scudder - Assistant Coach
Practice Schedule
| Monday | Wednesday | Saturday | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Madeira | Elite Night-Madeira | Position Training-Madeira |
| Time | 6-8pm | 6-8pm | TBA |
Tournament Schedule
| Date | Tournament | Location | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. 14 | NVVA 13/14 | Virginia Volleyball Center | 4th |
| Jan. 29 | VA Elite 14/13 Invitational | The Madeira School | 4th |
| Feb. 5 | VA Elite 13's Invitational | The Madeira School | 2nd |
| Feb. 18-20 | Capitol Hill Classic | Washington, DC | 27th |
| Mar. 4 | VA Elite 13's Invitational | The Madeira School | 2nd |
| Mar. 18 | MD Juniors 14/13's | MD Juniors Sports Center | 2nd |
| Mar. 24 | Charles County 14/13 Invitational | College of Southern Maryland | 2nd |
| Mar. 31-Apr. 2 | Northeast Qualifier (NEQ) | Baltimore, MD | 29th |
| Apr. 15 | MD Juniors 13 | MD Juniors Sportsplex | 2nd |
| Apr. 21 | CHRVA Regionals | Discovery Center | 1st |
| Apr. 28-29 | Revolutionary Rumble | Williamsburg, VA | 7th |
13 Blue Team News
13 Blue was in Williamsburg over the past weekend for the Revolutionary Rumble. It was nothing short of a rumble with plenty of tough competition to go around. Blue Ice had a rather slow start on Saturday, losing to both the eventual Silver division champions and a Gold division quarterfinalist. We were able to regroup in the evening wave, though, and take second in our pool. The highlight of the day was pushing NVVA ICE 13-1 to 24-26. Sunday morning brought more challenges with a match up against our own 13 Black team. Blue Ice gave their sisters a good fight, but just didn't have enough fire power to overcome. We again finished second in our pool, which earned us a bye in the first round of the Silver bracket. We easily won our semifinal match and would go on to face Beach Elite 12s (the Old Dominion Region 12s open division champions). Beach Elite brought even more challenges for Blue Ice. Although they were a "12s" team, a few of the Beach Elite girls looked like they needed a birth certificate check! They had an EXTREMELY robust parent cheering section and we had lost to them pretty badly in pool play on Saturday. Blue Ice, determined to face the challenge head on, fought hard. We lost the first set, 17-25, but won the second set 25-22. The third set brought some of the best volleyball we've played all season. Blue Ice jumped out to a big lead. We were ahead at the switch, but ended up dropping the set, 13-15. We were disappointed to have gotten so close to winning the Rumble's silver division and not be able to quite finish our opponents off. However, Blue Ice ended the season playing great volleyball and with hardware around our necks =) It doesn't get much better than that!!!
13 Blue played at Discovery Center on Saturday in the 13s Club Gold Division. Even though we were not playing for a bid to the national tournament, we knew we had a good opportunity to fare well since all 8 teams in the gold division were pretty equally matched. Pool play consisted of 3 sets of 21 points each. Blue Ice started the day off really rocky and would eventually drop all 3 sets to our first opponent, Hub City. Suffering a little bit of shock and disappointment from our early defeats, we next faced NVVA White who had earlier given the #1 seed in the tournament (MVSA Dynamites) a run for their money. Blue Ice proceeded to take all 3 sets from NVVA. Our next and last match of pool play was against MVSA. Blue Ice was 3-3 on the day and MVSA was 6-0. We had to take all 3 sets or we would be not make it out of pool play for the first time all season. Blue Ice performed like the "Little Engine who Could" . . . the girls played one point at a time and one game at a time and when it was all said and done, Blue Ice had taken all 3 sets from MVSA and sat in a 3 way tie for 1st place in our pool! The last match of pool play saw NVVA (0-6) taking on Hub City (3-3). All Blue Ice needed was for NVVA to take 1 set off of Hub City and we would have 1st place all to ourselves and that's exactly what happened! Blue Ice faced Chantilly Juniors in semifinals. We had just lost to Chantilly 6 days before in the semifinals of a MD Juniors tournament. They'd had a rough day in pool play and we were hoping that our momentum surge in pool play would carry us through. It wasn't going to be that easy, though. Blue Ice dropped the first set 18-25 and it looked like once again we were going to play well enough to get out of pool play but not perform to our potential in playoffs. Whether it was the promise of hardware or the opportunity to win our 1st tournament of the season (and Regionals at that), Blue Ice turned things around and went on to win the next 2 sets (25-19, 15-11) and the match. In finals, we played MVSA and once again, Blue Ice was the "Little Engine who could". We stuck with MVSA the entire way, fighting for every point and keeping our heads in the game, and ended up winning in 2 sets, 26-24, 25-18. All season Blue Ice has struggled with the mental part of the game . . . staying focused, believing in their teammates, shaking off their own errors. These girls have learned a lot of volleyball over the course of the season, but Saturday they won because they were mentally tough. They overcame adversity early in the day, pushed through errors, supported each other on and off the court, and persevered to win the whole thing. It was very satisfying as a coach to watch a group of girls come so far in such a short amount of time. It's most satisfying, though, to look over at our "crash site" and see all 9 girls (a 5th grader, 4 6th graders, and 4 7th graders) just hanging out enjoying each other's company. It's been a GREAT season =)
Court written by 1 very proud coach (Sherrilyn Hanna)
Blue Ice was in Baltimore this past weekend at the Northeast Qualifier and played our best volleyball to date! On Saturday, Blue Ice held our third place seed going 1-2 on the day. This would set us up for a truly remarkable Sunday. On day 2, we started off facing our NVVA Select 13-2 rivals who we had lost to at Cap Classic in February. Blue Ice was determined to avenge our previous loss and came out strong mentally. It was so impressive to see girls 10-13 years old keep their emotions in check in such an emotionally charged situation. There were a few minor bumps along the way, but Blue Ice worked through these and came out on top, 25-19, 25-16. It was a solid victory and propelled us through the rest of the day. Blue Ice would go on to win in 3 sets against Brandywine and in 2 sets against 5 Star, the #1 seed in our pool. We literally shut the lights off at the Convention Center on Sunday night (since we were the last court playing at 10:15). What a day!!! Winning our pool on Sunday put us in Flight 1 on Monday morning. After a rocky start against Beach Elite, Blue Ice again played some tough ball, extending our opponents to 3 sets after another gutsy performance in set 2 which we eventually won 30-28. We hung with them in the 3rd set to the switch, but let it get away from us after that.
While the wins were nice, the most impressive part of the whole weekend was to witness the improvement (both as a team and as individuals) Blue Ice has made over the course of the season.
Blue Ice Improves with Another Local Tournament
- 03/19/2012, 7:53pm (EDT)
Blue Ice Finishes 2nd in Local Tournament
- 03/08/2012, 6:08pm (EST)
13 Blue Finishes Second in VA Elite 13's Invitational
- 02/07/2012, 11:31pm (EST)
"M&M" Maddie and Madeline Awarded Best Big/Little Sisters
- 02/03/2012, 9:44am (EST)
13 Blue Coaching Packet
We encourage you to read the coaching packet as it contains an important letter from the head coach, the coaching philosophy, playing time information and practice principles.
