The Long Knights of Winter Draw Near

The Knights of RC rolled into the Eagle's Nest and proceeded to knock the "birds of prey" out of the air.  The Eagles appeared to be intimidated by the Knights despite RC not being near as talented as I had been told.  I missed the 1st match and was told how good RC was, but if TC had been playing to the level that they have the past 5 or 6 games they would have extended the match and possibly even won.  RC had some really nice plays and they took it to the Eagles in games 1 and 2, but the home team seemed to have an over-abundance of nerves in those games.  The final game of the match was much more like the Eagles, as they stayed close from start to finish.  The thing that set the Knights apart was their ability to make accurate passes to the setter and, because of that, finish with big attacks.  When TC controlled RC's first pass by serving weaker passers, like their libero, they were able to pass better and attack with authority.   TC's inability to consistently receive serve, more then 30% of the serves were not returned, prevented the Eagles from getting into any type of attach.  The third game of the match showed the crowd what the Eagles can play like.  The game was very close, the teams trading the led several time, very few service receiving errors, and the end result was a very close game (23-25).

TC travels to Mariposa to face the third place team in the league.  The Grizzles are the only team that has given RC a scare during the Southern League and is always very difficult to beat in the Bear Den.

Molly Drinking Her Pre-Game Meal

What about the Play-offs?
The Eagles are currently seeded 3rd in the Sac-Joaquin D-5 Play-offs and they need to win the rest of their games to avoid having to play on the same side of the bracket as RC, the number 1 seed.

Make the trip up the hill and cheer the Lady Eagles on.

TC Defeats LeGrand

The TC Eagles traveled to LeGrand to play the fouth place Bulldogs and came away with a 3-0 (25-22) (29-27) (25-19) victory.  The Lady Eagles improved to 9-1 in the Southern League. All the games were exciting and close.  The second game went into extra-points with the teams trading the led repeatedly.  The team had a very good hitting night with 36 kills as the Bulldogs rarely used more than one blocker, and sometime no blockers, at a time.  Rebekah M took advantage killing the ball 9 times and Kaisa S with 8 kills.  Kaisa also lead the all servers with 3 aces and 9 service points and Molly Z with 8 service points.  The front row blocked 6 of LeGrands kill attmepts as Molly F and Rebekah M had 3 each.  The Bulldogs played a really good defensive match as they were able to dig 54 kill attempts by the Eagles but TC attempted over one hundred kills that in the end overwhelmed the "no block - all defense" LeGrand philosopy of volleyball.  It is always entertaining to watch the LeGrand coach react to all things volleyball, especially the refs and her own players.  Way to go TC.

Some of our favorite non-seniors:-)

The Coyoto's Howl But Don't Bite

The Lady Eagles continue to be impressive in Southern League play as they improve to 8 wins and only 1 loss.  The long road trips seem to be upon them as they travel to LeGrand today and then to Mariposa next Tuesday with Ripon Christian at home in between on Thursday.   With only five league games left TC could tied for the league championship if they win the rest of the games.  That will be difficult, as they play an excellent RC team and then a very good Mariposa, who took RC to five games and were leading with a score of 12-8 in the fifth game before losing 2-3.   RC is beatable and TC could be the beater:-)

Three of the top TC hitters

The Denair Coyote's came to the Eagle's Nest for a homecoming week match and couldn't deliver the upset.  The Eagles looked a little fatigued but managed to beat the Coyotes 3-0 (25-14, 25-19, 25-10).  Coach Keith made liberal substitutions, especially in the 3rd game, and gave everyone the opportunity to play.  The result was a little bit of inconsistency in the girls performances but the end result was still a decisive victory.

The big hitters for the night were lead by Kaisa S with 5 kills.  Other impressive kills came from Molly F, with a slamming shoot (low and from far, far away) and Kara G with 4 a piece, Molly Z with 3, including a sweet back row attack, and Cheyenne P with 2 kills.

"Molly's to the 2nd power" led the team with  4 aces (Molly F) and 2 aces (Molly Z) from the service line. 

Senior starters put on their game faces

The big girls at the net were Molly F with 3 blocks and Kaisa with 2.  Blocks are a fairly rare event because they must result in a point to be considered a "block".  If the other team keeps the ball in play then no block is recorded.

The Lady Eagles played a pretty good match considering Denair is scrappy and not very talented and that the demands of homecoming week are especially taxing on members of ASB, which many of our players are part of.  Good job girls.

Come out and support the team at LeGrand.  Just go south on HWY 99 past Merced, turn left on LeGrand Road and go about 7 miles, the high school is on the right.  See Ya There.

Gustine Shows Improvement

With the Lady Eagles four players down the Gustine Redskins held their own against the not so high flying Eagles.  The team was playing short handed as four of the regulars arrived at the bus late and were benched for the entire match.   The players taking this opportunity for extended playing time, rose to the occasion.  Natalie S played an excellent match with 2 kills, 3 aces, an assist, and a team leading 12 digs and 9 service receives.  Way to go "Natester":-)

Waiting for the Serve

Other Outstanding Performances included:

Kills:  Molly Z and Stephanie S (6 each), Rebekah M (3), and Natalie S and Tare L (2 each).
Aces: Cheyenne P (5), Natalie S (3) and Rebekah (2).
Assists: Rebekah (16) and Natalie (1).
Digs: Natalie (12), Rebekah (11), Arin M (10) and Cheyenne (7).
Service Receives: Natalie (9), Arin (6), Cheyenne (5) and Molly Z (4).

Great effort and its was a nice look at some of the future stars with 3 juniors and 2 sophomores playing most of the match.

The TC Eaglettes Get Ready to Rumble

The TC Eaglettes played an outstanding game as they defeated the Gustine Redskins.  The freshman plus 1 sophomore won the Orestimba (Newman) Freshman Tournament over the weekend to contine a very successful season.  Way to go girls:)

The JV gets ready to play some volleyball @ Gustine.

What's Happening at the top of the Southern League

Mariposa pushed RC to the limit and lost in a 5 game match at Grizzle Den last Thursday, which would have thrown the league into a three way tie for first.  I believe, though not confirmed, that the 5th game went to 15-13.  Almost:o

TC Beats Scrappy Waterford Wildcats

The Lady Eagles came out smokin as they crushed the Wildcats 25-5 in the first game.  Waterford had no answer to the dominate serving of the Eagles and looked like a JV team against a varsity squad.  The TC dominance lasted all of one game.  Inspired play by the Wildcats and/or major over-confidence by TC in the second game resulted in a 25-20 win for Waterford.  The Wildcats played well the rest of the night with two 20-25 games to close the match.

Outstanding Performances Included:

Kills: Kara G (8), Molly Z and Rebekah M (6), and Kaisa S (5)

Servive Aces: Molly Z (6)

Assits:  Molly Z (13), Rebekah M (6) and the newest setter Kaisa S (1)

Digs: Rebekah (18), Cheyenne P (16), Arin M and Molly F (12 each)

Service Receiving: Arin M and Molly Z (13 each)

Mariposa No Longer Undefeated in Southern League

The Grizzles of Mariposa came out of the mountains and ended up stepping into a trap. Mariposa was undefeated in league play when they came into the Eagles Nest last Thursday. The Eagles faced their second quality opponent of the week and manged to send the Grizzles home with their first Southern League defeat. The match was one of the most exciting of the year as the two teams traded points and managed to force 3 extra point games.  The defensive effort by the Lady Eagles was outstanding and led to many opportunistic offensive attacks and points.  Mariposa is a good team that could never get in a rhythm because of the outstanding digs and service receives.

Outstanding Efforts:

Kills:  Rebekah M. (10), Kara G (8), Molly F (7) and Molly Z (5)

Service Points: Kara (12), Molly F. (11) and Molly Z (10)

Blocks: Stephanie S (3), Kaisa S and Kara G (2 each)

Assists: Rebekah (20), Molly F (16) and a shout out to Molly Zs 1st (1)

Dig % (10+):  Molly Z (17/17 100%), Molly F (12/12 100%), Arin M. (20/21 96%), Rebekah and Cheyenne P (18/19 95%), and Kara G (16/18 89%)

Service Receiving % (15+):  Kara G (100% - 20/20), Molly Z (91% - 21/23), Cheyenne P (88% - 14/16) and Arin M (80% - 12/15)

Look for the Waterford and Delhi blogs this weekend.

Hope to see you all at tonight's game vs Delhi @ Calvary.  JV is at 5 and the varsity follows around 6.

Dreamin About the Next Game

TC @ Carmichal 31
Originally uploaded by Zulkman

Coach Ken snapped this picture of the varsity team at the Carmichal Tournament. Can you find all eleven players? Yes they are all there. Thanks for the contribution to the blog Coach:-) Double click on the picture to get a larger version.