2012 2A District Brackets

And the bracket is up to date:

http://www.wiaadistrict1.com/tournament.php?tournament_id=657&sport=10&ps_type=1

Tough matchup against Burlington-Edison, but it's not 2011 and we've been playing good 3A teams all year. All I want to say to the girls is that you belong here, so play smart, minimize mistakes, and get the Kangs rolling early!

Kangs are KingCo 2A Champs!

Ok, well, they only had to beat Sammamish as they are the only two 2A teams IN the KingCo league, but a win is a win and we now can prepare for the 2A District Championships on Halloween night. More on our matchup and road to state soon.

Our coaches did things a little backwards tonight by starting a team of mostly backups and when, amazingly, it was tied at 18, they put Maddie in and we reeled off 8 more points to win. More subs in Game 2 but Sophomore setter played well. Our starters played Game 3 for the most part. So, no injuries and we have a week to get ready. Nice job, Kangs. 10-6 overall and 8-6 in league means we would have wrapped up a third place seed if we were still in 3A. Most wins since Maddie started at LW and first winning season. :)

Kang Volleyball: Last League Game

So tonight is Maddie's last league game vs. a poor Sammamish team. Winner goes straight to the 2A District Tourney...heck, I think even if we were to lose we'd be the KingCo 2A winners, but I'd rather not leave it in doubt. So here's my coaching plan, and I'll let you know tomorrow if our coaching staff felt the same way.

5-1. Play your seniors. If you win the first 2 games, sub the starters out. If they win, you're good. If they lose, put the A team back in. Don't mess around with cycling your best setter out. We need to be playoff ready. If you lose with Maddie and the seniors, you lose. If you lose with Maddie on the bench half the time, shame on you.

It's frustrating to have to worry about game plans this late in the season; name one winning team who does not use the 5-1. Anyone?

More tomorrow!

Mystery at Juanita

I've delayed writing this post for 12 hours because I'm so bummed out. We lost 3-0 to a bad Juanita team. Our coaching staff dialed it in, preferring to use a mishmash of offenses and subs to create nothing but bad body language from the team and head shaking among the veteran parents. We had a chance to win 11 games this year and get some momentum going into the playoffs, but with no sense of our program's past or the power of crushing weak opponents, a giant egg was layed, and it stinks. Here's just one example: Maddie has served about 1000 times in all the club and school games she's played in the last 5 years. She's missed maybe 20 serves in all that time. She ran the 5-1 in 2 years of club and played every single point of every single game with much better players around her and much better competition. Any yet this year, she's playing a 6-2 with 2 sophomores who will be good players IN THE FUTURE. And then they told her to switch to a jump serve. Which she has never used IN 1000 SERVES. Really? At the very end of a 98% run of getting her serves in, you have her switch? Of course she missed her second serve of the year. Just clueless coaching. And from what I'm hearing, there is a complete lack of communication as to why the girls are seeing the offenses and substitutions they are seeing. Now, if coach had pulled together the girls before the match and said something like "this is a meaningless game for us. It does not affect our ranking, so I want to try some new things. I want to play our backup libero all match. I want to sit Maddie out of Game 2 and let two sophomores play, I want you to all try some new serves. Let's just have fun and if we lose, we lose, because the game we have to dominate is on Tuesday at Sammamish." If that was the message, I could have bought into it. But that was NOT the message. There WAS no message.

So now I'm worried. I'm worried coaching is going to kill us in the playoffs. We have had a pretty good vibe all year, but it definitely died last night at Juanita. Now the vibe is only negative and it sickens me.

Gonna be a long wait until Tuesday.

Kang Senior Night

After sitting through a half dozen senior nights both home and away over the last few years, it was finally our turn as Maddie played her last game at the packed Kang Dome. Senior Night, as most of you know, consists of a fellow player reading a 'thank you' note to the graduating senior with the parents standing next to their child trying not to cry. This is a ripe target for satirical mayhem, but I have actually found these to be quite heartfelt. The non-seniors write the notes and are actually more nervous than the seniors; this I know because Maddie has written and read three of these. I went to a LW-Sammamish game last year or the year before and the Totems, like always, had not won a game all year, but their underclassmen read notesand talked about how the girls never gave up and were proud to be Totems....and it was actually very touching and nice. As was last night. Sisters reading for sisters, lots of hugs, player-parent hugs, pictures, and tears. And when it was all done, Maddie and the Kangs went out and took care of business, beating Interlake 3-1 and going to 7-5 in league and 9-5 overall. A little sloppy at times, but I will play that off as post Senior Night letdown. This team seems to play to the level of our opponent sometimes. That's how you can go from losing to the #3 ranked team in 3A 25-27 and lose a game 11-25 to Interlake four days later. But they got it together and even though Maddie was on the bench due to that damn 6-2 offense when the last point was scored, she ends her career in her home gym with 22 assists and a nice momentum win. 2 more games; at Juanita and at Sammamish on Tuesday where we should earn a berth as the KingCo 2A seed into the 2A District Championships which will begin on Halloween night. I believe I have the Districts figured out so a longer post next week.

I had some surgery today to fix a simple little vocal cord thing but they said not to talk for 4 days. That is not going to be easy! So I'll be at Juanita tomorrow night scribbling notes to everyone that say stuff like "GET YOUR SERVES IN and MAKE GOOD PASSES!"....ALL WITHOUT SAYING A WORD. Scary indeed. Go Kangs!

Mt. Sigh

There was a certain electricity in the air at the Kang gym on Thursday night. Mt. Si was in town, ranked 3rd in State, but we had taken them for one game at Mt. Si and Maddie said she had a feeling. Up 22-18 in the first game, we were all feeling it....and then it just kind of slipped away. Whether or not the coaches decision to employ the dreaded 6-2 had anything to do with it we'll never know, but taking your Sr. setter out of half the games just doesn't seem like a winning formula, and sure enough, we lost 23-25, 21-25 and 17-25. This match was winnable, and I'm going to have to lay the loss on coaching. Just as coaching adjustments were a big part of the win against Liberty, they were a big part of this loss on Thursday. The 6-2 and no tweaking of a suspect defense continues to prevent us from moving from being a good team to a strong team. I had more than one parent asking me why we used the 6-2 against Mt. Si; wish I had an answer. And Maddie missed her first serve of the year, which did not sit well, believe me. Anyway, time to regroup against Interlake on Tuesday as we begin the home stretch before the State Tourney in November. Maddie and I are PUMPED that Walking Dead is back tonight because we do NOT like zombies. ZOMBIES HATE VOLLEYBALL. Back with more next week.

Kang Volleyball: Taking Liberties

Always fun to trudge down 405 in rush hour traffic to play our friends from East Renton; fun because we've dominated them for 2 years. First we beat them twice last year before linking up in the playoffs and beating them in 5 games to determine some playoff seeding.
http://clubvolleyballdad.blogspot.com/2011/10/kingco-playoff-thriller.html

Last night we completed the sweep THIS year by beating them 3-1, thus securing my dominance over my ex-volleyball dad friends from ITVC (Bellevue and Liberty) by going 3-1 this year AND last year, running my record to a solid 6-2 and earning bragging rights forever. Hanging out pre-game and during the games with those 2 dads has been so fun; one benefit of club volleyball is the close friendships you have the chance to develop (as long as the girls don't play a similar position!) I will miss those guys during volleyball season, and wish nothing but the best for their lovely daughters (Jessica and Megan). I know we'll get together for a few cold ones down the road.

Maddie had a very solid game last night, leading the Kangs in the 3 victorious games. The ref last night was calling double hit setting errors like they were going out of style (but equally for both teams; Maddie said she actually really liked the ref and didn't mind the double hit calls as long as it was fair on both sides, which it was.) Our coach does little things that we lacked last year and I like it. She'll start Maddie Game 1 but let the backup have Game 2 if we won that first game, and if we're 1-1 after those 2 games, she'll have Maddie go the rest of the way. She also had the girls switch to bump sets if Maddie took the dig as it seemed like every girl that wasn't a setter was getting called for those double hits. That was a smart move. I like the way she adjusts "in-game" and isn't afraid to go with a hot hand. We lost one of our setters last night to a sprained ankle but our backup came in and played really well. She had lost some confidence after being moved to backup, but it just goes to show you that a backup role can turn into a starting role very quickly. Practice hard, stay positive, and stay ready. Good things will happen.

So we go to 8-4 overall with a tough Mt. Si game on Thursday and then finish up with 3 key games against Interlake, Juanita and Sammamish.

A Good Volleyball Week

Playing the #1 team in 3A is never a good way to begin a week, and sure enough, the trip to Mercer Island was a lesson in humility. They are so fundamentally sound, it was actually nice to watch. They repel every attack whether through blocking, or a solid pass from their libero to outside hitters that just murder the ball. We never really had a chance. But it was back to our own level when we faced Bellevue at home after losing to them in our second match of the year. We got off to a bit of a slow start and lost Game 1, but rallied with 3 straight wins to take the match 3-1. Maddie played well in what I will call a modified 5-1. Our 6 foot frosh setter would be brought in on occasion to play the front row and she contributed with some nice blocking. Maddie, when she is truly into it, provides some great leadership and hustles on every play to keep the ball alive. 3 years of playing help as she seems to move toward the ball instinctively. They notched their fifth league win and have an important game at Liberty tomorrow night, then round out the week at home vs. Mt. Si. Then we wrap things up against Interlake, Juanita and Sammamish and see how things shake out for the 2A playoffs. I'm starting to sense the end and it's not a good feeling...but no time for melancholy yet; there are still games to be won!