Las Vegas Classic

The 23rd Annual Las Vegas Classic came to a close on Monday, February 16, 2009. The Bridge Volleyball Club were first year participants. The 18 Elite team and the 17-1's both played in this three day tournament. It was a great opportunities for the Seniors to showcase their skills and give the underclassman some needed college exposure.

Here is a little recap of the weekend for the 18 Elite team...

On Saturday, the 18's began the day at Arbor View High School. Although we started off slow, we made some progress throughout the day. Most importantly, several colleges were there to watch our top middle blocker Sydney Sidel. Although Sydney is unsigned at this point, I believe that this tournament gave her plenty of opportunity to be seen. So far we have received many emails on her behalf. Sydney not only has the talent, she is a 4.6 student and has proven academic success. Sydney is becoming a complete player. Saturday, also gave other players the opportunity to shine. Whitney Hunt our 6 foot Right Side Hitter, emerged as our other go to hitter for the weekend. Not only is Whitney our captain on the court, she is a great leader off the court too. We only won one match on Saturday, however we learned a lot.

Saturday night we took the girls over to the New York, New York for a ride on the roller coaster. Although some of them were scared at first, they all had a blast...the pictures are funny and they all seemed to know where to pose for the camera. After our exciting ride, we headed over to the MGM for dinner and to see the lions. It was a mellow night, however the girls had many photo opportunities and had the most fun on overpass that connects the NYNY to the MGM.

Sunday was a new day. Several players emerged as leaders and I was very pleased with the way we played. We took second in our pool and we played as a team most of the day. Stephanie Wertz played great and she definitely became a go to player for the day. Her passing was right on and she was seeing the court very well. Lauren Clark was hammering the ball and she got many stuff blocks...amazing what a difference a day makes. Cari and Jenelle Hudson shared time setting, however it is clear that this is Cari's team. She improved tremedously on her jump setting this weekend. Another solid aspect of our game emerge as Lesly Solis stepped into the role of Libero. She was a machine back there, passin and digging everything hit her direction.

Also much to our liking was the outstanding play in the middle. Our three middles were able to handle the load of a long tournament. Brenna Bailey did a great job, keeping up with the older girls and the most important thing she learned this weekend was to hit the ball hard. Carolina Toledo also learned some valuable lessons on control and direction. She is going to be a force for us this year. Finally Sydney did a great job leading the team in the front and back row. Her serve receive improved tremedously this weekend and I am very excited about all that she is learning about volleyball.

Sunday night was also low key as the girls wanted In N Out for dinner. We went shopping for souviners downtown at the Freemont Experience. After about an hour of walking around they were ready to eat. Of course the line at In N Out was out the door as serveral other teams were also thinking of keeping it simple that night.

Monday morning was great, we played in the second match of the day so finally the girls got to sleep past 6:00 AM. The first match of the day was awesome. The girls played so well. We were in control and they were doing all the things we have been working on in practice over the past three months. It was amazing to see them finally start to play as a team and play for eachother. We won our first match. We had an injury in the second match and we went down fighting, however dropped that match to a team with a little more ball control then us.

Overall the Las Vegas Classic was a huge success for the 18 Elite team. We learned a lot about ourselves as player, coaches and teammates. We played hard on the court, having fun on and off the court and had a safe trip overall. Congratulations Ladies, your hard work will pay off!!!