Garden Empire Volleyball Association

GEVA HP Team Heads to Florida

The GEVA USA SELECT Team is in Florida preparing to compete in the USAV NATIONAL HIGH PERFORMANCE CHAMPIONSHIPS.

The Team was selected from over 100 candidates who competed for spots in a 34-player camp.  Coaches then selected 10 players to represent Garden Empire Region this week in Florida.

You can follow the team by reading our daily updates here, and checking results at the USA Volleyball website. The team is comprised of:

Day 1 By Kim Valverde and Ariel Scott

Today, our first day, has been very long and tiring we arrived at the airport at 7 A.M. Anxiously, we sat around and waited for the plane to be boarded. To kill time we went to get something to eat for breakfast. “But don’t forget to wear your blue GEVA jackets!” After out quick bite to eat, we exchanged out “psyche buddies” Deb had Kim, She gave Kim MUCHO CANDY!! Such as Nerd Rope, Ice Cream Foam, Snickers, Milky Way and a lot of other good stuff. Nicole and Steff had each other. Kathlyn had Aiyana, Gabby had Kathlyn, and Megan had Gabby. (the coaches quickly denied us consumption rights) After an uneventful flight we settled in our rooms, went swimming and then after that we went to a team meeting.

At the Airport

Day 2 by Gabby and Stephanie

Early morning we wake up and go to Denny’s for breakfast. From there we return to the hotel for some down time before gearing up and heading to practice. We arrived at the Convention Center and were able to spend some time getting a look around at our competition.

We had a practice session to get out some of the pre-tournament jitters. Practice started rocky but improved steadily the communication picked up, and we were following the ball to the end line ready to pass. We returned to the Hotel to spiffy up. We all got dressed up and headed out to the banquet. This was some good team bonding for us. After opening ceremonies we returned to the hotel for a surprise b’day party for Coach Jenn. Happy birthday Coach Jenn!!!

Day 3 by Megan and Christina

The day began at about 6:30 in the morning and the team just about sleeping walking to breakfast. After a few spills and bagels, we took the vans to the convention center to get an early warm-up before our 8:30 match.

Although the big van was held up at parking garage the team made their way to the court to begin warm-ups. At 8:30, the team stood ready and alert hoping to win the match in three games. After winning games one and two we were eager to take the next game; however that was not the case. We were aggressive and consistent for our first two games; Carolina slowly came back and won the next two games. In the fifth game, we could not round up the aggressiveness and level of intensity we had in the first game; thus, we, unfortunately, lost the fifth game as well as the match.

After losing the match, the team and coaches got together during lunch and had a meeting. This meeting allowed us to discuss what we should and should not do during the match. After lunch, the team headed over to the convention center once again, with the intentions of beating Texas.

Our second match began around 3:00 and unfortunately, we lost. The first game we lost by only a few points, but the second game we lost by a lot and we played under our potential. The 3rd game, however, we lost by only 2 points 24-26. After the games, we all agreed that when we did not play safe we have more fun and play better. After our 2nd match was over, we watched Ohio Valley play and a little bit of the boys.=) We came back to the hotel, showered and ordered yummy Italian food. Now we are all going to have a good night sleep and hopefully win and achieve more of our goals tomorrow.

Day 5 by Aiyana and Kaitlyn

Today everyone woke up early and arrived at the coach’s room on time as a TEAM. We played our first match of the day again at eight thirty against Columbia Empire. We won the first set, then lost the second. We regained momentum and came back to win the match in four sets. We will take the win, although it was a sloppy match and we did not play to our potential.

After the match, we watched the USA Boys Youth team play. Then we headed out to the Chicken Grill. Our next match is scheduled for six, so b to the hotel for some rest and relaxation, everyone mostly slept. We went back to the Convention Center early to watch some volleyball. We watched Puerto Rico play New Zealand. We cheered on Puerto Rico with their families and friends as they took New Zealand in five exciting sets.

Our next Match was against Southern California and everyone was pumped. We went out on the court with fire in the first set and powered our way to victory. The second set we fell short, but we fought the whole way. The third set was close the wholly way through, but we won on a beastly block from Ariel and Kaitlyn, finishing the set at 25-23. The forth set we led the whole way through, and got a significant run from Deb’s serving. As a result of todays win we will be playing in the Bronze semi tomorrow.

(Coach’s note: The win put us in a three-way tie for fourth in our six team pool. The point ratio narrowed, thanks to the fact that we out-scored Carolina in our early loss and the fact that we kept so many matches close, our opponents only scored 25 more points than we did in a total of 20 games. This ratio gave us the tiebreaker and we finished fourth. We will play Southern California tonight at 6 pm for access to the Bronze bracket.)

Having Fun in Ft. Lauderdale

2007 HIGH PERFORMANCE CHAMPIONSHIP WRAP-UP

First and foremost, a big thank you to Coaches Merlin Thompson, Doug Levine, Jenn Scott, and Michele Dow, for the time and effort they put forward to making HP Championship experience possible for the Athletes.

The trip was successful in many ways. We improved in our standing from last year, finishing fourth in our six-team pool, defeating a third placed Southern California in our Challenge Match, and playing for a place in the Bronze Championship. We achieved an overall finish of eleventh in a twenty-four team field, up from fourteen of sixteen last year. The fact that only twenty-five points over twenty games separated us from the teams fighting for Gold speaks volumes for the growth and future of the program.

The HP Committee is looking forward to the continued support of the region and coaches as well as an increased participation of athletes competing to achieve for The Regions Team.

A special thanks goes out to Mike Burtha for all of his assistance in preparing the team for the trip and to the parents who assisted with logistics prior to and during the trip.

We would also like to recognize and thanks the following coaches for their participation in HP evaluations, tryouts and our Camp it would not be possible without their effort. Coaches: Ray Green, John Titus, Terrance Simpson, Melissa Bacarri, Krishna Das and Joel Stanford.

Thank you all,
Coach Bill Doyle