SEATTLE, WA - Mar. 1, 2007

Las Vegas Invitational
WVBA Mizuno 18 and Mizuno 17 traveled to Las Vegas, NV to participate in one of the most competitive national tournaments of the year. They arrived into Las Vegas late Friday night and immediately noticed the chaos of festivities that surrounds the NBA All Star Game which was played on Sunday.

Both teams played very well. Mizuno 18s finished 25th in the 18 Open division while Mizuno 17 finished in 61st Place in the U17 division.

PSR Power League
Two more Academy teams have moved into the Gold division of the Puget Sound Power League on February 10-11 to bring our current Gold division total to four.

WVBA Mizuno 18 finished 2nd in Gold to maintain their position in the race to the Prime Time JO bid tournament on April 7th. The top four teams of each age group in power league points will be eligible to play in the Prime Time event. The Puget Sound Region has two Junior Olympic bids available at the Prime Time tournament. The winner will receive the Club National division bid and the runner up will receive the Club American division bid.

Mizuno 18-Red finished 8th in Bronze. Mizuno 17 finished 2nd in Bronze and will be moving to Silver next month. Mizuno 16 finished 3rd in Gold. Mizuno 15 finished 2nd in Silver and will be moving up to Gold next month. Mizuno 14 finished 2nd in Silver and will be moving up to Gold next month. Mizuno 13 finished 3rd in Silver.

March Power League
The final round of Puget Sound Power League will played over the March 3-4 weekend. This final weekend will provide teams with their last opportunity to accumulate points to qualify for the Prime Time JO bid tournament on April 7th. Final Power League standings also will establish seeding into the Regional Championship tournaments in late April and early May.

Below is the current seedings based on the last Power League results for each of our teams. The seedings are for the team's age group only:

Mizuno 18         3rd
Mizuno 18-Red   16th
Mizuno 17         6th
Mizuno 16         3rd
Mizuno 15         3rd
Mizuno 14         10th
Mizuno 13         1st

President's Day
Four Academy teams played over the 3-day President's Day weekend in Kent and Kirkland.

WVBA Mizuno 16 featured a new setter this weekend. Janelle Chow led the team to the Division 1 Gold finals in her setting debut. Janelle also served what could only be called a grand slam with an ace from a standing float, a jump float, and a jump top spin, all in the same service.

Ashley Broadwell broke out an intimidating jump serve and racked up 5 aces in one rotation. Middle hitters Jamie McDonald, Rachel Shober, and Janna Russell had solid tournaments with efficient hitting and solid blocking. Rachel and Jamie also produced point after point from the serving line with their wicked jump floaters.

NCWVBC 16 Gold proved to be a worthy opponent by forcing a deciding set in the semi-final match. The Academy 16s had to come from behind to win 18-16 in the third. The match finished with authority as All America candidate Kylin Munoz crushed the ball inside the 10' line. If you don't believe it, there is still a dent in the floor at Juanita High School where that ball hit. Mizuno 16 lost in the finals to Lenny's Puget Sound 16 Gold team (25-27, 23-25).

Mizuno 15 had a smaller than normal roster due to various injuries and illness. They trudged through on Saturday with some close matches, but ended up 4th. On Sunday they started winning and didn't stop until the finals on Monday when they defeated Power Surge 15 Black for the U16 D1 Bronze Championship.

Mizuno 14 finished 5th in Division 1 Gold on Monday. Middle hitter Jazmyne Dodd had a great weekend including spells of vertical domination at the net. Michelle Woodworth passed nails all day while Ashley Kelly, Christina Street, Kaci Jones, and Karla Nelson put steady pressure on opposing teams with strong consistent serving.

Mizuno 13 finished with another championship. This time in the U14 D1 Bronze division. Despite missing the services of two middle hitters due to illness, Mizuno 13 played very well, especially in the transition offense phase according to coach Maggie Peters. Tournament highlights included stuff blocks by Leah Lechtenberg and Amy Kneepkens as well as strong outside hitting by Hannah Linsenmayer and Kendal Munoz. Miah Diirell and Ku'u Sanford anchored the back row with tremendous digging. Haley MacDonald recorded her first ace of the season./p>


< more news...