SEATTLE, WA - Jan 12, 2008
WVBA kicked off the 2008 season with five teams in action over the weekend.

The three elder Academy teams played two long days in the opening weekend of the Puget Sound Power League. Mizuno 18 and Mizuno 17 finished in the Gold Division with the 17s taking 1st and the 18s taking 6th. Mizuno 18-Red lost in the finals of the Copper Division to finish 2nd.

Both Mizuno 18 and Mizuno 17 won their crossover matches in the playoff round. Mizuno 18s then lost a close match to KJ 18s while Mizuno 17s beat Puget Sound 18 Gold 2-0 to take the championship.

Both Mizuno 17s and 18s will return to the gold division for the February Power League. Both teams along with the Mizuno 16s will travel to Beaverton, OR on January 19-20 to compete in the Oregon Juniors MLK Invitational tournament. This unique format allows the best teams from the Puget Sound area to compete against the top teams from Oregon and Eastern WA over two days.

WVBA Mizuno 18-Red started a little slow in their first pool dropping matches to Space Needle and #1 seed Narrows before getting it going with a win in their third match over NW Juniors 17 Vortex to finish 3rd.

In round two they swept both pool play matches but they were in the gym until 9pm before they finally beat Island Thunder 17. By that time they were down to 7 players and had to ask Madeline Fouts to play a new position at opposite and she was awesome.

This set up a crossover match at 8:00am, a single game to 25 to determine who would move into Bronze Division and who would go to Copper. Alas 18-Red lost to Puyallup Juniors and went into the Copper Division for the first full Power League day.

18-Red went undefeated in pool play Sunday posting wins over Mill Creek, YMCA Blaze, and a different NW Juniors team. They had to face Space Needle 18 Spike Force in the crossover playoff match, their nemesis from their first pool Saturday morning. Kim Strenge led the team with six straight points including 5 aces from the serving line to help avenge their earlier loss and advance them into the final of the Copper Division.

Mizuno 18-Red lost to a very talented Ohana 17 team in the final to finish 2nd overall. 18-Red will be the #8 seed in Bronze for the February Power League round.

Academy 14s
WVBA Mizuno 14 and Mizuno 14-Red were in action on Sunday. They opened their seasons by playing up in a U16 tournament at Highline Community College in Des Moines.

Playing up in a U16 tournament wasn't going to be easy for either team, but the Mizuno 14 team really pulled together. They started off the day by sweeping their pool without losing a single game. This required a few late game come-backs to win some of those.

After winning their pool they ended up ranked 4th going into the gold bracket. During the first round they ref'd the WVBA 14-Red team against Edmonds U16 Matt. 14-Red had a good match but fell in 3. 14 Black then had to play Edmonds U16 Matt and played very well. 14 Black was able to defeat them in two games both scores being 25-17.

That bought up the semi-final match against UPVBC 16 who are seeded #1 in the Region going into the 16s Power League next weekend. That match was a little too much for Mizuno 14 to handle so they ended up tied for 3rd in the tournament. Mizuno 14 Head Coach Andrew Ness said, "They are off to a good start and I look forward to them playing some more. For the tournament the team served very well with 39 Aces. They also had 59 kills hitting .192 for the Day. Olivia Magill also had 10 blocks for the day."

Within the tight quarters of the Highline Community College Pavillion, the WVBA Mizuno 14-Red team shook off their nerves and shocked a few U16 teams. 14-Red dominated Centralia Storm led by Ashtyn Mann at the net and a run of five service aces by Kori Maitlen to finish the match.

After a close match against Reach VBC, it came down to head-to-head points to determine the final seeding in pool play. The points 14-Red earned were enough to take second place and move up to the Gold bracket. The day ended with a loss to Edmonds 16 Intensity in three games. Great job ladies!

Both 14s teams will play again in their Power League over MLK Weekend.

U16 Power League Update
WVBA 16s finished 3rd in Gold Division. WVBA 15s finished 4th in Silver Division. More details Friday when we update the site for this weekend's tournaments.