SEATTLE, WA - Jan 18, 2008

All seven WVBA teams will see action over the MLK weekend.

WVBA Mizuno 18, Mizuno 17 and Mizuno 16 will travel to Beaverton, OR to participate in the Oregon Juniors MLK Invite on Saturday and Sunday. WVBA Mizuno 18-Red and Mizuno 15 will be competing in the Northwest Juniors MLK Invitational. WVBA Mizuno 14 and 14-Red will be competing in their first PSR Power League.

Portland MLK Invite
Oregon Juniors has invited the strongest teams from the Puget Sound Region, Eastern Washington and host Columbia Empire Region (OR) to face off over the MLK weekend.

WVBA Mizuno 18, Mizuno 17 and Mizuno 16 will play only the Oregon teams on Saturday, and then after a night at the hotel, return to the Courts facility to play the best teams from Eastern WA on Sunday.

The Courts is a private 6-court volleyball facility owned by Oregon Juniors founder and former UW coach Steve Suttich. This is the inaugural year for this event.

Matches are 2/3 and are scheduled every 1 hour and 15 minutes. Competition begins late on Saturday and again on Sunday to allow for the out of state teams to travel in the morning and only have one hotel night in Beaverton. The competition schedule for Saturday and Sunday can be found here

NW JRs MLK Invite
WVBA Mizuno 18-Red and Mizuno 15 will be competing in the Northwest Juniors MLK Invitational at Juanita High School in Kirkland.

WVBA 15s will play on Saturday and Sunday morning while the 18-Red team will start Sunday afternoon and finish on Monday afternoon.

This tournament features teams from Hawai'i and Eastern WA in addition to many of the strongest teams from the Puget Sound Region.

14s Power League
Both of our 14s teams will see their first Power League action on Saturday and Sunday for the first full Power League format day. Click here for a complete manual for the 14s Power League.

WVBA Mizuno 14 will be going into the tournament as the #1 overall seed. They begin play on Saturday morning at Highline Community College. Their Pool 1 opponents are All Out 14s and Rain City 14 Heat. Round 2 will begin around 3pm. If they hold their seed they will be moving to Washington HS in Tacoma. Gold and Silver Divisions will also play at Washington HS on Sunday.

WVBA Mizuno 14-Red will have to travel to Evergreen State College in Olympia to begin their first round of competition. Red holds the #12 seed going into the tournament and will be working hard to earn a spot in the Gold Division for Sunday. Their first pool opponents include #21 Narrows Black 13-1, #44 Evergreen JRs 14 Green Erika, and #53 Olympia 14-2.

Good luck to our 14s teams as they test themselves in the Puget Sound Power League.

16 Power League Results
Last weekend the Puget Sound Region hosted its first two rounds of the Power League. WVBA Mizuno 16 and Mizuno 15 played through qualifying rounds on Saturday and a normal Power League format on Sunday in the Olympia area.

Our Academy 16s finished 3rd in Gold. They had a pretty easy day on Saturday going through all matches without dropping a single set. Some player standouts include Megan Birch who hit extremely well all tournament despite a minor ankle sprain. Mikayla LaRosa and Christy Cain helped close out Sudden Impact with their exceptional blocking. Bryce Larson was the most consistent player in every aspect on the right side. Carmen Vasilatos and Candace Whipple both passed a 2.4 for the tournament, and Anna Cesari helped the team with five aces against Puget Sound.

WVBA 15s finished 4th in the Silver Division. They moved their initial seed up 3 spots and barely missed two opportunities to increase their seed further against some strong 16s teams. The competition allowed the coaches to see several areas to focus on over the next few weeks to see if they can earn their way in February into Gold Division for the 4th round of Power League in March.