Piedmont Volleyball Club 2013-2014 Season

Goal: my overall goal for participating in this club is to play volleyball in college while improving my skills and working together with my team. I also want to try new techniques and plays that are at a higher level. I would like to push myself to take more risks because I am usually a very safe player, meaning I do not take a lot of risks and I know that in order to play at a higher level, I need to learn to let myself take more risks.

       This is my fifth year playing volleyball for Piedmont Volleyball Club. The goal of this club is to prepare its athletes to play in college and give them the highest level of training possible. My longtime goal since I was in middle school was to play volleyball in college, so joining this club was a huge step toward that goal. The club signs our teams up for tournaments up and down the east coast, some of them areas far away as Minnesota, which gives us great opportunities to meet college coaches from different areas. This year I am on the 17 Red team and we have so far completed in three tournaments. Our first tournament was an alright start considering it was the first time we played together as a team, but I am hopeful that we can only excel from here.

January 18-20, 2014

       This tournament was much better than the first one, everyone was a lot more comfortable with each other. We ended up placing 3rd, which was great because we had been working on new plays during practice and we also came in over winter break to work on plays to make sure we really understood them before the tournament. I was very pleased with our performance considering the first tournament was not a very good one for my team, I can feel us connecting more and becoming more comfortable with each other. As we continue playing, I am excited to grow together and improve our skills.



February 1-2, 2014

      This tournament in Richmond, VA was very bittersweet. Our other setter discovered the week before the tournament that she had tendinitis in her knee and would be out for a couple of tournaments, meaning I was the only setter, so I was really nervous. The good part was that the tournament went so well and we got 1st place! We went the entire weekend undefeated which was such an amazing feeling. We all worked so well together and everyone gave all of their effort. Since I played front and back row for this tournament, I was able to run a lot of different things with our middle hitter. We tried some new things and they were effective! We definitely improved the setter to middle connection that is really important in volleyball. I had to make a risky decision by setting the majority of the balls this weekend to the middles because our outsides did not hit as much as usual. I made this decision because our passes were really good and the middle hitters were performing extremely well, so I knew I needed to take advantage of that for the team to be successful this tournament.



February 8th and 15th, 2014
   This tournament was broken up into two different days in Raleigh, NC. The first day of pool play went well considering that was our first time as a team playing in the Open Division because we had been in the Club division in all the previous tournaments. The Open division is known for a much faster tempo and higher level of play, so we were a bit nervous when our coach told us that we would be playing in the Open division. However, we all agreed that we did not play as well as we could have and being in the Open division was no excuse for our performance. The next pool that same day went a lot better because we became more comfortable and used to the faster tempo of the game; I know that by the end of the tournament I felt our team tempo increase. The second day started off better because we were all aware of the types of teams we would be facing. Personally, I also had to be in better control of my sets because now that we were playing higher level teams, I could not call the plays that I normally call because the other team would pick up on them fast. I realized that I needed to take some risks and run different plays to keep the other team from being able to set up an early block. While there were still a lot of errors made because of taking new risks, there were a lot of plays that went really well considering we did not use them a lot in previous tournaments. I learned a great deal about myself as a player as well as what our team is capable of doing.

March 15th and 16th, 2014

    The Shamrock Fesitval is a rigorous two day tournament that starts at 8am and ends at 11pm. For our team, our main goal for the tournament was just to keep our endurance up and continue to give all the effort we can, despite the fact that we would be playing games as late as 10pm. I thought it was so much fun and my main personal goal for this tournament was to be more aware of the blockers on the other side in order to make smarter sets. I ran a new "shoot" set with my outside hitters and reversed the set to trick the other team. One of my major long-term goals in setting is jump setting, so I tried more of that skill during game play. On sunday, we made it into the finals and lost, earning us the second place title in our bracket.





Learning Outcome: Increased awareness of own strengths and areas for growth
      At the end of every volleyball season, I reflect on what goals I have accomplished during the year and which goals I need to focus more on for the next season. I feel like I definitely became more of a risk taker throughout this season because my sense of when to take risks and when to stay within my boundaries strengthened. Hopefully, I can improve my skill for the next high school season so that I can begin to set at the next level.

Learning Outcome: Shown Perseverance and Commitment in Activity
    Club volleyball can be very demanding as it takes away lots of hours during the weekdays and the weekends. Every other weekend we have tournaments and practice three times a week. However, this is very important because by showing this perseverance, I create a better work ethic and teach myself that when you make a commitment to a team, I must do everything required to uphold that commitment. No matter how late practice runs or how long our tournaments are, I attended all of them because I had a duty to my team and if I failed them by arriving late or skipping practice, then there was no way that I could expect us to be successful.