Game Results and Summaries

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Coaches Corner

by Ray Trail, Varsity Volleyball Coach

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Game 1 vs Einstein

We had a big win to start off the 2009 season. It was nice to come out and play hard, after the first game last night. Even though we had lots of serving issues in the first game, we were able to turn it around quickly and win the next three games in a row. The final scores were 23-25, 25-12, 25-7, 25-23. Once we finally got ourselves moving near the end of the first game, we actually put ourselves in a position to win and we almost came back to pull out the win after being down by 7 or 8 at one point. I was very proud of the girls that they were able to fight back and not let the serving issues get to them and really get them down. We missed 9 serves in the first game which is a killer in Rally-Score volleyball, just gave away those points. But then we only missed 9 serves in the next 3 games combined so it was nice to see the turnaround. Once we got our problems figured out we were able to put everything together and put up some better scores for the rest of the match. We’re still having some passing issues and movement issues, but we’ve already improved since the pre-season started.

Our next game is this coming Friday at Whitman, JV at 5:30, Varsity at 6:30.

JV defeated Einstein in 3 games   17-25, 25-15, 15-10

Current Record 1-0

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Friday, September 11, 2009

Game 2 vs. Walt Whitman

We had another “Instant Classic” matchup against Whitman this year. We suffered a tough 5 game loss to them last year and were hoping to avenge that this time around. We started slow in the first game, but got back in it and held tough until the end, but we came up short 18-25. Serving still continues to be our Achilles Heel! In the second game, something clicked, we were serving well, our passing was good, and we were actually able set ourselves up and hit the ball. With a couple of plays here and there we were able to turn things around and we won 25-19. Then we flipped-flopped the next games, Whitman won then we won and it came down to a deciding 5^th game. We had the momentum coming out of the 4^th game victory, but we dug a hole quickly going down 4-0 and we never quite came out of it, losing a close one 12-15.

Even though we lost the match, there were some extremely positive things that came out of it.

One—our serve receive was the best I had seen all season, our passes were actually going to where our setter could get to them and then set up our hitters.

Two—We made so many hustle & scramble plays that I couldn’t believe what I was seeing out there. The balls that normally fell on the ground were getting picked up, the balls that we normally couldn’t get to that were flying all over the place were brought back into play and controlled over the net.

Three—Resiliency & Not giving up. Even when were losing big, down by double-digits a couple of different times, we didn’t stop playing, which easily could have happened. And being down games throughout the match, it never stopped them. It was a great thing to watch and I was very proud of the way they played.

Final Score 18-25, 25-19, 19-25, 25-21, 12-15,

Current Record 1-1

JV lost in three games, Current Record 1-1

14-25, 25-23, 6-15

We're looking forward to playing RM and trying to improve to 2-1!

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Game 3 vs Richard Montgomery

We had a tough match against Richard Montgomery. We scrimmaged them earlier in the pre-season and I knew we'd probably play a close match against them in the regular season. And we did, at least on the scoreboard for the first two games we did. Our girls just didn't "have it" even when we were up at times in the first two games. We were playing hard, but we just weren't able to hit the ball, and when we did, many of them went out of bounds. Of course we were working with a lineup that we had never used before so it was a little awkward at times, but the girls figured things out and were actually playing well even though their spirit and emotion didn't always portray that. The third game was things happened that I don't think I've ever seen before. Everything sorta just went haywire and even with calling timeouts, I couldn't really figure out how to fix it. We were up 5-2 going strong and then all of a sudden we got the ball back and we were down 5-19! Crazy, but I promised the girls that it wouldn't ever happen again, because I refuse to believe that we were as bad at that time as RM made us look.

Our next few practices are going to cover serving and reaction plays. We need to work on our serving especially in pressure situations, right now it just is questionable whether we're even getting serves in much less whether we're hitting spots. Also it seems at times like we have no idea what is coming at us. The ball comes back on our side and everyone is reacting instead of predicting and beating the ball to the spot. So we'll do some reaction work and some movement drills that will hopefully get us into the correct positions all the time instead of some of the time.

We look forward to a rebound game against a traditionally strong Damascus team next Wednesday at Damascus.

Loss in 3 games: 19-25, 24-26, 9-25

Current Record: 1-2

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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Game 4 vs Damascus

The scores from this match do not really show how well we played. At times during the match we played some of our best volleyball this season and possibly some of the best I've seen in girls volleyball here at Northwood in 6 years. However...we also saw some of the worst volleyball on our side at times as well.   At the beginning of the first two games, we were able to stick with Damascus and really frustrate them to the point where they were calling timeouts and trying to figure out why they weren't leading by a lot more.

Everything was clicking even our blocking, which to this point in the season had been almost non-existent. We had more blocks in last nights' match then we had in the first three matches combined. Not all of them were kill blocks but just to get the touch on the ball was a small victory for us.

Our serving was okay, not great because we still missed too many, but it was a little more consistent.

What really got us yesterday was our serve receive. We did okay for the first part of all three games, but then it just fell apart halfway through each game. Don't get me wrong the Damascus girls were good and they're serving was excellent yesterday which made it even tougher. We just need to work on staying strong and staying in the games from beginning to end. We'll really focus on our serve receive going into a big match on Friday against Blake here at home at 3:30.

Northwood lost to Damascus in 3 games

Final Scores: 16-25, 12-25, 10-25

Current Record 1-3

JV lost in 2 games

Current Record 1-3

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Friday, September 25, 2009

Game 5 vs Blake

We came out in the Blake game playing hard from the beginning. It’s good because that’s one of the things we’ve been focusing on is staying close with teams from the beginning of games and the beginning of matches. Last year we took a game from Blake within the match and we did the same thing again this year. At the beginning of this season I would not have expected to do the same. However, our girls have really impressed me with the amount of effort they’ve put in this season to improve. And we were able to sneak out a game and actually look like we could have won the match if we continued to play that way. However we had too many unforced errors in order to keep up with Blake. We still make a lot of errors that shouldn’t happen. Easy plays sometimes we’re struggling with and then we’ll come out of nowhere and make a crazy play that should never happen. But if we stick with the way we’re playing we could very well pull out a win here soon that people may not expect us to.

Northwood lost to Blake in 4 games

22-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-16

Current Record 1-4
JV won in 2 games

Current Record 2-3

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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Game 6 vs Rockville

I challenged the girls during practices before this match to find a way to become more aggressive. They have been playing so well at times, but when mistakes start to happen they seem to feel like they are letting the team down. So we’ve been working on mental focus and toughness. It seemed to show through in this Match. We got Rockville down in the first game and kept them down. We did not ease up and kept the same speed and momentum going throughout the first game. I then challenged the girls to make it continue for the second game which they did and we were able to win again. We did make mistakes as always, but they did not bother us this time. Instead they thought about how to get the serve back and roll out some more points.   The third game went much the same way and we pulled out a 3-0 victory. It was nice because they stepped up and actually followed along with what I had hoped they would.   I’m going to continue to try to instill in them some more mental toughness, aggressiveness and try to teach them how to have that ‘go after them’ attitude instead of a wait and see what happens attitude.

Northwood beat Rockville in 3 games

25-12, 25-13, 25-15

Current Record 2-4

JV lost in 3 games

Current Record 2-4

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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Game 7 vs Watkins Mill

We’ve been going into matches trying to focus on our mental toughness. I think we did a great job with that at the beginning of the match. We were able to get a lead and keep it for once instead of letting Watkins Mill catch back up by going on a long streak of points. Unfortunately we suffered an injury to Shaquella, one of starting middle hitters which didn’t make a difference in the first game, but hurt us with our blocking game starting in the second game. We also let them go on a long streak of point again which we’ve been working on not letting happen to us. And on top of all that, we started having serving issues again as well. So the second game was over quick and we lost 14-25! We stayed close in the third somehow with numerous serving errors and then lost big in the 4th again because of too many mistakes. We’re going back to the drawing board with our serving again. It will be another tough match on Friday against Blair, but if we play our best we should be able to stay right with them and see what happens at the end of the game.

Northwood lost to Watkins Mill in 4 games

25-18, 14-25, 22-25, 11-25

Current Record   2-5

JV Lost in 3 games

Current Record 2-5

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Friday, October 9, 2009

Game 8 vs Blair

We played a tough match against Blair on Friday night. We played them to a 5 game loss last year and we were looking to be very competitive again this year and hopefully pull out a victory this time. The Blair girls were very solid throughout the entire match. We were only solid for 4-5 point stretches and then we didn’t play that well at all for 4-5 point stretches which allowed them to pull ahead in the first and second game. We were never able to catch up and Blair won them both. I was hoping for a big turnaround and a lot of talking and movement in the 3^rd games. And we started off playing great, we went up 9-2 and we were keeping the ball in play, serving in bounds and serving tough and also getting a lot of touches on the blocks. However, we just couldn’t hold on to the lead as the game went on, we kept letting points slip away here and there and the Blair girls just remained consistent throughout and never let themselves get down. The one thing I was very happy about was that our girls stayed positive even when we were in the middle of a long stretch of points where we weren’t playing our best. Even after the match, I think our girls realized that we had a chance to win if we played our best, but we just didn’t have it the whole time.

We’re hoping to take some things from this match and use them this coming week against Kennedy and Wheaton. We’re working on staying positive, no matter the score and playing strong at all times, no hesitating. Our hesitation on points has led to many many easy and free points for the other teams this season. We’re trying to clean that up in practice on Monday and use it starting on Tuesday against Kennedy.

Northwood lost to Blair in 3 games

13-25, 15, 25, 19-25

Current Record 2-6

JV beat Blair in 3 games (First time our girls team has beat Blair for JV or Varsity!!!)

Current Record 3-5

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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Game 9 vs Kennedy

We went into last night’s match with the intention of improving our consistency during game play. However, we really didn’t accomplish that. We are a very streaky team and we’re still unable to control the ball at times when there are easy plays to be made. Our serving also hurt us again, way too many service errors gave Kennedy at least 4-5 points per game. On the good side…We were able to play well enough at times in the match to sideout and get the ball back to avoid long serving streaks by the other team which hasn’t really happened this season. We also came from behind (deficits of 6 or more points) on three different occasions. And we came from down 22-24 in the 4^th game which was impressive as well for us to step up at a crucial time and win 4 points in a row. In all we played well enough to beat Kennedy. I do have to say I was impressed with how much better the Kennedy team had gotten since the pre-season. We totally overcame them in pre-season, but during this match their passing was excellent and they were able to keep everything in play. They deserved to win that match as much as we did, but we were able to pull out the victory in a tough 4 game match. We’re looking to improve upon our consistency in play and reducing our service errors going into our home matchup against Wheaton on Thursday.

Final Score

25-16, 26-24, 19-25, 26-24

Current Record 3-6



JV won in 2 games

Current Record 4-5

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Thursday, October 15, 2009

Game 10 vs Wheaton

We finished off a good week with a win over Wheaton tonight. However, the week was not as ‘easy’ as the girls thought it would be. We went in with the thought of beating Kennedy and Wheaton in 3 games straight each. Given the past at times, we were able to do that, but both Kennedy and Wheaton have made drastic improvement in their game play and I was very impressed with them. In the end it came down to made the fewest mistakes and somehow we were able to pull it out in both matches. They were much closer than expected but I was happy that our girls did not just shut down when they were behind which is something that they have been doing this season.

We did make a lot of mistakes against Wheaton, in fact in the second game the score finished at 25-21, with Northwood committing 18 unforced errors! Which means that Wheaton only had to score 3 points to get to 21. Somehow we pulled ourselves together to finish the game and I’m not real sure how it happened. We were just one step slower than Wheaton all night it seemed. We’d make amazing plays and then a ‘free ball’ would fall in the middle of the court and nobody would touch it. Or an easy third ball was unable to make it over the net and in bounds. It wasn’t our best match by far, but it was good enough to pull out the victory so I was happy about it anyway. And so were the girls to a degree, because they knew they should have played better so it actually seemed like a loss to some of them. But our record is now 4-6 and were looking to add another one next Tuesday against Clarksburg.

Northwood defeated Wheaton in 3 games

25-15, 25-21, 25-16

Current Record 4-6



JV lost to Wheaton in 2 games

Current Record 4-6

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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Game 11 vs Clarksburg

We went into this match with the intent of getting our 3^rd win in a row. I wasn’t sure how things would unfold because we’ve had girls in and out of practice with different types of sickness and injuries over the past couple of weeks. Clarksburg came into the match with the same record and having defeated the same teams that we had beaten. I had to change up our normal starting lineup a little bit due to illness yesterday which I thought may hurt us.   But the girls played well and let Clarksburg make the majority of the errors yesterday which led to a victory for us! We were able to pull out a straight-set victory that looked like it was going to go the other direction when the match started.

In the first game Clarksburg pulled out to a 9-1 lead! I called timeout and had nothing to say so the girls got together and figured something out, I came to them at the end of the huddle, reminded them that the game started and to get out there and play. They were not only able to come back and tie it up at 14-14, but pulled ahead eventually and won the game 25-22. It’s not often that a team is able to come back from an 8 point deficit in rally-score volleyball. But with a ‘team’ effort the girls were able to do it. They put their minds to it and decided to play with some consistency, not go for anything big but rather just keep the ball in play. Along with some strong serving they were able to put it all together and with a lot of help from Clarksburg errors, we were able to pull out the match. This entire match was a flip from the Wheaton match. Clarksburg was the team making all the unforced errors instead of us. Not that we didn’t make any, because we definitely made our fair share, but they helped us out with numerous errors that gave us a lot of points.

We’re looking get 4 wins in a row when we play Churchill next Wednesday at 6:30 (GAME TIME CHANGED).

Northwood defeated Clarksburg in 3 games

25-22, 25-17, 25-17

Current Record 5-6

JV lost in 2 games

Current Record 4-7

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Wednesday, October 28

Game 13 vs Churchill

Northwood lost to Churchill in 3 games

23-25, 16-25, 15-25

Current Record 5-7

JV lost in 3 games

Current Record 4-8

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November 3, 2009

Game 14 vs. Springbrook

Northwood lost to Springbrook in 4 games

11-25, 20-25, 25-15, 23-25

Final Regular Season Record   5-9