2nd in Metro Conference Tournament!!!

We met for a team breakfast at Kerbys and then Stephanie hosted the team at her house for an inspirational viewing of "Miracle".

I was very proud of our team today. First we

played Liggett. We started off rough, getting shut out 0-10 before we scored our first point! We were down nearly the whole game, but we maintained our mental toughness and fought back and won 25-23. The defeat was deflating to Liggett and we dominated the 2nd game, winning 25-6. This match featured Kara, who hit 16-for-16 with 7 kills (44%). Sara was 17-for-18 with 8 kills (39%). Coop was 20/21 on passing. Emma had 20 assists. Stephanie led us in serving with 12 points, all right in a row in the second game. Janelle had 11 digs. Jennifer, Allie, Sara & Stephanie had no passing errors.

On to our next match against top seed Lutheran Westland (ranked 4th in the state). Before tonight no one in our conference had been able to take even a single game away from them. But we shocked them the first game with a 25-23 victory. They came back tough in the 2nd game and we lost 9-25, but instead of getting down, we chose to get intense and to play ALL OUT and we beat them in the deciding game 25-23 again. The victory was exciting! Janelle was awesome this game, she had 20 digs and 12 kills. Emma also played her heart out and passed 95% as well as dishing out 28 assists. Sara had 15 kills and 6 blocks. Our serve receive this match was an amazing 97%! Winning the passion prize: free dinner with coaches Jessie & Rachel was SARA, who was intense, energetic, enthusiastic, and excited both on the court and on the bench. Congrats Sara.

Emma is now at 216 serves in a row!!! Tonight Emma told me that every time before she serves she tells herself, "I am a consistent server" and she just KNOWS it's going over & in. That's MTT in action girls. Great job Emma.

Below: Some pre-tournament dodge-ball to warm-up.

NW 'blows out' NH

It was a fun way to end our last home game this season with a dominating victory over New Haven, 25-13, 25-9, 25-9. Kristine had a great game, leading us in kill% with 63% (8/8, 5 kills!). Everyone on the team got a kill, except our beautiful blonde DS's, but they made up for it with their offensive aces! Good stuff...

Cole: 12 points (93% serving), 2 digs, 3 kills, 2 solo blocks, 2 block-assists

Jillian: 1 kill, 1 block

Coop: 7 points, 2aces (100% serving), 3 digs, 2 kills, 1 block

Allie: 1 dig, 1 kill

Jen: 8 points, 2 aces, 6 digs, 92% passing

Kara: 100% serving, 8 digs, 2 kills (50%), 2 blocks

Janelle: 9 digs, 90% passing, 9 kills (29%), 1 assist, 1 block

Sara: 11 kills (50%), 1 solo block, 1 block-assist

Stephanie: 6 points, 2 aces (100% serving), 8 digs, 92% passing

Emma: 16 points (100% serving), 3 digs, 92% passing, 1 kill, 33 assists

Kristine: 1 dig, 5 kills (63%), 2 block assists , 100% passing

Emma has now served TWO HUNDRED serves IN A ROW without a miss!!!!!!! Overall this year, she has kept 275/277 serve attempts in play. WOW! That is AMAZING!!!!!!!

GREAT SEASON JV!!!

Our JV girls had an AMAZING season! Looking forward to our future!

Thanks Coach Kelly for doing an AWESOME job with your team!

Scouting Report

Party at Sara's Place!

LOTS OF FUN! = )

The scouting portion of our evening was a bust, but I stopped back at Sacred Heart afterwards and found myself inside the coaches office and found that THEY had a detailed scouting report ON US!
LHNW runs a 5-1 with a very talented setter, #5, who seems to get to every ball. She leads the court with key communication & leadership as floor captain. She can turn any pass into an amazing set. The first thing I noticed about their hitters was #11, a natural athlete with a vertical leap that is amazing. The biggest swing comes from middle #15 who is not intimidated by a big block, she will either hit around it or through it... her choice. Then there's those outside hitters, #10 & #14... you think you are happy when #14 rotates around to the back row, only to find out that #10 can also swing away and #14 reads every ball so well, she is always right there passing up everything that comes over the net! Then they have these 2 blonde DS's, #3 & #8, that somehow bring offense into the back row with these crazy floater serves that look harmless enough until they change direction at the last second and then it's shanks everywhere! So that brings us to their other hitters, #9 and #12, who are quiet but deadly. They send over these off-speed shots that just drop to the floor and then they are the queens of the re-direct, so please do not send any overpasses over there! So you look at their roster for a weak spot and see, OH YEAH, a FRESHMAN to pick on... the Libero!?!?!?!... what? Yeah, she's an amazing passer, so never serve to her or hit at her, cuz all she knows how to do is pass up dimes. We are thinking that NW must be hiding something though, cuz they just brought up this other "freshman", #13, to Varsity and we caught her on film DRIVING! Hmmm!
Anyway, this team plays with so much heart and intensity, it's hard to get the momentum away from them. Even when they don't get the point, they have gone all out for it so even THAT keeps them fired up. You look across the net at them and don't see a weak spot. They are tough, confident and talented. I hate to say it ladies, but this just isn't our year for Districts. The Crusaders have it locked up!

Senior Night

Honoring our Seniors...

Emma, Sara, Janelle, Stephanie, Allie, & Jennifer

Freshmen Moving Up

Two freshmen moved up teams today. First Stacy, a standout on the Freshman squad, moved up to the JV team AND Jillian, JV's leading hitter/blocker, moved up to Varsity. Welcome! Both squads fell to Lutheran Westland tonight, but the way JV played in the 2nd game was GREAT!!! They never gave up or gave in. Although the final score did not go our way, JV should leave tonight with pride in their performance. Varsity had an off-night, but focusing on some good things... Emma and Coop had amazing passing stats... Coop was PERFECT on serve receive (19/19) and had 15 digs, with an overall passing percentage of 93%. Emma had 12 digs and passed 94%. Emma has also served 173 consecutive serves without a miss! WOW... getting close to Coach Rachel's high school record of 234 serves in a row without a miss. Hitting was off tonight, but having the best kill% were Allie (1/1, 100%) and Jillian (7/8, 2 kills, 13%). Jillian also had 2 continuation blocks and one stuffed block in her first Varsity match.

<<==== Our CUTE little mascots!!!!

When Kaylee put on the jersey tonight she said, "I'm #1, I'm the WINNER!"

Crusaders Improve to 5-1 in Conference Play

JV started things off right with a win over Claranceville 25-20, 25-22. It was an exciting match, where I actually got to record a lot of DIGS for a change - meaning the opponent was actually setting it up and hitting it! (Lauren 14, Cassie 7, Alyssa 6, Kacie 3, Jillian 3). Kills were earned by Jillian 7, Kacie 6, Kaitlyn 2, Chelsea 2, Elaine 2 and Alyssa 2. Cassie had 16 assists and Elaine had 4. Nice work girls!
Varsity had their first 4-game match since the first game of the season, 21-25, 25-19, 25-18, 25-21. The entire team contributed to the win tonight, but here are the category leaders:
SERVING 95%+: Janelle 95%, Coop 96%, Cole 100%, Steph 100%, Emma 100%
POINTS Coop 16, Janelle 13, Emma 9, Jen 7
SERVE RECEIVE 100%: Coop (12/12), Kara (16/16), Jen (9/9), Janelle (22/22)
DIGS: Janelle 28, Kara 20, Emma 18, Coop 10, Steph 8
KILLS: Sara 20, Janelle 15, Kara 10, Cole 7
BLOCKS: Sara 4, Cole 2
ASSISTS: Emma 46, Kara 2, Cole 1, Allie 1, Kris 1

More Pics!

What a GREAT team!!!























Steph just got an A-C-E- ACE - YEAH!
I liked this picture... a lot of good things going on.
1st, Janelle's passing posture and platform are perfect!!! Textbook, really!
Emma has released and is in the target area and
Coop & Kris are already transitioned out to hit.
All the girls are keeping their eyes on the ball.
Good stuff!

Crusaders Knockout the Knights

LHNW took down another conference game tonight with a shutout win over Liggett 25-16, 25-23, 25-15. We were SO consistent in both serving 97% (season high!), and serve receive 94%! The Liggett coach commented on how we were the BEST serve receive team he has seen all year! Oh yeah! Leading in kill% tonight was our SHORTEST player, Emma, with 3 kills in 5 attempts (40%), to go along with her 31 assists. Kristine had 2 kills in 7 attempts (29%), Sara 10 kills in 25 attempts (28%) and Kara 9 kills in 21 attempts (24%). Janelle had an amazing day in the backcourt. She paced the team with serving 95% and had a team-high 15 points. Her passing was outstanding, earning 19 digs and passed 93% overall. Jen had a FLAWLESS performance tonight! She went 16/16 serving (12 points) and 17/17 passing. I was also VERY pleased that Jen was doing the "touch" not just on defense but before every serve receive. Great job! Enjoy the action shots below taken by team photographer Mrs Gerds! Kudos to those who were covering well... Allie, Sara, Janelle & Jen.

JV DOMINATED the first game winning 25-2 (yes, 2). Alyssa & Cassie served out the entire game... WOW! The second game went to 25-17. The coaches didn't take stats tonight, but I was impressed with Cassie's court leadership and communication skills. Honestly, she has the BEST court communication out of everyone in the entire volleyball program! I admire that SO much! Lauren passed VERY well and got to make a lot of attacks tonight from the back row. Katie got a lot of playing time and was very consistent. Kacie got an opportunity to set in the 3rd just-for-fun game and I think my ears are still ringing with Cassie yelling "DEFENSE!" from the bench... ha ha. The Liggett coach said our JV team was very solid and it looks like we have a great future... you betcha!

Club Volleyball

It's time to start considering playing club volleyball! I highly recommend USA-Michigan. I do so for many reasons. 1) I was mentored in that program, so the fundamentals will be consistent with what the girls learn here at LHNW. 2) The practices are structured and all the coaches teach the same techniques and use the same drills. 3) The improvement is dramatic! The girls don't just get better simply by getting more experience, but fundamentals are stressed and developed! That is what makes championship players and teams!

USA MICHIGAN TRYOUTS
OAKLAND COUNTY
Our Shepherd Lutheran School
1658 E. Lincoln, Birmingham, MI 48009
November 4 5:00pm-7:00pm
November 11 4:30pm-7:30pm
November 18 5:00pm-7:00pm
for more information: http://www.theamericanathlete.net/
They will also have a MACOMB COUNTY program; see website for more details.

Other clubs:
Michigan Elite: http://www.michiganelitevolleyballclub.com/
http://www.michiganbusiness.us/michigan-aau-volleyball-clubs.php

Admire

Here is Stephanie reading, "I admire Janelle because... " I guess she had a lot to say, since she needed to write it on two feet of paper towel!!! We have a lot of fun exchanging "admire" slips on Mondays. I think it is just "great! great! great! great! great! great! great!" ha ha!

Kris Gettin High; Jen Gettin Low

Mrs. Gerds sent me these two shots of Kristine SKYING last night. The first shot is from her best kill of the night and the second from her self-proclaimed "superb" roll shot. = ) Let's take a look at the supporting cast in these 2 shots though. ONLY JEN is covering correctly. Good job Jen....... everyone else....... let's get low! CAUGHT YA! = ) Let's do the easy stuff right ladies. It just takes heart and I KNOW we have it, so let's show it!!! Remember... "Only those who have the will to do the simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do the difficult things easily."

Aces -n- Faces

The JV game was all about Aces. Jillian had 15! Chelsea 5, Cassie 4, Kaitlyn 2, and Kacie 1. Not much else happened besides serving practice tonight for JV as they easily secured the 25-5, 25-9 win.
The Varsity game was all about facials, five in fact (preminition!). Sara had an ERROR FREE night in hitting, passing, blocking and serving! She had 7 kills, as did Kristine. Janelle 1-uped them though with 8 kills. Four girls besides Sara had perfect passing stats (Cole, Coop, Allie, & Emma). Emma had 26 assists and Cole 4. The Crusaders improve to 3-1 in the Metro with the 25-5, 25-12, 25-16 victory tonight over the Cosmos.I thought I'd throw in a picture from yesterday's practice. The girls doing an ab exercise and here we see Coop & Janelle doggin it with bent knees! Tisk Tisk!

WL Tournament

Well, it was our best tournament yet, so that's good. We defeated the champion of last weekend's Country Day Tournament and conference rival Cranbrook Kingswood, 25-23, 25-19. We played really tough in the 2nd game against Class A Pinckney, but fell just shy 24-26. Serving 90%+ were Emma (of course!) 100%, Cole 100%, Kara 94%, and Coop 93%. We had 2 serve recievers better than 80%: Coop 91% and Janelle 85%. Coop and Janelle also had the most digs today with 18 and 24 respectively. Kara had 17. I was most proud of Kara's net play today. She was by far our most consistent hitter, going 20/22 and her only misses were blocked. She had 8 kills for a team high 27% kills. Sara had 15 kills; Janelle 14; Cole 5. Sara also had 5 stuffed blocks. The Crusaders take the court again on Tuesday against the Cosmos of Hamtramck. See you then! (and yes, I forgot my camera today... but at least I remembered to bring the right food this time! Gotta see the bright side!).

Cashin In

King of the Hills!

Most of the JV game was serving. Our top server was once again Alyssa who had 9 points with 6 aces. Cassie also had 9 points (3 aces). Elaine served 7 points (3 aces). Every serve Jillian got over was an ace (6). Four Crusaders had 2 kills apiece (Cassie, Jillian, Alyssa, & Shannon). Scores: 25-6, 25-9
The Varsity game showcased Sara who had TWENTY-TWO kills (41%)! Coop was next with 8 kills (35%). Juniors Kara & Kristine had 4 kills each. Emma led the team defensively today (96% passing), earning 11 digs to go along with her 33 assists. Allie was very consistent in the front row with no hitting errors and 3 assists. Serving 100% today were both Emma's, Cole, and Stephanie, but Jen once again led us in service points with 12 (5 aces). Scores: 25-20, 25-14, 25-19.
P.S. Pretty cool ref we had for half the game tonight anyway! Thanks Mr McLoughlin for helpin out!

Spotlight on... JANELLE

Janelle (aka Jan, Jannie, J-nell, J, Stud), Senior Captain, 5'9" OH, 2nd year on Varsity

Club Experience: VIP (3 yrs), UVA (1 yr), MI-Elite (1 yr)

Other Sport: Basketball

Coolest thing about being an outside hitter: You can hit anywhere on the court and you get set up a lot.

Best Career Volleyball Moment: I don't have a specific one... just everytime I get a kill!

Favorite Cheer: Tip-Tip-Tip it good. Na - na na na

Best MTT Tip: Always keep your head up & if you mess up just tell yourself you have the next one.

Coach says... Janelle is an outstanding all-around athlete. She currently leads her team in points, digs, serve receptions, and kills. She has an explosive armswing and also masters the finesse game of placing balls in the opponent's holes. I admire Janelle because she continues to push herself to improve everytime she walks into the gym.

SLURPEES!

Look at our girls all purdied up!

Varsity also swept Harper Woods 25-23 (huh?), 25-6 (oh, that's much better... slurpees!), 25-18. Offensively, SKARA had 16 kills (8 for Kara & 8 for Sara!). Defensively Sara, Janelle & Emma each had 8 digs. Jen had the most points (16) and aces (3).

However, the most notable items tonight were Cole setting in the 3rd game and Kristine's excitement as she got to serve for the first time this season and earned 2 aces! This game EVERY Crusader got to serve and everyone scored at least 2 points, with Allie closing out the match! Nice work!

A special thanks to Emma for being not just mentally tough, but also physically tough and playing even though sick tonight. Emma also had no service errors and no passing errors! Thanks Cap'n!

Above... our amazing fans who demanded their picture on the blog! ; )
AND... Happy 25th to the Gerds.