Spike out volleyball tournament has finally happened after a 2 years hiatus. Indiana School for the Deaf in Indianapolis hosted 23rd Spike out tournament, a total of 7 teams came out to participate- Texas, Indiana, Maryland, Model, Iowa, Kansas and Marie Phillips. We played against each team once in round robin pool play to determine the seeding.
I could see our girls being nervous to be in the spotlight of a national tournament as it was their first time to fly to another state for a National Deaf tournament. During round robin play, we defeated Iowa, Marie Phillips and Kansas, lost to Maryland and a tie with Indiana and Model. giving us seed number 4 for the Division 1 Bracket tournament. The number 1 seed was Maryland. We faced them again and we manhandled them with scores of 25-15, 25-19, putting us in the championship game for the 5th straight year. We faced Indiana and their home crowd. We started slowly, making unforced errors, losing the first set with a 19-25 score. We regrouped during the 2nd set and scored 11 straight points to beat Indiana 25-21. During the 3rd set, Indiana grabbed a quick lead and we were not able to catch up, losing 10-15.
Overall it was a good tournament, all teams played well and any team could win the championship on any given weekend. It definitely was a good experience for our girls to compete and meet players from different schools, especially after 2 years of no national tournament.
Coach Kaufman