Camarillo Volleyball Tournament - October 22, 2011

La Reina High School finishes 3rd in Camarillo Volleyball Invitational
October 22, 2001
by: Rick Wallace

Yes - I am a proud dad of my La Reina Sophomore daughter, Jenna Wallace. Her Frosh/Soph Volleyball Team played amazing to place 3rd in a hotly contested tournament on Saturday at Camarillo High School, while Ventura's Buena High School took home the top honors.

La Reina Frosh/Soph Team - superbly coached by Edgar Smith

This was a marathon Tournament to say the least, arriving at the fog bound Camarillo High School at 7:30am, and leaving following the awards presentation at 7:30pm! But in that time the team treated their parents to a full blown stress fest, with very close wins in their group and final bracket rounds. The format was two games to 21 in the group rounds, one game to 25 in the championship bracket with the championship match best out of 3. 18 teams total were competing and some of the best in Ventura and Los Angeles county were present for the showdown.

The first three matches against Alemany, Hart, and Granada Hills ended up in split results with La Reina winning the first game of each match and their opponents squeaking out the second game. The girls started a bit off their normal strong rhythm and struggled with their serving and team play. Going into the last match in the group round against Westlake, they needed to pull off a huge upset and win both games to advance to the Championship round.

Side note: This was staged as a Frosh/Soph tournament, and while La Reina fielded their "normal" Frosh/Soph team, other teams dropped down players from the JV squads to play, so there was more to these teams than met the eye.

Warming up

The La Reina girls came alive and stepped up big time against Westlake, overcoming an 18-13 deficit to win the first game on an amazing serving run by Pearl, and never-say-die team play, and finished with a 21-18 victory!! The second game was a repeat performance with the girls coming back from a 17-13 deficit to win the second game 21-19. Leila and Jenna made some incredible plays at middle to keep the Westlake players off balance, Sydney and Pearl kept an aggressive setting pace for the La Reina hitters of Bobbi, Haley, and Bree to put points on the board.

So...they were into the Championship round. First up was the cross town rivals of Oak Park. The back line of  Kaitlyn, Laura, Emily, and Kristina dug out some hard hits and served up to the setters to convert and the team handled Oak Park 25-16.

Girls relaxing between games

The short rests between matches left a little time for the girls to relax and enjoy the cool Socal weather and music. Additionally, the parents could relax after the intense, close play. The team was now into the quarterfinal round against Royal HS, this was going to be a very tough match. La Reina jumped out to an early lead off some crisp play and a decisive scoring drive. The girls kept the pressure on and found themselves with a commanding 21-11 advantage, but it was short lived as Royal came storming back to go ahead 22-21. Let the nail biting begin. La Reina girls dug in and with some incredible play by both teams finished it off and won 26-24.

A win is a win, and La Reina was into the Semifinals, facing West Ranch, who had been cleaning up in the early rounds and just finished a thumping of Simi Valley. The early part of the game was a tough back and forth, point-trading up to about 11 with the La Reina girls playing well. However, West Ranch proved to be the better team this day and went on to win the game 25-14.

The let down of losing in the semi's did not discourage the girls in the playoff for 3rd place and they came out firing against Ventura and never let them breath, winning in a decisive victory and finishing 3rd place in the tournament behind first place Buena who upset West Ranch for the title.

Sydney and Pearl were awarded the co-team MVP's. It was a fantastic day with some great play. The girls really came together as a team in this tournament and kept the parents on the edge of their seats all day long. Congratulations girls and Edgar!

One more photo before the last match