On Saturday, March 5th, 2011 the EDGE 13-Black team coached by Shellie McConnell won the College of Lake County 14-Challenge Tournament. The tournament started with the team facing a very good Net Force 14-Select team. Great serving, passing, and all around team play helped the EDGE 13-Black team jump out to early leads in both games to take the match 2-0; 25-12, 25-20. After being off for two games, the team did not miss a beat as they were able to dispatch of TNT 14-Ulmer in two games 25-9, 25-11. In the final match of pool play, the team faced Stateline 13's whom they have faced multiple times this season. Both games were very close, but again with great team play and chemistry, the EDGE 13-Black was able to take the match in two games 26-24 and 25-21. Based on their great performance in pool play, the EDGE 13-Black was awarded the 1st overall seed in the four team gold playoffs. The final pool play record was 3-0 in matches, 6-0 in games, and a +54 point differential!!!

As the #1 seed in the gold bracket, the team was paired with Chicago Bounce 14-Elite, the pre-tournament overall #1 seed. The team came out ready to play from the start and jumped out to a big lead. Game one saw the EDGE 13-Black win 25-9. In the second game of the semi-finals the score was close through most the game. Once the game was near 15, EDGE slowly started to pull away to take the game and match 25-19. In this match the girls were able to run multiple quick attacks and tandems which they have been practicing the past month in practice. After the semi-final win, the team had to ref the other semi-final and then quickly play that match winner on Court 1.

After a three game semi-final, Rockford 13-Black would be the EDGE 13-Black's final opponent for the tournament. Like the previous 4 matches, the EDGE 13-Black came out from the start on fire. They built a comfortable lead with great team play and energy and were up 15-18. Rockford 13's would not go down without a fight and managed to go on a solid run eventually having game point at 21-24. With the EDGE facing 3 game points they dug deep and were able to finish with a strong run on their own to go on a 5 point run to take game 1 of the championship match. Game two kept the similar theme of fast starts for the club. Quickly the EDGE 13-Black team found themselves up 11-2 in the second game behind strong defensive efforts. However Rockford kept chipping away to narrow the score, but our girls would not be denied the Championship and focused on their fundamentals to hold off a late rally and win the game and match 25-18 to become the College of Lake County Challenge 14-Tournament Champions!

This is the first tournament championship of the 2010-2011 USAV season for the EDGE 13-Black and a great showcase of the girls talent. The team faced the top teams in the tournament as each team in the 13's pool went on to win their Gold, Silver, and Bronze flights. Through solid fundamentals, communication, effort, and coaching the team made our entire club very proud of their performance. We got a glimpse of things to come from the 13-Black as their offense and defense is advancing at a rapid pace. Great job players and coaches!

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