2007-08 Hammers
Headed to Holland
Taylor Cummins, who played on our 14's Platinum team this past season, will be traveling to Holland as part of the People to People Sports Ambassador Program. She will play in the Youth Friendship Games in Amsterdam July 19-28. In addition to the volleyball action, while in Holland Taylor will explore Amsterdam and the surrounding area with her U.S. teammates. After a 3-day training camp, the U.S. team will begin 3 days of tournament play. Good luck and have a great time! The People to People organization was founded as an international competition and education program in 1956 by late president Dwight D. Eisenhower. To learn more about the program or to follow the tournament results, follow this Sports Ambassadors link. (Excerpts from the July 14 article by Allen Haynes in the Hickory Daily Record.)
Lady Hammers Make NC High Performance Team
Three of our Lady Hammers have been selected to play on the 2008 North Carolina High Performance Volleyball Team. Taylor Pisel, Carson Godfrey, and Anna Gibbs will play for the highest-ranked Carolina International Team. The team will compete against teams from other countries as well as select teams from across the United States. Tryouts began in January with several hundred girls. All three ladies have played for the Hammers for the past three years. We know it took a lot of hard work to reach this level. Congratulations!! The High Performance team will fly to Arizona on July 20. Good luck and please keep us updated!!
More information on the High Performance program can be found at this Carolina Region HP link or at this USA Volleyball HP link.
2008 Summer Volleyball Camps
There are no current plans for the Hammers to organize volleyball camps this summer; however, there are a number of camps advertised on the Carolina Region website. Click on this link to be taken to their summer camp calendar.
Carolina Region Survey
The Carolina Region circulated a request for survey responses regarding the 2007-2008 season. The web-based survey can be found clicking this link.
2007-2008 Season Comes to a Close
With the completion of the 2008 Carolina Region tournaments, the 2007-2008 Hammers volleyball season has come to a close. Congratulations to all of the girls as they have continued to improve their volleyball skills and gain more experience playing other challenging teams. We would like to express a hearty "thank you" to the coaches for their time and dedication during the season. We would also like to thank the parents who supported their daughters and teams throughout the season to make this a positive learning experience. "We are all in this for the girls."
The final tally of Hammers survey responses reached 14! Thanks to all of you who took a few minutes to share your thoughts.
Regional Tournaments
The Hammers 15's team came into the Gold Division's Regional Tournament at Newton-Conover with a #1 seed. They began with solid play in the 5-team pool by winning their first match 2-0. Their second match proved to be more challenging against the #2 seed, but the Lady Hammers persevered to come out on top 2-1 (25-23, 21-25, 15-12). They finished pool play by winning their third match; however, they finished in 2nd place behind the Biltmore 15's who had also won their 3 matches. This earned the Hammers a trip to the 4-team bracket playing against the winner from the other pool, Sports Academy from Statesville. This match started off in rough seas with the ladies losing 13-25. They battled back in game 2 and won convincingly 25-20. With the pressure mounting in game 3, the Hammer 15's stayed the course winning 15-10 and moved on to the finals. The Race City Renegades proved to be an extremely tough opponent. The lady Hammers battled hard but were outplayed and committed too many unforced errors. The RC Renegades won the match in two games leaving the Hammers in 2nd place. From the stats angle, their serving was solid with 92% service efficiency including 10% aces. Catherine Nelson served an incredible 51 times with 4 aces. Hannah McCloskey and Casey Stegall racked up 7 and 6 aces respectively. Paige Heeke led the team with 25 kills. Rebekah Sturgess earned 36 assists, and Hannah had 20 digs. Paige and Casey were awarded plaques for All Tournament honors. The Lady Hammers 15's can be very proud of their 2008 season. In spite of the rocky start, in their last three outings they won one tournament, finished 2nd in another, and placed 5th of 32 teams at Hi Neighbor. The Hammers 15's would like to thank Wesley and Donna Woody for their coaching and unwavering support in making this an enjoyable and rewarding volleyball season.
Once again, the Hammers 14 Blue was put in the most difficult pool, #1, for Platinum Regionals. Pool #2 had 2 former Gold teams to whom the Lady Hammers have never dropped a match. Still, they started out keeping pace with the undefeated Triangle Black but dropped the match in 2 games. Meeting up with the higher-seeded ECJVC next, the Hammers won the match 2-1. The Challengers proved to be on top of their game and won the following match. The Hammers met with CJV Ice for their final match and even though they won the first game, they lost the next two. McKenzie Garrison led her team with 100% from the service line followed closely by Corbin Evans with 97.1% success and Beth Bumgarner with 96.4%. Corbin smoked 9 aces with Taylor Cummins serving up 5. Jenna Caldwell had 15 kills and Taylor and McKenzie each had 12. Taylor is credited with 27 assists and Abby Foster with 15. Hannah Cogswell supported her team with 22 digs. This 14 Platinum team feels that they have learned much and have improved their skills and game knowledge under the direction of Coach Catherine Fulton and they are thankful that they have had the opportunity to work with her.
Hi Neighbor Results !!
The Hammers 15's team played all of their "Hi Neighbor" matches at Mars Hill College the weekend of March 29th. They started off with a loss in two close games to ECJVC, the top seed in their first pool; however, they came back aggressively against the other two teams in this pool, needing only 2 games in each match to win. Their strong play continued into the afternoon as the second pool began. The ladies won their first two sets quite handily (25-9, 25-16; and 25-19, 25-19). Sunday action proved to be tougher playing against the Roanoke 15's, the eventual overall 15's tournament winner. The 15's lost the first game 16-25; however, they held their own in game 2 until the very end as they lost 22-25. Their 2-1 finish in the second pool earned them second place and a spot in the 8-team Open Gold bracket. After digging themselves a deep hole by losing game one in bracket play to the SMJVC, the ladies fought back and had game two in their sites only to see it slip away at the end. As a result, the 15's finished in a 4-way tie for 5th. Over the entire weekend the ladies won 8 out of 14 individual games and outscored their opponents 313-271. Their solid serving continued from the last tournament with 94% service efficiency including 17% aces. Performance at the service line was led by Casey Stegall and Hannah McCloskey with 17 and 12 aces respectively. Paige Heeke led the team with 29 kills, and Rebekah Sturgess provided 36 assists. Hannah led the team with 20 digs. The Hammers 15's are looking forward to the Carolina Regional Tournament on April 12 in Conover.
Hammers 14 Blue started out a little slow Sat. morning at A.C. Reynolds High School but they still took their first match of the day in two games. They went on to win all their matches in the first pool, in 2 games each, to finish 1st in the pool. Going into their 2nd pool on Sat., the girls continued their streak finishing the day undefeated, winning all 5 matches in 10 games. Sunday morning brought the last match of their 2nd pool. Unfortunately, they once again started out slow and lost the match in 3 games. This loss capped a 3-way, 2nd place finish so there were 2 sudden death games to 25. The Hammers fought their way to a win placing them in 1st place in their second pool as well. In the first match of the quarter-finals for the Open Gold division, the Hammers met the Jammers and they easily won the first game, 25-17, but lost the second game to force a 3rd game. The girls easily topped the Jammers winning 15-5. In the semi-finals, the Hammers met a team that they have beaten before but this time, they lost to the eventual tournament winner. With their single match loss, the Hammers 14 Blue came in a respectable 3rd place, winning several games impressively by coming from behind and fighting for the win. Some incredible statistics were posted by the Lady Hammers this past weekend! Highlighting a new record, the team's average serving success rate was 96.5%! Hannah Cogswell led the team with 100%, serving an incredible 63 times! Going up to the serving line 67 times, McKenzie Garrison missed only one, posting a 98.5% success rate. Abby Foster followed closely, also missing only one serve, ending up with 97.6%. McKenzie smoked opposing teams with 12 aces followed by Taylor Cummins with 11. With Coach Fulton running a 6-2, Taylor led the team with an amazing 36 kills with Corbin Evans right behind her with 31 and McKenzie with 30. Abby had 32 assists and Taylor had 31. The team was thrilled to have Jenna Caldwell back in the line up returning from a broken ankle. Jenna played defense exclusively but she posted 60 digs! McKenzie dug it up 46 times and Hannah, 38 times. All in all, Coach Fulton was pleased with her team's effort and performance.
16's in the Big South!
The Hammers 16's team competed last weekend in the Big South Volleyball Tournament in Atlanta. Due to the tornadoes of the previous week, there were multiple tournament sites around town making things a bit more hectic. The girls played well and had a great time. Click on this link for information about the tournament.
Regional Tournaments - 3/15/08
The Hammers 15's team arrived at St. Andrews College in Laurinburg ready to play volleyball. Their solid teamwork and aggressive play helped them go undefeated in 5 matches (8 games) to win their first tournament of the season. A couple of the games were close; however, the girls convincingly outscored their opponents 201-131 on the day. Their serving was also the best of the season with 95% service efficiency including 18% aces. Performance at the service line was led by Hannah McCloskey and Casey Stegall with 11 and 9 aces respectively. Paige Heeke led the team with 25 kills, and Rebekah Sturgess came away with 35 assists. Erin Sigmon led the team with 11 digs. The team has been gelling well lately under the direction of Wesley Woody and have their sights set on the Hi Neighbor Tournament in Asheville on March 29.
The Hammers 14 White team traveled to Sparta, NC for their March 15th tournament. The Lady Hammers played short one player this tournament, but they were excited and ready to play. Their first match of the day against the WNC Navy Seal was very close; however, with the Hammers making 49 out of 51 of their serves, they came away with a two game win (25-22, 26-24). The second match of the day was against the Alexander Aces, which was the first time the Lady Hammers played against this neighbor rival. With great net play and smart defense, the Hammers came up with another win (25-20, 25-21). The Hammers played their final pool match against the number one ranked PTVC 14 Gold. Unfortunately the Lady Hammers ended up losing this pool play (19-25, 17-25). The Lady Hammers did place in their pool and went on to play in the semifinals against the DCVA Amazons. With scores of (18-25, 15-25), the Lady Hammers couldn't come back to win this semifinal match, but they were in good spirits and are looking forward to the Asheville tournament.
Regional Tournaments - 3/1/08
Hammers 14 Blue were a little nervous heading into the weekend as they were starting the tournament with only 6 players! A starting player, Jenna Caldwell, has broken her ankle and 2 others could not make it. The Hammers came out in fighting form beating the NC Challengers in the first game, 25-14. Those 6 girls, Taylor Cummins, McKenzie Garrison, Abby Foster, Kelly Flanders, Hannah Cogswell and Beth Bumgarner, scrambled and fought for every ball. During this match, Beth realized that she had a nosebleed! The Hammers are charged with a time-out and the head referee said that since we did not have any subs on the bench, if Beth couldn't play, we would have to forfeit the match! Beth did not let her teammates down! With her nose stuffed, she headed back onto the court. The Hammers lost the next 2 games of the match but they played well and really showed a fighting spirit. The girls met up with the Triangle Black, the #1 team in the whole 14 division (we always seem to be in their pool!) in their second match and even though the Black won the match, the Hammers stayed with them point for point in the first game. In the last match of the pool, the Hammers came up against another tough team, the ECJVC. Now, with Elizabeth Rosson joining the team, the team was up to 7 players. They lost the first game but surprised the ECJVC by taking the second and third games, winning the match. The 14 Blue came away with some impressive statistics from the weekend. Not one girl came away with less than a 90% success rate from the serving line. The team's average was a record 94.8% with McKenzie Garrison leading her team with 100%! Taylor Cummins had 13 solid kills and Hannah Cogswell led her team with 17 digs, followed closely by McKenzie with 16, Taylor with 15 and Beth with 14. Abby Foster led the team with 11 assists and Taylor, setting for the first time, had 9.
The Hammers 14 White team started out their pool play with a great win over the number one ranked Cape Fear Surge (12-25, 25-24, 15-6). The Lady Hammers started out a little slow, but came back to win the match. With a serving percentage of 94%, the Lady Hammers showed everyone they were there to play. The Hammers then came up against the second ranked team, the PTVC Triad. The Hammers also won this match (25-13, 18-25, 15-4). The team gave a wonderful display of team work and smart plays. They never gave up. The third pool play match was against the HAVC Sparks. The Lady Hammers also won this match (25-21, 13-25, 15-8). With this win, the Hammers finished first in their pool play and were undefeated. They went into the quarter final bracket ranked fourth. The team came up against the Lake Norman Explosion and won their quarter final match (25-23, 25-18). The Lady's were on top of their game with great serving and net play. Next they went to the semifinals against the AAVC 14's. Unfortunately, they did not win this match, but the day was a success. The Hammers 14 White team played tough and accomplished a personal best by finishing fourth in the playoffs.
PARENTS - For those of you interested in keeping stats for your daughter's team, I found links to the 2007 NCAA Statisticians' Manual and example videos.
Hickory Daily Record articles in the Home Turf section.
News Archive - Past stories regarding team news and tournaments have been archived. Please follow the bold blue archive link.