Clear Creek-Amana volleyball balancing execution with fun

CEDAR RAPIDS – Clear Creek-Amana volleyball has faced a chicken-and-the-egg scenario a few times this season.

The Clippers (16-5, 2-2 WaMaC West) are young and ambitious, and entered the Michelle Starcevich Invitational at Cedar Rapids Prairie High School juggling game plan and enjoyment. Fortunately for them, the two meshed together, as CCA went undefeated to win the tournament.

'For us, the discussion we had today was: What comes first? Having fun or executing?' said CCA Coach Brian Bronzynski. 'They go, 'Well, having fun.' I said no, sorry. You have fun when you execute. If you don't execute, you don't have fun. But when you execute, you have fun and you can relax and play the game. So we've had to find out how that fits together.'

The Clippers won in all five rounds on Saturday, beating Mediapolis (18-21, 22-20, 15-11), South Tama (21-14, 21-15), Cedar Rapids Prairie (21-19, 22-20), Ottumwa (21-15, 21-19) and Cedar Rapids Washington (21-15, 21-16).

For Bronzynski, that buzzword – execution – was something he saw from his girls for most of the day. Apart from one match, he was happy with how his team struck that delicate balance and finished off matches.

'I think they did (that today). We did not execute well against Ottumwa, we played down to Ottumwa's level instead of playing up,' Bronzynski said. 'I told them before the match (against Washington) started, 'You have to agree with me that you can't play at that emotional level and be successful in the last match.' There's no way.'

With no seniors on the roster, CCA knows it has a bright future. Bronzynski said that knowledge can be what hinders the Clippers at times, and leads them to those bouts of playing down to lesser competition.

As with young players in any sport, keeping their eyes on the present can be difficult. But if that's accomplished, positive results are bound to follow.

'The thing that we have to guard against is so many of these kids that are juniors are going, 'Oh we're going to be really good next year.' No, you can be really good now if we just focus and apply ourselves,' Bronzynski said. 'We knew they had the potential to play at a pretty high level, it was just a question of whether or not they were going to discover the leadership skills that had to go with it. So it's been a process.'

That process will become even more crucial going forward, as CCA has the WaMaC Tournament and the Davenport Central Invitational before heading to a regional pairing with either Oskaloosa or Fairfield.

Rolling with adversity – something else the Clippers have been working on – will be of greater importance if CCA is to advance to state.

'Not beating ourselves on little things (is important),' Bronzynski said. 'Teams are going to get kills on us. They're going to hit it hard against our block and we're going to error. Those are things that are part of the game, but if we can just take care of not beating ourselves – some ball-handling things, put ourselves in a little better position at times that we can come through on our offense better, then we've got a better chance to score. Then we have a chance to get momentum even more and go put teams away.'

PRAIRIE CONFIDENT

Prior to its home tournament on Saturday, Cedar Rapids Prairie came in having been dealt three straight losses.

The Hawks (12-9, 2-1 Mississippi Valley Conference, Valley Division) turned that around, though, going 4-1 and finishing second in the Starcevich Inivtational – their only loss coming to Clear Creek-Amana.

'I really think we had a very good day. We beat some nice teams,' said Prairie Coach Kevin Geary. 'So we're walking away and I'm a lot more confident. The girls should feel a lot more confident too, with the way the day went. As the day went on our execution got a little bit better.'

Geary said his team improved throughout the day, and was happy with how the Hawks adjusted to the different teams they faced.

They got a divisional win against Cedar Rapids Washington in three sets, 21-13, 17-21, 16-14, and took a big step towards building confidence in tight situations.

'One (thing we look for is) just staying relaxed in those tight situations. But there's a point where you've got to relax and then execute,' Geary said. 'You've got to be fast but in control. Sometimes you get all excited and you lose your timing. Our offense is based a lot on timing, so we've got to try and keep that. And I think we did that well at the end.'

AGONIZING LOSSES

Cedar Rapids Washington would be the first to say, after three max-set losses recently, that there are no moral victories in the MVC.

A 3-2 loss to Cedar Rapids Kennedy on Sept. 24, followed by another near-miss, 3-2 loss to Class 4A No. 7 Cedar Rapids Xavier and a 2-1 tournament loss to Prairie on Saturday have the Warriors (12-12, 3-1 MVC Valley) frustrated but hopeful.

'It does (start to wear on us), but I think we are headed in the right direction at the right time in the season. We did it actually two weeks in a row, because we did the same thing over at Kennedy,' said Washington Coach Amy Faulkner. 'We won the first two and went down the next three. Kennedy and Xavier, and all the teams we've been playing, the competition is just so tough. We've just got to find all of our pieces and put them together, and go after it.'

If there was a positive to take away from another day with a close loss, it was that Washington played well at times in all five matches at the Starcevich Invite.

The Warriors went 3-2 and finished third in the tournament, with both losses coming to the No. 1 and 2 finishers in Clear Creek-Amana and Cedar Rapids Prairie.

'We've got all the different pieces there, now we've got to put them together as one unit and go forward,' Faulkner said. 'We are a very quiet team. We need to be more vocal, more active on that part. But I've got a lot of great hitters, a lot of great passers. It's just a matter of putting them together.' 

Michelle Starcevich Invitational Results:

Winner: Clear Creek-Amana (5-0)

2nd: Cedar Rapids Prairie (4-1)

3rd: Cedar Rapids Washington (3-2)

4th: Mediapolis (2-3)

5th: South Tama (1-4)

6th: Ottumwa (0-5) 

Round 1 – Cedar Rapids Prairie def. Ottumwa, 21-7, 21-10Clear Creek-Amana def. Mediapolis, 18-21, 22-20, 15-11Cedar Rapids Washington def. South Tama, 21-12, 21-19

Round 2 – Cedar Rapids Prairie def. Mediapolis, 19-21, 21-18, 15-6Cedar Rapids Washington def. Ottumwa, 23-21, 22-20Clear Creek-Amana def. South Tama, 21-14, 21-15

Round 3 – Clear Creek-Amana def. Cedar Rapids Prairie, 21-19, 22-20Cedar Rapids Washington def. Mediapolis, 14-21, 21-16, 15-8South Tama def. Ottumwa, 23-21, 21-16

Round 4 – Cedar Rapids Prairie def. Cedar Rapids Washington, 21-13, 17-21, 16-14Mediapolis def. South Tama, 5-21, 21-18, 15-10Clear Creek-Amana def. Ottumwa, 21-15, 21-19

Round 5 – Cedar Rapids Prairie def. South Tama, 21-17, 21-13Mediapolis def. Ottumwa, 21-7, 21-8Clear Creek-Amana def. Cedar Rapids Washington, 21-15, 21-16