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Very few teams, regardless of talent, are able to accomplish winning a major event three years in a row. The Dallas Cowboys almost did it in the 90s. The Rangers, Stars and Mavericks haven’t been close. Only the Los Angeles Lakers have accomplished it in recent times; that is until Dallas’ Skyline 14 RoShamBo volleyball team made history winning 12U in 2007, 13U in 2008, and 14O in 2009. This past weekend at the Dallas Convention Center, Skyline 14 RoShamBo won the Lone Star Junior Olympic National Qualifier for the third year in a row. The girls won a tough and competitive 14 Open division, defeating three of the top teams in the country in the final day for the overall victory.
The three day Lone Star tournament culminated in an all Texas final on Sunday with Dallas Skyline, Houston’s Tornados, Amarillo’s Advanced, Arlington’s Texas Advantage, Houston’s Texas Revolution, and Austin Juniors. In the championship match Skyline faced Texas Advantage (TAV). TAV won the 1st set of the best of three match 25-18 and was leading Skyline 16-12 in the 2nd set. Skyline head coach Jason Williams used a timeout to settle his team down and make some minor attack adjustments. The strategy worked and Skyline battled back to win 25-22. In the 3rd and final set of the match, Texas Advantage jumped out to a 4-0 lead forcing Williams to burn another timeout to regroup. Skyline emerged from the timeout determined and tied the set at 4-4. From there, Skyline took over and rolled to a 15-12 third set win and match victory. Coach Williams commented after the match, “TAV is a great team and we have had some big battles with them this season. We knew this one could have turned out to be the biggest yet. For the first two thirds of the match, everything was going well for TAV and we all knew it. Every time we tried to bounce back, they had an answer of their own. During the middle of the 2nd game when I took the timeout, I basically told all the players to “flip the switch” and start playing the way we are capable of. I’m not sure how, but they were able to do so and came out a different team. I’m so proud of the way they handled their emotions by playing like a much older and experienced team and persevered in such a big match. ”
With the victory in the Lone Star qualifier, Skyline heads to the Junior Olympic National Championship tournament this summer with a current match record of 50-5 and having now won two of the ten Junior Olympic qualifying tournaments. The national championship tournament will be held this June 26 - July 5 in the Miami Beach Convention Center. Dallas Skyline should be one of the top seeded teams in the 14 Open division field of 28 competing for the 2009 title.
Check out the team's blog:
http://www.neighborsgo.com/blog/Skyline14Roshambo_Volleyball
Team Picture Legend (picture by John Bohannon):
First Row (L-R): Emma Gilboux, Megan Kennedy, Co-Captain Amanda Brown, Brooke Coleman, Amanda D’Antonio, Audrey Landry, Co-Captain Maggie Joyce
Back Row (L-R): Asst. Coach Lisa Larwa, Melissa Hoelting, Erica Bohannon, Kacy Guajardo, Head Coach Jason Williams
The Skyline 14 RoShamBo girls attend schools in Richardson (Westwood Jr. High), Coppell (Coppell Middle School North), Carrollton (Prince of Peace), Plano (Wilson, Frankford, and Renner Middle Schools).
Three-Peat Picture Legend (L-R, picture by David Brown):
Brooke Coleman, Amanda Brown, Melissa Hoelting, Maggie Joyce. These four girls were members of Skyline's winning 12U, 13U and now 14O teams at Lone Star.
