Elevation Peak 14's serve up plenty of trouble in impressive pool play victory at Colorado Challenge

by Kyle Koso

​When someone starts off a volleyball match confounding the other side with darting, daring serves, you can’t help but think, I bet that is relevant again later on.

Saori Yamamoto’s wicked lefty serves gave the Elevation Peak team an early edge Sunday against undefeated Kairos Alpha in the 14 Elite bracket of the Colorado Challenge, and she troubled the opposition for one more critical stretch in Set 3. It played a huge role in Elevation securing a 25-20, 22-25, 15-7 victory, with Kairos losing its first two sets of the entire tournament in the match.

From the Denver suburb of Centennial, Elevation earned a spot in the Silver bracket for Monday’s championship sequence, while Kairos (Sioux Falls, SD) prevailed in the tiebreakers and will play in the top bracket.

Elevation got effective serving from much of the roster, with back-to-back aces from Sahara Hernandez opening up a 23-16 lead in Set 1. That advantage was crucial because the ticking time bomb of kill swings from Julia Masselink started to go off for Kairos, with Elevation gamely hanging tough to secure the Set 1 win.

“Our energy changed the whole thing. When we have good energy, we play well and support each other and seem to play well,” Yamamoto said. “I served for my team; when I do that I feel better for myself and everyone seems to play better. We always practice our serves and pride ourselves with that.”

Elevation didn’t waste opportunities when those serves got Kairos scrambling, as powerful kills came off the swings of Raya Thompson, Reese Millar and Yanna Griffin, among others. Millar got the final point in Set 1 and three early points in the final set, while Thompson shook off a hard fall late in Set 3 for important kills, including a slick topspin placement shot that made it 13-7.

“This is such a great team; we are able to manage it all and take on the pressure,” Thompson said. “I was pretty mad about the fall, and how far her foot was under the net, but I was really focused on winning and taking on a big team. We were brave; they had a lot of big hitters over there.”

Kairos got great work from liber Devi McCarty and come other offensive fireworks from Elsa Basel, but Elevation managed to hold off their foes by executing the strategy desired by head coach Matt Burrell.

“I was trying to put my bigger blocker on (Masselink); they are pretty consistent with how they start their line so I could get the matchup,“ Burrell said. “We had the game plan, shifting the defense, still hard to deal with her. We attacked the setter best we could, she’s a phenomenal athlete. We wanted to get them out of system, figured we’d have a chance then along with serving it tough.

“We are a tough serving team when we are on. We’re not the biggest, but we can be pretty powerful from the service line.”

Club V, Volt and Five Star will join Kairos in the championship bracket; Elevation will start Monday’s play against NORCO Black.