All of the pictures taken this year are posted on our photo website http://lightsphotos.ifp3.com.
Another AAU National tournament is off and running, and so am I. Today I actually got to watch every team and get pictures of them. Most of the teams I was able to spend a full match at.
The 121's were the first stop, playing at the Disney Wide World of Sports. They are playing in 6 team pool over two days. They were up on court 11, which is isn't great for picture taking. The team did play well in the match I watched. They won it fairly easily in 2 game. They lost the next two matches and will continue their pool play at 8am in the Convention Center on Thursday. This evening the 12-1 team went to Downtown Disney to walk around and shop.
The 131's started off the afternoon well at at the Convention Center. They won their first two matches fairly easily. Their third match was much more challenging and was against Lions Jrs. They lost the first game by a fairly large score. The second game they won closely. It all came down to the third game, which they won pretty easily. They took 1st in their pool and will continue toward the Gold on Thursday.
141's started out not so well. They lost their first match today to the bottom team in their pool. Their second match they won fairly easily. Unfortunately they are playing on court 5 at the Milkhouse which is terrible for both viewing and taking pictures. I couldn't get any decent shots, so I stopped with only about 4 pretty bad shots. Their last match of the day they lost which gave them a 1-2 record. This meant the pool was tied for 2nd place, and since there was 3 teams advancing the 14-1 team had the best game % so they were placed in 2nd. They were suppose to ref a 1 game playoff, but one of teams left so that playoff game never happened and the 14-1's got to go home. They play at 8am on Thursday in the Convention Center.
The 14-2's were at the Josten Center in the afternoon. They lost their first match to a team from Pueto Rico in 3 games. They then won the next two matches so they finished 2-1 and 2nd in the pool. When I watched them in their 2nd match they pretty much handled the other team in 2 quick games. They are advancing toward the Gold and will play at 8am on Thursday in the Convention Center.
The 152's were at the Convention Center in the morning in a 3 team pool. They played two matches, 3 games in each match. In the first match they struggled a bit but won the first two games. They lost the 3rd game, but fortunately it didn't matter because they had already won the match and as long as they won the next match they would be 1st in the pool. They won all 3 games of the 2nd match and took first in the pool. The team then had some lunch from the cooler, packed everything up, and headed to Coco Beach. They played in the sand, went swimming in the ocean, and then had Pizza at Marlons favorite pizza place which they all loved. They got back around 7:30 and promptly starting watching their Glee DVD. They will Thursday afternoon at the Convention Center.
The 153's were at the convention center in the afternoon. Their first match was against Dunes and I watched all of it. Now I normally don't complain about the refs in a match because usually the team makes enough mistakes to offset any mistake the refs make. However this time was different. We were serving for match point in game 3, the other team passed it to their setter who just butchered the ball. It was a no brainer ball handling error. But since it was match point the ref did not call it. Normally I'm ok with that, but this was such a bad mistake that it wasn't even close to being marginal. In the end we lost that point and went on to lose the match. The team did recover and win the next two matches, which gave them 2nd place in the pool. When they got back to their house they had the parents over for a barbeque.
The 154's were also at the Convention Center in the morning, and they were poorly seeded as last in their pool. They ended up going 1-2 on the day and took 3rd in the pool. The game they played against KIVA was very close and they almost won it. After they finished their pool. They also headed out to Coco Beach for and afternoon in the water, shopping at Ron Jon's and dinner on the pier out over the ocean. They got back around 10pm, but it doesn't matter as they don't play until Thursday afternoon. Annie loves her pictures.
The 15-5's are last on my list. They were also seeded dead last in the tournament by the seeding people. They too played in the morning at the Convention Center. They also played a great match against A-5 15-2's, which they lost but it was a close match. They won the match I photographed but after I left they lost the last match of the day. They were 1-2 on the day and took 3rd in the pool. Like the 15-4's they are still in contention for the gold bracket, but life will become a lot more difficult on Thursday in their next pool. The team went to Downtown Disney this evening.