Sunshine Volleyball Club

This year in the 2011 NCAA Tournament Sunshine was well represented.  With a series of former players competing in the tournament and garnering numerous awards and recognition Sunshine is proud to recognize its alumni for their accomplishments.

NCAA Champions (UCLA)

-Meg Norton Class of 2010

-Jenna Scillaci Class of 2010

-Aaron Wexler (Vol. Asst. Coach) Coach

AVCA Player of the Year

-Alex Jupiter (USC) Class of 2008

AVCA All-Americans

-1st Team Alex Jupiter (USC) Class of 2008

-Hon. Mention Sam Selsky (Dayton) Class of 2008

Sunshine has had 2 players listed to PrepVolleyball.com's Soph 79 list on the top sophomore varsity players in the country.  One of the top Soph 79 is Kristen Castellanos, the libero for our 16-Hurley team.  Kristen has garnered numerous awards such as being a 2 time 1st team All CIF Div 1A player, being named one of the top 25 Freshman in the Country, All-Tournament team at the MLK Speak Easy Tournament and is currently committed to LMU.  Also making the list as an High Honorable Mention is Shelby Livingstone.  Shelby plays Varsity at Oaks Christian HS in Westlake and was named 2nd team All-Area.  Congratulations to both girls for their awards and continued success!

Go Sunshine!

This year Sunshine has earned 9 bids to the Junior Olympics in Columbus, Ohio.  With four bids in the Open division, three in National, and two in the American division.  Sunshine was #1 in the qualifiers with 6 teams earning bids at wualifiers this year and three bids being earned through regional allocation.  Sunshine is sending at least one team from every age division and two teams from 12's and 17's with both 17's teams in the open!

Congratulations to all of the Sunshine teams that have earned a bid, have some fun and kick butt in Columbus.

GO SUNSHINE!!!

Open Bids:                                     American Bids:

18-Sunshine                                 14-Westside

17-Westside                                 12-Westside                

17-South Bay                                National Bids:

16-Hurley                                      13-Westside

                                                      12-South Bay

                                                      15-South Bay

This weekend Sunshine had 8 teams competing in three different cities across the country.  In Minneapolis both the 15-Westside team and the 15-South Bay team competed to earn a bid to JO's.  The teams finished 4th and 13th respectively in the National and Open divisions.  In Kansas City the 14-South Bay and 12-South Bay teams had a very long weekend in a gorgeous city.  14-South Bay finished 13th with a weekend of close matches and tough losses.  The 12-South Bay team ended up taking 2nd place and earning a bid to Columbus Ohio and the Junior Olympics!  Currently four teams are finishing up competition in Reno.  14-Westside in Open and 12-Elite, 14-Elite and 13-South Bay competing in club.  All three teams in the club division fought through to the third day of competition in the gold division and ended up losing to the eventual champion of the tournament.  13-SB went 23-25 with the #1 13's team in the country and the 14-Elite and 12-Elite both had incredibly close matches with the winner of their tournament.

Congratulations to all of the teams who competed this weekend and the 12-South Bay for earning their bid to JO's!!

Sunshine's 18's team recently earned their bid in Baltimore, taking 2nd place in the NEQ!  Because of this the team has worked their way yet again to competing in the open division of the Junior Olympics which will be hosted in Columbus, Ohio.  The team has also recently been ranked in the top 15 teams nationally by PrepVolleyball.com.  They received a ranking of 14th overall in the country and have also garnered a USA Volleyball ranking of 5th in the country.  Only one other Southern California team (Coast, San Diego) is ranked above them at 5th for PrepVolleyball (8th in USAV).  Sunshine beat out local competitors Sport Shack, Santa Barbara, Laguna, Wave, T-Street and Club West who also made the list.

Cheney, Washington is feeling empty today, as if there is something missing…

A grey, drizzly town 20 miles west of Spokane-that of the famed red astro-turf field and frigid gym-sock fragranced field house-is home to Eastern Washington University and host to the 2012 Pacific Northwest Qualifier.  This past weekend, the Sunshine Hurley 16’s squad blew into this wayward patch of land and left their mark.  Day 1 was not too eventful, but Day 2 featured all that is great and horrifying about this wondrous ride we take on the Club Volleyball train. The squad was able to come back from an 11-4 deficit in a one game playoff match to avoid elimination and advance to the Gold bracket on Day 3.  With 3 bids up for grabs, the girls had to advance out of this bracket featuring the #1 tournament seed.  Again playing from behind (“we got ‘em where we want “em”), the girls overcame all odds and advanced to the semi-finals where they beat tournament favorites City Beach to advance to the finals, secure an Open bid to Junior Nationals and finish in a team-best 2^nd place.  Congrats to all the girls (and coaches), as it was a true team effort over the 3 day event.  The team fought through every obstacle and never gave up. As the 15-person passenger van drove off on a record-breaking pace to make the flight home, Cheney witnessed the last Sunshine it will see for some time vanish into the horizon...

Weather forecast for Columbus, Ohio July 3-7:

After a long and hard fought weekend the Sunshine 17-Westside team came out of the local SCVA JNQ with an open bid after taking second overall, losing only in the finals to the T-Street 17-Troy team.

The girls went 9-1 over the course of the weekend and played a tough weekend.  With wins over Payes 17-1 and Wave 17-1 en route to the finals of the tournament.  Congratulations to the coaches and the girls as they have solidified their spot in the Open division of JO's in Columbus, Ohio.

Go Sunshine!

Sunshine has had  players listed to PrepVolleyball.com's High School All-american list.  Following a CIF Div. 1A Champsionship and a run to the state finals in a 5 set nailbiting match, Kaity Edwards and Lauren Fuller of Marymount high school (of our 17-Westside and 18-Sunshine respectively) have been honored as some of the top prep volleyball players in the country!

1st Team HS All American-Lauren Fuller Senior, Marymount HS

Special Mention HS All American-Kaity Edwards Junior, Marymount HS

This past weekend at the Colorado Crossroads Qualifier Sunshine sent three teams to compete for bids in three separate divisions. The 14-Westide team placed 9th in the open division and the 14-Premier took 68th after battling two early injuries to key players.

Sunshine 13-Westside had an excellent tournament going 6-1 in the first two days of play looking strong at all positions and playing with chemistry  and intensity.  The girls came out strong and played as a unit blowing through pool play on both days and were given a bye in the first round of the gold bracket on day three heading into the playoffs.  The final day of play two key players for the team came down with food poisoning and the team continued to fight.  They won their second round match and looked to be able to hold their own if they could keep their energy up.  Unfortunately the long weekend and sickness took their toll and the girls lost in the semifinals.  They took fourth overall in the tournament and got a lot of great experience going into the points tournaments for SCVA.  Currently the 13-Westside team is the number one overall 13's team in the region.  Congratulations to all of the Sunshine teams that competed this weekend in the Colorado qualifier.