The Red Rock Alameda 16s boys club volleyball team finished 12th out of 16 teams at the boys’ 15- to 16–year-old Northern California Volleyball Association (NCVA) Regional Championship tournament on Dec. 11 and 12 in Roseville.

The Alameda Red Rocks entered the event as the 15th seed. The event began with pool play on Saturday Dec. 11. Pool play consists of four, four-team round-robin tournaments. The Alameda Red Rocks, coached by Encinal Junior/Senior High School Athletic Director Leslie Blakeley, were in pool 2. They lost the first match of pool play, 2-0 (10-25 and 14-25), to the Redwood City Red Rocks — there are five teams in the Red Rock Volleyball Club. Matches were decided in best-out-of-three sets.

The Alameda Red Rocks lost their second pool-play match, 2-0 (17-25, 11-25), to the Northern California Volleyball Club’s 15-1 Blue team. They rebounded with a 2-1 victory (19-25, 25-21, 15-11) over the Bay Area Volleyball Club Red team.

The victory over the Bay Area Volleyball Club gave the Alameda Red Rocks a 1-2 record and a third-place finish in pool 2.

The next stage of the event was the single-elimination tournament. There were four single-elimination brackets. Teams in each bracket were determined by the results of the pool-play. Teams who won their pool play group faced off in the gold single-elimination bracket. Teams who finished third in their pool play group were in the bronze bracket. The Alameda Red Rocks were in the bronze bracket.

The Alameda Red Rocks finished last place in the bronze bracket. They began play with a 2-0 (21-25, 25-27) loss to UC Elite 16s. They also lost, 2-0 (22-25, 21-25), to the Absolute 16 Blue team in the consolation game.
Even though the Red Rocks finished last in the bronze bracket their ranking improved 12th after beginning the tournament in 15th place. All matches were played at Roebbelen Center in Roseville.

The regional championship tournament was the culmination of the NVCA power league qualifiers. As a new and unranked team, the Red Rocks were seeded 40th of 40 teams entering the first round of the qualifiers on Sept. 18. After going 5-3 in the tournament including winning the pool 5 elimination bracket, the Alameda Red Rocks ranking improved to 22nd.

Their ranking improved to No. 21 after the second qualifier tournament in Roseville on Oct. 3, up to 17th after the third tournament on Oct. 23 in Ripon and up to 16th after a tournament in Santa Clara on Nov. 13.
The team includes four Alameda residents: Austin Lee (Alameda High School), Griffin Chen and Sam Smith (Encinal High School), and Jack Kenny (Bishop O’Dowd High School).

To learn more about the Alameda Red Rocks, visit www.redrockalameda.com