Orange County JCC Maccabi Volleyball Team

The 2015 JCC Maccabi Games will be in Fort Lauderdale, FL from August 7-14. The information meeting is at the JCC on Sunday, January 25 at 4:00.

The seven medal-hungry OC girls met their new teammate from Philadelphia today. Victoria is a sweet three-year club player who can play middle or opposite. She's also 6'4"!!! It's going to be a tough tournament with perennial powerhouse teams like Israel, Detroit and Bensonhurst, but our little squad of left coasters and our new friend from Philly should be in the medal mix. Wish us luck.

Orange County JCC Maccabi Volleyball Team

Get prepared for a great Maccabi Games for Team OC's volleyball team. We'll post interesting stuff as we approach the Games and we'll post results as the Games progress. Expect us to be very competitive and to have a great time in Detroit this year.

Orange County JCC Maccabi Volleyball Team The 2014 edition of Team OC's Volleyball squad will compete in Detroit during the third week of August. We've got an enormously talented team. Stay tuned

The 2014 edition of Team OC has come together, and we're going to be very good. Returning are veterans Shira Alcouloumre (MH), Kyra Wyman (L), Becca Fast (OH), Lauren Cohen (OPP) and Meskie Taylor (S). They'll be joined by two rookies from the TVT high school squad: Claire Cohen (OH) and Sapeer Yahezkel (OH). I am thrilled to announce that this year we will partner with the Philadelphia delegation, which will lend us the prodigious talents of Victoria Rudolph (MH). The team promises to be outstanding on defense; I suspect will do some damage offensively as well.

We're back from Israel with a bronze medal around our necks. The Israeli team deserved the gold (and won it), but I think even Houston (who took the silver) would agree that we deserved the silver, after all we beat them with only five (Sophie and Natalie were injured). We did well and I'm proud. Somehow the color of the medal doesn't seem important. I'll never forget my 2011 Team Israel. Seven wonderful girls who also happened to be outstanding volleyball players.

Our Detroit team averaged 14.13 years old when the Games began. We faced strong competition from Vancouver, San Francisco and three Detroit teams. We didn't have a setter. We scraped and scrapped and found a way to win a lot of games until we limped into the Bronze Medal match against Detroit's best team. Lauren took off her sling and played in incredible pain. Alexa's hand, which we believed was broken the day before, was only badly bruised. Tamar's hand hurt so badlly she could no longer serve. Detroit beat us for the first time ever and we came home without a medal for the first time in 8 JCC Maccabi Games. But we did our best and gave a lot of young girls a great learning experience.

Team OC took the silver medal, losing only to a very strong San Diego team in the finals. Captain Maddie was spectacular on and off the court and we all had a lot of fun. The team featured outside hitters Maddie and Elana, middles Hannah, Gaby and Jocelyn, opposite Shaina, setter Erin and defensive specialists Abby and Briana.

We're going to San Francisco from July 31 through August 7 to avenge our loss to San Francisco at last year's Detroit Games. We'll take a second team to Mid-Westchester (New York) August 14-21. The competition will be brutal in both locations, so bring your "A" game.