Coming off a winner last weekend at the Dubourg Classic and two great practices (that included crazy socks and crazy hair day), our girls were ready to go this weekend for a March Madness tournament at the TESL Center. We did not finish where we wanted but we learned a lot as a team.
The keyword for today was adversity. A new term to the 11’s, one that they have only heard us talk about one time briefly so far this year. This Saturday our girls faced adversity left and right:
A 100% server from last week and a tiny but mighty leader, Grace Malawy, had to miss because her sister and former H2 star Emma was at state for Liberty Middle School. After a lot of convincing from parents and myself, Coach Camrey had to leave in the middle of pool play due to illness (against her wishes). Inexperienced referees including not having a mentor at the table because she did not show up. Persisting injuries that prevented some of our servers from going still and a new injury that came in the middle of pool play. Mackenzie Heberer, who you may remember being 100% in serving last week, was 42/45 in pool play for serves and that eliminated her serving in playoffs due to fatigue. A brand new schedule and playoff bracket that was announced the day of the tournament.
In conclusion, the list of reasons to go out and not play hard were plentiful and would overcome many teams, let alone a first year 11’s team. However, our girls showed a lot of guts and played their hearts out. We did not reach our goals today, we exited the tournament in the first round of playoffs. Our overall record in sets was 4-5. We played with a lot of heart and took the 2nd seed in the tournament to three sets. TESL Blue had three balls hit the line in the third set and we had two that were an inch out of bounds. Today was just not our day, but we never quit. We had every excuse in the book to give up and go home but we fought until the very end and that’s all we can ask of the girls.
We have a large break now until our next tournament. A lot of hours in the gym to prepare for our next tournament and the girls are already anxious to go out and win another tournament!
