When Coach David Owens and 17UA woke up early on the morning of Saturday March 5th to drive to Greenville, IL, there was only one acceptable outcome in mind.  Win.  That was it.

IMG_8369They knew their opponents, and the only surprise would be a second place finish.  After morning pool play, 17UA was undefeated.  After beating Rockwood 17W it was lunch time and break time for the team.  Card Sharks anyone?

IMG_8363After sitting for so long, Blue Steel 17 pushed them around a little bit and took game 1 from H2, 25-21.  Watching the way H2 played game 1, I knew H2 wouldn’t lose either of the next two games.  Sometimes sitting for too long takes a little bit of wind out of your sail.  Game 2 saw the teams exchanging points up until 8-8.  Blue Steel went on a run and took a 13-9 lead.  17UA fought back tying the game at 16 and then again at 20.  They outscored Blue Steel 5-1 to close out a 25-21 victory forcing the ever exciting game 3.  Well those of you there remember what happened next.  H2 jumped out to a 3-0 lead forcing Blue Steel to play from behind.  It was 8-6 at the switch and 15-12 at the end.

After pushing everyone else around during pool play H2 got a bit of their own medicine against Blue Steel in game one.  But they fought back.  They fell behind in game 2, and fought back.

In volleyball and in life, It doesn’t always matter where you start, it really only matters where you finish.