Volleyball Week 10 - We're in!

I arrived about 15 minutes early for my 8 o'clock games and found my team discussing playoff implications. We were tied for third place with my uncle's team, coincidentally the team we were playing that night. The scenarios looked like this, we each needed one win to get in, either team is swept and they are out. So things were looking pretty good, we needed a single win and we could play again next week. Even better, if we could sweep all three games we could knock my uncle's team out of the playoffs.

We got warmed up and got another nice break, there were only 6 of us there to play. Having six means a full court, but not rotating out to take breaks and lose your rhythm. It also meant that the 4 good hitters and 2 setters were always in the game and we didn't have many weak spots. I got a nice compliment from one of my teammates about how I was getting better every week and I was very pumped up to play. Facing my uncle and cousin also provided a bit of motivation and I came out fired up. We jumped on them early in the first game, and were playing very well. I had a very good game, registering a couple kills and a nice block on my uncle. We won the first game, and clinched the playoff berth thus eliminating any suspense.

The only remaining question was whether we could sweep and knock out the other team from the playoffs. We took the second game pretty easily as well, still playing quite well. I had a very good night overall, and we carried the momentum into the third. The last game was very tense as they fought hard to stay with us and save their season. There were many long volleys and lots of back and forth as the game came right down to the wire. We play to 25 points, rally scoring, and the game came down to a tie at 24. The last point was back and forth but they finally managed to drop a shot in and pull off the win.

Very well played, and we were all quite pleased with how well we were playing. We'll face the number 2 seed, a team which is beatable. We'll obviously have to play well, but if we can play at the same level as we did this week we can win. The number one seed which includes my cousin Jon will be very difficult to beat, so Eric and Nate will have their work cut out for them. It would be great if they could pull off the upset and face us in the final.

I'm looking forward to next week!