Last Sunday was Qualifier 2 for our 14s team. We arrived at this tournament missing two players. Since there were only 7 players on our team the lineup was pretty simple - six players play all the way around except when the libero replaced them in the number five spot on the court.
We didn’t have a good day. To start we were running late. By the time the players were changed and ready to start warming up it was 10 minutes before start time. But when the ref spotted us, our opponents and the scorekeepers she started out match early. So we got no warmups. Just the four minutes we would normally get before a match. So we started out match, a little stiff and slow after a 2.5 hour car ride.
We spent most of the match either out of rotation, or thinking we were out of rotation. This confusion resulted in the players paying more attention to our rotation than to playing volleyball. We lost the match in two straight games 13-25 and 8-25.
The next two matches we were off and then had to officiate. We started out next match playing a lot better. But still not good enough. We managed to keep the rotations straight and were working our offense a lot better than the first match. But again we lost in two games 13-15 and 21-25.
Our last match of the day immediately followed our second one. The players decided to change jerseys before this match. I don’t know why, they are 13/14 year old girls. Last tournament they watched a team change jerseys in the middle of the tournament and I guess they wanted to try it themselves. But this did result in a little comedy on the sidelines. Most of the girls who had been complaining that it was warm in the building and they were hot. Then we discover that they are all wearing tee shirts under their jerseys. While this did make changing jerseys easier for them it may have been adding to their hot problems. However two of the girls were not wearing a second shirt and when facing the prospect of changing shirts in front of a gym full of spectators they balked. Which is a good thing. I have never been comfortable around players who are willing to strip down to a sports bra and swap jerseys where ever they may be standing. I realize that for many of these girls their sports bras actually cover more than their swim suits cover, but that still doesn’t mean I want to see them parading around without their jerseys on.
So eventually several players grabbed their sweatshirts and made a makeshift changing room for their teammates to swap jerseys in.
The jersey change didn’t change or fortunes in the third match. We played much better and there was a lot of good things happening on the court. Emma was doing everything right - setting, hitting and serving. Unfortunately for her she also made a serving error with our game tied at 24 points, then a hitting error to end the game in our opponents favor 24-26. Blaming herself for the loss she pretty much forgot everything else good she had done in the game. But she is a competitor and came right back in the next game. Our last game of the day ended 21-25 for our third match loss of the day.
Last year my team had an 0-3, 0-6 day also. It was a very ugly day. I spent three days afterwards trying to find somthing positive to tell the girls after that day. This year was a lot different. I saw a lot of good things out there that day. Ever single player made plays that they could be proud of. We played some good games, just not good enough. Also we played our third opponent, who won our pool closer and harder than anyone else in the pool played them.
This was a good day with a bad result. I think the girls learned some things about themselves and about thier team. This was not a day that we have to recover from. It was a day to build on.
