Tough pill to swallow

 Day 2 of the Norcal Tournament…. And the boys were clearly hitting their stride.  They went back to their original rotation, with SW as setting and Rishab as middle.  We didn’t have any problems with the 1^st set of the 1^st match…. Playing a team that we’ve always played and never lost to.  We were up comfortably and needed one more point to win…. When SW decided to showboat (or play up) and served a topper to the top of the net.  Much to the dismay of all the parents, “Why!?!??!?!”  Luckily… that one little mishap didn’t turn into bad happenings.  We ended up beating Aspire Ninja handily… which goes to show how much the team has improved.

But in the finals of the Bronze bracket… after winning the 1^st set without breaking a set… everyone started fooling around.  The Coach played with the lineup to let other players play.  And after it went back and forth… back and forth… it started looking like this might not go our way.  One of the bystander parents even said, “Looks like this might go to 3.”  For some reason, we just couldn’t pull away.  Until… we finally did.  We were up by 3… and had all the momentum.  Then… one of the players decided to showboat, like SW did, and serve a topper.  His serve not only didn’t make it over the net… it actually hit one of our own players.  No worries.  We were still up by 2.  And then… things started unraveling.  One point after another… we kept messing up.  Simple, stupid mistakes.  The momentum… suddenly swung.  Even after a couple of couldn’t stop the avalanche.  23-25.  Lost the 2^nd set. 

No worries… we were clearly the better team.  We just need to hunker down and play like we played in the first set.  We got this.  For the 3^rd set… set went with our “3^rd set rotation – where we go 5:1.”  And within a blink of an eye… we were down 0-8.  Horrible passes.  Miscommunication between SW and the middle.  Ill-advised plays.  Everyone was just going the wrong way.  We eventually tied it at 11-11 and thinking… our experience can take us over the hill.  Not this time.  Not with the showboating.  Not with the series of bad and missed-calls from the refs.  The deck was stacked against us… the final score was 11-15.  One of the worst losses of this team’s history.  Almost as bad as being up 10-0 against MVVC and throwing it.  This was worst.  This was against a clearly worse team.  It was painful… it sucked…. And the boys had to wear it.  May it be a lesson learned in life… foot on the neck.  Strike first.  Strike hard. No mercy.