Patriots take fourth, part II

Saturday came very quickly, as the girls had to leave the hotel by 7:15 to get to CLA in time for their 8:00 game. Since the girls had tied for first in their pool with both Faith and Christian Liberty, all with 8-2 records, they had to go to the tiebreakers. The ten-point loss in the second game came back to haunt them, as the tiebreaker went to head-to-head points. Because of that game, the girls finished in third. First and second place teams didn't have to be there until at least 10:30. The first game of the day was against the sixth place team from the other pool, Westlake. After a first-game victory by the score of 21-5, Coach Carr substituted freely in the second. Cal/Cal won that one by 21-12. The next game was against Kankakee Trinity, a team the Patriots had beaten in the opening quad. Trinity finished second in the other pool and were playing well. The first game was full of Patriot errors and Trinity squeezed out a 21-19 win. Our girls played the second game as if they were angry about the first game loss, opening up a 16-5 lead. Again, the girls began to make a lot of mistakes and let Trinity back into it. Finally, the girls finished them off, 21-16. The third and deciding game did not match the first two. Rachel Eizenga started off serving. And she kept serving. And serving. Before you knew it, it was 14-0. Then, there was a hitting error on Cal/Cal by an unnamed player (cough Faith cough). The next point was won by the Patriots and the final was 15-1.

After lunch, the next game was against Christian Life, the team that won the tiebreakers and finished first in the pool. This time the girls lost in two straight, but the games were competitive. The final scores were 21-15, 21-17. This sent the girls to the losers bracket. Calvary/Calumet had to play Willow to get in to the third place game. This team wasn't quite in our class, and Cal/Cal won easily in two games, 21-9, 21-9. In the meantime, CLA, the host team, had lost to Faith and then had beaten Trinity in their first loser bracket game to set up the game to guarantee a third place finish.

CLA came playing at a very high level, with the advantage of playing on their home court and with the support of their home crowd. CLA had a player that did not play when Cal/Cal had beaten them earlier in the year, and she turned out to be one of their top two players. Our girls looked completely spent, and CLA won easily, 21-11, 21-13. We didn't stick around to find out who took first, second and third.

Overall, I would say the girls played very well, but not as consistent as they could be. They didn't seem to quite be as well conditioned as CLA, as CLA had played the same schedule but didn't appear to be as tired as our girls were. But, I think the top four teams were pretty even.

Thank to Shirley, Joanne and Kristi for the all the good food we had over the weekend. Parents, in my opinion, the money was well-spent. The food was delicious and much better for the girls than concession food.

Next games: Tuesday at Lake Hills. The varsity play Trinity and Covenant, at 4:30 and 6:30. Check the calendar at the bottom of the page for the JV and JH upcoming games. I do hope to give a better update for those teams in the near future.