Silence

That was what struck me about tonight's game - the silence. Even as we were blowing out Covenant, with a lot of good defense, some blocks and several big hits, the crowd was noticably quiet, almost bored. After getting pushed a bit the last couple of games, the drop off in the quality of the opponent was noticable, so the crowd seemed a little let down. The score was similar to several of the games played earlier in the season, but again the girls played to the level of their competition, so to speak. The final scores were 25-12, 25-10, 25-9. So

The girls were up early and often in the first game. The lead was up to 14-4 before Covenant got a couple of points. Then, after Calvary scored 4, Covenant got another one. Taylor then served five straight points to make the score 24-7. As they often do, Calvary got sloppy one point away from victory. They gave up five before they finally finished Covenant off.

The girls picked up where they left off in the second game. The intensity wasn't there, which was reflected in the score being even until it was 8-8. Then, as often happens, Taylor's serving got the Patriots on a run. She didn't stop serving until it was 21-8. I only noted two aces during that stretch, but her hard, dropping serves kept Covenant quite off balance. After a hitting error and another point given up, Calvary scored four more to win.

The girls were very focused to begin the third game. Three aces by Jessi Stas helped the girls to a 14-3 lead. The girls gave up a point and scored three. Then they gave up one and scored two. They then gave up two. They outscored Covenant 6-1 to close out the game.

The kills were spread around tonight. Jessie, Emily, Rachel, and Ally got kills in addition to the ones by the big three - Faith, Jessi, and Taylor. Aces were plentiful and also spread around. Covenant was inexperienced and couldn't match Calvary in talent.

Now we have our biggest test of the season. I have heard the girls talking about Faith all season, and now it's upon us. I hope the girls don't overlook Clinton - last I checked, Clinton had only one loss themselves. We start with Clinton at, we believe, 5:30 our time before we take on Faith at 7:00. Faith is currently 12-0 pending their game tonight. We are 10-0. It should be fun. See you there.

EDIT: The JV team won in two straight, 25-18, 25-11. The junior high also won.