Double sadness

What a difference a day (or two) makes. After the Patriots looked so good on Wednesday and Thursday, expectations were quite high for Friday. The first team up on Friday morning was Hearts for Jesus. As you have read, our finest game of the year was the two pool sets against Hearts in pool play. Hearts has a very good team, but the girls should have had confidence going into this one, as they had beaten them so soundly just two days before.

This game was at 9:30 at Wolf Creek Baptist Church. This was bad for many reasons. First, the time. Regardless of how long we had been down there, it still was 8:30 Central time. Calumet is NOT a morning team. In addition, the gym had no scoreboard, little room between the courts and the bare walls, tile floors, and was twenty miles away from the camp. That's the physical problems. There also were competition problems. First, we were flat. Second, the reffing was incomprehensible and one-sided. Before you accuse me of being biased, Coach Carr was told by a observer not from our cheering section that he had never seen such a game reffed so one-sidedly. Rachel was called for double hits three times early. She was not doing anything differently than she had done all year. After the third call, she stopped trying to overhand set and was just bumping it up. The refs (the up ref, especially) saw some brushing up against the net by Taylor and Rachel, but didn't see Hearts' big middle hitter raking the net twice on her follow through. After falling behind 14-4, the put together a little rally to pull with 16-9. But then another phantom brush of the net, this time by Jessi, was called, and the girls just fell apart. A defensive error, a ball dropping, two aces, a kill, yet another alleged setting error on Rachel, another defensive error and it was 24-9. After a serving error by Hearts, they dinked one for a kill and the set one disaster was history.

Set #2 looked like it going to be a repeat of set #1. A kill by Faith made it 1-1, but then two kills followed by another double call on Rachel made it 4-1, Hearts. Then, some signs of life. A Faith kill. A Hearts hitting error. An ace by Rachel. Now it was a game at 4-4. After a serving error, Kara got a kill and Taylor got a dink kill. The Patriots led 6-5. We fell behind again, 10-8, before a kill by Jessi and a couple by Taylor tied it back up again at 11. They got a dink kill before they made a hitting error. Back and forth it went. A Taylor kill tied it at 17. The momentum was broken by a hitting error, followed by two Hearts kills and then another hitting error. 21-17, Hearts. We scored two, but then, you guessed it, a double hit call on Rachel. Finally the ref noticed Hearts in the net, but then a kill and a block put Hearts on the doorstep, 24-20. It wasn't over yet. Two kills by Faith sandwiched around an ace by Rachel make it 24-23. Too little, too late. Hearts put down a kill and it was loser bracket for Calumet.

We soon found out our opponent was Broadfording, who we would play at the camp at 2:00 PM. Broadfording, who we split with in pool play and had defeated in the first game of bracket play. If we win the game, we play Hearts again for the championship (we would have to beat them twice). If we lost, it meant we were done with a third-place finish. The girls did play well. Faith struggled with her hitting, Broadfording blocked well, and our defense (serve-receive) was very poor. Calumet fell behind 13-6 because of this. We pulled to within five at 15-10, but then Broadfording began pounding the gifts given to them. More poor defensive play and a very bad call put the Patriots down 23-12. Rachel left her feet to pull a ball back that was overpassed, and a Broadfording girl reached over the net and blocked it. Instead of calling Broadfording for a an over-the-net violation, they called Rachel for a backrow attack. Anyway, Faith dinked one in but followed that with a serving error - 24-13, Broadfording. Rachel bumped one over that fell, Ally got an ace, Taylor blocked on, Ally got another ace and it was 24-17. Broadfording then hit one into the net, Jessi got a dink kill, and Broadfording hit two more into the net. 24-21 Broadfording. Kara got a kill. Could it be? Of course not. A very questionable double call on Rachel ended the game. How the ref could end the set on iffy judgment call was beyond all of us.

Set 2 was different. The girls fell behind early, but got back to within one at 9-8. They stayed there til it was 13-12. Broadfording pulled out a little bit til it was 18-15. Then a lift call (legit), kill, kill, ace, block and it was 23-15. Jessi got a kill, but then a net violation ended the tournament for Calumet. Game analysis: the defense was poor, leading to many easy kills for Broadfording.

Second sadness: now it's all over. I will do some statistical stuff later, but for now, I'm just thinking about what an experience for my girls and myself it has been to be part of the Calumet program. I also will expand on this, maybe after the banquet. It's been fun, I will miss having a daughter in it, but I'm not leaving it altogether. It's too much fun.