Another tough one

The girls traveled north to Crossroads' home gym for the third meeting between the Crusaders and the Patriots on Friday night, and while the outcome was the same, this game was different than the first two. The Patriots controlled the first meeting between the two teams. In the second match, the championship game of the Calumet Invitational, was tightly contested and extremely well played, with some spectacular play, especially defensively. This most recent contest was more signified by mistakes. Neither team played as well as they did the week before. There certainly were some excellent play, but there was less of that and more unforced errors that the previous meeting. This game was also one of streaks. Momentum was the name of the game on this night.

As the game was played in Illinois, the game was best-of-three, all three played to twenty-five. The first game was completely controlled by CCS. Early on it was Calumet kills, but our fifth point was from a Crossroads hitting error, which was the first of many in that game. By the time it was 18-5, Crossroads had hit six balls into the net. They finally started hitting it over at 22-6 and scored five in a row, but Faith got a dink down, and then after one more Crossroads kill, Taylor put one down and Crossroads hit their eighth one into the net, giving CCS the game 25-12.

Game two seemed to be more of the same, though Crossroads' setter started throwing over the second hit to great effect. Despite several balls hitting the floor in the middle of the defense, the Patriots gradually built the lead, and after an Ally ace the lead was 20-12. What ensued wasn't a LGFS; it was more a LGM (late-game meltdown).  Actually the teams traded points and after a Rebekah kill it was 21-13. THEN things really fell apart. Kill, hitting error, dink, hitting error (out as we were trying to hit around their block), block, hitting error, dink, ace. 21-21. On a scramble, Ally pushed a ball back to the corner which Crossroads couldn't return. This did NOT turn things around. Three straight sloppy defensive plays put Crossroads one point away from an amazing comeback, and they finished it on the next point with an ace that we should have gotten up, but we seemed to be shell-shocked at this point. 25-22 Crossroads.

Early in game three the two big hitters, Annika from Crossroads and Faith, began trading kills. The teams also traded errors and so the game was close. Crossroads hit one out which gave us our first two-point lead at 10-8. We scored another to make it three; shortly thereafter, we made three unforced errors in a row and it was 12-12. We got the next three, capped by a big hit by Faith on an overpass. At 18-15 CCS committed four errors in a row, three on bad hits, and Crossroads led by one. Ally got us back on track with a kill, which Holly followed with an ace. Lauren followed with a beautiful block, then Crossroads hit one out in a volley in which we blocked a huge hit by Annika. Taylor joined in the fun with a block of her own, and it was 23-19. A CCS hitting error was followed by a dink kill by Ally, then one more big hit by Annika and Lauren finally ended it with a kill.

Because of the errors, this game wasn't as entertaining as the last time we met. There weren't the incredible defensive plays that we saw in the previous game. But it was exciting and tense, and I think we're a little bit thankful that we won't see them again this year. Tuesday we visit Community (formerly Ridgewood) in their new home, and then the Quentin Road tournament this upcoming weekend. Maranatha, Arthur, Saline and a new team, Faith Christian from Wilmot, Ohio should be our toughest competition.