Well, that was different

No, not the outcome of the pool play. THAT was pretty much the same thing. It was the drawing of blood that was different. Volleyball isn't really a violent game. There is very little contact between the opponents. Tonight, though, Taylor made an opposing player bleed so much that she had to be taken out of the game.

Wow, did she hit that ball hard. So hard that the poor girl on the other side of the net couldn't get her hands up fast enough to protect her face. The ensuing bloody nose ended her play in the game. I talked to Taylor. She pretended to be sorry for a second then asked, "Are you going to write about it in your blog?".

There you go, Taylor.

The volleyball play was pretty soporific. (You're going to have to look that one up.) Our opponents scored between nine and fourteen points in every game. Since the level of intensity and focus was inversely proportionate to the ability of the opponent, some of the higher point totals were scored by the lesser opponents. I missed the first three games, the opponents being Ravenswood (14), First Baptist of Danville (11) and Community (10). Schaumburg was CCS's opponent for the first game I witnessed. Schaumburg had taken fourth in our tournament and I thought they might give us a game. Of course, I didn't know that the Patriots were going be at the top of their game. Schaumburg played well, but our girls were on fire, especially Taylor. In the middle of the game in a stretch in which CCS outscored Schaumburg 17-2, Taylor had five kills by my count. Everyone was joining in the fun, however, as there were remarkably few errors. Almost all the points were earned. All a little LGFS did was make the final 25-9 after the Patriots had been up 24-6.

The next game was against North Love. The girls' intensity dropped sharply until at 17-13 they decided to pull it together. Six of the eight straight points they scored from here were on kills, three each from Faith and from Holly. 25-13, Patriots.

Pathway of Iowa was next on the menu. They used to be pretty decent, but not any more. The level of concentration by Calumet was about equivalent to the level in the previous game, which enough to secure the 25-12 win against a team that should have been dispatched with them scoring about half what they did. Ally was really big in this game, with four kills and an ace. Taylor had a similar number of kills. Jenna got one from the back row, and Lauren added a kill and an ace.


Faith, the school from Ohio, was our 7:00 appointment. Faith looked decent from what we saw of them, so the girls were pretty sharp. Taylor was razor sharp on her serves, scoring six aces in the 9-0 run CCS had to open the game. Faith and Taylor carried the hitting load in this one, but the kill the got us the fourteenth point was the memorable one. Taylor crushed one right past the block directly into the face of the poor girl setting up to cover. It was painful to see, and I'm quite sure more painful for her. The hitting and acing continued from that point, and Lauren contributed a nice block After a nice dink from Jenna, Faith Christian hit one into the net to close it out, 25-9.


Maranatha was the final pool play victim. They were playing well all day and came into the game as undefeated, as were we. But the play was reminiscent of the last time we played them, which was in the Calumet Invitational semifinal. Their one big hitter got a little flustered and the whole team followed suit. The girls built the lead slowly throughout the game. Holly came up big in this one, with at least three kills and an ace. Amanda F. got a kill early and Kassie closed it out with an ace

On to bracket play tomorrow, to see if we can extend the streak of winning this one to three years in a row.