A most unexpected championship

Wasn't this supposed to be the year which we looked back fondly on the past two years, enjoying the memories of 2010 and 2011 (and perhaps 2009), while we watched the 2012 version struggle with the schedule which was upgraded for the powerhouse of the last year or two or three? Sure, we knew they were going to be good, but good like earlier teams, playing well, finishing in the top three or four of the tournaments in which we played, but not getting the first-place trpphy seemingly just for showing up. Not this.

What just happened here? Did we pass through some sort of time portal, transporting us back a year or two?

No. This was real. This was unexpected. This was great. This was very, very, very satisfying. About the only disappointment was that Heritage of Maryland wasn't there (see my last post).

Ladies and gentlemen, the three-time defending National Association of Christian Athletes Division 1 Volleyball National Champions, your Calumet Christian Patriots [wild applause].

Before the national tournament, there was also this little thing called the ICST state tournament that also occurred since I last posted. And, unfortunately, it was a little thing. It was nice to win, but the girls were never really tested in the four matches that led to the championship. That trophy is pretty cool, though. I have in prior years blogged about the crazy and sometimes unfair structure of this tournament. Some things have been cleared up, but the schedule is still problematic. That, and the huge difference in ability between the top teams and the bottom. The result of that was a cakewalk in Calumet's first game on Friday night. Indianopolis Lighthouse is a new charter school and their team was very poor. CCS won that one 25-4, 25-7. Next up was Granger, very early the next day. Our JV team played and beat Granger during the season, and the 25-11, 25-12 victory was expected. Several hours later (I sure hope the girls weren't too tired), it was Horizon, the hosts in the semis. They were better than what they looked like in the quarters, but the Patriots still won comfortably, 25-15, 25-17, 25-15. Finally, at 6:00 the championship game took place. Indy Silver Lightning, who the Patriots had defeated in the semifinals of the Calumet Invitational was the opponent. They had won a tough five-set victory over Heritage to get there. Not that they should have been tired as the final was many hours after the semis (did I mention that already?). Lots of dead time between matches. Anyway, they didn't put up much of a fight and CCS handled them pretty easily, 25-12, 25-18, 25-14, and the girls got another of those cool trophies shaped like a volleyball.

On to the big one. NACA. Dayton, Tennessee. Nine hours in the van and there we were, back on the mountain. As it has been the last two years, teams seeded to their division by play within their three-team pool. First place meant Division 1, second Division 2 and third division 3. Calumet had no trouble beating both of their pool opponents, perhaps too little trouble. After dispatching "The Rock" 25-12, 25-8, the girls had to play West Florida. Baptist. Little confusing as the West Florida Christian team last year was quite good. This was a different school, quite different. After winning the first 25-4, the girls got a little goofy and won the second 25-11. This made a big difference in the seeding, as the seeding within the divisions was determined by point differential After getting over some perceived unfairness in that system, we accepted it and tried to figure out where we would end up. Since NACA didn't post the scores, we didn't know where we would end up. When we finished the seeding was announced. We were third. We were disappointed, especially when we found out that Hearts for Jesus was the first-round opponent for the third seed. Chatting with the coach of the second seeded team right after the seedings were announced, we found out that we had the same differential. We talked to the tournament organizers who rechecked their numbers. Sure enough, they had made an error. This meant that we had to do a coin toss. We scrounged up the AD of the other team to witness the toss, and we won. Second seed. Much better. Aaron Academy would be our first round opponent.

Thursday at 10:30 we faced Aaron, a homeschool team from Tennessee. From conversations their people had with Coach Carr, it sounded like they thought they were very good. Maybe they are. Just not as good as Calumet. I'm sure they hadn't seen anyone like Ally, who was dominant in this match. She had eighteen kills, mostly big hits but some dinks. Aaron made their share of error, and after staying with the Patriots for a while in the first set, never challenged. Three straight kills by Ally in the second set closed out a 25-15, 25-14 victory for CCS.

Interspersed with the volleyball was some soccer-watching. CCS's soccer team was also at NACA and the girls supported the boys every chance they could. In addition, the girls followed the Hearts for Jesus soccer team, who defeated Calumet and pool play and would go on to win their seventh Divison 1 championship in the last eight years. This would pay off for the girls later on. Read on to find out how.

At 2:00 we faced Hearts. We lost to Hearts three years ago (who won the tournament that year) and defeated them in the championship two years ago when the Patriots won their first D1 crown. They were tough again this year. Just not tough enough. To be fair, our girls really stepped it up in this match, playing their best volleyball in a few weeks, and defeated Hearts 25-17, 25-17. Both games were close early with the Patriots slowly pulling away late. Ally had another huge game, scoring nineteen kills, but she got a lot of support from her teammates. That put the girls into the finals of the winner's bracket, Carroll Christian.

Carroll didn't look that strong in the game in which we scouted them, and played below that level in our match, which took place 12:30 Friday afternoon. They didn't make a lot of mistakes, but couldn't handle our hitting or our serving. We eased out to a 9-3 lead in the first set and sort of held that advantage throughout, eventually winning 25-16. The girls dominated in the second set, even to the point of having a LGFS. They led at one point 22-7, but then gave up six straight points due mainly to sloppy play - a classic LGFS. Ally got the team back on track with two kills and a net violation by Carroll ended it at 25-13.

We figured to see West Carolina in the championship, but in the loser's bracket final, Carroll really stepped up their game and defeated the Trailblazer, which meant that we would see Carroll again, the time in the championship match. The gym was full, including the Hearts teams who Calumet had connected with and with supporting the Patriots. The match began a little after the scheduled time of 9PM. It looked like it would be a repeat of the afternoon game, as after an Amanda ace (wow, five words in a row beginning with "a" - whoops, back to the game) the Patriots led 19-13. Carroll started showing some guile, scoring several off of well-placed dinks and while they lost 25-20, they were playing much better. We led 11-5 in game two when the wheels started coming off.  A couple of errors by the Patriots followed by a dink kill and an ace by Carroll and they were back in the game. Their big hitter really started firing, our serve receive got a little shaky, and Carroll eventually pulled into the lead at 15-14. They were really firing and blocking at this point, while our blocking was generally late,  and shut down CCS, eventually winning the set 25-18. CCS again got the early lead. At 11-8, Carroll gave us some of our own medicine, pushing the ball to the corner twice in a row. They followed this with a dink and a big hit to give them the lead. A hitting error tied it up, but another dink followed by a stuff of Ally made it 14-12. They made an error but a CCS net violation caused by a bad pass ended the set and the match.

Since this was our first loss, it meant that these two teams would immediately play each other again, this time for the banner. The first set was close early, and was tied at 8. CCS then had two hitting errors and it looked like CCS might lose the momentum again. Olivia dinked the next won for a kill to pull the Patriots back to within one and Mandi followed with a kill to tie it. It stayed close until, at 13-13, as the announcer said, it seemed like Ally (and the team) said enough was enough and it was time to end it. Calumet scored ten of the next eleven points, seven on kills by Ally and an eighth on a block by Ally and Faith. Carroll made a little rally but Stephanie put one down to win the set 25-19. Calumet rode the momentum right into the second set. The breaks and the good play were going CCS's way. Olivia dropped in a saving bump for a point after the girls made a couple of amazing digs. Ally managed to get her finger on a shoot set that was a little off to tip in a dink kill. Eventually the girls went up 12-3 and it looked like Carroll was done. Not quite. Carroll scrapped and fought to trim the lead to five, 16-11, but that really was their last gasp. They put on in the net on a scamble, which was caused by Ally's well-placed push. After an Ally dink, Carroll crushed their last kill to make it 18-12. They gave the point back by putting the next serve into the net. Mandi's serve then fell in, Ally killed one, then stuffed their big hitter. Their attempt at a kill off an CCS overpass went into the net to make it 23-12. The inevitable was delayed a bit when the next serve attempt went long. On the next volley, Carroll was called for a back row attack and then, on championship point, Carroll's kill attempt went into the net and Calumet Christian School is now the three-time defending champion of NACA Division 1, only the second team ever to do that.

I can only shake my head. What an unexpected championship. What a deserved one.