I knew I left this blog somewhere.....

So, where were we? Oh yes, we left off at the end of last season, so I guess it's time to pick things up again, since apparently another season has started. So here we go.

When we last saw the Calumet Christian Patriots, they were celebrating yet another national championship at NACA, I believe the third D1 championship in a row. This was the sixth tournament championship of the year - Argos, Kankakee Valley, Calumet, Quentin Road, ICST and NACA. So of course one of the goals for the new season will be to defend the championships. But wait - we weren't invited back to one of them. It must be KV, right? We had beaten them the last three years in the championship of their own tournament, they were a public school, their coach didn't like us much? Nope, not that one. Perhaps it was Argos, where the competition was pretty weak and we didn't really fit in there. Nope, wrong again. Well, maybe it was ICST, where we had had some differences with the people that ran it and maybe they got fed up with us pointing out some unfairness in the way the tournament was set up. Nope, not that one either. Quentin Road, a tournament that CCS had been in for many years, a tournament that was our favorite to go, one in which we had some epic battles on the court but got along with the people that ran it very well - yes, that one.

Most of you know what went on with that. Essentially it boiled down to that they didn't want us winning their tournament for the fifth year in a row. Whether or not that is a valid reason is debatable(shouldn't a team be able to defend their title? should excellence be punished?); the way they told us is not. We were told that they were scaling the tournament way down, lowering the level of play because their team was very young and inexperienced. And they told us this right before the season was to start. A few phone calls revealed that every other team was going to be returning, including the team that took one set from us and the one that challenged us in the final. We were lied to. And to not tell us until the season had started and it would be very difficult to schedule anything to replace it, that makes it even more sordid. So we won't be able to see the friends that we only see there, and sadly, the tradition of skipping up the entry road is abruptly ended.

Anyway, on to the games. After an opening win over Community Baptist was accomplished without Ally, who tweaked her shoulder at camp and was kept out for precautionary reasons. The win probably could have been accomplished without the entire varsity team as the Patriots rolled 25-15, 25-12, 25-7. It was a good warmup for the first tournament of the year, at Argos High somewhere in the hinterlands of Indiana. We won easily last year and the same teams were back this year - us, Hammond Gavit, Goshen Blue Blazers and the host team. Gavit was our first and toughest opponent. The girls were completely out of sorts in the first set. Primarily due to their errors, the fell behind 12-3. Coach reluctantly put Ally in. Just her presence seemed to settle the team down. They caught them at 18 and roared past them on the way to 25-19 game win. They had no problem in the second and cruised to a 25-12 win, with Ally on the bench. Against the hosts in the second game they started slowly again but this time Coach did not put Ally in. At 17-17 they ran off five straight, then held off the Dragons in the 25-22 win. Again they had little trouble in the second game, winning 25-14. The last game against Goshen Blue Blazers was then for the win. Again they had the easier time in the second game, but this time the first game wasn't really ever in doubt. After CCS got out to a 12-8 lead, Goshen never got closer in the 25-19 win. The second was their easiest of the day - 25-11. 2013 trophy #1 was checked off the list.

The first real challenge of the year was the next game, against Merrillville. Ally's shoulder was feeling better and so she was in the starting lineup. Merrillville has always been very athletic but a little ragged in their play. This year their defense was vastly improved - just not improved enough. Game one went back and forth, with Calumet getting a small lead and the Pirates catching up. CCS eventually took a 23-20 lead and it looked like they would wrap it up. However the Pirates found the holes with a couple of dinks, and then after a CCS hitting error, pounded one down. Now the Patriots were looking at a deficit. Ally stopped their run with a kill, but then a very sharply cut kill by Merrillville was followed by a dink by CCS that dropped just wide and Merrillville, as they did last year, grabbed game one. The second game was even tighter. From the midpoint on, neither team had more than a two point lead. Eventually MHS want up 24-23, but Olivia crushed an overpass to tie it. Then it was error, CCS; kill, Ally, error CCS. But with Merrillville at game point again, Ally dinked it twice where they couldn't return it, then Faith made a big block and CCS won set two, 28-26. That seemed to get the Patriots settled. They led 6-5 in game three and never relinquished the lead, eventually taking game three, 25-19. That seemed to take the life out of the Pirates, and they made a lot of errors in the 25-12 game four clincher.

Last week the Patriots went out to Schaumburg and beat them without Ally again who was resting her shoulder. CCS did drop game one against the scrappy opponents, but won games two and three easily (Illinois plays best-of-three matches). The biggest news of the match was that Olivia hurt her knee. I wasn't at the game, but when I heard about it, it brought me back to 2009 when Kara broke her wrist in the first match of the year. Hopefully we will get good news in a couple of weeks and she can get back to playing again. Without both Ally and Olivia, the girls had a rematch against the Goshen Blue Blazers. The remaining players did well and managed to defeat the Blazers in three straight, although all of them were close - 26-24, 25-20, 25-23.

Saturday was the big day. Lafayette Central Catholic - the only tournament the Patriots have played in more than once that they haven't won, the tournament that provided the toughest competition they face all year. To set the scene, CCS is placed in by far the toughest pool (CCS, Andrean, the #4 team in Class 1A and a 4A team that beat us last year), no Olivia, and not sure at what percent Ally would be playing. Andrean would be first up. We had beaten the 59ers the last two years at this tournament. In 2011, they were one of those we defeated in sweeping pool play. Last year they were the only team we beat in pool play. We always like to beat Andrean because the NWI Times favors them and it helps our rankings. This time we faced them without Olivia, which then involved some rotation changes. This combined with the fact that it was an early morning match did not bode well for the Patriots. That foreboding was accurate. CCS did stay with them until, tied at 6, Andrean went on an 11-2 run, fueled by their good hitting and our general poor play. Andrean increased the lead gradually from there, eventually winning 25-13. It looked like the Patriots made the adjustment to Olivia's absence and did their usual turnaround from the first game doldrums they suffered from all year. They led 4-1, 6-3, 9-5 and then 13-6. We got stuck in a tough rotation for us in which we had trouble generating offense. Andrean scored six in a row. CCS pushed the lead back to five at 20-15, but then that tough rotation came around again. We couldn't generate much offense and they were hitting on all cylinders offensively. Ten straight points and the Patriots were done, 25-20, thus ending their chances to win the tournament. Or so I thought.

Loogootee, the #4 ranked team in 1A in Indiana, was up next. The closest we had gotten to winning this tournment was in 2011 when we lost in three to Loogootee in the championship. They had height; one of our middles was out. A steep, uphill climb, one would think. One would be wrong. When Loogootee wasn't hitting it into the net, they were shanking serve receives. Everyone was hitting and everyone was blocking and after a Mandi ace it was 18-6. Then they woke up. They got within two at 19-17, then within one when we went into the net on a block at 24-23. Faith finally ended the drama with a nice kill. The second game started like the first - Calumet eventually taking a 18-8 lead. No fading this time. Mandi finished this one with a kill, a 25-14 victory.

We then watched Andrean play Loogootee. It dawned on us that if Loogootee beat Andrean, those two teams and we would be 2-1 in pool play as long as we took care of business against West Lafayetee. Since there would be three-way tie, the head-to-head tiebreaker wouldn't be valid, so it would go to least points given up. Our hope then was that Loogootee would win in close games, preferably in three. We got our hope. Loogootee won in two, but Andrean scored more than twenty in both games. We quickly totaled the points to see how many we could give up yet still win the tie breaker. The number was 27. 28 and we tie, 27 and we go to the championship. 33 and we finish third in the pool.

West Lafayette, the weakest team in the pool, was our opponent. They made their share of errors, but we were playing well too. The lead gradually grew throughout the game, although when WL scored two in a row, we all held our breath. The lead was 12-4, 16-6, then 21-10. WL cooperated by putting three hits into the net over the next four points, the other coming on a kill by Ally. 25-10, and we could give up 17 in the second and still make to the championship game. The girls thought they would add drama in this game. The girls made several hitting errors and just looked like they thought they were already in. But after a dink kill by WL which gave them the lead, 9-8, Faith turned the momentum with a kill. This began a run of seven straight which turned into a 12-1 run. After one more WL score, Ally ended the 25-11 win with three blocks (one solo, two assists) and two kills. Points given up: 21. Place we would be playing for: 1st. We confirmed that with the tournament official (who was dealing with a whining Andrean coach) and then found out we would be playing the host team, #7 in 1A, Lafayette Central Catholic.

The opening game went very similarly to the first Loogootee game. Ally powered the team early, then Faith took over and the lead got up to 16-10. Their tough little (5'6"? 5'7"?) lefthanded sophomore hitter started pounding the ball and our play got a little uneven. Eventually the Knights caught the Patriots at 23. Again Faith came through. First a kill, then a nice block with Ally gave the girls the game 1 win, 25-23. We fell behind 4-1 as they came out firing. The Patriots pulled even, then stayed even with LCC to the set's midpoint. Their power game was working well, and after a block and kill they pushed their lead to 21-16. A Faith kill (sound familiar? sound like 2011?) put one down, but that was it for the Patriots. LCC finished the 25-17 game two win with two kills. Game three, which would be to fifteen, started poorly. Ally opened then scoring, but LCC answered with two kills, then a serve dropped between two CCS defenders. Another defensive lapse let to another ace. 5-1, LCC. Ally blocked a kill attempt, the got the same treatment from LCC's blockers. Ally put one down, then after a scramble we went into the net. Ally dinked one to the floor, they hit into the net, then Ally scored from the back row. Grace then stuff-blocked a Knight kill attempt and it was tied at seven. The down ref then made a call on the next point after consulting with the up ref that LCC went into the net, but the Knights answered with a nice cross-court kill. We hit one into the net; they served one into the net. They got a kill that hit our block and dropped staight down on our side. A Patriot dink attempt went wide. Faith put one down, then their #6 crushed one. At 12-10, our kill attempt got stuffed;13-10. We caught a break when then served into the net. Ally killed one to bring CCS to within one. They matched that kill to get to championship point, 14-12. Yet another Faith kill put that off for one more point. Then inexplicably they attempted a slide, which I don't think they tried that more than once or twice all match. It went into the net and the game was tied again. Lauren found a hole just over the block down the line. The final point, memorialized in video on Facebook, most of you have seen. A nice save by Cassie to pull the ball out of the net was hit hard by Ally. The middle defender got a hand on it but it went up behind and the the right of her. The attempt to chase it down was futile and the CCS Patriots were the champions of the 2013 LCC Invitational, something none of the great teams of the last four years were able to do.