Not only was it fun watching her play, it's a nice break from my bonus kids, who stay with their awesome respite provider, and we all have a "break".
I LOVE IT Infinity x google.
Mostly because I have become a volleyball addict, and I must have my fix.
I haven't really talked about our first tournament. It was at the Cox Center first weekend of January, and if you have never been to a tournament (which I hadn't been until last year), you are all "ranked" and then placed, by ranking, into "Pools". There are 4 teams in a pool, and according to "rank" you play 4 games through your pool and the winner.& runnerup of the pool goes to "Gold Bracket", 3rd place goes to Silver and 4th in pool goes to Bronze, or refs, if there isn't a bronze bracket.
So in January, we killed in our pool. We swept it, and moved to Gold Bracket. We aced our first game in bracket, and then in the semi-finals, might as well have laid down on the court, and let the other team just wipe us up, because that's what happened. It was an embarrassing slaughter. Each game has 25 points, and we basically GAVE 19 of those points (in each game) to the other team. It was embarrassing, and Hallie was so frustrated. We did take 3rd, and the team that beat us went on to win it, so frustrating or embarrassing, we still did good.
Fast forward four weeks to our first tournament. We are in Texas, and Texas takes their volleyball VERY seriously. In fact, in a pool of 64 teams, we were ranked 50th. That's totem pole low. And in our individual pool, we were ranked 3rd of 4. This never bothers me, because they think we will be an easy win. Our first game, before I had even worked the sleepy out of my eyes this morning, was against the #1 team in our pool. We spanked them. 25-15 to 25-21. I was so surprised, because the coach let Hallie serve today. She normally is a front row player and leaves the serving to the strong back row players. But today, coach let her serve, and ZOINKS, so proud of her.
In the first game, beating the #1 seed, Hallie had3 blocks and served 4 aces and hit 3 kill shots. That was a decent game right there.
Then in the 2nd game, we played the #2 seed, and didn't even look like the same team. I kept grandma stats today (longhand and only I can read them), and we had so few errors on the first game, and an entire page of them on the 2nd game. Lost the first set to them 15-25 (they spanked us), but Hallie had a great game, 3 blocks and 2 serves, and 1 10 ft kill shot (hard). then we came back second match and won 25-22.
Third game was with the 4th seed, and we beat them handily 25-16, 25-14. Hallie had 3 blocks and 3 kills.
So with the final tally, we took 2nd behind the #2 seed, who beat us in our pool by 4 points. That isn't shabby, people. We represented.
With Hal Smacking her gum all the way like the redneck she is. "Gum keeps me having fun". Whatever, I will buy stock in Juicy Fruit if that's going to have her play like that.
Fun was had people, and tonight they all went to eat at a nice restaurant, and dressed up, since they all missed their "Semi-formal" dance at school to be here.
It all boils down to commitment and stamina, and these girls have it. We will see how they do in the Gold bracket tomorrow. Bet we are the lowest ranked team to make the gold. Whatever happens, we can walk away with our heads held high, because we came and did the "Dang Thing".
You know your kid is doing something right, when the snarky loud grandpa from the other team says to the other parents around him, as YOUR kid walks off the floor, "Good! I'm glad that girl is getting off the floor". Yeah, you old fart, that "GIRL" is my kid and she just ate your kid for breakfast. BUT, I took the deep cleansing WWJD route, and just smiled and said, "Yep, that's my daughter". Shut that old jackhat right up. :)
Ain't sports fun?
P.S. If anyone has a brilliant idea on how to video these things (short of hiring someone to do it), I would love advice how to get these things down for college recruitment. She had some plays today that I would love to send all over North America. Don't say I can do it, because do you know me at all? That's really not an option. I don't even take pics at these events because I think it jinxes us. :)
P.S.S. There were MANY other brilliant plays by other brilliant players on our team, so please don't think I wasn't appreciative of all of them, I just kept better notes on my kid. Or at least the ones I can read. I know it must have been a good shot when I accentuated it with !!!!!!!!!'s and a circle. I'm a weirdo.
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