Nationals - Day 3

Today was an important day. We were in a 4-team pool. Coming in first puts us in Silver, second in Bronze, third in Flight 1, fourth in Flight 2. We had Adversity (which we have beaten yesterday), SPVB, and HPSTL Gold (their top team).

Well the day did not start out so well. We went to lunch at Furr's, an all-you-can-eat place near the hotel, but the food was not so good and none of the boys ate that well.

Then we were completely flat against Adversity, our first match at 4pm. We barely won the first set, but couldn't get it together and lost the match in 3.

After a short break the boys ate some snacks and watched the 17s match. We then played Sports Performance, a taller and better hitting team than Adversity. We switched to a 6-2 line up to avoid their outsides hitting over Philippe, and as a team started playing much better. Even though we lost the match in 2, we were competitive against them, as shown by the scores 25-23 and 25-21.

Our last match was against HPSTL-1, who were the top team in our pool. They were a strong and tall team, and we struggled in returning their tough serves. We still hustled and played hard, but lost in the end. Even then, the scores were competitive, 25-16 and 25-19.

Everyone was disappointed, understandably. After such a high yesterday, we all felt bad for having dropped to the bottom flight. Our friends Pace, RVC, and 7 Cities are going to fight each other in Bronze. Eden and High Intensity, which we had both beaten earlier in the tournament, are in Flight 1. We are going to meet Rolling Thunder tomorrow morning, and if we win, will play in the finals of Flight 2.

Even dinner didn't work out. We were going to pick up sandwiches at Subway, and even though they told us they closed at 10pm, they did not answer their phone when we finished at 9pm. Having doubt whether they are still open, we walked to another restaurant, Champions. There, we waited a long time just to get the menu, and then an even longer time to get our food.

Tomorrow is another day. No matter what happens tomorrow, we will learn a lot from playing Open this year. We now know we can stay with a lot of these teams if we are able to focus and play our game. We need to be able to keep our intensity up not for just one match, or one day, but sustain several days, because everyday counts. We have shown flashes of greatness and great playing abilities, and with hard work, practice, and experience, we will become a more consistent and resilient team. Keep working hard, MVP15!