We played Rolling Thunder in the semi-finals. This team was not as tall as some other teams, but they played very good floor defense. We beat them in 3 sets.
For the finals we met HPSTL Navy for the third time in this tournament. We had lost to them on the first day, beaten them on the second day, and now we met them again.
Because this team had lost to us on the second day due to great plays from our middle blockers, they adjusted well to playing our team, and crushed us the first set. We needed to make some adjustments during the second set, and with Kevin getting a good rythm at opposite, we were able to put Paul at outside. We were down by 4 points and clawed our way back to win 25-23. This adjustment worked so well that we decided to keep Paul in as outside to replace Ricci, Kevin as opposite, Adam still as the other outside, and Ricci as the Libero. Henry came in as the backrow specialist for Paul, and Justin came in the back row for Adam. Philippe did a good job mixing up the sets, and we pulled off a win at 15-13 on the last set! What a win! It felt so great to win the flight and end on a high note.
Here is our winning team picture with the team plaque. Can you see what is different about this picture?
Now came the fun part of Nationals: jersey trading. The boys laid out their jerseys like vendors at a flea market.
Some of the boys walked around to bargain and make their trades. Some found out it was harder than they thought to make a good trade. 
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But in the end everyone was happy with their trades. Here is a picture of their best trade. Samuel, who loved to trade with the Puerto Ricans, has gone from "Chuky" (last year's bag pack) to "Migue" (this year's jacket.) You can now call him Chuky Migue.
Finally the boys had enough of the jersey trade and we took them to Chick-Fil-A for dinner. At dinner, all the boys presented a signed golden volleyball to Coach Phil. What a thoughtful gift! It put tears into Coach Phil's eyes.
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