Club volleyball officially ended on Sunday.
The culmination was a 3 day National Qualifier held in Minneapolis.
Our results, although not a bid to Nationals, surpassed our expectations.
We finished 31st out of 102 teams and competed for the Bronze medal.
Our 9 girls walked into the MPLS Convention Center that first night like they belonged there.
They were pumped!
We got court time for an hour to familiarize them with the courts and to relieve any jitters the enormous tournament site may cause.
The next day, reality set in.
Our first opponent was made up of tall… very tall, strong athletes.
They had a fire in their belly that I’ve seen before in elite teams.
I don’t think you can coach that kind of fire; it must just come from somewhere within.
Our tallest girl is maybe 5’9 tops.
Jordie is the second to shortest at a little over 5.5
“Intimidating”… we’re not.
That first match was short; leading us to believe it was going to be a very long weekend.
Next up was the #1 seed in our pool out of Colorado.
“Fierce” is an understatement; they won the first game.
Game 2 was ours, handedly.
The 3rd game may as well been for all the marbles.
The culmination was a 3 day National Qualifier held in Minneapolis.
Our results, although not a bid to Nationals, surpassed our expectations.
We finished 31st out of 102 teams and competed for the Bronze medal.
Our 9 girls walked into the MPLS Convention Center that first night like they belonged there.
They were pumped!
We got court time for an hour to familiarize them with the courts and to relieve any jitters the enormous tournament site may cause.
The next day, reality set in.
Our first opponent was made up of tall… very tall, strong athletes.
They had a fire in their belly that I’ve seen before in elite teams.
I don’t think you can coach that kind of fire; it must just come from somewhere within.
Our tallest girl is maybe 5’9 tops.
Jordie is the second to shortest at a little over 5.5
“Intimidating”… we’re not.
That first match was short; leading us to believe it was going to be a very long weekend.
Next up was the #1 seed in our pool out of Colorado.
“Fierce” is an understatement; they won the first game.
Game 2 was ours, handedly.
The 3rd game may as well been for all the marbles.
When we won it, our coach actually had to tell us parents to “Act like we’ve been here before”!!!
We were ecstatic, realizing that moment may just be the highlight of the weekend, possibly the season.
In retrospect, that match meant so much more than just a “W”.
It proved to the girls, they did indeed belong there.
And the better they played, the tougher competitors they’d draw, resulting in them raising their game over and over again.
It was a blast to watch.
Our nerves are shot.
And we can’t wait until next year.
To finish off our near perfect weekend,
Jordie and I, along with our travel buddies Kerri and Jamie K, pulled into a local dive in Osceola Iowa.
We were ecstatic, realizing that moment may just be the highlight of the weekend, possibly the season.
In retrospect, that match meant so much more than just a “W”.
It proved to the girls, they did indeed belong there.
And the better they played, the tougher competitors they’d draw, resulting in them raising their game over and over again.
It was a blast to watch.
Our nerves are shot.
And we can’t wait until next year.
To finish off our near perfect weekend,
Jordie and I, along with our travel buddies Kerri and Jamie K, pulled into a local dive in Osceola Iowa.
We needed to down some chow before hitting the road hard for home.
We were starving and Granny Grier's slogo on the billboard was enticement enough.
“Home cookin so good…
You’ll think we stole your Mother!”
We were starving and Granny Grier's slogo on the billboard was enticement enough.
“Home cookin so good…
You’ll think we stole your Mother!”
That pretty much sums up the weekend...
Mmm, mm… Good!
Mmm, mm… Good!
