Arcadia Tournament

Saturday, Sept 19th we got up at 6:30 am in order to be at Arcadia High school by 7:45 am to get ready to play in the Arcadia high school varsity tournament. The first match started at 8:30 am against Bell Jeff high school. WC easily won in 2 games, with many of the second string getting some playing time. After the first match, Erin complained of being tired and not feeling well, just an overall weakness and tiredness. But she had to push through it. I kept praying God would give her a second wind. She ate and drank some water. The second match was against Diamond Ranch high school. Again we won easily in 2 games. The were off for 2 matches after that and rested and played card games. Some of the parents had brought two Scrabble boards and were playing at one table. We got to camp out under an open structure that housed 10-12 lunch tables at Arcadia high, which were next to the gym. It was great because it provided both shade and tables! The 3rd match of the day against Monrovia high school proved to be the biggest challenge in pool play. They had a great hitter who hit well from any position. But once again, although it was a bit more difficult and took more energy, they were able to win in 2 games. Afterward, Erin was shaky and weak, and felt like all the food in her stomach was just sitting there in a knot. We had to wait for all the other pool play to finish before we started playoff games, so she rested, and drank some Gatorade, and whimpered about not feeling good. She had brought along her overnight stuff because she was planning to go with Katie Hunter and a couple of the other seniors on the team to a Senior class campout at the beach that had started earlier in the weekend. But as the day wore on, she knew she wouldn't be able to make it to the campout. She was just too tired and not feeling 100%. Before the first playoff game, she finally told Coach Hunter that she wasn't feeling good, so in that game against Western Christian she only played front row, then Holly came in for her in the back row. We won fairly easily. Lindsay and I sat next to a lady who had coached Erin at Upward Basketball when she was in 6th grade. It was fun to reconnect with them. Their daughter is Erin's age and played on the Western Christian team. Soon after that match, WC played their second playoff game against El Rancho high school, and again won in easy fashion. So then we found ourselves in the championship game against the host school, Arcadia. By this time it was 5:30 pm, and it was a very hot day. The girls sat on the gym floor and drank water and gatorade and watched Arcadia finish up their playoff game against Monrovia high school. We were all a bit weary and wilting from the heat. After about 15 minutes, they started the championship best out of 3 match. The girls came out a little slow, making more than the usual unforced errors, so they lost the first game 18-25. But they regrouped, and decided they did not want to give up quite yet, and came back to win the second game. In the third game, they again had some unforced errors and had trouble passing on serve receive, so got down early 0-4 when Coach called a timeout. They proceeded to make up their lost ground and tie the game and then move into the lead. They were ahead with game point 14-11, when Arcadia made a short comeback of 2 straight points, before Stephanie set the middle, Rebecca, and got a kill for the victory. It was such a relief to have it done, and to have won the championship! Arcadia had a jungle-ball style of play that drove us all crazy. They didn't run an offense very much so it threw our defense off a little bit, until our girls started to adjust to Arcadia's unique junk ball style. WC continued to run their offense however, and justice was done when they were able to win because they played the game with integrity and strategy. We finally left the gym at 7 pm, exhausted and emotionally drained from a long, hot day of volleyball. When we got home, we turned on the air conditioner, ate a little bit, and went straight to bed. Yet another 12 hour day of volleyball in a long list of others.