sad volleyball update
So the team we played last night was listed as 2-10 in sets on the roster. So I'm like ok, we can do this. End of the first we were up 19-15 and DH lost the serve. They get a guy on serving who just starts hitting bombs. Really hard, fast serves. I think he served until they won, actually. First set was 19-21. At some point during that set, one of our guys did a diving dig that went straight into my face. I lived though.
Second set I'm noticing that they are again serving really hard (they started with the same guy who ran us out). But the girls were really good too. Somewhere around 7 points, red shirt guy (the best server) got around five aces on us. It wasn't like we were really even close - we were shanking them into the sidewall - not even toward the net. So we're eventually down 16-20 and I'm up to serve. I'm like welp, hopefully I don't do like my first serve and just hit the net. I serve a couple times and then purposefully start ignoring the score because I know I've got a mountain to climb so I'll just have fun. I finally have one serve go a bit too far left and it's short of the net by about two damn inches. ****. DH gives me this look.................I check the score and we had 19. If I had kept that serve in play, we may have tied it up. Sad face.
So third set I'm like ok let's just try not to drop this so we don't fall too far in the standings. They keep serving bombs. To this point in the season, I have seen one other girl (besides myself) serve overhand with any success. Most teams had at least two guys serving underhand as well. This entire team served overhand - and served well. Both of their girls did overhand and one had a wicked curving serve. We were down 13-17 and then got it to like 19-20. Guy ahead of me goes to serve and we get it tied up! He goes again. We go back and forth and it's back to me with the score at 22-22. So in this league, it's win by two but max of 23. So I go up to serve knowing that no matter what, I'm ending it. Que nerves. I hit a really nice, safe serve that's over and in. They have trouble with it and barely get it back over the net. Two of our people are there and one of them hits it and they collide. The ball is short and we yell but they weren't sure who hit it last (since both of them went for it) and neither reached up............and I watched the ball drop to the sand. So much sad.
So we got swept by a total of 5 points. Blah. On the way home I was like DH, how in the world were they a 2-10 team? Like our serving wasn't great but they were harder to play than the other teams who were much higher in the standings. Their guys were probably all six feet plus. Then I thought about how an email went out earlier in the week asking teams to be more considerate about no-showing and forfeiting. I have a strong hunch that this is one of those teams - especially since they had to play with 5 people as they only had two girls (had four guys, one had to rotate through). So I suspect they've been short on girls some weeks and had to forfeit as you need at least two girls to play. It would make a lot of sense because if they've been serving like that all season, there's no way they'd lose that many games.
So sad times but I'm glad I at least got that last serve over and didn't completely cost us the set.