Volleyball Update:
It was perfect weather for volleyball last night. Lower 80's and perfectly still. We had 12 people so we played 6-on-6 because we decided that it was too much work to play 3-on-3. This led to a lot of great volleys and probably the best quality of volleyball we had played all season. People were talking and setting each other up and actually taking it somewhat seriously (in a good, competitive way). The games were all close because the teams were pretty evenly matched. I am slowly improving my volleyball skills, but I still have my moments of mediocrity. It was the second game of the night, and I was playing in the back row. We had a good volley going, and I could see that the other team was setting up their best player for a spike. Two of our best players were moving up to go for the block. The other team set their spiker up perfectly and he timed his jump just right. Luckily, our two blockers timed their jumps perfectly as well. It looked like it was going to be a sure block for our team. How could the spiker possibly get the ball past our two blockers? Just in case, I positioned myself behind them to go for the dig if they somehow missed the block. It almost happened in slow motion. The ball floated in the air for what seemed like forever. The spiker wound up, the blockers reached for the sky, and I got myself in position. Bang. The spiker hit the ball hard and sure enough our blockers were in the perfect position. It was surely going to be a block, until it wasn't. The ball sailed towards the blockers, and suddenly, their arms parted like the red sea. Now, the ball was coming towards me at a million miles an hour. I had set myself up for the dig, but the ball was higher than I expected so it was coming right at my face. There was nothing I could do. The ball hit me square in the nose; hard enough to knock my sunglasses clean off my face. My only redeeming act of the whole sequence was to catch my sunglasses before they hit the ground. How I had the wherewithal to do that, I don't know. After I made sure my nose wasn't bleeding and blinked a couple times to make sure I could still see straight, I looked at my sunglasses. Totally smashed. I was able to straighten them out for the most part this morning but I don't know if they'll ever be totally back to normal. The very next play, the other team had a really good serve and one of our players didn't hit it very well. It was moving quickly towards the sideline and to the ground. "Here's my chance to redeem myself," I foolishly thought to myself. I dove forward, fully horizontal, and I was going to hit the ball back in play. Until I didn't. The ball went right through my arms, bounced off the sand, and you guessed it, hit me square in the nose again. This time the only thing that hurt was my pride. I joked that I was just trying to straighten my nose back out after the last hit. I had a few plays that I was actually proud of but they aren't as interesting as getting hit in the face on back-to-back plays.
