Friday Night Volleyball Intramurals

Since I came to Cortland I have been part of 3 friday night volleyball intramural tournaments. These tournaments start at 8 pm and usually do not finish until 1am in the morning. My previous 2 experiences in this tournament have been a success to an extent. My teams have always been the best team but just we did not finish strong nor win, suffering our only past 2 defeats in the finals both times. This tournament our 3rd one was a little different. It was the first tournament we had a full roster of 6 players. We usually have 5 and play down a player. This makes it a harder challenge to cover more court and watch out for the dinky tips and put backs right over the night in the open spots. We lost in the previous two but this time we were not letting this happen with 6 people ! Every tournament we were undefeated until the finals, last night we lost our first match of the day in a hard fought battle that went to 3 games to lose by 2 points. After this match we knew we were the best team their and if we just played our game we would win. We made a change in the line up that just brought constant success for us. We have myself setting when I was in the front and a female setting in the front when I was in the back. The key is to have a great female setter since a female must touch the ball before it goes over the net. When I was in the front, our strategy was for a female to pass the ball to me to dish off a perfect set to our star hitters Matthew Lertora and Christian Outcault but they were in the back row so they had to swing from their or I had to tip if over or set it to a girl. This was our hardest rotation on us but once we got out of it, myself in the back row we just feed the beast. Matthew had every ball until he got blocked or choked, both which rarely happened. When he was not an option Christian knew it was his time. He pounded the ball when we needed him to do so and he played his game. We had one sick rotation that both our hitters were in the front row and I was just passing nails to our setter while she set the dimes for the kill. Our motto was "roll with it" and "relentless." Every point we had to roll with it and get a few more right after it, don't take it easy be relentless and keep pushing until the game was over. The finals came and we were in it, which we expected before the tournament even started. We were facing the team who beat us in the first match of the day. They were all grad students who have played or coached volleyball before in their lifetime. They didn't expect us to come out strong and we sure did. Coming off a 15-4 win in the semi finals just gave us wind in our sail to sail away. "Good Pass, Good Set, GOODNIGHT." Ball after ball went to Matt and he just kept doing his job. He finally got blocked and we went to Christina who was hungry and he ripped the ball into the ground. We went on to win the first game. Filled with energy from the first win in set one, we left started right where we left off. We went on a run and the score was 14-11, game point for us since we were only playing to 15. Here I must say we choked. We had trouble getting a pass to me to set Matt. Our passes went cold real quick. 12,13,14,15,16,17 in the matter of 3 minutes. We blew the set. It was now set 3. DO OR DIE. I called my team into a huddle and simply told them. We are not losing I am not going 0-3 in the final. They all agreed and we knew we should of one the previous set. They did not beat us, we beat ourselves. We started out pretty good. Battling point for point one after another. It wasn't until we were both tied at 6 all until we took a lead 8-6. They got the next point to make it 7-8 us. We were served a easy serve that they regretted, the pass was pretty than ever, the set was high, the ball was CRUSHED. Christian ripped it from the outside. It was now my time to serve. My goal was to be relentless and rip my jump serve. I tossed the ball high, took my approach and ripped the ball over the net on the serve. We won the next few points to make it 13-7. We needed two points to be crowned champions. I knew we could not let them catch and fire but we just didn't have any water in the area for the next few points. They scored until they got to 10. 3 points in a row until we won a battle of tipping . It was now game point. I was filled with adrenaline and screamed, " ONE AND DONE." My team knew what I meant! The ball was served over and they passed it well and got a good set off. There outside hitter came in hard and hit the ball crossed. I was in the right spot at the right time and dug the ball to our setter. She set Matt the ball high to the outside. Everyone knew Matt was getting it before the serve was released but the problem was THEY WERENT GUNNA STOP HIM. Matt flew in the air like Michael Jordan and pounded the ball through their double block......CHAMPIONS we were for the FIRST time in 3 tournaments. Me and Matt ran and hugged each other in joy that we finally got our T-shit. What we been playing for forever was finally achieved. The streak of losing in the finals was now over.