DarkArmani.net

Volleyball Tournament

I played in my second volleyball tournament this past Saturday since coming out of 3 years of retirement. It felt good to be back. My team ended up winning the B- (skill rating) tournament. We came out on top in our pool after beating the current first place team (Flying Tigers) in two straight games. I had my best blocking of the day against this team, completely shutting down their middle hitters for no kills and blocking for three straight points in a row including a back-row attack.

The team we played in the semifinals had two girls on their team and were all Asian except for their good middle hitter (i.e. I couldn't block him). Make all the east-west jokes you want, but they fit directly into the stereotype of every predominant Asian volleyball team I've ever played against. They could dig every ball hit at them. Ok, they didn't dig any of my middle hits, but they got a hand on one of my outside hits (which should not have even been touched). And their outside hitter was crafty. He could jump, he could hit the ball down, and more often then not he would crank the ball off the blockers hands out of bounds. Many people can hit the ball down, but not many people are smart enough hitters to be able to "use" a block like he did. We ended up beating them 15-13 in 3 games (remember they had girls on their team) after being behind the entire 3rd game!

In the finals we had to play the Flying Tigers again. Unfortunately, I didn't have as good of a blocking game against their middle hitters, and they brought a triple block on me every time. However, we beat them in two games.