Senior Volleyball Season

I have been playing volleyball since seventh grade. It has been such a huge part of my life. Once in high school, I joined a club volleyball team that played from December to May. It was named Narrows Volleyball Club, and it was a huge commitment, but it was also when I decided I was going to do everything to get better at the sport. Each spring after this one, I played club volleyball. I also played for  Puget Sound Volleyball Academy and Club Wahine. The season that stuck out the most to me is my Senior season playing for my high school, Vashon High School. We had 14 girls on the roster. Only about half of the girls had played volleyball all year round. We had all played together since middle school, but no one was an all star. Beginning in August, we were all over the place. Serving balls into the net and out of bounds all the time, shanked balls flying everywhere and barely able to keep a play going. This was only the beginning. Once Varsity was set, we were able to get on track. WE knew we had potential, but we needed to prove it to ourselves. Our first match was going to be a huge test, playing a team we hadn't beaten in a few years. The day came, and the game was rough, but we pulled out our first win against Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma. We were crazy with emotion with this win, but we knew we had a long season. The second game rolled around, and we won again! Each game came and past, and each time we won! We even played our biggest rival whom our team had not beaten in ten years, and swept them in their own gym! With our undefeated season, for the first time ever in school history, we had an automatic seed to play in districts. We even got to host the first round, something that had not happened in years! Our first district match was against Lynden Christian Schoolon a Thursday evening in October, who was a power house. We took them to 4 sets, but we could not pull out a win. However, our season was not over then. The next Saturday, we NEEDED to beat Annie Wright School, Charles Wright Academy's sister school. If we won this match, we would go to the State tournament. After much waiting, that Saturday came. We had a great warm up, our nerves beating. Set one: we were not in the zone, we let them sweep us. Then came set two - we blew them out of the water, as we also did in set three. Not set four, we got a little too relaxed, and let them sneak up on us. This led to a fifth and final game to 15 points. Each point went back and forth with dig after set after spike. One point would go to Annie Wright, then one to Vashon. The score was 13-14, and the set went to 15, having to win by two, and we were down. We had the serve. The serve went over, and before I knew it the ball was set to Annie Wright's huge middle, and she smacked it down on our side. The game was over, and our hopes to go to State were crushed. This was one of the hardest moments I have had in my career of sports. Even with this, my team was the first team to go undefeated in schools history, and I am so proud to have been part of that.