We were excited for Lydia's volleyball season this fall. We expected it to be a more challenging year because 5th and 6th grade play together. Lydia didn't know anyone on her team, so when we walked into the gym on the first night and saw all these very tall girls on her team - I thought to myself that this would be interesting. When I picked her up from practice, she reported to me that basically no one on her team had ever played volleyball before and her team was terrible. And it was true.
The way volleyball works, at this age anyway, is teams play "matches" in a "set" of three. The first two matches are played to 25, with one team scoring at least 2 more points than their opponent (25-24 would not be a win). The 3rd match is played to 15 as a tie-breaker if each team has won one match. Usually our teams would play 3 matches regardless. They were already there, so why not?
Lydia's team WAS terrible. They won a couple of matches, but lost every set during the regular season. Lydia was probably the most experienced player on the team and a very consistent server, but the team was awful at volleying. No one at this age is great, but her team just couldn't get their act together at all!
The big day of the tournament came and the brackets were set. Lydia's team was the worst-seeded team in the lowest bracket.
Then something crazy happened. They won.
They won their first match. They won their first set. They went on to win their set against their next opponent. And what we thought was going to be a short morning drew out into the afternoon. They found themselves in the championship game against a team that had obliterated them in the regular season. On that day, one of the players served 17 times in a row, because no one could volley it back over the net. But on tournament day, unfortunately - for the other team - their ringer served the ball out of bounds a couple of times. And Lydia's team won.
What a way to end an otherwise miserable season! The girls were elated! And they had learned a few lessons along the way. Like sometimes hard work really does pay off. Never give up. And some of life's greatest triumphs come when you've been knocked down.
