Volleyball Nationals - Dallas 2005!!!!

Oh My Word!
I have been so outdated with my blog. Where to start?
Two weekends ago, I went to Dallas for Gay Volleyball Nationals. Tweedy and I got this nice room at Hyatt (the host hotel) at the 22nd floor with a beautiful view of the city. Side note: The hotel ended up being $50/night. My friends had been passing around the info that we could get those rates though Priceline.com. One of those sites that you give your offer and they come up with the hotel around the area desired. The room was very nice and the King Size bed was delicious. I knew I would be having problems to get up at 6am in the mornings. There were some elevators with panoramic view of the lobby, plus the speed of it made me feel like I was in the ‘Maliboomer”, that ride from ‘California Adventures’ we are thrown into the space and back…
Since I was playing BB division this time, I knew I would probably be frustrated many times with the level of play but I also knew I was playing with a group of very special friends and I would have to tone down my temper. The first day of games was fun. We had been practicing for the past two months and we kind of knew each other already. We lost some games we knew we could have won and in the end we finished the day in 18th place among 40 teams, with a record of 4 – 4 for games won and lost. On Saturday, the second day of pool play, we did better. We won 6 games and lost 2, which guaranteed us a 12th place. We were all happy with our seeding and with our performances, since we started stepping up our games little by little as the Tournament progressed.
On Saturday night, after all the 8 matches of pool play were over, the elimination rounds started. Every team would play one round of eliminations and then go home. If the team won, it would start in the winner’s bracket the next morning. If lost, the team would have to fight their way in the loser’s bracket. After two losses, a team would be out of the Tournament.
We would play against Dallas Round up, a team supposed to be a big favorite for the Top Five, according to early predictions. We, then changed our shorts, advised by our A player, the veteran Robert “Logan” Reguerra. Logan had insisted that for the elimination rounds we wore red because that was the color of victory and success… in my mind too superstitious, but I played along and got some red shorts…
The Battle was about to begin. As dramatic as could be, we started losing the first game out of three. The second game we dictated and were able to open up some points ahead and just keeping the distance to the end.
For the third and decisive 15 points game, we had the momentum but we should never relax. I started serving, with strategic serves behind the setter we opened 7 points to zero. That was a big margin and all we had to do was to administer to the end… and we did it!!! In the end, for the huddle, we called “RED”… That night we all went back to the hotel happy and satisfied with the team’s performance. Many people came to congratulate me and made comments about my smart serving on the third game (Tie-breaker). We were even happier to know that most of all the teams from California had been successful in their first elimination match.
The next morning we would play against another team from Dallas, the Cheerihos. Another good team. Once more we started losing the first game and came back in the second game. The tie breaker was amazing. We got some advantage but soon they took it out and passed us. When the score was 11 X 9 for the opposite team, Brandon, our tallest and most intimidating player, came to the front row. With smart servings from Logan, we blocked three hits in a row from Dallas. With a nice Combination in the middle between Randy and Brandon we closed the match at 15x13!!! CRAZYYYY!!! We jumped and celebrated as if it was the finals!!!
Our next match would be against San Juan Slayers. SJS had defeated LA Riftide in a previous game and so we thought they would be possibly our most difficult challenge, specially because Puerto Ricans are very talented and slick players. Even though none of the games were easy and the score showed some tightness, we dominated and beat SJS in two games. Personally, I would say the two first matches were harder than this last one.
We were then at the semi-finals of the winners Bracket. Our next opponent was nothing but New York Severn, the favorite of favorites to get the gold medal. In the other semi-final, two team from West Coast too. Our very good friends LA Typhoon X SD Drama. We were all happy to have come that far.
On the first game against NY7, they crushed us. They were all tall and talented players, with a good defense and great setter. The hitters were so strong that they could hit over our blocks. In between games, we decided to try something new and invest in our middle block and outside hitter, changing some of our players positions. It worked and we beat NY7 on one more dramatic game.
For the tie breaker, we tried a new line-up and it didn’t work. NY7 opened up many points ahead(9x2). We were determined to fight till the game was over. Logan went to the service and once more we were able to break their pass. We were able to get close to them on 11x13. With a hitting mistake NY7 closed the game on 15x13. It was a beautiful match and despite our loss, we held our head high cause we knew it was a well played match.
So, now we were at the Loser’s Bracket. In my opinion, that is the toughest moment for a team. It is a like a break on its momentum. I told the team our biggest enemy would be ourselves and that we should play as if the tournament was starting them… Inside of me I knew I would be very down for being on loser’s bracket.
Our first match in the LB was against NY Poison, a team we had killed in the second day of games. BUT, now things were different. We were down and they were relaxed. We struggled every point and won the match, not very great performance if I may say. We played enough to beat them.
DC Freakasia, a team who had gotten two games from us in the first day of games was the next obstacle. For this game we were more relaxed. We had at least the 4th place, which guaranteed an award for ourselves already. So we started strong and we never gave any opportunity to DC to develop their games. We literally crushed them. As we played DC, Typhoon and NY7 did the finals. NY7 won, which meant that Typhoon was our next opponent. It was a friendly and weak game. None of the teams played their best. Typhoon was down probably because (like us games before) they had just lost a match, so it wasn’t to difficult to defeat them in a very mellow and uninteresting match.
So we were, unbelievably in the Finals!!! It was NATIONALS FINAL!!! Logan came to me and said “ I didn’t expect we would come this far!” and I said laughing “Neither did I.” The proof of that was that Logan’s return ticket to LA was 7pm on Sunday. Everybody knows that if you get to Nationals’ Final there is no way you can get a plane at 7pm on Sunday. Hahhahha
He missed the plane with pleasure that day.
Our last match against NY7 had no surprises. NY7 overpowered LA Rough Riders, as expected. After so many matches, we didn’t have much more energy to battle against a team that was obviously physically and technically stronger than ours.
We did play a nice volleyball and never gave up, but I have to say that for the audience it was probably a lil boring and predictable.
For us it didn’t matter. We were too happy with the second place.
I told my team earlier that in order for us to play against NY7 we would have to play in our limits, play like there was nothing to lose. It is easy to play as a underdog cause there is no pressure and then you can try anything, play with joy.
On the final match I didn’t hold back. I tried different combinations and jump served with full power. It is amazing what adrenaline does to your body. I remember while warming up I had no energy whatsoever to jump and spike the ball, whereas in the game I would go to serve, look at the other side, wait for the whistle, throw the ball in the air and swing away. I didn’t care where the ball was going…
I told the team not to hold back so we would not regret of things we could have done.
It was awesome.
I am just glad we all played fearless and fierce, together and happy. We all went over everybody’s expectations. In the end of the match we huddled and called ‘RED’ for one last time. When we faced the other side, in order to celebrate with the opposite team… “RED SHORTS” too… hahahahah