Champions again…can you believe it!  Shelby’s team rolled through the PCBC v. Holy Redeemer VB tournament.  We ended up playing only one HR team, their 4th place team so that wasn’t much of a challenge.  Then we had to play two PCBC teams we had played in the regular season and PCBC tournament and had beaten before.  The games were much closer this time around.  The other teams had improved a lot, but we still were better. 

Our team actually did the bump, set, spike fundamental that makes for good volleyball.  None of the other teams did that.  They may have hit the ball three times, but it wasn’t on purpose.  Lots of balls off the walls, off the ceiling!  But the majority of our girls just did everything the way you want to see an improving team do.  We ended with only one girl who couldn’t serve over the net, but she did get one ball over in one game and made a point so that was very exciting.  If she had taken the game more seriously through the season, she would have achieved it sooner.  The main thing was they played as a team, they encouraged each other on every point.

Shelby was injured in the second game of the championship game.  She went down hard on her knee, I think her knee pad slipped right as she hit the floor.  We didn’t know if she would play any more but she came through and played the rest of the game after a brief break and was there for the tie breaker game.  That set the stage for our “Volleyball Diva” to come out. 

Shelby really punishes herself for any mistake she makes.  She had a lift call made on her that she just didn’t agree with and that set her off.  Add in the injury, it just wasn’t pretty for a while there.  Her coach told me he looks at it this was, Shelby is passionate about her play and that is a good thing, but there is a level where passion can become a detriment to your mind in a game.  When you reach that level of passion and go past it, you can shut yourself down in your head and that’s not what you want.  So while the passion is a good thing in a player, she needs to know when to not pass the line from passionate to petulant.  She is only 13 so she has time to work on this.  Shelby plays basketball the same way, she is her own hardest critic.  So we will work on this issue in the coming years.

Couldn’t end this post about the tournament without some photos of the twin towers.  Shelby & Stephanie did an excellent job at the games and we are so proud of both of them.  Go Double Champion Rainbow Warriors! What a Season!!!!!!