La Jolla Tournament
(all the games were livestreamed on the Facebook Group: UCHS Varsity Boys Indoor Volleyball 2023). Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Holzman!
The La Jolla Tournament is a big deal. Teams travel far in-state and out of state to play.
Friday's Open Pools featured some really high-level teams.
Francis Parker is good, and we hung with them, but played surprisingly flat, and got an L.
St. Margaret's was super good.
As Milton said in Paradise Lost, "It is better to rule in Hell than to serve into the net in Heaven" (wait, Paradise was a volleyball team?!). Saturday we had a chance to rule in next-best thing to heaven: Silver Division.
Preview: coming into the tournament, UC had only lost to two teams, it just lost to one team on two different occasions (Darn you, Bonita Vista!).
UC started Saturday's tournament at around 11:00am with some pretty good ball. The problem was their first match was at 10:00am. We lost that match to Cheyenne from Las Vegas in two close sets that everyone felt we should have beaten.
The team loosened up and played with energy for the next two (single set) matches. Then, to everyone's surprise, they got to play for the Silver Group Championship. Any tournament or season when you're playing in the last match is a good tournament or season.
We were playing Cheyenne again! Everyone was happy for the shot at redemption - and we felt we had a pretty good chance of a win.
UC played good ball. Cheyenne played better, taking a close 25-22 win for the Championship.
But, hey, 2nd ain't too shabby.
Cheyenne had a big celebration. They were really happy to have won.
Talking to their coach afterward, he said that they were a public school from an impoverished area of North Las Vegas. The kids and the team had limited opportunities to travel and the kids were just thrilled to be able to make the trip at all and we very excited to come see San Diego and the ocean. He had gone to school here locally at Centennial, so it was special for him as well.
Losing is never fun, especially in the moment. But it happens. Life is long, there are great moments and disappointing moments. Hopefully the balance is heavily towards the good side. But some disappointments can be salved and some losses are better than others. Cheyenne are good people, we just pocketed a Silver Division Championship a couple of weeks ago. Grace abounded on both sides. Cheyenne got a Paradise Win and we still have our San Diego Paradise.
Win, win.
On the other hand, they missed out on the WinSpin
Next Week:
Three Matches Next Week - Two at home!
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Tuesday March 21 |
Patrick Henry @ UCHS |
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Thursday March 23 |
@ Mission Bay |
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Friday March 24 |
Christian @ UCHS |
Grudge Match! Fill the stands as we "Welcome" Trevor back! |
Here's a link to our 2023 Schedule and Results: Schedule - 2023 Boys Indoor