Tuesday Night Volleyball

Tuesday Night Volleyball - Roseville Park & Rec.
Brimhall Community Gym (1744 West County Road B)
( Captain: Craig Schlichting)

Date	Time	Court	Record	How'd we do?
October 16	7:30	3	0-3	Okay, I heard we had a tough start (poor warm-up, serves in the net, couldn't get hits down). All fixable if you ask me... and they were close games. Look out below... we're about to bring our A-game.
October 23	7:30	3	0-6	Well, serve percentage went up, balls hit out of the gym went down... and overall (as the night went on) we started to find our game. Still try to figure out positioning and blocking, but the raw materials are there. With a little sculpting, we'll start improving on that 0% winning percentage.
October 30	6:15	1	3-6	Tsssshhh (the sound of Bic burning her finger on Salty). Yes sir, he was on fire (course, Craig reserves the right to save his hot streaks (Pepitos?) for times of need) and he guided us to our first wins (three to be exact). Sure, they only had four players (one of which was a bit temperamental), but it's nice to get into the W column. I'm sure a sign of more to come.
November 6	8:45	1	3-9	Well, six pylons from the local high school parking lot couldn't pull it off and we dropped another three. Except for a couple smoke-downs by the Schlichtings and the first half of game two (yes, before they called a time-out), we were a little ugly. We're almost there... we just need to bring it all together... then someone's going to get it... oh boy are they ever.
November 13	7:30	3	5-10	(from Craig) It appeared that we were poised to defeat the second team (in our early VB history) with a dynamic start of 7-0, but the final tally of the first game 15-8 in favor of you guessed it, the other team. With the team trying to regroup, we couldn't help but think of how the abscence of a ref hurt our squad. We look to the refs for guidance and to keep a decent flow to the game, but the odds were stacked against us (especially without the reinactment of the Blondie Ref showing how Suki's butt hit the net). After laying an egg the first game we vowed not to lose to a group of 4 that didn't have a put-away shot in their arsenal. With their mental game in tact, a kong block by Schulte, back row hits by Jessi, superior setting by Bic, one arm backwards meat cleavers by Steph, veteran savy and just getting use to the feel of this team, and finally the unleashing of their hammers, Gang Green strapped their game faces on and destroyed their unexpecting opponents. Hey, 2 out of 3 isn't bad - then off to Old Chicago for some 'cool daddies'. At the bar the team realized that not always listening to what your own teamates are saying can be beneficial. Anyone else want to leave for a week, it seems to provide a spark, we missed you anyway Pat.
November 20	6:15	3	7-11	(from Bic) For some unknown reason, Craig and Bic's Adidas gear could not guarantee the team easy wins. We pulled out game one 15-8 with some hot serving and hits. Something must've been in the water during intermission, because we came back and laid a 2-15 egg. Team coaches and trainers are still investigating Big Head Pat's fits of panting and gasping for air. Disciplinary action (or perhaps pregame pizza rolls) may be in order. We managed to pull it together in the third game with scrappy play (god, those volleys were long) and pulled out a 17-15 victory with door-denting swings, bruising digs, and timely (about time) serves. A trip to Old Chicago afterwards had us still talking about passes. Forget that the "passes" that we were talking about concerned things like Wally Szerbiak, Ashley Judd, and Dillon McDermmott. By the end of the big meal, thoughts turned back to volleyball, as we strategized on showing up in a few weeks ready to "stuff it." Craig's strategy included some socks in the crotch.....Let the good times roll........ Also, we're pretty lucky to have played Michelle Pullis when we did... I shutter to think what would have happened if we played her Monday night team...
November 27	7:30	1	9-12	(from Salty) We hit the ground running, jumping, passing, spiking and blocking. We were cruizin' along like a finely tuned machine and took the first game 15-7. During the between game break someone from the other team must have put the whammy on us. Perhaps it was some kind of voodoo curse. Or maybe it was the ref not knowing what the heck was going on ("Did you touch that hit?" , "Were you in the net?"). Nevertheless, we sputtered along in the second game and were suddenly down 14-5. A timeout was called by our team leader, and it was just what the mechanic ordered. We rode the consistent serving of Steph to a miraculous 16-14 win. Although the win was great, the ending was very anti-climactic due to the winning point coming off of a person on the other team taking a screaming pass off the melon from her teamate and laying on the floor comatose for a few (seemed like ten or more) minutes. The third game was a classic battle. Long volleys, great hustle and digs (like the trio of great ankle high digs that culminated in Craig some how managing to get the ball over the net and land in bounds and all of us screaming and cheering like little school children - fabulous!) some monster spikes and well placed tips lead to back and forth scoring. Sadly though there could be only one outcome, and that would be us running out of gas before we reached our destination. We stalled and lost the third game 14-16. Suck. Kudos to our subs, yeah you know who you are, thanks for the stellar play.
December 4	8:45	1	11-13	Wigs, stuffing and my grumpiness to a late game call aside, this team has really come around with two more wins (and one loss). Good passes, perfect sets, killer hits and some scrappy defense... man, who would have thought it at the beginning of the season when we couldn't get a serve over the net? Now, we just work on our dancing and we're the complete team. Heck, some more play like this and we'll raise our expectations, get nervous before all of our matches and be pissed for days when we lose... I can't wait. One week left... and a change to get to .500 (no pressure here).
December 11	6:15	3	14-13	Well, we needed three wins... and low and behold... we got three wins (yippee! over .500). Must have been Nikko's aura from the sidelines (or maybe the not always great play of our opponents). And also... yup, the pigtails were a surprise (but maybe not as much as Steph's ketchup consumption). Now, don't get to chubby over Holiday break eating fruit cake and candy canes (a small outdoor hike might not be a bad idea to work off that egg nog). See you in January.