bump - set - spike!

Today I played in a volleyball tournament with some coworkers at the Harry Gerome sports complex in Burnaby (the white dome on Barnet Hwy). The tournament was hosted by some other coworkers and is an event that the Social Club participates in. This is my second year playing and I suck just the same. It's a very casual event - which equates to people just showing up to play. The skill levels range from a couple of players that are international v-ball players to those that have never played before. Our team fell in the middle (or closer to the bottom) of the skill scale. Normally we like to have (social club) "executive member" participation at all events, so that means going to things that we normally wouldn't go to.

The game was from 9am - 3pm with an hour lunch in between. We weren't able to find that many girls to sub in this year (I think those that played last year had no interest in coming back this year). So Robyn and I groaned at the thought of having to play 6 hours straight. Luckily one of the guys brought his girlfriend and she sub in for us. Rules dictated that there has to be 2 girls on the court at all times. :-) Lets just say we're the weakest link in our team. We showed great sportmanship though. Many teams slaughtered us and we went from playing on the blue courts to being sent to the courts on the outside of the main arena. :-) At one point I took a spike in the face. Pro: I reacted fast enough to turn my head slightly and not get it straight in the face. Con: I thought my face had caved in and was crying opening from the shock and pain. That's right - pain over came any feelings of hesitation or dignity for not crying in public. The good thing was that the spike came off of one of our blocker's finger tips so it wasn't at FULL speed. Ah...silly me...thought for sure that it was blocked. In any event the guy who did it felt totally bad as everyone rushed over to see if I had broken my nose, etc. I tried to croak out an "I'm OK" but couldn't really get past the gasps and tears. Lol...I'm a wimp but it BURNED like hell and I couldn't open one eye. As I sat on the bench with my ice pack on my face, I wondered if I would have a black eye for Mother's Day. How lovely that would have been. On the bright side though...the other team felt bad so they restrained from spiking and resorted to tipping (which is equally hard to defend against). I sat out the rest of the game but was back on the court for the next round. Can't say I'm not a trooper!

We were happy to have played against really good players though as it was cool how they did some of their moves and many of them astonished me with their vertical reach (for shorter people). I'm quite impressed with those players that can rush forward for a power spike and at the last second turn their arm and send the ball cross court to the other side. :-) We anticipate cross court spikes but are always surprised by tips or ones where they change the direction of ball as they hit it. I think I'll let Chicky play the competitive volleyball. I'm alright with messing around with beach v-ball with friends.

Here we are watching the top 2 teams in the tournament battling it out. Their teams consisted mostly of league players. I'm proud to say that one of my coworkers in my department plays on this team. He's like 5'2 but can jump straight up (in dress shoes and work clothes) and reach a bit over a foot more than his height. He attributes it to isometric training. It was great watching those games (the teams on the blue courts) as the score is so much closer and the games are more intense. We had time to kill in between games because the really good teams would play 2 games against us in like 10-15 minutes. Kill us swiftly instead of dragging out the pain. Oh well...more time to watch and recuperate between games.