This is an inside look at the final 2 weeks of preparation for Nationals by the 18 Purple Circle City team. THE PREPARATION - 11 days until the first match at Nationals Friday, June 22ndThe team all meets at the airport at 5:45am to catch our 7:00am flight to Los Angeles . EPIC volleyball club had invited us out for some scrimmage matches against the toughest California teams. Teams we would play included San Diego VBC, Golden Bear, Cal Juniors, Long Beach and Epic. Epic is located in a suburb of San Diego .
The plane arrives in LAX at 8:47am with no problems other than hungry 18 year-olds since no food was served on the 4 ½ hr flight. We got our 2 rental vans and headed to San Diego . About halfway into the drive, we get a call that Kate Letcher left her passport and purse on the plane. Northwest was holding it at the counter. We arrived at our hotel Friday afternoon without further problems. We played SDVBC at 6:00 at their facility. Good team, but we were able to shake off the rust and beat them in 4. Next match was at 8:00 Saturday morning versus Long Beach .
Saturday, June 23rd6:30 am - My phone rings. It was Paige Weber calling to ask me for some Imodium AD. It seems Paige has been throwing up since 2am and the other players were getting up with her to help out since she was basically sleeping in the bathroom – and now we have to go play Long Beach with the player of the year in 6'5” Alex Klineman.
We arrived at the beautiful Epic facility and prepared to warm up versus Long Beach . The team was disappointed, as Klineman was a no-show. Paige was able to go – she just had to have the trash can nearby. We were able to beat Long Beach in 3. Next up was Cal Juniors. Paige wasn't able to go to start that match, so Sara Heldman stepped in and did a terrific job. We lost 23-25. Paige had regained enough energy to set again. We dropped the 2nd game 23-25. We won the 3rd game 25-22 and then lost the 4th game 23-25
Sunday, June 24thThe next morning at 8am we played against our host, Epic, and lost in 4 and then played Golden Bear. We beat them in 4 and dashed out of the gym to catch our 4pm LAX flight back to Indy.
Other than our gas tank running dry, to the point of the trip computer saying 0 miles until empty before finding a gas station, it was dash all the way. When we arrived at our gate, the plane was boarding. Good thing we didn't go 5 with Golden Bear.
Thursday, June 28thLast practice – Team is looking good. San Diego trip really helped get them to competitive mode. Jalesa Lee wasn't able to make the Cali trip but was really looking ready to step in against the tall opposing middles at Nationals. One hour of practice left and Jalesa comes down awkward and badly sprains her ankle. Hopefully this isn't a bad omen for Nationals. Questions arise – should we continue with practice? Will Jelly (her nickname) be ready to go day 1 in our first match?
NATIONALS WEEK Monday, July 2ndNationals start tomorrow. Everyone meets for an hour practice at the M1 facility in Minneapolis . We quickly find out Jalesa is not going to be able to play for a few days. We also see our pool where we are a 4th seed. Long Beach is the #1 seed ranked #2 in the Country. The #2 seed is 1st Alliance . #3 was Team Z, #5 was a very good Gene's Team from California , #6 was Front Range and #7 was VolleyFX. Our 8:00 am match day 1 would start with Long Beach , and our 11:30 match would be with 1st Alliance .
Day 1: Tuesday, July 3rdIt starts today with realistic hopes to medal if we can play well. Meet in the lobby of our hotel at 6:50 . Bad news – Lauren McIntyre is sick and not sure if she can go. But it's Nationals and there is no tomorrow for this team whose core has been together for 3 years.
We warm up, and this time, we do see Alex Klineman on the other side of the net. We start the match and drop the first game 21-25. We made many mistakes and seemed to worry too much about Long Beach and Klineman versus how we played. We tried to get the team to focus. That didn't work as we lost game 2, 15-25. Somehow, our team seemed calm though, and knew we weren't playing our best.
Game 3 - we made adjustments and moved Rebecca Murray to middle to block alongside 6'5” Kristen Seaton. That put 5'10” Katie Daprile on the OH instead of the 6'2” Murray . The change, and team confidence, was now clicking as we beat Long Beach 25-22. Game 4 was a dogfight, as Long Beach was determined not to let us get back in to it. Circle played tough, and won the most exciting game of the tournament 29-31. There were many great plays and long rallies by both teams.
Now it comes down to game #5 to upset our #1 seed, and move us that much closer to Gold. Game 5 was much like game 4 where Circle City 's great defense of Julie Sylvester, Sara Heldman, and Katie Daprile kept the Long Beach swings from hitting the floor. Circle City wins game 5, 15-12. It was a great win that took over 2 hrs to complete. Lauren McIntyre had struggled through the match. Now it was time to rest, right? Wrong. We had about an hour until the first swing of warm-ups versus the #2 seed in our pool. A win over 1st Alliance would put us in the driver's seat to win this pool.
11:30 am - The team looked a little listless in warm-ups so Corky and I are a worried about the emotional level for this game. Lauren McIntyre was looking too sick to be able to go this match, so we had to make some adjustments. The team seemed to respond though. We played very solid volleyball winning the 1st two games 25-18. We just need to win one more to close it out.
Game 3, 1st Alliance played great ball, and handled us 25-20. Game 4, we asked the team to dig deep, and bring whatever energy they could muster. It was a nip and tuck game. We had a match point swing at 24-23. 1st Alliance picked up our attack and converted - tied at 24. Two points later we lose game 4, 26-24. Game 5 saw our players too emotionally and physically exhausted to finish off the match. 1st Alliance controlled the ball and Arielle Wilson was unstoppable. We dropped the game 15-8. 1st Alliance had won their first match versus the #7 seed in 3 quick games. They are a good team. If we win out the pool, chances are we will still finish #1 as we expect Long Beach to beat 1st Alliance on the last day of pool play.
Day 2: Wednesday, July 4th Today we have VolleyFX at 8:00 and Front Range at 11:30 . Win these 2 and we are back in good shape to win the pool. We get some more bad news; Katie Daprile had sprained her ankle in game 3 versus 1st Alliance . She wouldn't be available for front row duty today. She had no lift. But at least McIntyre was feeling like her old self today.
The 8:00 match versus VolleyFX goes as we had hoped. We won in 3, 25-21, 25-14, and 25-21. The 11:30 match was against Front Range . They are a very young team with a lot of talent. Front Range showed that as they went 5 games with 1st Alliance in the 8:00 match. We could not take them lightly. We came out ready to go, and won the first two games 29-27 and 25-23. This team would not go away, but we were able to close out both games. Game 3 was going along fine with a 4 point lead midway through the game. And then it happens….just as Front Range was starting to struggle and lose confidence, we missed a serve. The momentum shifts as they serve a ball that clips the net and falls. A hitting error, and block, they were right back in the match. Just a reminder that every play, every point, is a critical one at the Open level where teams are so evenly matched.
We end up losing that game 23-25 and never did recover as the young guns on Front Range were sizzling like a hot piece of bacon. We were unable to make any adjustments since Jelly still wasn't healthy to play, and Daprile had no lift with her ankle. Front Range played flawlessly the next two games winning in 5.
Now we were in danger. Instead of looking to win the pool, we were now 2-2. Team Z has beaten First Alliance in 5, 16-14 in the 5th, and they lost to Long Beach in 4. Z was 3-1, 1st Alliance was 3-1, Long Beach was 3-1 and we were now sitting at 2-2 with Team Z and Gene's team to play in day 3. We would have to win both of our matches, and do it in 3 to guarantee our way in to a play-off match for gold.
Day 3: Thursday, July 5th8:00 am - Everybody says they are ready to go. We feel we have to win both matches in 3. We've played Team Z on day 3 the last 3 years at Nationals. As 16's, we won the first 2 and ended up beating them in 5. We had to win that year in 3 to make Gold. It didn't happen. Last year, as 17's, we were clicking to beat them in 3 in the crossover match to get to gold. What would happen this year, the last year of club for our entire team?
We came out hot, serving tough and playing at the top of our game, winning the first game 25-13. Team Z had won MEQ and were playing well here, so we knew it wasn't over. But, our backs were up against the wall. Lose this match, and the dreams of a medal were over. Team Z made a run in game 2, but we were able to hold on for a 27-25 win. This time we closed out a match after winning the first 2 with a 25-20 win in game 3. The pool tightens. 1st Alliance would probably end up 4-2, if we beat Gene's Team, were 4-2, and if Z beats Front Range , they are 4-2. I check the game percentages over and over again. All we have to do is beat Gene's team and we're in the top 3.
11:30 - Gene's team is a Jekyll and Hyde team. They've been good enough during the season to beat Long Beach , Epic, and TCA, but also have lost to the bottom seeds in our pool. Well, the good team definitely showed up as we lost the 1st two games 21-25 and 23-25. Gene's Team played the best defense I had ever seen in my many years of club coaching. Our team responded to the challenge 25-23 in game 3. Then word came to me that Front Range beaten Team Z in 3. I frantically checked the game percentages in case we lost to Gene's team. We were guaranteed the play-in match even if we lost the next 2 games. We didn't tell our team we were in, because, what if I had made a mistake?
The next two games were just as close as the first, but we were able to close out a 25-23 and 15-13 win. Wow! 26 games played in 3 days. Now, whom do we play? It should be TCA who we've faced twice before. Northern Lights was their opponent and they had been playing great in this tournament, not dropping a game. We've always played TCA tough, and our match-ups are good with them, now that Rebecca Murray is healthy for us. The last two times we played them, she wasn't. We head over to watch the TCA / Northern Lights match. TCA was playing great, and knocked off the defending 17 Open National Title champions from 2006.Our hopes were high, but we knew that we didn't match up well with Lights.
5:00 - What lineup do we go with versus Northern Lights? We decide to go with our tallest middles (Jelly was still not able to go) which left 5'10” Katie Daprile with a tough match-up on the slides.
Game 1 is competitive at we battle back and forth. We know we have to control the ball to be able to upset this team. Without 3 options for Paige to distribute the ball, the Northern Lights' block would be an issue. After taking the lead 21-20, memory gets a little foggy. I think we had a service error and they ran off a couple to end up winning 25-22. The next two games we didn't play to our best level, mostly because of Northern Lights play. We were out of Gold. The medal dream was over. This day, a better team had beaten us. Close it out against 1st Alliance or Front Range and we would have won our pool. But that's Nationals in the open division. Would have, could have and if's don't count here.
Day 4: Friday, July 6thNow we were in Silver. Who do we play? 1st Alliance had beaten Munciana in 3, so now we have to play them for the 4th time this year at 10am day 4. It's hard to beat any good team 4 times, but I wondered how much emotion we could get up for the last day. When we sauntered in to the gym at 9:30 , Munciana was already in a high-energy warm-up. This match was for the pride of the best in Indiana , I guess. The first game was everything the crowd expected; high-energy play and a rivalry game that went back and forth. Circle City pulled out a 29-27 win. Game 2, Circle City put Jelly in to the middle as she was finally able to jump a little. Munciana played well, and won the game 25-21. Back to the normal lineup for Circle City in games 3 and 4. The Circle City back row of Katie Daprile, Julie Sylvester, and Sara Heldman proved once again why they are one of the best backcourts in the country. Circle's tough serve was enough to break the Municana serve receive to the point they couldn't effectively run their middles. And, with the super sophomore Darcy Dorton out, it was Vann and Kuzma as the outside tandem. It was no match versus Seaton and Weber blocking against them. Circle was able to win games 3 and 4, 25-17 and 25-19 respectively.
Now it was on to the Silver Championship match. No rest as the match would start as soon as the R1 ref found an R2. Our opponent: Cal Juniors. They had pulled out a tough 5 game match against IMI Ike while we were playing Munciana. Cal Juniors are a team that's very similar to our. Good defense, scrappy play, and enough offense to make them dangerous as they had proven 2 weeks before. Our Cheetahz team was very emotional before the match. They were bound and determined to end their long careers together on a winning note. Circle City won the match in 4 ending up as the 9th place team in the nation. Playing a tournament against the best in the land with the heart of a champion.
The team and coaches were sad to see it end. We all realize we will never be together as a group again.
To this I say: Ladies, THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES. You are all a class act. Written by Eric Bulmahn, Associate Head CoachCircle City 18 Purple (Cheetahz)
