This is probably a super late entry coz it happened a week and a half ago but I was down in Houston,TX for NAGVA Championships where I was super excited to play with my team Seattle Alpha Kenny Body (search “Alpha Kenny Body” on YouTube for team name history). I got in Thursday night and rushed to registration night and was glad to see everybody.
The tournament was 3 days long. Friday was split in to two, morning and afternoon. Luckily, A and B division was scheduled to play the afternoon pool play so we had time to party on Thursday night. A lil bit of a great start in Houston but DAMN it was hot and muggy. Jumbo Margaritas anyone?
We had a rough start in the tournament Friday afternoon. The team was trying to get the right rhythm and connection. We are mostly friends outside the court but never really had a chance to play on the same team except for some. Nate and I decided to put the team together after playing in Portland Last Chance together with Camacho and Dennis. We added Nakamura as libero who recently got uprated from BB to A (well duh! He’s been dodging it for years) and had to pick up middles Marlow (recently uprated to) and my son Nemo. By the end of the day, I thought we figured things out and on the right path.
The Cankle (cow ankle) that was bound to happen ...
On our first match Friday afternoon, I was hustling for a ball to set when all of a sudden I took a wrong step and semi-rolled my right ankle. We had to use a time out just to get me stabilized and see if I can pull through. That set was almost done so I just went ahead and played. On the 2nd set of the same match, I was blocking Eric and landed on his right foot with my left. It was scary but thankfully I landed right on his foot and didn’t roll it. But that shi* still hurts.
OMG! I was like WTF? This is just the first match of a 3 day weekend and I’m getting injured already?
We had an early Saturday and we were ready to play. The day was looking better after finishing Friday 3-5 standing. Team chemistry was much better and we were all playing a lot better than the previous afternoon.
FISH ON THE FLOOR!!!
We were playing our last match for play and it was a fight for a better seeding versus the San Francisco team. It was about game point on the 1st set of the match when I was blocking Billy. All I saw was a tight shoot inside set and I jumped up and down for a block. Sure enough, I see the outside hitter rushing to the ball and next thing you know I was on the floor. I landed on his foot and I’m pretty sure he was under the net. All I remember was saying OUCH! twice and put all my body weight to the left so I can fall on the ground and prevent my ankles to roll all the way. I didn’t move for a second and all of a sudden I felt the pain and had to turn to my stomach crying. A lot of people were around me as far as I remember, I immediately looked for Nate and looked up to him saying “take over
Nate has his own injury himself. He was supposed to play outside for our team but hurt his knee a month and a half before Championships so he was just playing back row. But I admire how he stepped up and loved seeing his confidence back inside the court, jumping and attempting to block. I was down on the floor elevating my ankles after the in-house RN taped my ankles when all of a sudden, Billy from the other team came up to me and said sorry. I had no clue who I stepped on but that made it all clear. I was helpless but was cheering on the team. Unfortunately, we lost both matches ending our day with 5-3 standing I believe. Still good though, compared to the previous day.
Tournament play
I decided to sit out our first match on tournament play that started the same night I got injured on Saturday. The pain was a lot worst at this time and I didn’t want to risk it. It sucked just sitting there most especially when you know the team needed you. Funny how we were talking about picking up another setter/hitter just in case we needed it and it looked like we did need it.
The team was looking good though. We played the Greek Gods who we played in tournament we split with in pool play. I had mixed emotions watching them smash the team coz they were doing so good without them. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy but at the same time insulted. Haha! Tiffany who flew in from Nebraska was there to support me and kept reminding me that they were doing it for me. Haha! First match done! We won in 2 sets. Felt great!
Then we ended up playing Vancouver Liquid Explosion who I played with the last season in tournaments. Sister cities who always end up playing against each other. We got blasted! It looked like the team went back to square 0 and totally lost chemistry. It was heart breaking coz it was the same team who smashed us down to 3rd place in Portland Last Chance.
Early Sunday we had to play our 2nd tourney play. It was a double elimination so it was really crucial for us to win. Guess who we had to play? The same San Francisco team where I got hurt L… I had to decide that morning I woke up whether I should play or not but made a decision to sit out the rest of the tournament. I didn’t wanna take away the dynamics that they built right after I got hurt. It takes a lot of work to restructure a team after a change like that and its almost rebuilding the whole team once again.
We surprisingly won the first set without knowing and lost track of the score. We were hyped up! The game went to 3 sets but we didn’t get the results that we wanted. Our tournament weekend ended up earlier than we expected.
Im glad that everyone had fun in our team had fun in the tournament though. All in all, we knew coming in that we were there to compete but at the same time have fun. Im definitely looking forward on playing with the people in our team in the near future.
Rest of the weekend
With early elimination comes early hanging out time. I was wobbling around the gym with my ankle taped up but I was definitely having fun. Beer garden opened and people started partying. Drinking games, talking stories and catching up with friends - that’s why I love going to tournaments.
Till the next season! And let the healing begin!
not using xoxo
ChaCha
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