Saturday Morning and a Little Time Off

Ahhh...what a difference a (semi) good nights' sleep makes!  Sorry that last night's post was so sparse, but my brain was not functioning anymore!!

So now it is is Saturday morning, we slept in until 9 and ate breakfast, now the girls ae getting ready to meet in our floor lounge and play games with our sister team - that should be fun!  After lunch, the girls and Katie are going over to the convention center to shop and cheer on other teams.  Our first match is not until 4:45, so it will be another late night  I do not know how these girls do it!

Yesterday was a whirlwind!  I will recap for you:

In addition to her hand injury, Alex was not feeling well and I decided that we couldn't wait to see the doctor.  So, I called the local urgent care and they called me back and said "Can you be here in 15 minutes?"  Okaaayyy... So Alex and I literally ran downstairs, grabbed a van key, ran across the street, and then ran around the parking garage setting off the van alarm until we found it.  We found our way to the urgent care and then, of course, sat and waited, and waited, and waited...It was a nice facility in a not-nice area of town and it was pretty eye-opening.  Let's just say I was hoping Alex would not shout out "Street Walkers" while we were there!!  There was a marijuana joint left on the seat next to her.  We were dying, texting each other about the people in there...pretty funny.  The doctor gave her a prescription for antiobiotic and they were able to fill it while we waited, so that was great - I am glad we didn't put off going.!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I mean dorm, the rest of the girls were waiting and waiting for us.  So, Alex and I jumped in the van and zoomed back, loaded up the girls and sped off to the Spaghetti Factory for lunch.  They were all dolled up and adorable!  We had a lot of fun, we told the waiter it was Macy's birthday and he brought her a spumoni with a candle and we all sang (VERY loudly) Happy Birthday to her - it was cute - check out the photos.

Of course, we were still late, so we zoomed back to the dorms, gave the girls 5 minutes to change and grab their gear and then I drove them over in the van to the convention center where they piled up and ran upstairs. Then I zoomed back, parked the van and literally ran (ok, well, trotted/walked fast) back to the convention center to be with Alex when she met with the trainer about her hand.  The trainer wanted a second opinion, so it was downstairs to the big sports medicine room, where they looked again and agreed she needed an x-ray before they would clear her to play.  Poor Alex, all she wanted to do was get out on that court, she kept tearing up and I felt so bad for her - she was worried she was letting her team down, but they all reassured her that they just wanted her to be okay.  So sweet to watch our girls care for each other.

Ok, x-rays, a whole 'nother adventure!  One guy told us we could walk there, another gal said no, too far.  I had already turned the van back in and our girls were reffing their first match so Alex really wanted to get back.  We ... you guessed it...ran downstairs, hopped in the back of a taxi and made our way to the radiology center, which was, thankfully, in a, shall we say, less interesting part of town?  They were super sweet to Alex and we were only there about 45 minutes.  I had asked the taxi driver to wait for us, but the center's manager heard me say the cab was waiting and offered to drive us back when we were finished.  He was so nice - had been a volleyball player for years and coordinated the sports medicine and radiology stuff for Festival for 18 years! It was nice to have a ride right to where we needed to go. 

When we got back to the convention center, we went back to our court in time to watch our first match, Alex was begging to play, but Katie wanted to wait until she was cleard.  The main trainer who had been taking care of Alex from the night before, Seneca, came and stood with her while our team played to give her support.  The Sports Medicine staff here is AMAZING!  So sweet, funny, caring - really terrific.

Ok, the orthopedic specialist was supposed to arrive at 5 to review the x-rays, so again, Alex and I ran down stairs to wait for him.  While we were waiting a girl came in with a badly separated shoulder - she was sobbing and it was heart breaking.  We are so fortunate to not have had any serious injuries!  The dr. examined Alex, said the x-rays were fine and that her pinkie had probably  been dislocated but was back in place now and was just badly bruised.  He cleared her to play, and I am not kidding you, I turned around and she was gone!  She sprinted up those stairs faster than I could follow, whipping off her t-shirt and throwing on her jersey and running onto that court before I was even in the hallway!  I LOVE that she just wanted to get in there and support her team.

She had missed the first 2 matches, but played the last 2.
Our first match, we were a little discombobulated with a missing teammate - we lost in 2.  The second match, we lost the first game, won the second, then lost the 3rd, but that win gave us some juice!  The girls really had some great plays - diving for balls - amazing blocks - awesome passes.  They improved every single game.

By the 3rd match, with Alex back, they were up for some serious winning.  We were playing T Street, our "hometown rivals".  But when the beginning greetings at the net were going on, T Street handed our girls some really inappropriate net gifts, with a "screw you" to the girls.  Our sweet girls were so taken aback, they just didn't know what to do, they were flustered and hurt and it showed.  The spirit of Festival is about sportsmanship and fun, and comraderie and in one minute, that was blown for them.  None of us on the sidelines knew what had happened, but we just didn't play with the heart that we had shown before.  After we lost both games, the t-street girls came over and said a half-hearted "sorry guys" to our girls, so of course we all wanted to know what that was about.  When the girls told us, our hearts sank. 

Fortunately, several other SVVC teams had come to cheer us on, incluing Monty and Ki, the big guns at SVVC.  When they found out what had happened, they were furious!  They talked to the t-street coach (hence the "sorry guys") and Ki said he was going to talk to the Festival Officials.  He complimented our girls for keeping their compusure, encouraging them to "rise above it" and to let it go.  He assured them that this was not over, but he would handle it from there.  A T-street parent even came over and aoplogized to our parents, saying that he and his wife were leaving that night, that he could not look his girls in the face and that he was deeply disappointed in them.

We reminded the girls that a reputation is easier to maintain than regain, and that T- Street had just lost theirs.  We encouraged them to play with their heads held high and with dignity and you know what?  They did just that!

We came back in the last match and won both games!!! So Sweet! The girls were bonded in way that might not have happened if they hadn't had that mutual experience, so I think some good came out of it.  I received an email this morning that George and Becky Carey (SVVC owners) were meeting with Festival Officials today and that there would be consequences to T Street's actions, more on that to come when I hear!

We finally got back to the dorms about 10:45 last night - thank you to Mirek Wolski and the Jacobson's for giving us rides so we didn't have to walk (especially from me!).  The cafeteria was closed but they scrounged up some sandwiches and ordered pizza for us, but our girls were tired and just wanted to showere and go to bed.  So that's what we did!

Now you are caught up!  The girls are playing games with their sister team, I am doing laundry and all is well in the world. 

These girls are a team. A strong, caring, amazing team.  They have demonstrated character beyond their years.  They love each other and support each other and are really working together.

Have I said it lately?  I LOVE THESE GIRLS!

So long for now,

XOXO