Loss

Last year in April, my club volleyball team and I played in a Junior Olympic Qualifier in LA. We had been doing so well the first two days, winning nearly every match. We held our high seed throughout the tournament. On the third and final day, we were up against Club H. We were fortunate to have earned a "buy", so our first game was at 9:00 instead of the usual 8:00. Club H didn't have this "buy", so they had already played a match before us. Our team was excited, but I don't think we prepared well enough. We did our usual warm up, but I don't think it was our best. Going into the game, I focused on one goal: to win and advance onto the semi's. However, as the match went on, I realized that our team was tired and didn't have as much fight as usual. We ended up losing the game, and I was upset for many reasons....The setter on the other team had been so irritating and loud, the other team wasn't better than us, we had worked so hard for this moment, and we had failed. In response, I headed straight towards the bathroom after our team meeting, locked myself in a stall, and started sobbing uncontrollably. We had been so close to qualifying for JO's, and we had lost. It took me a while, but I finally left the stall and wiped my red and swollen eyes with some paper towels. I headed back out to the court, ready to ref the next match.