On a cold Saturday morning, I was forced to wake up as early as six. I had to get in the shower and get my uniform on. Once my parents and I were ready, we had got in the truck and left the house at seven in the morning. The hour drive to Fenton ended up being a two hour drive. We got lost on the way to my volleyball tournament, and somehow ended up in Ann Arbor, which is about half an hour away from where we needed to be. Once we had seen we were heading into Ann Arbor we called my coach for directions. My mom called her and has asked where we were supposed to be going. My coach said we were about half an hour to an hour past where we were supposed to be and the first game was starting in fifteen minutes. She started giving my mom directions, while my mom repeated everything to my dad. My mom eventually got sick of translating every step of the way to my dad, slowly becoming annoyed.

“Just take the phone and have her tell you where to go.” my mom told my dad.
My dad replied, “No you can do something and help instead of doing nothing. “
“I’m sick of translating every step of the way to you.”
Barging into the conversation after five minutes of argument I said, “Can’t one of you guys just take the stupid phone?”  They both gave me a stare as if they were gonna beat me.
“You don’t tell us, you aren’t the adult here Elli.” my dad says.
“Well neither are you obviously.” I argue.

My mom sits and rolls her eyes as she listens to my dad and I argue about who was being the grown up in the car, as she ends the call.

About an hour later, we had found our way to the Fenton High School where my tournament was. Once we walk in, I ripped my sweatpants and sweatshirt off and threw my kneepads and shoes on and ran out into the court. My coach gave me a look like I had forgotten something and then she had glanced over at the score. This was our first game, second match, and we were loosing. She told me it wouldn’t be fair to throw me in and pull someone else because I was late, so I told her I was cool with whatever decision she makes. After they scored another 5 points on us she subbed me in with another player, hoping I would help get the score up. I knew as a player that if I messed this up coach would be disappointed. After the girl serves, we receive the ball and put it back on the other side, and a volley was started. We volleyed for a bit, when they lose control of the ball and give us a point. It was now my serve and I know my coach was praying I get us back up there. One serve over, we score another point. I look over on the bench and see coach with a grin on her face. She sees the tension in me as I serve over and barely make it over hitting the top of the net and dropping on the other side, we score again. After a few serves, I get us back up there thinking I got this and becoming a little too confident, I decide to hit it harder than normal and hit it out of the court. Coach looked at me and just laughed as I laugh with her, because we both know exactly what I had just done. We ended up winning the match, and they had won the first one, so that means we had split it. After another few games of pool play, we were put in silver bracket. We had a little bit of time to eat and rest before we had to go into bracket play.

  We went into the auxiliary gym where the silver bracket was being played, while gold was in the main gym. Lansing Christian and Jackson Prep were playing to see who went up and whoever wins this game plays us. While they were warming up, we decide to go play some games to bond as a team. Anyways, after about half an hour of playing games, we go back into the gym to watch and analyze our next game. We watch both the teams volley and notice that the winning team, Jackson Prep,  were doing back row attacks. We figured that they were gonna be a little challenging, but we could definitely beat them. Once the game finished we went on court to warm up and play Jackson Prep. We had about five minutes to do a quick drill to warm up.  Once the timer went off we run to our coach, by our bench and she tells us our order on the court. I had first serve which meant I was currently setter also because I was playing back row. I make the serve over and the match has begun we all run to base and get down and ready to be prepared for the ball to come back over. We ended up scoring the point putting the score at one, nothing. I serve again, it’s good. The ball had been attempted to be passed but was shanked, heading it’s way off the court. Third serve, it landed on floor without any touch. We all come in together and shout “A-C-E- ACE, woo.” The ball rolls over, and I serve again and again eventually putting the score at twelve, nothing. I serve again and it didn’t quite make it over the net. Everybody gives me a high five and say tells me it’s all good. Serve receive and we get the point back immediately giving us another point. We pretty much destroyed them the first game with a score of twenty-five to six. The next match comes and we switch sides and we all huddle into a circle with coach in the middle,with smiles on our faces.

“You guys played so good out there, you did an amazing job on coverage and communication out there.” Coach tells us. “Now let’s go out there and do it again.”

We all start clapping our hands and cheering, showing the other team that they should be intimidated. We start out in serve receive and they score a few points on us. We had tons of great volleys going back and forth, but they still weren’t on our level. We won that game also, which means we had one more game for first place in silver brackets. As Linden warms up, we start giving our team pep talks and talked about our strengths and what we needed to improve. We all obviously knew this next game was gonna be more challenging. After we talked,  we all gathered and did a chant before we go out there. We go up to wish the other team good luck and shake hands, and then we all go into our positions with serve receive with Kacie starting setters position, putting me in front row to hit and block. The game was pretty much back to back, keeping it really close, but towards the end we get a couple points on them, helping us win the match. We switch sides and talk as a team again, telling each other to not get lazy because we just won, because they’re probably gonna fight harder. We have serve and we start the game off strong, a volley that had to have gone on each side at least four times. The score was a tie almost the whole game even to twenty-five. Twenty-five is usually the match point, but you need to win by two points until twenty-seven. We ended up winning with a score of twenty-seven to twenty-five. Once we score that final point, we all scream and run into a group hug and let a few tears drop as all the parents come down to take pictures of the first place team in silver brackets. We all leave the gym with a trophy in our hands, and a smile on our faces.