Team America: Week 6 Report

Team America plays in the intermediate indoor volleyball league for the Chicago Sports and Social Club every Thursday night.

Ok, so after taking one on the chin last week by losing three games to Come From Behind, Team America came back in solid fashion last night. We took two of three games against the last place team in our league last night. Now in all honesty, we should have taken all three games, but I'll get to that in a second. There were a lot of good things that happened last night and I'd rather talk about that first.

1. Sarah as setter - All around solid job as setter. She made some really good decisions at the net, whether it was sending the ball over on two or putting up the set. Speaking of which, when she did set they were good balls that the hitters (myself included) could put down (not that we always did).
2. Matt’s digging in the back row – Way to show complete disregard for your body Matt. I haven’t seen anyone commit their body to a dig like that since I played in the sand leagues.
3. Both girls playing all three games - I know you were probably getting a bit tired by the third game, considering neither of you could rotate out for a break, but still, good job.
4. Back row coverage – Good job to everyone on covering the back row. We were short handed but the moves made back there were decisive and few if any balls were actually dropped.
5. The second game - Our serves were dropping in, our serve receive got the first pass to where the setter got get to it in good position, and the hitters killed the balls that were put up for them.

That being said there were a few things I observed that I’m concerned with. Please keep in mind I committed most if not all of the following so I’m not just pointing fingers.

1. Serves –A number of serves went into the net, especially in the third game. I know our team can defend against anyone in this league, so we need to just put the ball into play.
   
2. Cinderblock Feet – Just like any sport, when you’re on defense and you’re back on your heels you’re going to get beat. That happened last night on serve returns, dinks, errant passes and the like. Stay on your toes and get ready to move.
   
3. Quicksand – This is probably our biggest problem and over the course of three seasons we’ve done it time and time again. We’re behind in a game that we really need and we start trying to do too much or we become too tentative. This leads to balls in the net or going long on spikes (yeah, I don’t even know how many of those I had) or balls going into the net or out of bounds on serves. We start to get tentative on digs and look at each other with that “I thought you were going to get it” look when they drop in between us.

I can live with the first issue, sometimes you’re on a hot streak, sometimes you’re on a cold one. The second one, well we just need to remind each other on game days to get up. It’s the third that concerns me most. Honestly I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to hit the home run and get us back in the game and we tend to forget that on any given ball you’re only dealing with one point.

Should we play with intensity? Absolutely, but we should stop trying to do so much with each swing of our arm. Play our game and do what we’re good at. I know it's hard to try to relax and have fun (believe me I know, ask Jim about the people on the company softball team I threw bats at after a loss) but we need to do something besides get down on ourselves.

We're heading into the playoffs soon and I know that we can rise to the occasion and not just win our first playoff game ever, but take home the trophy. No need to do it alone, that’s what the rest of the team is there for. So let's relax, have fun, and beat the shit out of everyone we face from here on out.

With that being said, I know I didn’t bring the funny in this blog so here’s some to make up for it:

The Oprah – Tom Cruise interview how it should have been

Dane Cook on Jimmy Kimmel

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