Team America: Play-offs Week 1 Report

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

First things first, yes I wore a skirt and whitey tighties to last night's game. Personally I think I look hot, but that's just me. It may have actually benefitted us, as it probably distracted the other team on a few plays as they wondered what the heck was going on.

I thought we played a very strong game all around last night. The vast majority of our serves were playable. Granted, I did have at least one that went into the net, but not bad overall. Our service receives and first passes were crisp which lead to good sets and some excellent hits. I was totally jacked to see Ali, Sarah and Jim hitting the way they were.

Last night's victory brings us to next week's challenge, the team that swept us 3-0 in the regular season. Come From Behind is a good team, that plays fundamentally sound ball. They're not going to do too much to hurt themselves, but they aren't explosive offensively either. The majority of their points came off of tape hits that trickled over the net, or dinks over blockers.

That being said, there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. The games in our first match were close. Our final scores were: 8-15, 12-15, 13-15.
2. We rallied from about 10 down in one of those games.
3. Their guys don't hit.

With that in mind, here are my keys to the game:

• Continue to make our serves. We did a great job of that last night.
• Be ready to adjust serve receive if we're getting eaten up. Serves to middle back came in at chest high against this team last time; we may need to adjust for a better first pass.
• Ball Hawking. CFB is a finesse team that dinks more than it spikes. They'll try to drop balls behind blocks or in-between players.

The way I look at it, if Steve and I are giving up our annual March Madness tradition we are going to win the whole, damn thing. Ask Jim, I always have leftover vacation days because there are only three days a year that I request: one day around New Year's Eve and the first two days of the Tournament. So if we have to drag anyone kicking and screaming into the finals we'll do it.

An interesting thought came to mind. We play three games in a match. If we win it all we'll have played three matches. I usually drink three pitchers after we win. The pack of whitey tighties that I bought has three pairs in it. Coincidence...I think not. Three is the magic number and I am the walrus.