2022 Volleyball Junior Nationals
Dash's last stint with Coast. His Junior year, after the High School Season concludes.
The team was a holdover from the previous Fall. He was having a hard time breaking into the Outside Hitter rotation (we were stacked).
Then our second Middle broke a finger (while bumping with Dash).
"Dad, they're going to have me play Middle. I don't think I can do it..."
Two weeks prior to the trip to Orlando, the team was pretty dismal, something like 2-12.
Then something happened (a 45-minute team talk prior to a practice?). Something big.
In the Showcase in Anaheim a week before Nationals, we swept the first two days, and then won the first single elimination match on Sunday before exiting with a loss. Where'd that come from?
Coming into Nationals, they ranked us 1st in our Pool and 5th overall out of 59 teams in 16 Club. (We were all very skeptical).
Win, win, win... Dash: "I've never been 6-0 before". Us, "We know! It's terribly fun, isn't it?" It was terribly fun.
A tourney is a LOT more fun and emotional when you're kicking butt.
Undefeated through nine games.
Dash serves an ace to get our 10th Match Win.
Gallery
A Three Set, back and forth win against Ocean Bay (Tampa) brought us to 11-0.
Louisville Fury, who clearly forged a lot of Birth Certificates, had our number and ended our amazing run.
We take Bronze! A Great Tourney!
Something else that made this even special: the penultimate day was the only time my mother (Dash's grandma) ever got to see him play. Undefeated. And The Lift!
Apologies for the scattershotness of the photos. I was caught up in watching rather than shooting. I missed a bunch of moments and people.
You should be able to right-click to download photos. I also didn't do much post-processing. If there is a shot you like, I do have full-resolution .jpgs and RAW (to make better crops). Let me know.