The Miss Move

-By Taylor White

  For playing volleyball for 2 years this is not how I thought my game would end up. I guess I am not as good of a volleyball player as I thought I was. 

First our teachers say we can leave class early to get ready. Then we put on our jerseys on (My jersey is #34). Then we grab our bags and get on the bus. We start to leave the school. The volleyball game is 45 minutes away. I listen to music and I start to hear people talking about me. I know that they are talking about me but I act like I don’t hear. The girls on the bus look like they are playing a game of telephone by how much they are whispering to each other. 

As we are walking into the volleyball game I can hear the crowd start to yell and cheer. After me and my team start to walk on the court we start to get our gear on (knee pads and shoes). Then after that we start to warm up. I can start to tell it is not going to be a good game. The game has finally started. For some reason I am not a starter, which I normally am. I start to get upset and disappointed in myself for not being a starter. 

We are now on the second set and I get to play. I start to miss all of my serves and a lot of digs. All of my sets were double contacts. Coach takes me out and doesn’t say a word. I know that she is disappointed. I start to cry and get upset. My teammates say

  “It is okay, everyone has bad days”.

But I ignore them because I am so mad at myself.

Then my mom comes down the bleachers and asks me if I need a drink. I say no and I can tell she knows I am not okay. I watched the third set and my teammates did great. We get in a huddle and everyone says

 “You guys did great” and

“Nice teamwork”

 When the huddle is over my coach puts me in. I am glad I finally get to play. I am so glad that the coach gave me a second chance. Thank God that she believes in me. We all tell each other to call it and move our feet. The sets and passes from my teammates are great but I keep missing kills. I finally got a good pass and my teammate messed it up. Now I am mad at my teammate because that could’ve been a great point. Even though I make mistakes like that too. Now I keep messing up because of how mad I am. Our coach called a time out. Coach says

“You guys are doing great, just use more communication.”

After that we go back out and high five each other. We get back in the game and we don’t let them get in our heads. Next thing you know we get the ball back. It is my teammates turn to serve. She gets an ace. We all congratulate her and we all start to get hyped up. Our mindset is that nobody can stop us now. We all know that we have to keep going.

After that we started to sweep them off of their feet. We start taking so many points from them. It is going well but all of a sudden something terrible happens. They serve and my teammate goes for the ball and she gets injured. She starts balling and screaming for help. Everyone rushes over to see if she is okay. Our coach calls an ambulance. 2 minutes later they finally arrive and take her to the hospital. 

Everyone is worried about her and our coach is trying to figure out who will take her spot. We finally figure out who is going to play. Then our coach gets a phone call and it is our teammates’ parents. They say she is doing better but then, they told us the worst thing that could ever happen happened. She tore her ACL. After we found that out we prayed for her. 

Then we finally get back on the court and start playing again. I am a little worried but I tell myself I am going to do great. I serve first when we get back on the court and I get an ace. Someone spikes the ball and I get the dig. I am so proud of myself for it. Now it is 23-24 I set my teammate up and BAM!! She gets the spike and we win the game. My team and the crowd were cheering. Everyone was so happy. 

WE WON!!