Diary of a Wolverine: Game 5 Is Do-or-Die Time in Volleyball

Happy Tuesday!

Volleyball had some serious highs and lows last week! Tuesday we matched up against San Juan Hills High School, which proved to be a battle. In the first game, we came out slow and lost, 25-22. In the second and third games, we found our stride and won. The fourth game they won, so it all came down to our first Game 5 of the season.

“Game 5” brings with it a certain urgency, tension, and excitement in volleyball. It says, “These two teams a pretty evenly matched and now it’s do-or-die for both sides.” Game 5s are playing differently too: the game is to 15 instead of 25, so there’s even more urgency to come out fast.

Coach Bornfeld has a rule: He wants us to be the first team to 5, the first team to 10, and then, obviously, to finish strong. Well, they were the first to 5 and the first to 10, and we found ourselves down 10-7.

That was the point where we rallied together as a team. Something was different about that night than other crunch-time situations: we believed in ourselves. We rallied to come back, and ended up winning the fifth game, 15-12, and the match, 3-2. It was a huge momentum shift for us, as it put us back at .500 in league and in position to make CIF playoffs.

Thursday we were matched up against El Toro High School and the match was broadcasted online by the Aliso Niguel Sports Network (ANSN). There’s lots of cool opportunities to get involved on campus, and ANSN is one of them. Led by Kaard Bombe, the video magician of our school who does amazing work for ASB and various other school organizations, ANSN broadcasts football, basketball, and selected spring sports games.

So, with the cameras on, we were pumped to get our second chance at El Toro. I won’t elaborate as much on the game because we got spanked. Their height is just more than our team could really handle. We lost 3-0.

That puts us at 2-3 in league, which still gives us life moving forward for CIF, but we’re barely holding on.

Also, in the midst of all of this, dodgeball is back! My team already lost, but apparently there is going to be a big dodgeball competition between Tesoro, San Clemente, and Aliso Niguel teams in the next few weeks at Tesoro. It should be really interesting.

This week is kind of weird: we don’t have a Tuesday match. Our only match is Thursday at home against Tesoro at 6 p.m.

We’d love you to come support! Have a great week!

Greg

If you have questions or comments about me or anything involving Aliso Niguel High School, feel free to e-mail me at gregjwilliams1@gmail.com.