“Guys we can do this, one more game and we win,” I told my team. But the only thing that could go through our heads was “what if we lose?” My coach just kept saying “We’re better than them, you guys can do this!”


It was September 22, at about 3:30 in the afternoon. As we high fived the Nucla team for good luck, in our heads we hated them with a passion. They played dirty and their coach was a witch like the one on The Wizard of Oz. Anyways we hated them; they thought they were so cool… but they weren’t. We huddled and talked about our strategy. We had won two previous games but then Nucla won one so we had to play a forth game, then they won that one so we had to play a fifth game to 15 points. By then both teams were pumped up and ready to win, so was the crowd. All we wanted at that moment was to win, nothing else mattered right now. We had to win. I cheered, and so did the rest of the team. Nucla was in our house and we were excited.

The fans were screaming, I was screaming as loud as I could, so loud my throat burned like fire, but it didn’t bother me. This was the first time on the A team so I wanted to make it really good, we wanted to end the season with a bang. We wanted to be that team you didn’t want to ever play cause you knew you were going to lose but…Parents, friends, and teachers were there cheering as loud as they could that gym was like being inside a speaker playing really loud music. We had home court advantage. We could do this.

Now if you play volleyball with me you know I hate refs, it seems like they hate me too sometimes. So I examined the ref like she was a science fair project. I didn’t think she was good enough.

Kirsten and Nicole were our lucky charms and our captains. They went up and called tales, we had the ball first. The ref blew the whistle, Brittney served. We had a good volley but they got the first point. What a great way to start the game, but that’s how we usually started, letting the other team thinking, “o we got this,” but they didn’t have it. Anyways we glared at Nucla like they were foreign creatures. We battled for a while till the score was 12-14; they only needed one more point. It was our turn to serve. Kaylee was serving; she held the ball like it was a life. She rolled the rough ball across her hands to get the feel. She served under hand making sure it would go over the net. It barely went over; a sigh of relief fell over the team. It came back so we returned it with a spike. Then that’s when it happened. Those four hits I will never forget. Those four hits I hate. They bumped it, they set it, they attempted to spike it but it didn’t go over, SO THEY HIT IT A FOURTH TIME AND THE REF DIDN’T CALL IT! She smiled and gave the point to Nucla.

My coach was as mad I had ever seen her. We all walked up to the ref and I said “that was four hits, you obviously don’t know how to count, go back to preschool!” The ref yelled “get back in position!”The rest of my team stood there and glared at Nucla and looked like they were going to kill them. Brady, Bowen and Axel were sitting behind the Nucla team and when they saw the fourth hit they yelled some choice words. Our parents and friends all stood up and yelled at the ref. Mancos was mad. We were all mad but we had to keep playing. Nucla just smiled and the game went on.

I was screaming and crying. Finally we got a point, it was 14-14. Two more points and we won. But then Nucla got another point and that’s when I realized that we had lost, but I didn’t stop fighting. Nucla got another point and we lost. I was disappointed. We all were. Everyone said “great game, it was a nail biter, you’ll win next time.” But that’s what they all say. And we did do good but not good enough in my head. Nucla pranced away. We all wanted to go teach the ref how to count but we couldn’t.

I hope that on the future ill be able to let go of this. I will probably always hate Nucla. This experience will help us fight harder in the future because well remember back to this feeling and know we never want to feel it again.