I step on the court
Breathing in the smell of fear,
Knowing what has to be done
Zoning out all the chatter
And focusing on one thing,
The only thing......
Winning.

I pull up my knee pads
pull on my ankle braces
and lace my shoes,
As I stretch I watch the other team
Seeing their every move
Noticing every detail about them.

We line up with our game faces on.
Ready to start the game.
Balls up,
And the game begins.
Back and forth
until someone makes a mistake.

Last point of the 3rd set,
I toss the ball up
Waiting to contact the ball
I jump and serve the ball over.
They have a great dig
and a great play is made,
My libero dives and gets it up,
I run and the ball glides
perfectly from my hands to the middle's hand,
She swings with determination,
And the ball zooms past the blockers' hands,
And lands directly in the right corner.

Relief rushes over my body.
The job was taken care of
and how we get to move to the next round
On our way to victory.