Literally as Close as Possible
So it’s the fifth game against Michigan. We’re tied two-two, and Cricket and I have set down our cameras and found seats on the concrete stairs at the edge of the large, voluble congregation of OU fans. The band has stirred everyone up—in case they needed to get their emotions in gear. Not much worry about that, actually, as we have already been through some nail-biting games getting to 2-2, and everything will be decided in this last short set.
The first game, Cricket and I have agreed, was the single best game we’ve ever watched in volleyball—and we’ve watched a lot of them. It started brutally. I was standing on some stairs in one of the few places permitted to photographers, just behind the serving area. I could barely take a photo I was so nervous once play started. Bang, whang, flam, bam and we were down 4-0. We hung on. Sue had a kill, Michelle had a kill, Ellen had a kill, and we were closing in. Sue was ripping her serves. I love to get close to a game. Sure, tactics are more visible from a distance, but the power of Sue’s serves was something to feel up close. Slam, an ace. Then a block by Katie and Michelle, and another ace by Sue, a hard-curving dive into the deep left back of their court—and we were up 6-4! This galvanized the OU players: they were just below me and going crazy. The OU section of the crowd was also going crazy. The student end-zone section of Michigan supporters, after all their chanting about Ohio being the worst state ever, and their assorted cheers ending in You Suck, were now silent, with only an occasional and desperate fan calling out.
Did I gloat? You bet.
I made it look like a level stare, but inside I was gloating fiercely. But it was too early to keep that up. We traded points, Michigan crept back and tied us at 9-9. We were tied as well 11-11, 12-12, and 14-14. And lots of other points: There were sixteen ties in the first game. We beat them to 23 and they tied it up. We were tied at 24 and 25 and 26 and 27 and 28 and 29, and at 30. Strong hits, incredible saves, back and forth, and always, in the back of my mind, the thought: We are giving a nationally-ranked team a pitched battle. We could win this match.
And with two huge blocks by Katie and Mandy, it was over, and Ohio won the first game.
Then we won the second.
We ripped them at the start of the second, at one point we went up 13-5. Michigan did not give up, however, and tied it up at 18, and at 19 and 21 and 23 and 24. And once again OU dug down and took two points in a row—and we were up two zip on the Wolverines.
A guy I play tennis with once told me that Bjorn Borg was famous for his concentration. Every point was distilled down to just that point. He didn’t think about where he stood in the match, or what might happen next. I try to do this when I play tennis, but I start thinking, I’m going to win this game (or lose this game), and that will be good, or disastrous. I start thinking about what might happen next, and what my chances are of winning.
Bjorn’s way is best, I’m sure. It’s what I strive for, it must be what every athlete strives for: to be completely focused on the play at hand.
Was this the trouble? I can’t say, but coming out of the ten-minute break we stumbled badly in the third set. Up in the photographer’s booth I was aware—too aware—that we were up two, and with just one more game we would be going to the sweet sixteen. Unless our players are all zen masters or Bjorn Borks, I imagine the thought had to be in their heads as well. Maybe our focus was off, maybe Michigan found theirs—but we were quickly in trouble. I hand it to Michigan: they have a powerful and skilled team. Their setter is dangerous on her dumps—which go down like spikes—and their middle and outside hitters could pound the ball. They earned most of the third game. They went up, at one point, 22-7, and it looked like we were in for a bad, maybe even a record-breaking drubbing.
They put some hard balls through:
But soon after that hit we closed the gap on their offside hitter:
They won the third game 25-13, but I was heartened to see us come alive toward the end of the game and win some strong points. We were going to need this in the next game.
Which was closer, at 25-20, but we never led in the scoring, despite strong hits and stronger blocks.
Everything comes down to the final game, to 15. Cricket and I are jammed among the OU parents and fans. Michigan is alive, filled with their momentum from the last two games. They can taste it, and their fans are howling and probably just as obnoxious as before. (Other teams’ fans are obnoxious, not one’s own. Of course I’m never obnoxious myself, just loud and wild.) But I can no longer hear their fans. I daresay our players can’t hear them either. They have entered the shell of extreme focus, of Bjorn Bork-dom. They are playing for their lives—and for our lives.
Michigan, the dogs, go up 3-0. They go up 5-2, they go up 7-2. Horrible, miserable. They go up 11-7, but there it stops. We come back strong, we’re fierce and intent. Katie has a kill. Meghan has a kill. Ellen has a kill, and we tie it at 11. We tie it again at 12. Bjorn Bork—as opposed to me— would not be remembering that this is how the first game went, and the second game, and we won those games. So we could win this one, I think.
They go up to 13 and we tie them.
But then, in a flash, it’s over. They notch two, it’s 15-13, and the Michigan players are going wild on the court while our players file out of the gym, leaving the OU fans deflated and miserable.
Cricket and I slip out fast. None of the hugs and smiles and back-slapping of the night before. It’s ten at night and we have a five-hour drive back to Athens. In the car we talk it over obsessively, the what-ifs and the if-onlies. And slowly we get a little distance, and manage to think about what a great weekend it has been–if only we can keep some perspective. We have played a team ranked 26th in the AVCA poll, and beaten them. And against a team ranked in the low teens, we played a match that could not have been any closer. We lost by two points in the fifth game, so literally it could not have been a closer match. Oh yes, it could have been better. It could have ended as one of the great upsets of this year’s NCAA tournament. We could have been up there with Northern Colorado knocking off sixth-ranked Washington. Well, it was close. It was really really close—and what eased my disappointment on the way home was the knowledge of how we came back in that final game, how we clawed back to 13-13. There we were, dead even with a ranked national powerhouse, and the fact is, it could have gone either way.
Some jerk over at BobcatAttack posted a comment during the final game: “We are tanking this thing….unbelievable. Typical Ohio Athletics.” And after the match, “WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN???????????”
The poster was politely corrected by other, more balanced fans. The OU volleyball team has had a great year. I would have loved to see them take those last two points, and of course they wanted them. Quite possibly they are sitting around now, as I am, thinking about them. But what a happy, dynamic, successful year the team has had. Winning, despite the common quote, is not everything. Spirit is everything. The team has that, and many wins besides.
Superb season…. outstanding athletes…. I couldn’t be prouder!