"Chicago North Avenue Beach volleyball courts" by willitrun (from Flickr)

It was another cold day in the Windy City and yet the volleyball team I captain for – The mighty mighty Dune-Dawgs – took court 27 on against strong winds and a seriously intimidating team in matching gold shirts.

I was having quite an emotionally shittastic day to be quite frank and there was nothing I wanted more than for my team to really pull together and kick some beach volleyball ass! I wouldn’t say we kicked a TON of ass, but we did kick some (and sand) and really gave it a solid go. While we lost games 1 and 3, we did win game 2 – and let me tell you, THAT was a SERIOUS win! We ended up winning that game 24 to 22, clawing our way to a victory after volleying back and fourth like madmen and women. It was FANTASTIC. It felt great.

I’m so happy to report that I did make a game saving play unlike any play I’ve ever made before – wicked ball sent over the net was saved by one of the Dawgs, someone else hit it and was REALLY trying to get it over the net…it wasn’t happening…it was headed straight towards the far left corner on a serious angle that always freaks me out. There was nothing to do but sort of do a dive and make contact with the ball in hopes that it went over the net.

I dove, arm extended, made contact, tried to send that ball over…BAM! They weren’t expecting it and it landed smack in the middle near idle hands. AWESOME. That really bumped us up (we were already pretty pumped at the prospect of possibly beating the other team). We rallied, we came back, we won.

AWESOME.

One of our teammates was a no show, which seemed alright by me since she didn’t seem to into the game last week. I think she was looking for something social, and wasn’t interested in really playing well. We are truly a beginner team – BUT, I think we’ve got hella potential and a desire to do better (so we can celebrate and socialize afterward) and I really think we can pull together and have some great games. We don’t need anyone on the team who isn’t interested in trying to play well with others…no one needs that!

Anyway, after realizing the power behind the intimidation, I’ve resolved to get my team shirts! We are thinking bright blue (you KNOW I was trying to sell everyone on green – sigh) and I want to have everyone’s name on the back. OH YES…this will be fun. This *might* be my Sunday project depending on what all goes down this weekend…

In any case, despite loosing and now being 1 – 5, a good time was had, a few beers shared and some new companions were made which is always nice. I really love beach volleyball, even though I’m not that great at it (yet) and it destroyed one of my fingers last year!

Hopefully, next week will be much warmer. This 50′s sh*t is for the BIRDS…I want me some real summer HEAT – ya know?! BRING IT CHICAGO…let’s get sunny and warm already!

Cheers!
d

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 7:56 am and is filed under just 'cause, life, personal, sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.