The Bearcats took the victory tonight at the 2012 CUNY Men’s Volleyball Championships. I guess they earned it. A fair and square, sportsmanlike game. We took the first two sets with ease, and had a return of our lose-in-5 streak (which we had last season). I do admit that I am proud of how everyone played on our team. Eric Barty stepped up, Chris Newcomb put away several balls, Jerin was on his 30% swing streak, but in the end we fell a bit short. Just as other times, we beat ourselves. Yes, we were challenged by Baruch’s offense, but I think we all “counted our chickens” way too early.
After (barely) winning the first two sets I’m sure my teammates (myself included) felt that we had the match. We were a little overly confident. We saw the plate and thought it would be handed to us. We didn’t work hard enough to earn our slot. My mom, Tania, and Felix had confirmed that we all looked down ever since the third set (after losing).
I think we were surprised that we lost. We hadn’t felt this way for 21 games. No specific player or even is to blame, but our collective efforts as a whole. What have I learned? Well, for starters, nothing is guaranteed. Beating the Bearcats twice during season play, beating Stevens (Ranked 5th), and maintaining a winning streak did not ensure our victory. We could not rely solely on Barty, Chis and Jerin to put the ball away. We each needed to be up to par. We needed to change after we saw them picking up out balls, we needed to chance the angle of our block, I needed to not only put more balls away, but block more as well.
I’m not upset that we lost. A little disappointed, but not upset. They played better ball than us (towards the end), and we could not keep up. We have to rebuild and prepare for what is ahead. Maybe not the near future, but the future nonetheless.
You guys played amazing anyway. I wasn’t joking when I said you made them sweat 🙂