BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!  That’s all you hear in the gym of the Knights.  It was my first volleyball game of the season. Our team had 13 girls, and we were all getting nervous, and we had never all played together because we only had one practice before this game. My heart beating out of the chest I had never ever played on a volleyball team before! I was even surprised because I made the A team, but now I have to play people that could have been playing for many more years, and way more experiences.   It kinda helped that we were at home though.  We had a little time to practice our serves, bumps, and set if we needed to before the game started.

We played against Greenville, and they looked very intimidating. As soon as they walked in my smile dropped they were all like six feet tall!  Our coach gave us a little pep talk.

“Guys you got this, I’ve seen what you can do,”  coach Judd said.  “ I believe in you guys, Knights on 3!”
“1..2..3..KNIGHTS,” our whole team yelled!

I was one of the starters in the game.  My were hands shaking, and my were legs wobbling! I was feeling beyond nervous,  I was in 6th position, middle back. Luckily,  our team had first serve so that calmed me down a little bit, but not much! 

Then a loud thump you could heard, from our server’s hand smacking the volleyball and it was over!   The first point on the board was us. You could really watch the difference in our attitude.  That server got the score to 5-0.  We were winning!    My nerves were coming, we were receiving the serve. As soon as the ball was over on our side, someone on our team yelled got it.   It was bump, set, spike we had the whole rotation, and we got the serve back now it was 6-0.  Greenville and us kept volleying back and forth.  Finally,  the score was 20 home and 18 guest, but the game wasn’t over yet.   Greenville than a timeout to throw off our server!

Our coach said to us “ ladies they’re get trying to throw us off, because we are on a role, ”she said. “  You guys can do this!” 

By this time I was playing, and I was shaking! I tried to shake it off. I was giving myself a pep talk,  come on Kiera you got this just one more point, and we will win the first game!  You have to be ready for the first ball to come back.   You can hear the whistle telling us to serve over, and we did.

The last thing you hear is “ACE” yelled by our team! 

We won the first game, but we still have to play two more.

Time for the second game, we have our line up! I was playing. We’re confident, but at the same time questioning ourselves.   Will we win? Can we work together?   Greenville’s serve made it over!   It was over in server position, and we got the bump to the setter, and the setter got it to the front row they spiked it over!   Yet Greenville still got the spike back because they got it back over to our side. We didn’t want them to get to our heads because they looked stronger as a team then they did the 1st one!  Now it was 1-1. Greenville and our team kept going in a zig-zag with the point if we got a point they got the next point. It was the finally point home 20 guest 19. If we get the point we win, so it was their serve!   I felt like I was having a seizure I was shaking so much.   Greenville had a great server up. BOOM! She made it over the net.

“Got it, got it, got it,” I screeched!  

So nobody would steal the ball that perfectly aim onto my arms, and I bumped the volleyball to the setter. I could feel my arms aching from the pounding touch of the volleyball.   Our setter unexpectedly set it over the net, and throw off Greenville.   The finally score was  home 21 guest 19!   My team won their very first game!
Since it was only the second game we had to play one more,  which unfortunately lost!   We didn’t really care because we still won the overall game!

It was great to heard my mom say, “ You guys did great, I can’t wait to see your next game!”

It was amazing to see how much our team came together since we had never played together before!   We also got over all of the nerves we had during the game, and before the game!   I will never understand how much I enjoy volleyball, and how many new lifelong friends I made! Good thing that was only the first game, and there are plenty more where that came from.