As alluded to before, it has been an interesting turn of events at the start of this school year when I discovered I would be looking after both the junior and senior girls volleyball teams. To further add to the twists, the senior season would see us hosting every single international school league tournament we were a part of. These leagues were the Pearl River Conference (PRC), Taipa Athletics Conference (TAC), and the Association of Chinese and Mongolian International Schools (ACAMIS).
In the two previous tournaments, the senior girls placed 2nd in PRC and 3rd in TAC. Both were highest finishes ever for each respective tournament. Overall, the senior teams at TIS aren't as decorated as winners as the junior program has been. Likewise, we had never placed higher than 3rd at ACAMIS volleyball. However, the first cohort of strong and decorated junior volleyball players from grades 10 and 11 at TIS were all rejoined this year in the senior division. It made sense that the team should be in the conversation for a championship run.
The girls lived up to the expectations on the first day of competition, racking up a perfect 3-0 record, setting up what looked to be a 1st vs 2nd showdown during the final preliminary round game against our rivals at HKA. HKA looked to be a strong team too, flattening every team to face them on the first day of competition. To be sure, the adrenaline was pumping in the hour leading up to the showdown with HKA. While mostly an inconsequential game, other than seeding for the playoffs, there was still the desire to show HKA our best effort.
But when game time came around, it was hardly the team's best effort. This cohort had dominated all the previous encounters with HKA, never having dropped a match again their rivals. A condition that made the encounter even more unnerving was that the entirety of the HKA senior team had previously also played against us in SCISAC. Our girls and theirs grew up pitting their skills against each other. The loss was a significant confidence sapper. I could tell that some of the girls genuinely feared HKA and their seemingly unbreakable defense that had an answer to all our attacks and powerful serves. This was not a good sign going into the knockout round.
Luckily though, the loss ironically set up an easier path to the finals as we matched up against a under-manned BSB team that handled easily in the 2 vs 3 seeding playoff game. Despite a slow start in both sets, the girls eventually gathered some momentum and rolled to a comfortable straight sets victory.
The stage was set for a rematch against HKA in the finals. Before the game, the team was able to get their head back to the right place and headed into the historic match with their confidence back and a strong will to win. An intriguing plot-line for the championship match emerged with the offensively dangerous TIS Tigers squaring off against their defensively suffocating HKA Dragonflies rivals.
The game started in a very up-tempo fashion, with both teams trading mini-serving streaks and momentum swings. Anybody watching could see the tactically dynamic Tigers offense pressing their attacking advantage onto a Dragonflies defense that worked cohesively and refused to yield. As avid sports fans knows these offensively versus defensively driven battles mostly end in a predictable way. There's even a saying in sports that goes, "offense wins games, but defense wins championships".
While tactically and skill-wise superior, my girls lacked the team element that HKA had at this tournament. To make no mistake, we are a great team. However, it just so happened that HKA was a superior team that played with all the intangible elements that make up a championship calibre team. I was taught that a better team always has the advantage over a more skilled team and our showdown with HKA was no different. At a certain point in the game, I could see this work in effect and the smallest details shift the balance of the game against us.
I'm old enough to realize that life doesn't always have fairytale-like endings. This tournament had all the makings of a fairytale ending; the hosting school emerges with the electric junior players that have assembled on the senior team to jump-start a beautiful new chapter of success at the ACAMIS level that would mirror our ascension at the junior level. Alas, it was not to be. My girls played well, as well as they have all tournament and all year long. However, they just ran into the one team this year that had an answer to all our weapons. We were simply beaten by a better team. Developmentally, it's alarmingly to see a team we've dominated turn the tables on us. Perhaps the girls will use this to strengthen their focus in practice moving into next year because the intensity at practice was sometimes lacking during this shorter ACAMIS season.
I am so proud of these girls regardless though. They played to their potential and that is all I can expect of them. The matches against HKA were close and it is conceivable that we could have won despite HKA's defense and teamwork under even slightly different circumstances. Even to the bitter end, we never veered from our team motto "no regrets". Still heavy sadness and disappointment weighs on us. This opportunity to coach the senior team was most unexpected and I count it a blessing to have coached the most endearing group of girls beyond what I was originally anticipating last year. It simply bothers me to know if in reality this is the last time I coach them, we didn't end our time together with the outcome any of us wanted. However, the size of the trophy doesn't tarnish the successfulness or sheer pleasure I've always had working with and mentoring them. Deep within, I've always understood that the competition found within the sport of volleyball has for me as it will for them merely be the totem of how to stand up to life's challenges.
This isn't the end of the volleyball story however. We still have a few local league games to finish the year with for the senior girls and the girls have a good chance to make more history by being one of the first team to qualify Macau DSEJ playoffs. They won't be the first TIS team to accomplish this. That distinction was taken away from them a mere 30mins after the conclusion of the ACAMIS tournament, when an quietly tenacious junior girls volleyball team rolled to a monumental upset of a high-ranking DSEJ team, turning their record to 2-0 and booking themselves a spot in the playoffs. A team that accomplished this upset win without the presence of their head coach... While perhaps lacking the star-power and offensive firepower of the first generation of junior girls players, this group has done something the first generation hadn't. Relying instead on good teamwork and a resilient defense, this yet unestablished team draws some resemblance to a certain championship winning ACAMIS team. For them, the ultimate challenge awaits them in February 2015 in SCISAC hosted by... you guessed it, HKA. It is a tournament where the Tigers have not dropped a match in over 2 years. While SCISAC is certainly quite some time away, big things do have small beginnings. Plus, you know what they say, "Offense wins games, but defense wins... [to be continued]"
