For our final regular season road trip we wanted to go somewhere fun, and when we got the chance to go to Saratoga, we couldn't pass the chance up. We got to see a lot of neat things around town, and do some shopping during our down time.
After our relaxing afternoon we had volleyball to play, and first up was Kean, a team with a record of 21-9 coming into the weekend. It was a see-saw battle with several close contests throughout the match, but we eventually won in four sets, 25-17, 22-25, 25-20, 26-24. KO nearly tied her career record for kills with 16, while Paulina also came close with 13. Lauren Hokaj had 18 digs on the night. Kelly and Paulina had 15 and 14 digs respectively. Not a bad way to start the weekend, but we needed to do better if we'd continue our success the next day.
The following morning we saw tournament host Skidmore. The first two sets were held close (25-22, 27-25) as Skidmore had a vicious middle attack, but KO and Sara responded with our own vicious attack on the outside to close out the last 25-14. The two girls finished with 11 and 14 attacks respectively, and did a big part in holding our attack percentage above .300 for most of the match. Spoiler alert... both would be voted to the All-Tournament Team for the weekend :)
Saturday evening we'd face our toughest opponent of the weekend, Union. Ranked eighth in the New York Region, they sat one place in front of us at number nine. To no surprise, the match was very evenly contested and came down to a fifth set. Points were being evenly exchanged throughout the final set and it would come down to which team would pour everything out on the court and refuse to be defeated. Needing to win by two, Lauren Hokaj went back to serve with the score in our favor, 20-19. When Lauren serves aggressively, it's difficult to receive the serve at all, let alone get off a decent pass. The serve she let off from the end line sailed speeding over the net, and skipped right over the passer's upturned hands, winning the match for us with an ace, 21-19. It was a wonderful feeling to win a tight match against a tough opponent, and a relief that it was finally over.Let's win ;)