Officially a Losing Streak

In athletics, a run of three games won or lost is called a streak. After dropping our third straight match in a row, we are now on a losing streak. Two weeks ago Team Finestrat dropped a match 0-3(21-25, 26-28, 18-25) to Univerisdad de Burgos. This past weekend we lost our match 0-3 (21-25, 20-25, 13-25) vs C.V. Playa de las Canteras. A losing streak is hard because all things seem negative and its a funk you cant get rid of it. Except that you can. It is possible to turn things around. You just have to decide mentally in your head that it is possible. Any team can win or lose on any given night. I am a strong believer in that. Whether you are the best team in the league or the worst; all you have to do is go out and compete. Compete like its your last game ever. Unfortunately, Finestrat has not had that will power to go and compete and say, "look, this sucks right now, lets turn it around." And so we are continuing to lose. Would I like to be more prepared for the matches? Yes. Do I wish we would study teams like teams study us. Yes! Do I wish we practiced things and skills we would actually see in a game? Yes! But at the end of the day, if this is not provided for us, we have to pull motivation from somewhere else. And when we do finally win, we will be stronger for it.

I dont need to give you a play by play of the last two matches. It was the same thing, the same nonsense: No preparation and no execution. In the Burgos match neither middle could connect with the setters, which left our offense dependent upon the outsides going up against a double block. We also could not defend their middles. Another problem for us. At the end of the day it was another close match that we could have competed in but didnt.

Going into the Palmas match, I was confident that we could compete with this team and come out victorious. Only if we brought our game and played the way I know we can play. The match was pretty close the whole time in the first two games. We were even up five points in the second game before they went on a run to beat us and go up 2-0. We really had no offense this match at all. Lindsay Stalzer was the only one really scoring. She ended the day with 10 kills. This match the middles were more of a decoy so the outsides could be one-on-one. But we still could not execute and put balls down. The third match was just ridiculous. I was embarassed to be apart of it. We just folded. Our passing went out the window, our defense, which was not that great to begin with, was nonexistent. At one point a player on our side ducked out of the way of a ball. It was a mess. On a brighter note, my blocking was back on this week. I ended the match with 7 blocks, therefore making me the best blocker in the league this week. This marks the third time I have held that honor. Dani de Silva was also in the stats this week ranked #2 in reception.

Next game is at home this Wednesday vs Jamper Aguere in Benidorm.