September 15th, 2011- Navy Match, Part Deux and trust me, I didn't want a part 3. This was it. San Sebastian needed one more victory to reach the Finals of the Shakey's V-League Open Conference season 8. So many things were running through my head at this very moment. Would we be ready? Would we let it slip through our hands. What adjustments had the Navy team done since last game? Could we close it out? All of these things were not in my control. The only thing I could do was go out and play my hardest so that our team could have an opportunity to win. That's the only thing we can ever control.... Ourselves. I hadn't got much sleep the night before. I was a little bit jittery. Had some nervous energy. Our last training had been horrible for me. Things just were not gelling for lack of a better word. So there was worry there too and because I am the guest foreign player, there is always pressure for me to perform at my highest level, even when things don't seem to be gelling right. So I had to get over that immediately.
Walking into the arena, we were the first match up of the night. I was informed that the Navy squad had picked up Aiza Maizo from the Air Force to replace their injured player. Nice pick up. She is a very talented player, but for me the game plan does not change. we still have to come out and play our game no matter who is on the opposite side. Even without some of their best players, I still believed the Navy team was tough as nails.
Warming up and preparing to play the Navy is always different than for other teams. From day 1 it seems that there was this negative resentment towards each other. And today would be no different especially after the events that have gone on between these teams. All I can say is hey, " I came here to play volleyball. That is it." There is no ill intent from my end. I just wanna play and be the best I can be for my team. I cant change the past no more than anyone else in that arena tonight. Definitely no love would be lost on this match as well. So if you need someone to dislike, than go right ahead. I can take it.
Set one went on as usual. Navy came out a bit on fire, but we were able to hang in there for the time being. Jeng personally came out on fire, like she was carrying a grudge of some sort. You could tell, or at least I could that this was personal for her. So I let her be and do her thing. I, personally was not playing like the Lauren that everyone expects, but it was enough, because my team was picking up any slack for everything and everyone. So its the middle of set one and we just have a major breakdown in everything. Its super frustrating when you are hitting the ball pretty nicely and getting great looks and then the team on the other side is getting the ball up. Not easily, but they are playing defense around your hits. When that happens you often panic, because its like, "Uh Oh, what now." What you have to continue to do is play. Teams are gonna dig balls and they are gonna make incredible plays and that is what this Navy team was doing. You have to weather the storm, and SSC always has a hard time doing that. When things go bad, we have a tendency to panic and start harping on our mistakes, then of course making everything worse. Its like the saying, "when it rains it pours." So they were defending everything. But we cant stop playing just because they have turned up the heat. And just with a snap of a finger, SSC was down again by a large margin. This time I was completely ineffective. Maizo was destroying our defense as we could not defend her at the net or on the floor. Our weak spot was being exposed to the fullest.
It was starting to look like game one, and today I was thinking, there is no way we can do this twice. But leave that in hands of Jeng, the Queen of swing herself. Jeng literally put the team on her back and carried us. With some great defensive plays by Jen S, Jen Manzano, and Jhoy we started to climb our way back into this match. Daphna too was getting hot with her blocking and putting down some crucial kills. I was so hyped and almost jealous I could not be apart of that on the court, but trust me I was enjoying it so much from the sidelines too. And can you believe SSC came all the way back again to snatch the set away from Navy, this time there were no extra points. The great part for me was that I had no part of it at all. To everyone saying, that we only have 2 players, and you can never win like that. Well today they won without me and that is ever so comforting.
The next two sets I really didn't do much either, and I didn't have to really. I just did my job to the best of my ability, which is all a team ever needs. Coach Roger says, "No one of you needs to be a Hero, we will all play." And he was so right tonight. We still were having problems defending Maizo, but we continued to weather the storm enough to stay on top and win the next two sets. We closed this set out better than we have done int he past. And I was really proud to be apart of this team on that day. We had done it. We are going to the "Ship. And I was ever so happy to finish it in two. There is a saying, " You can work hard now or later." So happy we worked hard now.
As for my last comments on playing the Navy... I hope the end of this game is the end of every underlying thing that has happened. The unfriendly glances, the resentment, the no shaking my hand after the match. Yes, i noticed and it pissed me off, but I'm over it now. Because.... Its a game. We play, we battle, we win or lose, but at the end of the day its still just a game. If we cant let by gones be by gones, well than I guess we will be rivals for the rest of our lives and that's cool too. Hey, not every story ends like Rocky and Apollo Creed! :)
"Oh yes, the past can hurt. But, you can either run from it or, learn from it." The Lion King
We goin to the 'Ship! Hey!
Photos Courtest of Pinoy Spikers...
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