Today I find myself super super exhausted, but I had a great weekend so I guess it is worth it. Friday morning at 7:00 the volleyball team left for our KAIAC tournament in Seoul. After suffering a loss, but worse than that, a poorly played match, on Wednesday, I was kinda nervous about how we would do. This season was full of ups and downs. We entered the tournament seeded 6th, but knowing we were a better team than that. It just seemed like all season we couldn't put everything together at once to pull out the wins. After falling just short so often, many times we felt frustrated and discouraged. I was still looking forward to the tournament, and yet not wanting to go at the same time. I knew I was behind on grading, had to write sub plans, and would lose more sleep (and I still hadn't recovered from APAC); however, I also knew that I would be spending 2 full days watching good volleyball and hanging out with a great group of HS boys.
Our first game was Saturday morning against SFS, our biggest rivals. Traditionally, TCIS never beats SFS. Until this season, SFS hadn't lost a volleyball match for 2 years. And I don't think they had beaten TCIS since the 1999 season. We were ready though. We had been mentally preparing for the match-up, and I personally couldn't think of anything better than sending SFS to the bottom half of the bracket, where the best they could finish is 5th. We knew that this was the year we could do it; we could finally win. We battled through an awesome 5-set match to beat SFS with all the other teams in KAIAC watching and cheering for us. Finally everything fell together. It was awesome. Even though it was the first round, it felt like the championship. After, I felt so happy that I didn't even care how the rest of the tournament went (of course, I wanted to do well, but I knew even if we didn't finish where we wanted to, we would be content knowing we had won that game). In that moment after the game, I felt like all the tough losses and down times we had faced during the season were worth it. I was reminded of the importance of patience and waiting for God's timing. It was a good lesson for us all. Things don't always come easy. :) I felt so proud of the guys. For the first time they showed everyone what we knew they were capable of all along.
Later that afternoon we played SAHS and lost in 4 sets. It was a well-played match, though. That night we stayed at a hotel in Suwon, ate at Outback, and set out again in the morning to play our last game. We arrived around 10:30 and were scheduled to play around noon. However, the match before us went to 5 sets so the tournament was running behind. We took care of our sister school, GSIS (the 5th time we've played them this season!), in 3 sets for 3rd place. Then, we were done and just had to wait for the awards ceremony. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) the next 3 matches all went to 5 sets, including an amazing championship game. It was fun to watch, and you always had someone to root for (whoever was ahead so that they could win and we could go home faster! haha), but the ceremony didn't get over until almost 10, which means it was almost midnight when we got home. What a long day. But it was a very successful tournament and a great season. Yay Dragons!
Today I find myself super super exhausted, but I had a great weekend so I guess it is worth it. Friday morning at 7:00 the volleyball team left for our KAIAC tournament in Seoul. After suffering a loss, but worse than that, a poorly played match, on Wednesday, I was kinda nervous about how we would do. This season was full of ups and downs. We entered the tournament seeded 6th, but knowing we were a better team than that. It just seemed like all season we couldn't put everything together at once to pull out the wins. After falling just short so often, many times we felt frustrated and discouraged. I was still looking forward to the tournament, and yet not wanting to go at the same time. I knew I was behind on grading, had to write sub plans, and would lose more sleep (and I still hadn't recovered from APAC); however, I also knew that I would be spending 2 full days watching good volleyball and hanging out with a great group of HS boys. 
Our first game was Saturday morning against SFS, our biggest rivals. Traditionally, TCIS never beats SFS. Until this season, SFS hadn't lost a volleyball match for 2 years. And I don't think they had beaten TCIS since the 1999 season. We were ready though. We had been mentally preparing for the match-up, and I personally couldn't think of anything better than sending SFS to the bottom half of the bracket, where the best they could finish is 5th. We knew that this was the year we could do it; we could finally win. We battled through an awesome 5-set match to beat SFS with all the other teams in KAIAC watching and cheering for us. Finally everything fell together. It was awesome. Even though it was the first round, it felt like the championship. After, I felt so happy that I didn't even care how the rest of the tournament went (of course, I wanted to do well, but I knew even if we didn't finish where we wanted to, we would be content knowing we had won that game). In that moment after the game, I felt like all the tough losses and down times we had faced during the season were worth it. I was reminded of the importance of patience and waiting for God's timing. It was a good lesson for us all. Things don't always come easy. :) I felt so proud of the guys. For the first time they showed everyone what we knew they were capable of all along. 
Later that afternoon we played SAHS and lost in 4 sets. It was a well-played match, though. That night we stayed at a hotel in Suwon, ate at Outback, and set out again in the morning to play our last game. We arrived around 10:30 and were scheduled to play around noon. However, the match before us went to 5 sets so the tournament was running behind. We took care of our sister school, GSIS (the 5th time we've played them this season!), in 3 sets for 3rd place. Then, we were done and just had to wait for the awards ceremony. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) the next 3 matches all went to 5 sets, including an amazing championship game. It was fun to watch, and you always had someone to root for (whoever was ahead so that they could win and we could go home faster! haha), but the ceremony didn't get over until almost 10, which means it was almost midnight when we got home. What a long day. But it was a very successful tournament and a great season. Yay Dragons!
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