Power 6

The last volleyball tournament of the season for Kendall's 14 National team. It's ending a lot earlier than last year, but I think it's been a better year, overall, for her.

Once again, up before 6 to get ready. Boy was I tired.

We're getting better at this, and I had the car loaded with the chair and food when Kendall came down. Uma wasn't happy she couldn't go.

I went black and white for most of the day with my phone. No real reason, just wanted to shoot differently. Kendall went through her routine, with the addition of tape on her sore wrist and cut shin. Way too much diving this week at practice.

We don't always see the girls getting ready, but this time we were upstairs watching them. They start the day writing down some goals to keep track of for the match. No more than two mistakes serving (per player) was one. Kendall was perfect today.

The first set was ugly. 25-4. A few good plays from Kendall, but mostly the other team stunk.

Kendall played middle for this one, before sitting for the second set. I thought that made sense. No reason to give her a chance to hurt herself when the team wasn't as good as ours. We won something like 25-12 this time.

The girls had to ref and then go back out for match 2. We thought this would be tougher, but we should beat this team.

We didn't. We had a rough first match, just making mistakes. It was close, but we lost.

Kendall served well. Hitting her spots, though her team just made some mistakes and she didn't get many points.

Once again she was a middle in this game, and had a few nice hits over. Nothing hard, but some good placement. Our setter didn't go well.

She got her hands on a few, touching some. I think she got a block in this game, but not many on the day. However she was active at the net.

We won the second set to force a third. We were all nervous, but hopeful. We're won the second and did OK in the first while not playing well. Did I mention Kendall had great serves?

The second match was good as it was the first time Kendall played all the way around with the full team. She was the outside hitter, going through the back row as a defensive player.

She had some good hits from the outside, but not a lot of sets. However she enjoyed being on the court the whole time.

The third match should have been ours. We were ahead, and at 13-11, we gave away 5 points to lose. That was a disappointment for the girls, and the parents were grousing a bit. I hate that, but I understand how involved everyone feels. The girls were a little down, but they had a bit of a break before the third match.

I watched some from upstairs, which isn't a great view, but it makes for some interesting pictures. Kendall was back in the middle, rotating through and still serving well.

The first set was close, but we won near the end. The girls were excited for the second match. It was a new rotation again, and Kendall didn't play much, but the girls made a lot of mistakes and it got out of hand. We lost 25-14, and it wasn't that close.

Still, we had a third match, and played hard. Once again, what I think of as the first team was out there and they played well. Kendall worked hard and a close match at the turn (8-7) went out way.

Some good blocks by Kendall and some nice pushes to the side.

We won 15-11. The girls were quite excited.

The loss earlier in 3 and then winning in 3 put Kendall's team in 2nd in their pool. No pin today, but one last crossover match to close out the year. We were excited to see the girls battle through their last game.

Kendall started on the bench, and then was in a rotation as a defensive, back row player only.

The coach asked her if she wanted middle again or back row, and she chose it. Afterwards she said it was really fun and she wants to do more. She wants to hit, but she doesn't want to rotate out in the back.

A good serve from Kendall, but only a couple. Her team fell apart and just couldn't finish points. We had a complete whiff, swing at a ball and another that landed at someone's feet. Just bad volleyball.

The other team won going away and that's that.

Still, a good season overall. Really has me thinking about asking to assistant coach next year, and we'll see how it goes. We are going to try some other clubs and make a decision in August.

Now it's a final party at our house in a two weeks and then training all summer to get Kendall in great shape.