SAISA Girls Volleyball will always hold a very special place in my heart being my very first SAISA. Having heard about other people’s SAISA experiences and FINALLY being able to say that I have participated in one is a huge deal for me. Even as being my first SAISA, I made so many new friends from other schools, but I also go much closer to the other girls in the team who I had not talked to previously. Here is the link to the Volleyball website, where you can see final scores, photos and videos.
It started off with traveling on the first day, the 5th of November, with a short three hour airplane to Tribhuvan national airport ( i slept through the whole thing, which was a little hard since the person in front of me thought it was just a. great idea to tip his seat ALL THE WAY BACK). We were already exhausted since we started the day at 4.30 in the morning, and by the time we to the hotel we were all extremely tired, and we just had dinner at the hotel (i had the most delicious momos ever) and a debrief and went straight to bed. By the time the next morning rolled around, we were all slightly nervous but super excited to show everyone the progress we had made.
The competition started the next morning with the opening ceremony, where the Volleyball captains recited the SAISA oath (thankfully no one messed up like they did last time) and we all received beautiful handmade scarves. Next up was our very first game, against AISC, the raptors. Being our first game, we were all a little nervous, but we managed to win the first set 25-20. I was very proud of this game as it was the first time I was able to do an overhand serve in a high pressure game, but unfortunately in the second set the pressure got to me and I messed up a lot of my serves, as well as my receives. Unfortunately we lost that set 23-25, and it was a really close game. Buuuutttt, the team pulled through and we won with an easy and comfortable 15-6.
Before I move on to the next game though, i think that the food at Lincoln school deserves a REALLY big shoutout. The food they offered us was SO SO good, from pasta to build your own tacos, iced tea and brownies and ice cream that had no reason to taste that good. Especially when we were all ravenous every single meal the food tasted even better. Anyways, our second game was against ASB Eagles from Bombay. Still riding high from our win earlier, we were able to pull through with a clean two set win, wining 13-15 and 20-25. We were EXHAUSTED again after our long day, so we went to the hotel. We did manage to convince the coaches to go to a little shop on the corner, where we bot TONS of candy, chips, ice cream and enough junk food to feed a country. After another debrief, we turned in for the night, excited to continue our run of wins the next day.
On the second day, we had to get up at 5.30 (🥲) since we had the first game of the day. We played against the Host school, Lincoln school, and this was a particularly hard game since all the other team had SO MANY supporters, just screaming their name. I think we got a little bit too effected by it, and it is something we need to work on next year. We lost both sets, 25-17 and 25-10. We were all a little bit down after that game, and we all knew that it definitely was NOT our best volleyball. I knew we could play better, and we all made sure to stay positive for our next game of the day. The next game was against the water buffalos, LAS, from Karachi, and with our determination we worked and won both sets 25-15 and 25-20. We actually had so much time after that game that we decided to go our for some sightseeing.
In the end, we all voted to go out to the market, and im so glad we did because it was AMAZING. I bought so many bracelets and presents for my friends and family. I had lots of fun with the girls and was also able to glimpse a bit into Nepalese culture, and learn abit about it too. My favorite find was definitely the “Yak Yak Yak Yak Yak Nepal” shirt, and I got matching ones with all the girls in the team (Best purchase ever!!) We were definitely exhausted after our long day, so we watched the last game of the day and went straight back to the hotel, where I took the nicest warmest shower ever and went straight to bed.
And finally, our last day of the competition. WE had just found out that there was a THREE WAY TIE for top three in our group, and it was really weird. They worked it out though, and we came second in our group. And so, came our Quarter finals game against ACS scorpions, from Jordan. We won this one, through and through, nice and comfortably, and I am so so proud of us, and this game was definitely our best game out of the whole tournament. We won 25-23 and 25-12. But now, we were in the SEMIS!! This was the game that I was the most nervous about, and I think the whole team was too. We would be playing against TAISM, they were usually the best ones out of the other schools, and they hadn’t lost a game yet in the tournament. Unfortunately, we lost that game 25-16, but our second set was MUCH MUCH closer, with 25-23. We were one of the only schools that came close to beating them, and for that I am truly proud of the team for fighting so hard and never giving up. We were all definitely a little bit sad after that game, but we had to pull it together for our very last game together, for 3rd and 4th place, against the AISD tigers from Bangladesh.
Now this game, was the most exhausting, tiring, stressful game of volleyball i would ever play. it was 5 SETS LONG!!! even though i only played for half the games, I was exhausted, and I am so proud of those who were able to play all 5 sets consistently. This game was a real rollercoaster for us, especially since we won the first set 24-26, lost the second set 25-23, then won the third set 18-25, lost the fourth set AGAIN 25-23, and then, FINALLY, we won the last set 15-13. this was definitely where i was the most proudest of the girls. We were actually losing 8-11, and they only needed 4 more points to win. By this point, both sides were exhausted, but none of us were ready to give in. We won the serve, and we managed to win 15-13, in one of the best comebacks in history.
Last of all came the closing ceremony. We were all tired, but still excited to receive our third place medal, but first we had to give
our espins. Espins is what we do to close all SAISA competitions, each team has three espins that we can award to whole teams, or specific people that we thought showed outstanding sportsmanship. We gave ours to number for on the KAS Knight team, because she was always there for her team, and she gave us tips for our last game. We also gave one to the captain of the lincoln school team, because she helped someone on our team to the doctor which we thought was really sweet. Lastly, we gave an ESPIN to the AISD game, because even though we beat them for 3rd and 4th place, they still congratulated us afterwards and were always nice to us. Our team got 2 ESPINS, one individually and one as a whole team, which I am so proud of us for. We said goodbye to everyone during dinner, and it was definitely sad to see everyone go, especially ones that we would never see again like seniors or people moving to other schools.
On our last day, we had time before our flight, and so we visited monkey temple. The temple was absolutely beautiful, and I saw lots of monkeys and learnt a lot about the culture of nepal (I also bought more bracelets but that is irrelevant) I want to give a huge huge thank you to my
Coaches, Ms. Kelly and Mr. Turner, both who have supported the team and I, and they were always there whenever I needed feedback or reassurance. Also a huge thank you to Mr Hentz and Ms Kristin, both of them were amazing chaperones, and they always supported us through our ups and downs.
I have so many fond memories from this trip. From finding someone else who has the same name as me and was also from Belgium ( I know what a coincidence RIGHT), to meeting other girls in the bathroom and having random conversations for half an hour ( we talked about the most randomest things), to late night ice cream runs and laughing so hard that we couldn’t breathe at the most stupidest things. This is always something that I will forever hold in my memories, and something I will always go back to when I think of my happiest moments.