The Microphone turned on. The voice of our schools head of athletics, Mr. Turner, could be heard throughout the whole gym. Line by line, high schools from 7 nations all around south Asia and the middle east were seated down as the annual SAISA Boys Volleyball Tournament was about to kick off with the oath of honor. Coming in as the reigning champions, winning OSC their first ever SAISA Boys Volleyball last year, an aura of revenge and fear could be sensed in the other teams as they had all traveled to our domain for this years tournament. As the opening ceremony came to a close our next job was to prepare for our first group game. How the tournament was scheduled, the teams were split into 2 groups of 5 teams which were based on the placements of last year.
Our first game was against the Lincoln School of Nepal (LS). This game was pretty straightforward for the team and I as we beat them 2-0, convincingly. With our confidence at a high after this triumphant win our team got together and vowed not to lose a set for the whole tournament. This would very quickly be tested, as the second game of the first day however was a tougher match up against the American School of Bombay (ASB). The first set was evidently in our favor as we looked to be in the lead the whole time and in control of the pace of play. At the break, we went into the second set very confident. This would be short lived however, as ASB would take an early lead after a very consistent and powerful serve streak. With the score 12-1 our hopes were high, but our odds were low. The ultimate moment of relief and satisfaction for the team occurred on the next point after a serve into the net from the other team lead to the absolute outpour and appreciation from our teachers, parents, peers, and competition, with the stands going wild. This newfound support and confidence would then lead to our historic comeback, with my own contribution of a service streak of 8 which would close the gap to 11-13. As the match would then go into a tense deuce, we would come up on top, winning 27-25. Ending the game 2-0. After the first day, a cold realization came over our team as this year saw one of the most competitive SAISA Boys Volleyball tournaments of all time with every team being strong.
The next day held two games as well, with our first game being at 9 in the morning against the American Community School (ACS) of Amman, Jordan. They were an unexpected opponent, with a rough 9th place finish last year, they had eagerly improved. However, we were still able to confidently close out a 2-0 win. My proudest achievement from this game was the positioning of my hits and serves. As I hit a poor set lightly and into space to get our team the win. As well as serving the ball at the opposing teams weaker players, and in between their players allowed us to convincingly close out the game with a solid performance. The second game of the day was similar as we were able to efficiently win the first set. The second set however was more drawn out ending 26-24 in our favor. This was an ongoing trend in the presence of our team with an all out first set and a more lenient second set allowing the other team to close the score. In the defense of our team, the score was not convincing of the performance we displayed with our streak of not losing a set continuing as we ended the group stages with a record of 4-0 and a set record of 8-0.
As the final day began and we were top of our group I was expecting to wake up in a state of ecstatic joy and readiness. However, I was not able to plan according for the chills, achiness, sore throat and congestion I had woken up with. After waking up in a pool of sweat I was uncomfortable, not at my best, and sickly. I was not about to see myself sit on the bench for the whole of the final day though. So I took some Dayquil and got in the car with a headache and ready to sleep for the 30 minutes I had before we arrived. After a quick nap and lots of pain I walked into the blatantly vibrant blue campus of OSC and heading to the team room. After a brief talk, we had our goals set on the final at 6pm. As we went in, our first game of the day was a rematch against Lincoln School as we were able to confidently win 2-0 just like the first day. This time however I was able to be more of a reliable aspect to the team. Contributing with 4 service aces over the 2 sets and being reliable with my receives and serves. It was astonishing, like my feeling of illness had slowed down my brain to stop overthinking small actions and I was playing the best I had played all tournament. I also had low adrenaline and had no sense of pressure, unlike the first two days prior. I told myself, “If you mess up it is alright because you aren’t feeling your best.” And this lack of expectations and lenience for errors lead to myself making little to no errors on the whole of the final day. After a quick 2-0 win against Lincoln School we had yet another rematch against ACS this time, in the semi finals which was in the next hour at 12:40 with almost no break in between. This is the game I started to feel a bit groggy as the pain killers effect started to deteriorate, I felt slow, not agile and overall fell behind my normal performance level. This however did not come to much in the game as we came out on top with a 2-0 victory once again; keeping our streak of not losing a set alive. After this semi final win came the rough period between our semi final we just won at 1:30 pm until the final which was a whole 6 hours later. This wait was supposed to be shorted to 4 hours and 30 minutes but an unexpectedly long 3rd place game led to a delayed final start. Within this 6 hour rest period I got to take advantage of an almost 2 hour nap to help recover from whatever illness my body was plagued with. I closed my eyes at around 2 pm just to wake up at 4 pm feeling rested. Unfortunately, a headache and now grogginess lingered with the nap. I luckily woke up just in time to give myself enough time to bring myself up to speed for the final. At around 6:30 pm our team met up in the team room and the realization that this would be the farewell SAISA game for the 4 seniors on our team including our star outside hitter Ethan. A newfound determination grew for us as we had the pressure of the home crowd, The expectations from winning last year and the encouragement of winning this final game for our seniors.
As the Eagles from American School of Muscat, Oman walked after the third place match had finished the official game warm up began. And when the whistle blew at around 7:30 the game began. A new problem overcame us however as the court had shifted. What we were used to playing was a split gym with 2 courts with the 2 courts sketched out by a blue line representing the boundaries and a curtain separating the sides because we would train at the same time as the girls volleyball team so we would share the space. Yet what we had not accustomed for was the main stage center court which would be used for the final and 3rd place game. The excess space of the courts surrounds made the center court seem smaller in comparison. Our perception was also messed up not only due to the new abundance of space in the gym but also because the blue line of our court we were used to playing on was intersecting the new center court which was sketched out in yellow. The blue attack line we were used to playing on warped our perception of this new court which made the court feel smaller. This led to our homecourt advantage leading to a homecourt disadvantage as we were trying not only to mentally win this game but also mentally adjust to these new volleyball court boundaries we were experiencing. Numerous times I remember having to remind myself and my teammates to take a step forward because they saw a blue line running across the court and their minds thought it was the blue attack line where you would normally stand near or on when receiving in the front row. However this blue attack line was not part of the court and was actually a meter deeper than the yellow attack line. This change was evident as the first time we stepped on this unfamiliar court was for the final game. This led to a ‘swim or drown’ scenario as we had no time to adjust. Thankfully in our favor the final game was a best of 5 series and not a best of 3 like every game for us prior. Despite this hinderance of a foreign court we were able to take the first set 25-23. However there were clear differences and difficulties we were facing when looking according to the court. After switching sides the court felt just as foreign as we were beaten in our first set of the tournament 25-22. After this set our teams anger peaked, with some unjust referee calls that were in the opposing teams favor we were unsatisfied with the result of this set. This led to a tense third set as both teams knew that this set would give the other team a sure advantage into the next set. The beginning of the third set allowed us to gain a lead of 3 or 4 points early on and maintain it until around the 16 point mark where we battled point for point until OSC was able to overcome and finish off the set 25-23 once again. Making the score 2-1 in our favor. As the fourth set whistle blew we started with a service error giving the Eagles an early lead. This however would not last long for as we were able to get into an early groove and managed to get a streak of over 5 serves in 2 occasions in this set. This led to us maintaining a strong lead up until the final points of 22-14 where I had the privilege to serve. After 2 points of us maintaining our lead we were able to almost put away the game with the score at 24-14 and the ball being in my hand to serve the match point I was ready. As I walked back to the service line I contemplated what serve to do, simple and in float serve? My normal jump float serve (The serve seen in the video for the point before)? Or was it finally the time to play it risky and go for a jump topspin serve in front of the whole school? As I stood at the line and reflected on all the thousands of points we had scored as a team over the course of the past couple months leading up to this moment I decided to try a jump topspin serve in a game for the first time on match point in the SAISA finals. While the toss was too high and did not allow me to get a hit I wanted, it was still more difficult than the float serves I was used too. I was honored to be able to take the last serve of the year and not only jump serve for the first time but also take a huge step in my career as I know the same me that made the team last year would have never had the confidence or audacity to risk the embarrassment in front of the school by missing a serve on match point. The second after I served the ball over it led to a poor first receive which made it awkward for the setter who had to set the hitter from an off angle who ultimately hit the ball out. I was so ecstatic as we had been able to reach our goal of winning back to back and after training with the team for a the hours of sessions we had I felt so lucky to succeed as the great group of friends we had come to be.
(Video by Dr. Kleis, November 4, 2023. [Me serving on match point in SAISA Boys Volleyball Finals])