1/11/22- My SAISA Girls Volleyball Experience

Travelling To Dhaka:

On Wednesday the 19th of October, Me, along with my team of 10 other girls, and our Coaches Ms. Kelly and Mr. Turner set off to Dhaka, Bangladesh for the SAISA Girls volleyball tournament. SAISA stands for the South Asian International Scholastic Association, and we would be competing at the American Internation School Dhaka, along with 9 other teams from international schools across the area. The volleyball season started early on this year in August, and we began training almost imediately after coming back from the summer break. Almost the whole team this year was new to the sport, or had very minimal experience, like myself. However, with dedication, commitment and the help and guidence of our amazing coaches, we soon gelled together as a team, and over the course of only a few months, our playing abilities and techniques improved tremendously. 

The tournament lasted three days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but with travel days we ended up staying in Bangladesh for 5 days. Because of safety concerns, we mostly stayed in the hotel and school, and  arriving in Bangladesh in the afternoon, we went straight to the hotel to unpack and relax for a bit. On wednesday night, we had an early dinner and met up with some of the girls from other SAISA schools who were staying at our hotel, and hung out with them before going to bed, ready for the first day of the tournament tomorrow.

Day One:

On Thursday morning, I woke up early at 6:30 AM, ready for an exciting day ahead of us. The tournament was set up in a round robin format, so every team would play each other, and based on those results, on the last day there would be the semi-finals and finals. We had a quick breakfast with the team before leaving for the school just after 7:00. Before the games started, it was time for the opening ceremony assembly, which included the team captains reading a SAISA code of conduct, and a traditional dance performance done by a Bangladeshi dance group.

Opening ceremony (AISD Photographers)

 Before our game at about mid day, the team hung out in the ‘chill room’- which is a space for teams to keep their belongings, and relax and unwind during the day. Our first game was against the AISD Junior team (who were competing in the place of a team who coudlnt make it), just before midday. We warmed up together as a team and then it was time. Although we didn’t say it out loud, it was clear to all of us that everyone was nervous. In the weeks leading up to the tournament, we had played practice games against other local teams almost every Friday to build our skills, and going into SAISA we hadnt even won a set against them, let alone a game. We knew we had the abilities to win this game, so we went into it focused, and ready to play our hardest, work as a team, and get the tournament off to a good start. Safe to say, we did just that. We won the first set 25-21, and finished the game off with a second set of 25-9. Our next game that day was against ACS Jordan. We went into it confident after our first win, and held onto that by winning the first set 25-19. Going into the second set, we played well, but did not manage to hold onto our win, losing the set 25-19 to ACS. Then came the third set, as a team, we had lost our motivation and were definitely not playing our best game, unfortunately, losing the game with a disappointing 15-4. Our third game that day was against the ISOI Cobras. Our skill level as a team had improved so much over the whole season, and we knew we had the ability to beat this team, however, I think our loss earlier on in the day against ACS really got to us, and we had a disappointing game, losing the first set, winning the second, but just loosing in the end by 2 points. Our final match of the day, we were playing against the AISD Tigers. This was one of the best teams in the tournament, and our first game with quite a big audience, and so the pressure was on. We ended up losing to a 2 set win, however, Our performance as a team was much more communicative and better then the previous games that day.

Day Two:

After a restful night, it was time for the second day of the tournament. We were feeling excited and well rested for the day ahead of us. We were scheduled for 3 games, the first being against the Chennai raptors, who had stood undefeated the whole tournament so far. We went in with a great mindset and ended up playing a great game, taking the team to a 3 set match, and just losing the win by 2 points against an undefeated team! Even though we lost the match, we were actually super proud of ourselves for our performance and how we played against such a great team. With our mood up, after some lunch, we were ready for our second game against Lincoln School.  Our game plan was just to play our ‘best game’ and focus, and we did exactly that. We finished the first set with a win of 28-26, lost the second set down 5 points, but we made a comeback in the third set and won the match! The whole team was so proud of ourselves and the way we played, and there were some really good serves, sets and hits during the game. After a much needed win, it was time for our last game of the day, against ASB. We were feeling ready for this game, and ended up losing by just 2 points in both sets!

Playing against AISC (AISD Photographers)

Day Three

It was time for the last day of the competition. We were feeling the adrenaline and pressure today especially as we had a game against TAISM, our main rivals, and we intended on winning. We started the day with a game against the SAISA shaws team, winning in a 2 set match. With our first game finished, it was time for the match against TAISM. This was by far one of the most important matches we would play this whole tournament. We were both nervous and excited going into this game, but we knew now was the time to play how we do best, communicate, and not panic. Everything started off well, and we won the first set 25-23. The second set was going strong, untill TAISM made a strong comeback and so the match went into a third set. We were neck and neck and just missed out on the win by 2 points, again! Even though we wanted to win this game badly, and we were truly disappointed, we still acknowledged the fact that we played a good game, and TAISM was a tough team to go up against in the end. After lunch it was time to play one final game for placing. We were playing against ISOI again, for 7th place. This was a dissapointing situation for us to end up in, as we knew we could have done better, and we came so close in almost all of our matches. The energy was low for this last game, but we pushed through and played a 2 set win, securing our spot in seventh place. Finished with our games for the tournament, we watched the finals, which was TAISM vs. Lincoln School. Watching the game, we were proud of ourselves as a team, having beat one of the teams in the finals, and only losing to the other by 2 points! It was a close game, but TAISM ended up taking the well deserved victory.

Against the SAISA Shaws team (AISD Photographers)

Reflections:

Overall, this SAISA experience was one of my favorite and most memorable so far. Over the season, we improved and grew together both personally, and skill wise and were able to gel together in order to play effectively. I truly think regardless of the results, our performance and the way we played was seriously impressive, and I am so proud of my team. Thorughout SAISA, I learned a lot about skills that are super important in a sport like this, such as communication, determination, and perhaps one of the msot important, motivation. Sometimes it really is a mental game, and my SAISA volleyball expeircne helped me grow so much in these areas, it was such a memorable journey.

Link to the tournament website: https://sites.google.com/aisdhaka.org/saisa/home

Day 1, 2 and 3 streams: https://sites.google.com/aisdhaka.org/saisa/archive