Groups of girls waited outside the brick building dressed in baggy sweats, ribbons in their hair, some in their skin tight spandex shorts, some carrying bags with clumps of ribbons, and some of them entering the building. My heart racing and feeling anxious, I entered feeling eyes glancing at me. Deep breath. The room was filled with players from different teams. My family trailed behind as we walked into the court doors. A monotone of whistles filled the air along with the hollow sounds of bouncing balls, cheers, calling, and squeals from shoes.

I spotted one of the younger teammates, and then the gold team playing on the far left court. Down farther, we eyed our other teammates cheering for our other team. Along with the cheering girls, their parents stood viewing the game too. Behind the crowd of players, I quickly slipped off my shorts and yanked my knee pads on. Deep breath; I was ready. Near the other team’s court, our team hurried to the court behind the massive blue curtain. Across the tall net, I observed the opponent team we were going to play. Eaglenest, a team that looked tough, aggressive, and experience. Soon we started to warm up; tossing the ball, passing, setting, hitting, and serving.

Before I knew it, the whistle screeched in the noisy air, and the ball floated over the motionless net. The ball wildly bounced off one of our players’ arms to the out-of bounds; Eaglecrest’s point. Through we lost the point, we still cheered on our teammates. Next serve; it flew over the net, but this time we passed it over the net again and surprisingly, we earned the point. Throughout the game, it went this way, whistle, over the net, pass, miss or win, rotate. But sadly the game was suddenly over, and we lost.

Our confidence shaken, we began the second game against Grantview. They too looked like a good team. We were behind as I rotated to front right position when a girl on the other team complemented my shoes. She smiled and said,” I like your shoes.” I said thanks to her and smiled back. Then I looked down at my black Nike shoes with a wide bright green stripe on the bottom, and then the game began. I think we improved over both games because we passed and served better. A whistle blew, and the game was over; we had lost again.

Well, we lost both games and I was upset. But it was our first time playing a volleyball game in Gold Crown. We weren’t going to be super star players the first game. After meeting in the main room and having snacks, we were allowed to leave. The air outside was cool and relaxing. The sky was dark, lit by dim stars. “Maybe next time we’ll win,” I thought to myself.