On November 19th the gym at UC Irvine, home of the Anteaters, was filled with high hopes as the lovely ladies of UC San Diego club volleyball prepared to compete with volleyball teams from all over the region. We got off to a bumpy start, taking second in pool play, and having to battle to get back into the gold bracket. But, we fought our hearts out and bop, bop, bopped, bopped to the top…well to third place.

It was a brisk Saturday morning in the beautiful city of Irvine as we mobbed into the gym, shaking off the early morning grogginess, and preparing for a long day of volleyball. The first match was won due to the pep talk from Alicia “Sizzlin’ Strip” Chen. As she stared intensely around the huddle, she slowly began to chant, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!” The words echoed in our heads and our hearts as we earned a W for the first match. We suffered a devastating blow in the second match as Colorado State gave us a whippin’.  But we would soon have the chance to redeem ourselves. The last match of the day went a little slow, but with Sydney “Belly Dancing Dream” Riegert back in the game we pulled through and won the game.  The highlight of the day was at match point Rachael “Buttery Hands” Robinson dumping the mother of all dumps right on their ten foot line for a kill. They didn’t even know what hit them!

Day two began with a lot more excitement, specifically due to Gina “Dirty Girl” Powers’ delicious homemade pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (basic, am I right?). First game we dug ourselves into a hole against the USC-A team and then hit them from behind to win it! The second match was a doozy going to three games with UCSB. Sarah “Frank’s Girlfriend” Reinhardt made quite an impact due to her trick play of completely missing the ball to throw the other team off. Her strategy worked, and we were able to pull it out! While preparing for the semi-finals, a rematch against Colorado State, we formed tighter bonds by disclosing our most hidden talents to our teammates. To give you a clue, one teammate may or may not be able to flex her left pectoral on demand. The bonds formed strengthened our team chemistry. The match consisted of a rollercoaster of emotions as we won the first game and got annihilated the second.  But due to Amanda “Slippery When Wet” Dierterle’s team spirit and clutch hitting we were able to fight our butts off in the third game.  Things got heated as we approached the fifteenth point.  Blocks were made, tears were shed, sweat was dripped, words were shared, butts were touched, serves were aced, as the scoreboard continued to flip. Before we knew it the score read 23 all.  We fought our hearts out until we unfortunately lost 25-23 in the game of the century.

Overall the tournament was a success, as other teams were jealous of our charismatic pre-game dancing and hyphy spirit on and off the court.  We made some dope plays, but even doper memories.  Stay tuned for a season of greatness.