I'm still recovering from last night's match! Louisville is just so good! I was at the bleachers right behind the players. At first the bleachers were empty other than 2 camera persons. Some Tech player alums were like let's go over there! They were the ones holding up the funny signs from the bleachers (hope the broadcast was able to catch the signs hehe).
The atmosphere in Freedom Hall was insane! Of course 95% were Cards fans but we were screaming our heads off too. After 1.5 sets, just when you thought we were done, we came storming back. I thought all of us cheering would be hoarse the next morning. It was a crazy atmosphere. When we took the 2nd set, it certainly made the young fans near us be quiet.
Man Louisville is so good. Here's my amateur ramblings. Aside from Louisville being so so good, they just would not allow us to get a clean attack. Our super dependable and consistent middles were stuffed. The sure quick kills from Erin and Bre were ALWAYS blocked. If you go back to our other matches, our middles were so quick with their spikes and beat the blocks. Louisville MBs were ALWAYS there. Pretty incredible (and super frustrating). Plus as we saw, Bergman was off. And she kept getting blocked and you can visibly see the frustration in her face. Mari carried the team on her back; she never backs down. If she gets blocked, she tries again the next play, hitting even harder. I'm gonna miss her the most next year. Gosh, if Mari and Julia were both on fire, we'd be unstoppable. But not to take anything away from Julia, she made so many good defensive plays. I hope Mari's sheer will and determination will rub off on the other younger players. When the match ended, Mari broke down and was laying on her back in the middle of the court crying. Other players hugged her and consoled. Ah... The emotions in college sports. It's such a precious thing.
We'll miss Matti and her being a field (er, court) general. She was so consistent and grew so much over the years. I got back to the hotel and rewatched parts of the match. It's so funny they talked so long about the McKissocks for both regional matches. I had a chance to talk to Matti's mom after the match and brought that up. It was a fun convo.
Bertolino is only a freshman. I hope she gets better and better. Really have high hopes for her for the next 3 years. Paola has been good and consistent for us this year. Glad she was able to fill the libero role nicely.
I'm glad Kayla had really nice consistent jump serves. There are not many jump servers in all of NCAA so we've had something special for 4 years. Plus she's from Louisville and was a star player at Assumption high school so I'm sure all the Cards fans knew her. Nice to play in hometown for your final match. She's the most energetic person on the team. I'll miss that energy.
I may have a different opinion about 5th year super seniors. To me, the seniors should graduate and move on. I understand the exceptional situation we are in and the rules allow it but I think you have to turn the reign over to the underclassmen and give them a chance to play and grow. But that's just my opinion.
I'm so happy to have made the trip to Louisville. It was such an amazing match and glad to have gotten to see it live with other Tech fans.
