Amazons Win Bronze!!

At noon today, we started the bronze medal match. We were lined up against a team from Manly, the first team that we played in the tournament. We lost to them in three games on Thursday, while we were trying to get to know each other on the court. Having now gelled, we were ready for them. We completely dominated the court in the first set, winning 25-12. We kind of fell apart in the second set, and ended up losing that game. I figure we do that just to keep things interesting. How boring would it be to just win in two games??

We headed into the third match swinging (loud cheers, singing and huge support from the bench, several Australian men and several Canadians from upper age divisions), and again, just to keep things interesting, once we got to 9-2, we missed three serves in a row (yay, me, Lori and TJ!!). We stayed strong in spite of that though, and finished the game, 15-7. And we had won the bronze medal!!

It was pretty emotional to have come all this way and work so hard, and squeak into a playoff spot with so little room to spare, and to come home with a medal! One of the Manly girls (strangely) started to sing Oh! Canada when we were getting photos taken, so we ended up singing the whole anthem (well, not me, because I can't sing the anthem without getting choked up, and since I was already choked up, there was no hope) after our win.

I wimped out going to the closing ceremonies, because it would have meant another three hours on the train (we're staying WAY far from downtown), and believe it or don't, I'm TIRED. Most of the girls are still out, and I'm sure we'll hear lots of great stories about their adventures. Hopefully some of them will be appropriate enough to share on the blog.

There are many many many more pictures to be seen, and we will post them when we can. For now, anyone who is interested can look at professional photos on-line. They're posted until October 30. Go to www.melbastudios.com.au, click on Sydney 2009 World Masters Games, Volleyball icon, then Womens 35+, and you'll see shots of us in action.

Time for bed. Amazon out.