Our girls played gamely (ha), held their heads up, and persisted despite some unsportsmanlike conduct from the opponents.
Our top two seeded players won both their singles matches and doubles. The rest of the girls lost, and handily.
LO and her opponent battled fiercely for the game. LO would make the point, the opp would. The opp would make a point, LO would. Finally, it was 7-all, deuce, add-out. Meaning, in real-world talk, bottom of the 9th,tied, bases loaded, 2 outs, 2 strikes.
The opponent hit it short, LO's favorite ploy, and...she did not make it to the net to return.
Disappointed, LO shook hands and headed for her tennis moms with a tear or two in her eye. They consoled then told her to buck up, doubles time.
For the doubles game, LO had passed sad and reached mad. She played fiercely but the competition was stronger. With each passing point, she got angrier and angrier. The anger worked against her as she began to hit OOBs and net balls. She was making beautiful hits, strong and straight, but lost her control. She and her partner lost the match.
After the meet, I suggested she return to the court and just hit balls as hard as she could. Her eyes lit up. Once before we used this ploy to work off anger, and it worked. Her gfs and guy friends accompanied her and they hit until they began to laugh and normalcy returned. We loaded the car with friends to ferry home, then headed to one of her favorite restaurants for a good plate of fettucini alfredo. (ick.) One gf came along for dinner and we made what could have been a disastrous night into pretty much a success.
DH was on night shift. The house was quiet as LO settled down for homework. "I really want to beat them next time we play," she said. (We play them again in 3 weeks.) "I want to practice every single day and do 140 situps a day so we can win."
She's a good girl.
Today we got the following email from her coach:
Yesterday was a tough loss, but I can't tell you how proud of the girls T, S, and I were. It seemed like we started off in a bit of a hole but we didn't give up, and that's all you can ask for. I want to apologize for any comments you may have heard from opposing parents or coaches. Also, thank you for helping us pick up the excess trash that was left. I think that we, as a team, showed much more class in defeat than they did in victory. We have an open date on Monday, so I'll have a normal practice. Thank you D and S for the snacks yesterday. Enjoy the weekend and thanks for all your support, Coach B.
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