Mississippi Valley Conference Volleyball Tournament

          Yesterday Linn Mar held the MVC Conference tournament. It lasted from 8 am until 7 pm, and we (Kennedy) played the whole day. It was a great tournament for us. We were all playing at the top of our game and we were having fun. We didn’t let 3 or 4 point runs from the other team get to our heads and I think that was a big difference from tournaments in the past. We stayed focused throughout the entire day.

          We started off strong by defeating Waterloo East and Dubuque Senior in straight sets. Our last game of pool play was against Iowa City High (ranked 8^th in class 5A). We beat them in 3 sets and came out first in our pool. In the quarter finals we faced Iowa City West, who we lost to in regular season. We really wanted revenge so we came out strong and fought hard until the end. We ended up playing a third set, one of the most intense and exciting games I’ve ever played in. At one point the score was 13-12 West and they were serving, when the down ref blew his whistle and beckoned a wrong server. While the refs figured out if West was in the wrong rotation, my team came together in the middle of the court and I told them to think about what it feels like to lose a 5^th set. I said we are not losing this game.  We battled hard and came out winning with a final score of 16-14. When the game was over I was so excited and proud of my teammates for not giving up. We had earned a spot in the semi finals.

          In the semis we played Linn Mar, who we had lost to in regular season so we were back for more revenge. We defeated Linn Mar in straight sets and earned a spot in the championship match! We played City High in the championship match, which made it the third tough match in a row we had to play. City High came out strong and we just couldn't put points together. We lost in 2 sets, it wasn't how we wanted the tournament to end but Conference runner ups isn't to bad. Overall, we had an awesome tournament and I am so proud of us for making it to the championship match.

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