On my Keyshawn Johnson moment

I'm the author, so you're all going to have to indulge me. If you don't want to hear about volleyball you might want to just come back next week for the next installment of goats in space.

I'm playing for the same Parks & Rec League team I've been on since I moved to State College. We've been perpetually a third place team except for our one shining moment when we actually finished second. Our two big issues are that (1) we've been one of the shorter teams in the league until this season, and (2) we have some chemistry issues. We have good chemistry in the sense that we all know each other's tendencies and have played together for many years, but we have bad chemistry in that we get frustrated with each other.

So far this season, we've been sorting things out and we started out the season on a tear. We were in first place up until two matches ago. Then, we ran into the team that has finished in first place every season for the past few years. We fought hard, but they took all three games from us. Then, tonight we played a new team in the league that is also playing pretty well. We fought them very hard, too, but again, we lost all three games 15-12, 15-12, 15-12 (see a pattern?).

Now it's time for my Keyshawn moment. I have nights when I'm not playing well, but tonight was not one of them. I probably played my best game in many weeks. I hit two balls right down the right line and caught the back line, and then hit another one from the middle that caught the back corner. I hit one hard through a double block and got the point. I also got blocked a few times, but everyone got blocked several times -- that was how we lost. So you'd think that out of six sets four points + two blocks is a pretty good percentage. Maybe I would get a few more opportunities? Nope. I spent much of the last game watching my teammates getting set over and over again and getting blocked over and over again.

So, to quote the formerly controversial wide receiver, "Just Give Me the Damn Ball".