Somewhere in the mind of a teenage girl

Game Over

We're on the last set. Last set of my sophomore season.

We're down to game point, but not for our team. 24-7. I mark down my last stat, a three, for our libero who passes the ball to our setter, who sets the ball to our right side hitter, who kills the ball in the middle of our opponent's side of the court. It's our point for sure, right?

Wrong.

I watch the score go from 24-7 to 25-7. My coach stands up straight in an uproar as the ref makes his final call. #7 was in the net.

This can't be it, I think to myself. Not after everything we worked for. All the hours of practice on days when we deserved a break, all the game days where we prayed and put all of our trust in God, the team bonding, the sweat and tears that those girls put into this sport. Our seniors who deserved to make it to the playoffs more than any other team. We fought for this and now we're losing it all.

As I pack up my clipboards for that last time until next season, my eyes start to water. I look over to our seniors, 22 and 26, as they wrap their arms around each other and cry, I see our setter packing her knee pads up through choked sobs and red eyes. What hurts the most though, is seeing the other team rejoice and celebrate. Cheering and yelling, jumping up and down, even trash talking our coach and team.

We go outside and our coach gives us a heartfelt speech, congratulating us on our hard work this season. She's grateful to have gotten to know such wonderful girls and she will miss every single one of us. Tears pour from my eyes and I try to hide them but the sight of all of our girls red eyed and runny nosed makes me cry more. This is the girl hood of our team. It's laughing together and crying together.

We break for the last time. "Spartans on 2! 1, 2, Spartans!" Then walk back to our parents. I walk with #18 who stops in the hallway. She wipes her eyes then let's put a sob then wraps me into a hug.

In this moment, I feel a sense of closure. Closure to our friendship and closure to our season. We had a good run, but until next year, it's game over.