Hello Clovis

Our next tournament (#3) was in Clovis. None of us had been there, so I didn't know what expect. So far, this was the farthest venue we have played at in our short club volleyball experience. I had mixed feelings about this venue simply because it was far -- almost 3 hours far. And this was just a one day tournament -- a Sunday at that. Despite my apprehension, we were ready.

Since the tournament was a Sunday, most families indicated that they would probably drive down Saturday and spend the night. Call time was the usual 7:30am, and, with a 2.5-3 hour drive, that meant hitting the road no later than 4:30am, just to get there in time. I certainly didn't want to wake up at 3:30am and drive 3 hours. I've done it once and swore never again. Bay to Bay managed to secure a block of hotel rooms at Hampton Inn at a discounted rate, so I booked as soon as I learned about it.

A few weeks prior, I posed a question to our team parent and asked if we could ask for an earlier practice schedule the Saturday before the tournament. I knew it was wishful thinking, but it didn't hurt to ask. Practice that Saturday was 5:30-7:30pm. Assuming we left right after, we wouldn't get to Clovis till close to midnight. But, like I always said, we were prepared for it anyway. It was still better than waking up at 3:30am.

Over the course of the next few days, certain things happened. Harker was hosting some volleyball playoff games and it affected the Saturday practice schedule. By divine intervention, the practice schedules were arranged in such a way that the teams who had to go to Clovis practiced in the morning. Our practice got moved up to 9:30-11:00am. This worked perfectly well. I wanted to arrive in Clovis before the sun set, so I planned on leaving at 2pm. We ended up going at 2:30pm, and got there just as the sun set, just as planned. On Friday, I did a quick Costco run for our assignment food -- fruits. I got apples, grapes, bananas, and strawberries.

Finding the hotel and checking in was a breeze. We took a much deserved rest before we headed off to dinner. Jake took advantage of the lull to do his homework. Dinner was at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Fresno, which was less than 10 minutes away from the hotel. It was arranged by our team parent. However, only 3 families went. From there, it was straight back to the hotel. For a while, we considered grabbing some ice cream, but we were just stuffed.... and tired.

Sunday morning, with all the rituals and ceremonies completed, Jake headed down for breakfast, along with the rest of the team who spent the night at the hotel. I followed about 30 minutes later, and brought him to Clovis High School, site of the tourney. Then, I headed back to the hotel, did what I had to do, and went down with the wife for breakfast. Soon after, we checked out and headed for Clovis High.

For this tourney, we remained in 5th place in the Silver division. So our team's first order of the day was to officiate. Our first game was against MVVC 15-2, which we won in 3 sets. This was immediately followed by the match against CRV 16-1, which also went 3 sets. However, we lost. But it was one of those games that we could have won had we contained our errors. We split our pool, moving into bracket play. First match in the bracket was against Kamikaze 16-1, whom we defeated in straight sets. Next was a loss against BAVC 16-1. Another split. The next bracket didn't matter much. We knew we remained in Silver. All we needed to find out was whether we moved up to 4th, dropped to 6th, or stayed in 5th.

Prior to the matches in this next bracket, it was discussed among the teams that everyone would play one game, instead of best of 3 sets, since the outcome was really immaterial and was merely for placing purposes only. We played Clovis, whom we've beaten in the past, but lost to this time. As a result, we slipped to 6th place and they moved up to 5th since they were ranked lower than us going into this tournament. With this agreed format, it meant we could leave early. And so we did. By 4pm, we were on the road. Good bye Clovis.

Traffic wasn't bad for a late Sunday afternoon. For some strange reason, I thought our trip back was much faster. On the way, we were contemplating on whether or not we could hear mass at 6:30pm in Fremont. Well, it all depended on whether or not we got to Fremont by then, right? Again, by all-divine intervention, we did. We were approaching the Mission Blvd exit on 680S by 6:25pm, and we were inside St. Joseph church just as the priest and altar servers had processed up the altar. Just in the nick of time, yea?

It was a long day, and an even longer weekend. And all I can say is, keep the faith.

Note:  Author wishes to acknowledge Yelp for the use of this photograph in this post.