VB Finals Part 2 by Anna

I also learned some interesting things about Fauche volleyball, and how such a rural area became involved in volleyball years ago. Apparently over a hundred kids were being trained with a single volleyball. Parolla, now the northern head of The Federation of Haitian Volleyball, happened by, and saw the kids playing. She promised to send volleyballs, and apparently returned with 20 some volleyballs. She has continued to fight for Fauche's teams ever since. 

The water had been removed from the interior courts, and people were busy mopping to clean up the muddy floor. A rumor that we were going to be playing outside circulated, and we went to the outside courts, before returning for breakfast and joyfully filling the inside gym. That morning we played against the team in our threesome pool, and won 2-1. We should have beat 2-0, but we weren't playing very well. One thing that always messes us up is the volleyballs are lighter, so our servers are off, and our spikes go out of bounds. 

In the afternoon, we played our semi finals and once again won 2-1, though they were more closely matched to us. The minims had also won their semi finals, and our teams usually shower before the final match. We showered, and had to put on the same sweaty under-shirt and shorts (Everyone wears under-shirts, and all who have tight shorts wear them underneath the uniforms. I forgot to rinse my second pair the first night.)

Then it got interesting. As we were returning from showers, a shout went up that they had been called. People started saying that if they did't show up they would be eliminated. Chaos ensued, and eventually they were all off (when we arrived the other team hadn't even arrived yet) 

That morning the minims had worn some of the uniforms that were for the Cadettes if they made it to finals.  Fauche had 20 of this style; however, somehow we ended up without enough. Some of ours had been worn by the Minims. Everyone took their number, however mine was no where to be seen. (The week previous I had tried to get the same number as last year, 10, but had ended up with 1) After some searching, I figured out which Minim wore my number, ran to the gymnasium, and asked her where the uniform was. 

She told me it was in her towel, and told me to ask one of the other Cadettes where it was. I ran back, and couldn't find that girl. After some searching we found her towel tossed in one of the lockers. My uniform was rolled into the damp towel, along with her other shower stuff. To say the least I was thrilled. It was grabbed by one of the adults, perfumed, and handed back. I shook it a little to disperse the cloud of perfume surrounding it, before donning my damp uniform. Now we were being told we had been called, and rushed off to the finals. 

That was probably our team's best game ever. Never before have I seen us all playing so well, defending the corners, blocking, spiking, and faking. Our two teams were so evenly matched that the first game went all the way to 31. We wanted to win 2-0, since we knew from the difficulty of the initial set that we would be too tired to play a third well. My only regrets of the match were the two serves I missed, trying to make them more difficult. (and failing to do so miserably) Once again, it was a close match, 26-25. I am pretty sure the Caddette girls were the only group to be so evenly matched, and thus we had the largest group of spectators.

While we were playing our Minim gals won. (If I remember correctly they finished their whole match during our first set) Thus they were there when we finaly won. The whole Eben Ezer crowd (mostly consisting of yelling girls) rejoiced. Somebody came up to me and asked me to come sign something. I protested that I wasn't the captain (who usually goes and signs something after each match) but was assured that they wanted a player to sign.

I was led off (thoroughly confused) to one of the little tables for the score keepers. A pen was handed to me at the unoccupied desk, and I was told to sign my name, category, and zone where my team was from. They (rightfully) think I have horrid handwriting, since I couldn't keep my hand from trembling. Apparently I still had too much adrenaline from the game, since my hand was shaking uncontrollably. When I returned, both Eben Ezer teams had disappeared. I ran into another lone Caddette, and before we could find the rest of the troupe, we were directed to the supper line.