I Offended Hermes

Wednesday night was the first night of the spring volleyball league. I have a new girl on the team, a girlfriend of a softball teammate, who has not played before. She was a definite hole in our defense and the team's defensive rotations were thrown off. We were playing a weaker team but in the first game of the match we were losing and our opponents were on 5 or 6 point run.

I was getting a little frustrated with our lack of defense when our opponents set the ball to my side. Opposite me was their tallest player, a girl who was a couple inches shy of 6 foot. I threw up a hard block. I roofed her. I immediately felt guilt.

Is it sexist? Maybe. But my brother and I have a strict "no blocking girls" rule. Beyond a chivalrous streak, it also has a practical purpose. Most girls we play against aren't getting above the net for a kill. It is easy for them to roll the ball around or over a block.

In the second and third game of the Wednesday match I switched up our rotation to put myself next to our best setter. I had half a dozen good kills and the other team kind of sat down and quit. I really should be playing in a league with a higher skill level but the rest of my team isn't as skilled. They dug a couple of my spikes but only once successfully, and she complained it hurt her arms, and a couple of times they actually ducked away from them.

My Thursday league is almost night and day from the Wednesday league. Thursday is a sand volleyball league, Wednesday we play on a hard court. I'm a better court player. The skill level of my Thursday team is way above the Wednesday team and so is the rest of the league. I'm one of the better players on Thursday but there are 7 to 10 better players. Everyone in that league has played a lot of volleyball. When I go for a kill on Thursday there is no assumption that it will result in a point.


Last night we played the second place team (we should have that distinction but circumstances and all that). They were missing their best player and we should easily have taken all three games but we were sloppy. Our first passes were off target more often than not I was by far the worst passer last night. Our setters struggled, mostly because of our bad first passes. We won the first two games but lost the third. We were up 20-16 in a rally scoring match. We needed one more point or one side out and we would win that match. Instead, the other team went on a 6 point run to beat us 22-20.

I'm convinced Hermes and his volleyball minions punished me for my Wednesday night shenanigans.