I love the raw emotion of this picture. This picture is the reason you put all the time in the gym, weightroom, field, or whatever your particular sport is. The great thing about winning something special in team sports is the ability to share that one isolated moment with so many people. When you put in the time and effort and enjoy the process of the season, the picture above is what you get. On Saturday night the Husker volleyball team made a tremendous comeback to defeat Washington in the regional finals to get to the Final Four.
If you did not watch it, you don't have to be a fan of volleyball to appreciate what committment these ladies made when they were down 9-3 in the final set (first one to 15 wins). Being down 9-3 is the equivilent of being down 10 points in basketball with a minute to go, 2 touchdowns with 2 minutes to go, or down 5 runs in baseball going into the last inning. They played with the intensity and emotion that it takes to win a match in a hostile environment like Washington had Saturday night. Here are some pieces that I really liked from the Omaha World Herald:
"That match, I think, sums up our whole season so far," said NU's Tara Mueller, "We are a team that only focuses on the next play. That's what we did out there, and it was so fun.
"All you saw out there was a team that's united and a team that plays with a lot of heart," says NU's Rachel Schwartz, "Our word for that match was 'authentic'- and the reason for that is that we were doing things that nobody but us believed we could do. Whatever people think about us, it's OK. Because we believe in ourselves."
Here is a little about All-American Jordan Larson, who was really struggling until late in the match:
In one of the most brilliant individual performances in the history of Nebraska athletics, Larson turned into a player possessed with fulfilling her team's season-long dream. The star senior out of Hooper, Neb., blasted kill after kill- mixing in a big block here and a key dig there- to ignite Nebraska on a 9-0 run. In all, she was responsible for an amazing six of nine points as the Huskers went from being down by six to ahead by three.
"I just felt that when we were down (early in the match) like I wasn't giving everything I had. I felt like I wasn't doing anything productive, so I thought I needed to do something about it. That was me putting what I had left out there."
While watching their determination, communication, and teamwork in the final set, I thought to myself that I've never seen a team in any sport want it as bad as they did.
