Matching Tracksuits

The girls won all three of their games in straight sets by convincing margins. They often start like that; fingers crossed they continue like that.

Afterward, sushi

The Girl came home with three medals this weekend: two for track and a third for the volleyball tournament, which they won for their age group.

"I think I've gotten more medals this year than all other years combined," the Girl said as we walked to the car.

It's good to see your kid meeting with such success. Losing builds character, that's a certainty.

But every now and then, it's good to just see them dominate.

The Girl and the son of our dearest Polish friends -- two kids who always argued when younger -- played in a short sand volleyball tournament. L had just finished up a track meet, winning the high jump and placing second in the javelin, so she was a bit tired, I thought.

"No, I'm fine," she insisted.

Youth...

We had our first of two tournaments during this spring break week today -- at least, the pool play was today. Our girls are the number 4 ranked team in the tournament, and they were the highest-ranked team in their pool. They faced off first with a team from Myrtle Beach and dispatched them quickly: 25-12, 25-9. The Myrtle Beach team, ranked 18th in the tournament, just didn't seem like they had their act together at all.

After a short break, they faced their second opponent, a team called Xcell, ranked 22. Our girls finished them off in straight sets as well. During the next break, the Myrtle Beach team played the second-highest-ranked team in our pool, a team from just north of Charlotte. They lost the first set 17-25 but won the second set 25-22. They dropped the third set 13-15, and I found myself thinking that if a team we beat 25-12, 25-9 took a set from the team from Charlotte, we shouldn't have too much trouble with them.

After another game, our girls faced off against them, the two undefeated teams in the pool. The first set was close for the first ten points each or so, but then our girls started pulling away and ended up winning 25-19.

The second set, our girls started falling apart a little, and then a lot. Soon, they were down 6-13. K was watching a stream of the game from home, and she went to the laundry room to do some work. Our girls decided to get some work done as well and went on a 10-1 run. From that amazing 16-14 comeback, they just kept plowing ahead, winning in the end 25-20. That means from 6-13 to the final 25-20 result, our girls went on a 19-7 run.

So they were the only undefeated team in the pool. They'll start tomorrow in the early afternoon.

And the shocker: I decided not to take a camera today and simply enjoy the moments.