The Real Deal (James Neal)

Prologue

“I agree with Briana 100%. We all want this. Our families are here to watch us get to the National Champs, I know all of you can do this. If I need to substitute someone in, I will. Don’t give up because this game isn’t over yet. We just need 6 more points and we get to go to the National Champs in Florida.”

We all looked at each other and nodded, knowing what we needed to do.

---

 Amanda just spiked that ball like it was her last volleyball game. That tied up the game at 22-22.

I was play front middle, the other team was serving the ball. We were all on our toe ready to get that ball and those points.

The ball was over and it went right to where Liz was. It was a deep, hard serve and Liz made a beautiful pass to Sam, out setter.

“Middle!” Sam yelled out. That was my cue. I stepped with my right foot, then my left and jumped, spiking the ball.

We watched that ball but they gotten control of it. They set up a play, Amanda and I were ready to block that ball.

“1, 2, 3.” I called and we jumped. I felt the ball hit my arm. The ball fell right in the middle of four of their players.

The ref blew the whistle. His arm was on our side.

“WOAH!!!!” We all screamed. Now we were leading 23-22. Only two more points and we head to the National Champs.

Amanda was serving now, her serves amazed me. Wherever I tell her to serve to, that’s exactly where it ends up. I had my hands behind my back, showing her to serve to position 5.

The ref blew the whistle and she hit the ball right where I wanted her to. Abigail, the captain, tried volleying the ball but instead of going to the setter it went behind her and the team tried to save it. The ref blew the whistle again indicating that we had gotten the point.

The crowd was on their feet, clapping and cheering. I looked at my family and smiled at them. My brothers and sisters gave me a smile and told me to calm down, that there’s still another point to get. I nodded.

Amanda was serving again. She got a deep hard serve in. One of the players bumped it right off her forearm. At this point, everything in the world seemed to go super slow. We all watched that ball go up and up. It felt like hours for that ball to do something, but the ref blew that whistle louder than ever. We all looked up and him.

Both his arms were up, the ball was out. We got the point. OH MY GOSH WE ARE GOING TO THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!

Everyone in the gym was screaming, the girls and our coach all hugged each other. We had the biggest smile on our face.

“Girls! We did it! We are going to the National Championship game!!!” I yelled. We were all jumping.

After 5 minutes, we had to shake hands. I walked first, shook all their hands and congratulated them on a good game.

My parents, brothers and sisters all came down from the stands to give me big hug. My brothers were the sweetest guys. They all brought me flowers, so did my dad.

---

It took a good hour or so to clear out the gym. Everyone was really happy about the win and just wanted to congratulate the whole team.

********

And that was how we got here. To the National Championships in Florida. It was almost the end of June, everyone at the University of Pittsburgh had finish their exams. School was officially done but we just had one more thing to do. Finish this National Championship game.

We were facing the best team in the nation. The New York University Bobcats.

Our team’s family all made it out to Florida to watch us play. The game was not ‘till tomorrow afternoon.

The team had arrived to Florida at 2pm this afternoon. We all headed over to the hotel and thought we should get some rest.

We were all in the lobby when our coach had to tell us something.

“Hey girls, could I talk to you guys for a second?” We stopped what we were doing and looked at him.

“Since you girls made it this far and played amazing this season. I thought you show all relax tonight and go to the Penguins game tonight against the Panthers.”

“We’d love to but we don’t have tickets to that coach.” Emily said

“That’s why I got them because you girls are the best team.” He said and pulled out 9 tickets.

“Coach you know you are the best right?” I said

He just smiled and walked to his room. We all thanked and went to drop off our stuff in the assigned rooms and got ready for the game later tonight.

---

Hours later we headed off to the BB&T Centre. We were all super excited to be watching our beloved Pittsburgh Penguins face the Florida Panthers.

We didn’t realized until we got to BB&T Centre that our seats were right behind the Penguins bench.

This game is going to be the best game I’ve ever been too. I can tell.