And we had no one to sit out the next round! It was a great, funny moment for the team. :)
So, by the rules, I sat out the second round, too.
My teammates weren't very happy with me, though.
They kept saying I needed to play; I SHOULD play.
I was like, "Whatever. You all are doing great!"
We play a pretty tough team the next round and I still had no worries. I put teammate Maria in the Number 1 spot, so if it went hill-hill, she would be play that for us. She seemed apprehensive, but also said she shoots well under pressure.
I noticed our opponents were keeping up with us and it was tied 4-4. Someone (I don't remember who now) told me to put myself in. With 4 losses, everyone had lost one and so I still didn't know who to freakin' sit out, lol!
I looked at the match-ups and saw who I would fair best against, and who my teammates would fair best against, and I finally put myself in the line up and played two rounds.
We won 9-8!
Maria came through on the hill and beat their Advanced Player twice! The final win being our favorite moment of the match. :)
As the tournament progressed, I have to say I felt super bad having to take anyone out of the line-up. My teammates told me I needed to stay in, but I would have pulled myself out if I had the most losses. They said I shouldn't remove myself, but everyone was so equal in my mind, the by-law was fair game to anyone.
As I said before, I made myself the captain so no one else felt the pressure to be in that position. It can be a tough situation at times. And, it was more than I expected.
I kept feeling worse and worse as the matches went on as I had to decide who to sit out. If everyone was even on their losses, I had to choose, and I didn't like that feeling.
And if I saw someone struggling, I had to make a decision for the team. I had to put my little heart to the side and put my leadership captain hat on and make tough, but the correct decisions.
I kept reiterating to everyone, "You are playing good, I'm not taking you out because of that." They would always respond with "I know, thank you, you have to do what's best for the team; I understand completely."
On Sunday, we were still in the winner's side. However, our only match was the Finals on Sunday night at 6pm. Two teammates kept making comments they were nervous, one teammate hurt her back overnight, and the other teammate was fighting a cold. We lost the first set 4-9 and I have to admit it was a shock.
I had to make decisions based on the players and how they felt and what they were going through. At this point, the by-laws went out the window because we all weren't playing equal anymore: being sick and nervous affects play.
I wasn't nervous the first set, BUT I wasn't playing my best for some reason. I told the team I would put Maria in the hill-hill spot the second set, because I wasn't feeling it. Maria said she was fine with that decision.
I was filling out the sheet and Lisa comes up to me and says, "You should be the hill person. Put yourself down in that spot."
I looked at her kinda funny, as I was just looking at the line-up and had only considered that myself because of the line up I wanted to use that I felt was best for us to cause damage. "Okay, " I replied as I scratched out Maria's name in spot 1 and put her in spot 4.
We went up 4-0 right away!! But our opponents countered with 4 straight wins to tie it 4-4 in a race to 9.
I lost my second match due to an unfortunate scratch in the stupid side. I was upset at myself and frustrated and then became nervous, too.
I recovered and won my last two matches and waited to see if we would need a final hill-hill match or not. Both teams were playing great and it was neck and neck. I was so proud of my teammates!
I saw it was close 7-7 and I went and took a shot of Jäger because I got nervous, lol.
Our opponents, West Texas Bad Girls from Odessa, got on the hill first. Yikes! Score 7-8. Race to 9,
Maria found herself in a long match and I had to start mine (we are suppose to do "continuous play" even if it's not hill-hill yet).
Maria won her match while I'm in the middle of my match, and now the score is 8-8!
And then I win my match to seal the title for the ladies: State Champs!
It was a very long emotional match, but we did it together with style!
I hope my teammates appreciated my decisions throughout the weekend. I did ask for input a lot and discussed things with them, but overall, I made final decisions so the team could just focus on playing pool and not worry about things. I'm willing and ready to provide further leadership at BCAPL Nationals, even though I know at times it will be tough to make decisions. I'm ready for the job, Ladies!
On Cloud Nine Still!
"Fab Five"
BCAPL Texas State Women's Team Champs!
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