Volleyball State Championship!

So.  I'm too excited to save it 'til the end, the Timpview volleyball team won the STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!!!  I tell you, it was SUCH an exciting game.  We filmed the entire championship match but weren't able to sit close enough to get many good pictures.  However, we got plenty shots of the other games, so I'll try to include only a FEW of the best ones during this summary of events.  (I just might get carried away though.)

First things first, though.  Jay and I, like good, supportive parents, bought Timpview volleyball T-shirts at the beginning of the season to wear to all Iris's games, but I thought I was ordering a women's medium, and it was actually a men's medium, and it DROWNED me, so I altered it and basically made it a women's T-shirt.  I changed the neckline too.  I forgot to take a before picture, so here's the "halfway done" picture:

Jays was a tad large too, so I took his in a bit as well.  I never remembered to take the after picture so here we are as gung-ho supporters, all decked out in our alterations:

Now for the good stuff...

Our first game was against Cyprus.  I felt kinda bad because we completely KILLED them.  We never won a game this easily all season.  I guess our region must be very good?  The scores were 25-7, 25-13, 25-13.

Megan goes for the spike

Look at how much air Lauren gets!

Iris too!  For being so short, she can sure jump high!

Every picture I have of Jessie mid-air, her pony-tail looks like this.  She was named MVP of Timpview's team.

Huddle before next game.

Iris spikes again!

Iris, getting ready to serve.

Round two was against Box Elder. We lost the first, 25-22 but won the remaining three: 22-25, 21-25, 23-25.

Time-out

Iris bumps

Nice dig, Iris!

I love when they set behind themselves.  I think it's very artistic looking- like a dance move.

Lauren spikes again.

In the semi-finals we played one of my High School's old nemeses: Skyline.  I was extra happy about Timpview winning that one. :) Since I got to go to the two games on Friday while Jay was at work, I let him attend this one while I watched the kids.
25-20, 25-21, 14-25 (we lost), 18-25 (we lost), 15-9.

I love that you can tell Iris's spike makes it past their block in this shot.

Awesome save, Iris!

The final game was against our own region rivals, who we took second place to: Salem Hills. It was seriously, the most intense game I've ever watched.  In a nutshell, we lost the first two games: 22-25, 22-25.  But we came back and won the next two: 25-18, 25-22.  The final game should have been completely stressful, but I completely forgot that they only go to 15 on 5th matches.  At one point we were up 12-10, and then Salem Hills scored 3 in a row, putting us behind: 12-13.  Then we were tied at 13-13.  All Salem Hills needed was one more point and the game would be over, but Timpview miraculously scored 3 in a row and we won 16-14!!  If you want to relive the experience, I filmed the whole thing (although I got there and realized I only had 45 minutes of memory and so I constantly stopped and started the filming so that we wouldn't film in between serves.  I actually ran out of time and ended up filming the entire last match on my iPhone.) and am in the process of posting it to YouTube.  I'll post a link once I've done it.  (It's hardcore.  Seriously- I added a score to the bottom right corner, and put in some slow mo clips.  Make some popcorn though, it's about 45 minutes long.)
  It was much harder for Jay to get decent shots of this game because he had to sit so far back- zooming in all the way lends itself to blurry shots...  It was worth it to have the student support though- the whole Timpview football team was there and a lot of other students too.  (We also JUST got there before it started and a lot of people had come early to save seats.  DUH to us.)  Salem Hills probably still had more than we did, but I think our crowd was louder :)

I love their celebratory hugs.

Lauren played better than I'd ever seen her play in this game.

Timpview just won!! 

The trophy!

I think this picture just looks cool- the crowd rushing the floor.

The Daily Herald Interviewing Iris.  (our neighbor happens to be the camera man)

I think this picture is sooo funny- like it looks staged.

Self-explanatory!  You're awesome, Iris!

Tons of random people kept hugging Iris and telling her good job.  I think she was weirded out by it, but she was still polite.  Strangers don't usually even shake hands in Japan, let alone HUG!

A mom shot :)

The State Champions!!!

So many people came up to me after and thanked me for hosting Iris or told me she has perfect form and could get a sports scholarship here if she wanted.

Congratulations, Iris!  You have worked so hard and you deserve the title!