Lioness in training

Volleyball tournament

Third person pov:

The girls had a bit of free time after the training session, just to recover a bit most took this time to relax, in the game room or the pool. Ellis was exhausted she had given her everything in that training session and loved every minute you could tell she loved the game so much as any time she would go near the ball a huge smile would appear on her face. It seemed to create a knock on effect as everyone seemed to enjoy themselves more, as the stress of the Euros and the final squad selection easing a bit.

Ellis pov:

I was knackered and needed a break I loved every minute of the training, but with my social battery was falling flat so I decided to have a rest in the chill room. I had a quick shower and made my way down, I was the first in the room so I got first pick of the seats. There was a very large grey beanbag that was calling my name so I got myself situated and quickly fell asleep not realising how tired I was. I woke up to a familiar scene Beth shaking me awake, this was not something I was enjoying and hoped it wouldn't be a regular occurrence.

Beth: ''ELLIS, WAKE UP its time to play volleyball''

Ellis: ''Yeah, yeah I am coming just give me like 10 minutes''

Beth:'' No we have all been waiting for you for like 10 minutes we need to go now''

Ellis: ''You were waiting for me, are people mad, I didn't mean to be late, I'm sorry. I-I-uhh''

I was rambling I didn't realise I had slept that long, the idea of everyone waiting for me made me feel a little bit sick, but Beth was quick to reassure me that it was fine and people were just having a good chat and no one was angry.

Beth: ''Wow Ellis, chill no one is that bothered it just gives everyone an excuse to sit in the sun and relax and trust me no one is complaining about that, we have all been late before and it's not a big deal especially when it is only for a chill activity.''

This was a bit of relief but I was still not 100% sure that people weren't angry, although I guess I could never be 100% sure as I unfortunately can't read people's minds.

I was trying to shake this off and get my head in the game for the volleyball, I mean let's be honest though I wasn't going to be much use I am only 5'3, but I would try my best and giver everything to my team.

We were divided into 7 teams of 4. I was with Alessia, Mary and Hannah we had quite a tall team except me so maybe we would do quite well. It was a knockout style tournament so every game was important, they were short games first to 5 points wins. With one team making it to the second round automatically that team was decided by pulling straws. The lucky team being comprised of Lucy Bronze, Lucy Staniforth, Steph Houghton and Beth England.

The first game was easy it was against, Keets, Hempo, Jill and Chloe you would think Jill's height would help them. But you would be wrong I have never seen someone so clumsy she was tripping herself over it was quite entertaining and Fran and keets weren't great as they were about my height if not smaller. I wasn't the most useful but I made some important shots, we won this match quite easily so I was excited for the next,

The other matches played and teams were dropping fast then it was time for the next round we were against the lucky team, that hadn't played so they were more fresh but also less experienced. At least this is what I was telling myself as it really wasn't that deep as we only played for about 15 minutes, but I was thinking tactics as this was very serious.

It was a very tight game back and forth and both teams were on 4-4 our serve. Hannah took the serve, Lucy B hit it back right in the back corner I jumped over to get under and just manged with Mary giving it another hit to send it over. I quickly scrambled back to my feet ready for the next hit. It was an easy one to hit back with Alessia easily hitting it over. It was back and forth for a few more times until Alessia spiked it and they had no chance of hitting it back. We were through to the final.

The other game was a tough one but Leah's team of herself, Beth M, Georgia and Kiera winning by some sort of fluke as none of them were particularly amazing at volleyball. Going in we were confident, this was going to be our tournament we were going to win this. As was clear we were taking this very seriously we set ourselves up into the formation we had developed in our previous matches.

It was very back and forth but we were coming out on top with our 4-2 points, this is where we maybe got a little bit too confident and became a little bit cocky. So as quickly as we were ahead we were behind and it was 4-4 a very stressful scenario. The next point would be the winner, this time it was there serve Leah served it well just over the net we reacted quickly and hit it back it was back and forth for a while and we were having what seemed like the longest rally ever.

Until Leah hit what would be the hit of her volleyball career, not that she would ever become a professional volleyball player as it's safe to say volleyball isn't her sport. We just couldn't get to it they had won and we were gutted. The celebrations started quickly and all we could do was watch, this may have been dramatic but we were very invested in this tournament.

Leah came and patted me on the back and congratulated me for second it was tough but reciprocated the gesture and told her well done. Due to them having Beth M on their team I could tell this wasn't going to be let go for a while especially due to our brief spell of confidence which may have lost us the match.

Third person pov:

The girls all had a great afternoon and felt they all really bonded as a team getting know more about each other. but to say they were exhausted would be an understatement so the rest of the evening was just people chilling watching films. Then at around 10:00 they called it a night and most headed up to bed apart from Ellis who just couldn't seem to bring herself to get to sleep and a certain captain also couldn't manage to get to sleep, something playing on her mind.
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