[Young Drachma]

We lost our first match of the year, 6-2 against that 5A team. The nail in the coffin was when another varsity player turned up sick an hour before the match.

I just didn't have any other rabbits out of the hat. We had some major confidence issues today too, so the close matches that were close ended up not going our way. (Including a 3rd set tiebreak that ended 12-14)

I'm proud of the fight they put up and honestly, the reason I scheduled matches like this was precisely because last year at state those deer in the headlights looks when we faced any adversity made me realize we needed tougher non-conference matchups.

A perfect record when you don't really beat anybody or challenge yourself isn't that valuable. Even this 5A team we played went 12-0 last year, but didn't even place at state. This kind of match will be much better for us heading into 4A-1A state.

I did this knowing that it meant I'd need to get radical on tweaking the lineup, and I've got some good ideas for how we can adapt things moving into the league season in April.

It does mean those 6A events we've got planned are going to be a real experience builder for us, but honestly, at least this is interesting. Plus, playing these types of schools and not winning means they're more likely to schedule us again in the future, which I'm not sad about.