Upon Further Review

Getting ready to watch Wilson Memorial’s volleyball team play a Game 2 is kind of like flipping through the channels and finding a “Flavor of Love” marathon on VH1.

You knew it was coming, you’ve seen each episode 10 times already, you knew it was going to a train wreck yet, for some reason known only to the gods, you couldn’t help but watch it.

So, after running every which way but loose all over Luray in the first game Tuesday night, you kind of knew what to expect from the Green Hornets when they changed sides after winning the first game 25-15.

Uh, oh, you thought. Here we go.

And, in the early going, the Hornets did little to dispel that Tuesday wouldn’t be the same. They made two errors during the whole first game, in the second, they started with two quick errors to push the Bulldogs out to a 3-1 lead. You just had the feeling that, once again, the Hornets would be left standing without clocks around their necks. Heck, all you needed was Big Rick standing by the door ready to escort them out of the Shenandoah race, forcing them to win the tournament to get back in and set up a lunch date at the Hi Neighbor restaurant. Which is a great place to eat in Strasburg, unless you know that later that night you’re going to have to play the defending Group A champs. Which, by the way, is exactly what is going to happen to the No. 2 team out of the Shenandoah.

Yeah, that’s not a good thing. If you’re the Green Hornets, you want nothing else than to secure your clock from Flav to avoid this demise.

But then Supergirl Kala Guy puts a block back over the net, then follows it up with a banshee-scream inducing ace to knot the game at 4.

The Bulldogs aren’t done just yet. I mean, they’ve already had two dates with Flav and they’re standing right there with the Hornets waiting for their clock as well. And when the Bulldogs took the lead off a Katie Cubbage kills, you had that sinking feeling that the Hornets were going home.

So all Wilson’s Noel Bartley does is slap the ball toward the net, it runs along the top like it’s on rails and falls to the floor so maybe, just maybe, the Hornets are winning this thing.

Bam! Julia Aronson slaps down a kill and they have the lead once again. Bam! Guy decides it’s high time to slap down another. Bam! Bartley with a crater-maker that must have had Greg Troxell, Wilson’s AD, nervous for his one-year-old gym floor.

Then a Guy kill puts a hole in Ashley Houdson’s gut. The smoke clears and it’s 11-7 Green Hornets.

But, this is Game 2, remember? You know, that game that’s been going all Pumpkin on Wilson and spitting in their faces during the elimination ceremonies. Yeah, you’re still expecting the worst. And when the Bulldogs climb back into this thing and cut the lead to 17-16, the Hive lets out a collective sigh.

“Here we go again,“ you could almost here the fans say in unison.

Suddenly, volleyball coaching wizard Kim Claytor tosses aside her cloak, reaches deep into her bag of tricksy and pulls out Trisha Bruce.

Bam! One ace and Guy, red-faced from the match, turns and screams Bruce’s way, smiling the whole time.

Bam! Another ace from Bruce and Guy screams again and gives her a “You’re-the-freakin’-man” finger point.

The smoke never cleared for Luray after that and the Hornets roll on. Roll on indeed.

“I think we have learned how to get over the bad humps,“ Guy said, “and we have gotten over the things we needed to.“

No-duh there, Ms. Guy.

So, if you’re the most exciting volleyball player in the area, how would you end a Game 1 rout? You do it Guy style, you know, just like big sis used to do every now and again when she wore the green and white. You take the service line, walk a few steps back, toss the ball in the air and hurl yourself up into space after it. Slap! Bam! Jump serve to the back of the court.

End. Of. Game.

Say what you want about Luray, but this is a team that forces you to break out the microscope to find an open spot on the floor. “Hit the ball where they ain’t,“ is a common mantra in many sports. (OK, mainly baseball and volleyball.) But the problem with Luray is they’re never where they ain’t.

So you got to use some finesse and, trust us, Wilson Memorial has plenty of that.

Hey, Green Hornets, how about you make this new-look, to-blazes-with-Game-2-blues-now-give-us-our-clock-Flav mantra a regular thing so, oh, we don’t know, you can concentrate on finesse. Because, from here on out (and when we say here on out, we mean the upcoming Region B tournament) they ain’t going to be where they ain’t much.

Ya dig? Good.

But we’re looking ahead of ourselves a little bit, aren’t we? This Shenandoah hasn’t been won, or lost yet, but either of these teams. And up next for the Hornets is Stonewall-Freakin’-Jackson, a team that’s won three of its last four and was on a three-match win streak before losing to Page on Tuesday.

Oh yeah, Stonewall-Freakin’-Jackson also was the team that, back on Oct. 9, saved Wilson’s skin by sweeping Luray and allowing the Hornets to, you know, beat Luray on Tuesday and control their own destiny.

So, like we said, don’t revert back to your Game 2 mode of the past or no clocks for any of you. One more win and you avoid Strasburg in the first round because, and let’s be honest with each other here, the Bull Run’s top seed is the tourney winner, not the regular-season champ (like the Shenandoah does it). And that BR tourney is at Strasburg this year. You know, home of the defending Group A champs. So no matter how the regular season plays out, you can bet your clocks that the Rams are going to be the BR No. 1.

Bank on it.

Lock. The. Thread.

“I finally figured them out,“ Claytor, the wizard, said of her team’s Game 2 woes. “I told them, ‘There will be no more losing Game 2 because there will be consequences, because you will get further in the playoffs and some team will take that momentum and you won’t be able to get it back.“

You know she’s right. No question about it.

“Though love is what I call it,“ she said.

Claytor, bottle this tough love. Now.

Now give the Green Hornets their clocks.

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