Teacher's Pet

I nodded. “We'll get this point; trust me.”

We broke up the huddle and all went back to our respective positions. The referee blew her whistle to indicate that the game was back on, and the Chinese team member took up the ball again to serve. This time, I glanced back over my shoulder and saw our captain, Harriet, subtly moving back; she knew what was coming, and was getting prepared to receive it effectively.

Once again, the ball sailed over the net, and once again, the unusual serve almost tricked us with its height and trajectory, but Harriet made a spectacular dive to save it. Then another teammate set up a perfect spike for me, which I smashed over the net with every ounce of force that remained in my body.

The Chinese players made a valiant effort to block it, but my spike was on target. It smacked the floor of the court with an explosive punch, and triumph blitzed through my veins as the referee blew the whistle.

“Point to Team USA! Team USA 23, Team China 23! Team USA has the serve!”

Harriet nodded to me, then passed me the ball as we swapped positions. I could feel a tingle of nerves as I made my way to the back of the court and prepared to serve. I'd been watching their best server and analyzing her technique for the last half hour, but watching and doing were two entirely different things. Even if I felt totally certain that I knew exactly how to do something. Which I didn’t.

One thing I had noticed was that as she tossed the ball up to serve it, she put a lot of front spin on it, which was very unusual and probably what contributed to the exceptional amount of backspin she was able to get. It wasn't how I usually served, and it wasn't anything I'd ever tried or even thought of trying in a game.

I couldn't help chuckling. What better time to try out a technique that you've never used in a game before than the deciding game of an Olympic final?

Still, it was this or lose. We had to pull some sort of ace out of our sleeve, and it was about the only thing we had left: using their own secret weapon against them.

I breathed in deeply as the referee blew the whistle to give me the go ahead to serve. I focused all my thoughts on the ball and the exact spot I wanted it to land, drowning out everything else around me.

Everything vanished into a blur – the roar of the crowd, the colors of the stands, and the vastness of the indoor stadium. All I could see in this tunnel vision I had induced was the ball and where I wanted it to go. I heard Leena in my head, reminding me how the technique worked.

I tossed it up and, like I'd seen the Chinese girl do, put a lot of front spin on the ball. And then I hit it in the same way I'd seen her hit it, the same way Leena had tried to teach me once before – giving it a ton of backspin.

It worked.

The ball sailed high over the net, and the Chinese girls were totally unprepared for it. They'd expected a standard serve, and this was about as far off standard as you could get. The player nearest to where it dropped made a desperate dive, but just couldn't reach it.

Again, triumph tore through me as I heard the pop of the ball hitting the floor and the shrill blast of the referee's whistle.

“Point to Team USA!” she shouted. “Team USA 24, Team China 23. Game point and match point! Team USA has the serve!”

The crowd was going totally nuts now, and there was so much cheering going on that it felt like I was at a rock concert. This was it. This next moment could be either the greatest triumph of my life, or the biggest disappointment.

I looked up into the stands to where Wade was sitting, and the look in his eyes boosted a last, fiery jolt of energy and strength through my tired limbs. It was a look of pride, pure and intense. I felt like I could do anything with him by my side – like I could actually win Olympic gold.

Harriet tossed the ball to me, and all of the players' eyes were on me.

“Come on, Eryn,” she said, and my teammates all echoed her words with their own phrases of enthusiasm and encouragement.

“Let's go, Eryn!”

“Kill 'em, Eryn, kill 'em!”

“One more ace, girl, one more ace!”

“You got this, Eryn! You got it! Make us proud.”

I looked once more at Wade, and the words he mouthed at me meant more than any words of encouragement from my team mates.

“I love you.”

That simple phrase was enough. I

felt like I was ready to take on the world.

The Chinese team now knew what was coming, and realized that I had discovered the secret of their star server, and they moved into position accordingly. Once again, I drew in a deep, long breath, doing my best to focus completely and cut out every distraction from around me.

I focused again on the ball, and exactly where I wanted it to go, and with that I breathed in one final breath, tossed it up in the air with plenty of front spin, and then served.