The 2022 Girls Volleyball Tournament

Words: Hanaë Hamazaki

Photos: Karen Kitagawa

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Kobe, Japan — Canadian Academy

On October 13th, 2022, Japan's international school volleyball tournament returned. For two long years, high school girls have trained for this tournament, and, this year, they finally got the chance to compete in Kobe. As part of the team, Karen and I got a chance to make use of our practice as we all rediscovered the feeling of playing in front of a crowd, competing against other teams composed of opponents and friends.

The tournament began with HIS at a serious disadvantage. Every other team in the tournament had played games recently. But not us. Due to our location, we hadn't had any games before the tournament and our whole team was anxious.

It took some time to play through our nerves and warm up. The first game of the season was with the Canadian Academy First Team. Unfortunately, we lost.

Regrouping, we began to play together better, winning our second game against Osaka YMCA International School. By the time we played the third game of the day, we had really hit our stride, defeating Hiroshima International School. At the end of the first day (out of two), we were positioned in fourth place.

On the second and final day of the tournament, we faced off against Yokohama International School (YIS). Weighing in at 700 students, YIS is a much larger school with more resources and more experience. Despite that, we played hard against them, losing our first set, winning our second, and losing by two points in the third set, 14-16, to lose the game. Had we won, we would have moved on to the third-place game. All of the girls were heartbroken. But we knew we still had one more game to play in the tournament, so we picked up our heads and got ourselves mentally ready.

 

In the end, we lost again to the host of the tournament Canadian Academy's Second Team. Although we were disappointed with the loss, we were pleased to end up sixth out of twelve teams. And even though there were some disappointing times, the team had fun and made great memories. We appreciate the chance to travel and compete.

By playing in the tournament, the volleyball team was able to rediscover the excitement and nervousness that comes with competition, along with the joy to see our friends from other teams, whom we haven't seen in years. Through competition and camaraderie, a strong teammate bond was born — one that we will carry with us through the year and for years to come.

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**Although the girls' official volleyball season may be over, come together and celebrate with us every Friday from 5:00 to 7:30 pm at Community Volleyball, open to HIS staff, HIS parents, and HIS High School students (Grades 9-12).**

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