I'm Depressed, Damn It!

And it's not because of the holidays, even though I feel overwhelmed.  And it's not the continually dreary winter weather, although seeing the sun break through the clouds for, like, an hour yesterday really helped my spirits a lot.

The University of Minnesota volleyball team lost last night.  When I saw on Twitter that Texas crushed them in four sets in the national semifinals, I think I've been on an emotional tailspin.

I couldn't bring myself to follow the game.  I couldn't anyway because I was meeting someone who was interested in participating in the alumni club, but I didn't follow them because I usually fear the worst for the teams I root for.  Nearly all the time, I'm right, and I was right with the v-ball team.

Details don't matter.  From what I quickly gleaned from the boards, no team really stood head and shoulders above the other until the Goofers melted down in the end of the match.  In volleyball, when you have two teams playing evenly, there really is no one category you can put to as the decisive statistic or dimension of the game that gave one side the victory.  Instead, it is just a case where the team just one more of the important points.  In the Final Four match, the first two sets were really tight, but eventually, the Longhorns won more than the U., and thus won the first two sets.

So, although they were up against the third-seeded team in the tournament and they have a bunch of good players both starting and on the bench, and although Texas has the greater pedigree, this was still a failure.  Any team's season falling short of the title is a failure.  But the Gophers just blew what could have been not only its best team in program history, but also the best path on its way to the NCAA championship.  Yes, they were the 2-seed, and so playing third-seeded Texas was basically a toss-up, and yes, there was still 9-seed Kansas and 4-seed Nebraska on the other semifinal, and they were playing in Omaha, Neb., aka Husker Nation.  But this was still a damn good team, and they could have been the ones getting the clutch points to close out sets, not Texas.

But they're not.  And now, their leader, Daly Santana, graduates.  Sure, they've got some good players and some very good recruits coming up.  But this team was prepared to go all the way, and with my alma mater succumbing to the Jayhawks (and since the Cornhuskers dispatched them, I'm rooting for them to complete their "Kill Bill" list and vanquish the team they beat my other favorite team on Saturday night), they were the highest seed left standing.  Thus, at least from a technical standpoint, this was an upset.  And now their season, this glorious season, is over, and they might never get such a magical combination of talent, health and luck again.  So, all of that makes me real depressed.