There is a special silence that falls over the gym when the National Anthem plays. For our girls, lined up at the net with their hands on their hearts, this melody is not just a symbol; it is the official confirmation that they are where they belong. That they have reached the country’s elite. That they are on the right road.
This is our first experience at a Final Tournament and, however hard we try to hide it, the emotions are huge. You can feel them in every breath, in every glance towards the stands and in the slight tremble of the first serve. It is the “baptism of fire” for a young team now learning what the pressure of real performance means.
We have huge courage – the courage to measure ourselves against the best clubs in Romania. But if we are honest with ourselves, we feel we still lack that tenacity of “old wolves”, that sporting toughness you only gain through battles like these, lost and won by the narrowest of margins. We are learning not to lose our heads when the score gets tight and to stay “there”, in every point, until the final whistle.
But progress doesn’t lie. 📈 Every set played in this Final Tournament is a lesson no hour of training can teach. We keep progressing, not only in technique but in mentality. We are forging our spirit here, at the heart of the competition, watched by the parents who stand by us and guided by a staff who believe in us unconditionally.
We leave this tournament with a promise to ourselves: this is only the beginning. This year we opened the road, and the experience we gain now is the foundation on which we will build the future. We look with hope to next season, when we want to come back stronger, more tenacious and with more teams at the Final Tournaments.
