During the Battle of the Bulge fought in World War Two the German command issued a surrender ultimatum to U.S. forces led by General Anthony McAuliffe. The American general's reply was simply, "Aw, nuts!" McAuliffe's brief reply has become the quintessential statement of dogged determination and a refusal to give up. The American forces went on to win the battle, and virtually assure that the Allies would prevail over the Axis powers.

Although it certainly does not compare to war, last night the ACGC volleyball team seemed to say a collective "Aw, nuts!" when faced with almost certain defeat in its match at Van Meter. For you see, the Chargers had fallen behind two sets to none to start the match, and it appeared certain that any hope of victory was quashed.

The gentleman sitting next to this observer commented after the initial losses, "Well, now we're going to see what the team is made of." And what we saw was remarkable GRIT from the ACGC girls! After losing 25-23 and 25-16 in sets one and two, the Chargers came roaring back to sweep the final three sets, 25-20, 25-20, and 15-9.

The Chargers seemed to have things under control in set one when they led by a 23-20 score and had the service. But ACGC did not score again and the Bulldogs prevailed. The Chargers led early in set two at 5-4, but then were outplayed by the home team and found themselves on the short end of the 25-16 score. Van Meter was one set away from pulling off the upset and a big win for its program.

The Chargers would have none of it. ACGC never trailed in the final three sets. With Kylie Young serving early in set three, the Chargers took a 5-0 lead that set the tone for the rest of the evening. Successful serves, digs, sets, blocks, and kills were all prominent in the final three sets. It took a total team effort to pull off the win, and that's exactly what our Chargers gave!

But the final outcome wasn't yet determined when Van Meter, trailing 22-11 in set four, had a six point run to close the gap to 23-17 before ACGC shut the door and evened the match at two sets apiece. By this time the momentum was all in favor of the Chargers, and Van Meter had lost its confidence and composure. With the score knotted at 6-6 in the final set, ACGC outscored the Bulldogs 9-3 the rest of the way to clinch the win.

Set scores:

ACGC 23 15 25 25 15

VM 25 25 20 18 9

Charger Statistics:

Attack Serve Serve

Athlete Kills Kill Err Attempts Kill Eff Asst Digs Blocks Success Serves Eff Aces

Stowe 0 0 0 .000 41 10 0 21 22 .955 1

Bunde 2 2 15 .000 0 1 8 0 0 .000 0

Coffman 0 0 0 .000 0 4 0 12 12 1.000 1

Laabs 0 0 0 .000 0 18 0 6 9 .667 0

Largent, 38 11 69 .391 0 6 5 15 15 1.000 2

McClain 1 0 5 .200 0 2 3 0 0 .000 0

O'Brien 2 1 8 .125 0 1 5 13 16 .813 1

Young 6 8 21 -0.095 0 7 0 30 30 1.000 4

Totals 49 22 118 0.229 41 49 21 97 104 0.933 9