1. Two Points – Vignette #1<br />“Two points. You may wonder what it is about…” It is Mr.Macky talking on the stage, in front of whole high school students. Middle of the assembly. In a dark Chevron Theater, sitting in a small, but soft and comfortable chair, I am listening to him reporting the last, most impressive game ever at IASAS. Surely, everyone seems wondering where his story goes; with the awkward words to begin – “two points”.<br />Not me, however. As a member of Girls Varsity volleyball team, I was there when that game was taking place. I know what he is talking about. As the story goes on, it reminds me of that scene, and pulls me back into that unbelievably brilliant and exciting moment…<br />On the last day of IASAS 2009, we were there, a step from the gold medal. It was great that both of us – boys and girls – advanced to the finals, but we knew that it was not over yet. Championship. The most important game was near at hand.<br />Didn’t even feel it passing, but the time was going so fast, almost like a flash. Large number of audience, echoing voices in the gym, everything was lacking reality. A whistle. When I came to, I was sitting on the bench as a supporter, watching six starting members going onto the court. The Boys Championship had begun. Well, it’s a time to show the Panther Pride.<br />First two sets didn’t take much time. We were losing. Even though there were some offensive plays, SAS was a cut above us. Convinced of their victory, we saw some audiences leaving the gym. I exchanged glance with my teammates. Indescribable bitter vexation. To get over it, we raised our cheering voices. Third set. We couldn’t lose any more.<br />However, it seemed no better than the first two sets. When SAS scored 10 points, our coach told us to go out and get warmed up. 10-8. Not a big lead, but a loss was possible.<br />During warm-up at the downstairs of the gym, we were all reticent. Really excited for our own championship, but still having a hope for the boys. No words to say. Silence…“Girls, we’ve got it!” All of a sudden, it was our coach breaking the silence. Our boys won the third set; eke out the hope for the gold.<br />When we went back into the gym, there was the 4th set going on. It seemed that boys were playing much better now. The score wasn’t coming into my eyes though, because I was too excited to check it. Without having any evidence, I had a certain conviction; they would do it. And yes, eventually, 4th set turned into our game as well.<br />No matter what, it was the last game. 5th set. Both ISB and SAS didn’t let the others to lead more than three points. They were tied almost all the time. Audiences were yelling so intensely; we swallowed hard. Attack, receive, attack, and score. Serve, but miss. Serve again, then smash. It was like a scene in the movie, didn’t even let us take a breath.<br />10 minutes later, the game was still going on. Deuce. 16-15, with one point ahead, ISB’s serve. The ball was coming and going between two sides of the court. Such a long rally, but neither of them giving up. The end had come, however; they smashed the ball, it was out, and the point goes to ISB. 17-15. All of the girls run onto the court, joined to the victory crowd. We hugged each other so tightly. Truly, they were the IASAS champions.<br />“I’ve never seen such an exciting championship in my entire coaching life. None of the teams ever came back after losing two sets. We won, because we trusted each other, didn’t stop believing each other. Two points. That was the evidence.” As Mr. Mackey ended his long speech, there is a big round of applause in the Theater. Coming back from a storm of memories at that moment, I also crap my hands hardly.<br />It was definitely “awesome, amazing, unquestionable, and unforgettable” moment, as the TAS school newspaper later reported. They deserved it, as we all know.<br />With IASAS 2010 coming near at hand now, I hope we can play like our boys last year; never stop believing each other, just to show what we’ve been doing during this season, and most importantly, to enjoy our last volleyball tournament.<br />Vignette #1 Commentary<br />LITERARY DEVICES<br />I used some literary devices such as simile and metaphor, like “the time was going so fast, almost like a flash”. Other than that, I used lots of imagery to give the story a reality – to make the readers feel like watching that game itself.<br />SENTENCE STRUCTURE<br />The story begins not with the game itself, but with Mr. Mackey’s speech part. After that, the story goes back to the past, as I myself remembering the championship game. Therefore, there is a difference in structure between “now” and flashback part, as one is in present tense and another is in past tense.<br />The point of view is the first person throughout this entire story, that means the story is told by myself. As doing so, I tried to illustrate how I felt about thing happening as clear as possible.<br />THEME<br />From the scene of the game, it could be said that one of the theme in this story is “people never should give up ‘til the end” as shown in the episode of the boy’s game. Even though the boys lost first two sets, they never gave up, then came back and got a championship unbelievably. Also, “when people could trust each other, they could accomplish what they eagered” would be another theme in this vignette, as told in Mr. Mackey’s words.<br />TONE<br />The entire story is about the championship game at IASAS; and to give a feeling of being right there to the readers, the tone throughout this story is intenseness, excitement and enthusiasic. At the last point, every other movements are explained in details but an articulated way such as “attack, receive, attack, and score”, and it adds the tempo and speed to the story.<br />IMAGERY<br />To illustrate the intenseness of the game, there are lots of imagery used in the vignette. I mostly used sight and sound imagery, as a supporter at that time and stood besides the court, watching entire game from different perspectives than the players. Also, by illustrating those scenes as clear as possible, I think I could make the readers to feel it as if they were there.<br />