About that playoff excitement...

Never mind.

The pure agony of coming so close to your goal and simply falling short at the very end was on the minds of each women's basketball player on the ride back home to Contra Costa College on Friday night. With some, you could tell more than others, but as a team, the pure disappointment from Friday's one-point loss to Yuba showed in a big way.

You can't really fault the Comets though, as they've had a great season, especially in the Bay Valley Conference as they lost only two conference games all year. Those two games, however, just happened to be against Yuba and the co-BVC champion Solano Falcons. Both losses came by only one point. But in both games, Yuba and Solano were able to expose the biggest flaw that plagued the Comets all throughout the season - their size. A lack of size and another physical presence in the paint to be exact. Freshman forward Kandy Stewart plays strong down low but she is only one player. When facing teams like Yuba who have three legit post players who can rebound and score in the paint, and when your starting lineup is comprised of three guards and two forwards, CCC is sure to have difficulties.

For the most part, however, CCC was able to shut down Yuba's bigs in the first half, but all slowly went downhill toward the end of the first half and into the second half. You could just feel the game slowly turn in the second half, and the injury to Stewart pretty much iced CCC's hopes.

I wrote my last blog on the excitement about the possibility of a playoff game for CCC. I wasn't aware, however, of the standings and how the tiebreaker was to be determined. Unfortunately, with the Yuba loss, CCC's playoff hopes have nearly vanished. The tiebreaker automatically goes to Solano, despite the two teams splitting its two matchups this season. It turns out that Solano receives the tiebreaker because it defeated Yuba twice this season, while the Comets split with Yuba after Friday night. Solano gets an automatic playoff berth while CCC will likely be left out of the playoff picture, which might not be the worst thing for this team. Despite its great record, CCC did lose to the third place and co-first place teams in Yuba and Solan respectively. If it had trouble with those two teams, how would CCC fare against bigger teams in the playoffs?

The Comets could end up benefitting from the heartbreak that came with the conclusion of this season. All but two players on this year's roster are freshman, and most key players, like Stewart, K.K. Martin, Zenaia Hunt and Aleah Bridges should return next season. The return of standout guard Savannah Stewart, who redshirted this year to join the Police Academy, should bring some added depth to the team next year as well. And with a strong recruiting class, the Comets can be even better next season.

Perhaps the strongest intangible this team has, however, will be that it has something to prove come next season. Each player has something to prove, and it's hard to bet against a team that's on a mission. So for now, the possibility of a playoff game may have just disappeared, but fast forward to a year from now and we might be telling a much different story.