Neil and Dan ran up the court after it. The ball hit the wall near the ceiling, bounced up to hit the ceiling itself, and rebounded at a steep angle to the first-fourth line. The backliners who'd already started forward to keep Dan and Neil out of their space doubled back as fast as they could. Herrera caught the ball and threw it forward.

Neil didn't try to intercept it. He was more interested in keeping Herrera on this side of the half-court line. He turned to watch the ball but pressed himself back against Herrera. When Herrera tried to move left or right to run toward half-court, Neil felt it and shifted with him. Neil couldn't hold him back for long, but he just needed to buy his teammates time to gain possession.

Defense knew what to do; Renee had suggested this play on the bus. They hadn't known which one of them would get the ball from the Terrapins after this kind of serve, but they knew what to do if they caught it. Matt was the one who won the fight. He hooked his stick around his striker's and gave it a hard swipe to pop the ball free. Matt grabbed it and threw it. He didn't even slow long enough to look, trusting Andrew to get it from any angle.

Andrew hit the ball to the left, smacking it off the wall in front of the Fox benches so it would rebound in Neil and Herrera's general direction. Neil didn't wait for it to reach him. He bolted for it the second he saw the angle of Andrew's swing.

He knew Herrera was right behind him for a body check. If he got crushed between the wall and Herrera, he'd lose the ball in the fight. Neil caught the ball right off the wall but didn't try to protect it. Instead he gave the butt of his racquet a hard pop with one fist. It sent the ball flying straight up out of the net. He dropped to his knees in the same breath.

He almost wasn't fast enough. Herrera crashed into him at full speed a half-second later, but Neil wasn't where Herrera expected him to be. He tripped over Neil's body and, without Neil to take the brunt of the blow for him, crashed into the wall helmet-first. Neil pushed free of Herrera's crumpling body and swore at the flare of heat in his shoulder. If it wasn't for his shoulder armor, Herrera's knee might have dislocated his arm on impact.

Someone pounded on the wall nearby. It might have been support from the subs for dropping his mark like that, but it was more likely Wymack or Kevin furious over such a risky move. Neil would worry about them later. Right now all that mattered was the ball, which was bouncing off the floor just a foot away.

Neil scooped it up and took off for goal. He didn't look back to see if Herrera had gotten up or if Dan's mark had dropped her to challenge him. He looked only at the goalkeeper and knew he was going to score. He put all of his first-half frustration behind his swing. The goalkeeper swatted at it and missed. The wall lit up red to confirm the point.