Believe me, we talked about this in the post-game.
Straight back would not have helped as that's exactly where the ball was going, and I wasn't going to outrun the girls who had a running start.
Along the endline wouldn't have helped, because the libero was running almost exactly along that line. And moving down the sideline toward the stand would've put me in the path of another player.
My first instinct is what actually doomed me. The ball was so high was going to land
well behind me, so I thought, "I don't want to move into the space where someone will play the ball." I thought if I stayed put, I would not interfere with the actual play on the ball. Unfortunately, I hadn't calculated the paths that the 3 players would take to get to the ball. And when I realized I was in the way of one of them, I couldn't move fast enough to avoid the contact.
The only thing, in retrospect, that would have worked is if I had moved at a 45-degree angle away from the endline toward the sideline bleachers. That would've taken me away from the spot where the ball would be contacted and would have moved me out of the path of all 3 players.