Journal Entry #3, All Jacksonville/Birmingham Teams
Izola to Maribor Slovenia, December 30, 2007
Today started with a bang, all the coaches met for breakfast in the morning. We discussed the upcoming day which would include matches for our teams, lunch, packing all the kids up and driving to Maribor to begin our New Years holiday!
Rico’s Team:
Rico’s Team played at 10 am vs OK FUNTANA. The match started out great. Our team was kicking butt and taking names. Katie and Molly were passing nails to Kamryn who set up a variety of hitters who were putting the ball down everywhere. Julia was back in action and handled things in the middle with Lexi who was hammering out 3-1’s. MaCall and Shelby were crushing the ball on the outside and blocking well too. Together the team punished their opponent 25-10! The next set was a different story. We got behind early and never caught up. The OK FUNTANA team was serving tougher and blocking well, we did not respond and did not make our adjustments. However Taylor had a great 5 point serving streak and almost caught us back up. We lost the set 18-25 which was our fault. Then in the third set it was point for point and we outlasted the other team to win 15-13. All the girls put in the extra effort. We all got t-shirts and posters from the tournament director and then ran back to the hotel for showers and lunch. We needed to pack up and be ready to leave at 1:00.
Rico’s team ended the tournament 2-3.
 
April’s Team: (By Jay who stepped in as a guest coach)
Our team played OK SRDOCI. We started out the match serving very aggressively and playing scrappy defense. Christina was digging well and Kendall P served tough and threw the opponent out of system several times. Offensively Lauren was able to work a very spread offense involving many back-row attacks Kendall W and Lindsey hit very well from the back row. Sam was able to put the ball away and motivated our team to continue to work hard throughout the match. Kristin was encouraging her teammates and staying positive with them as we lost the match in 2 the scores were 21-25, 16-25. This young team has worked hard and learned to adjust to the European game. The volleyball players here serve very well and most jump serve rockets at you. The blockers are well skilled and the defense is very consistent. After our match in the main gym I spoke with the team and praised them for their attitudes and efforts. I was proud to coach this team and I look forward to hearing about how they progress in the future. I was also happy to be a part of their experience here in Europe.
April’s Team ended the tournament 0-5.
Blake’s Team: (By CJ and Jay)
We were able to watch the team play the OK PAZIN team at 11:00. The girls gave a valiant effort but they were out matched by a very strong and well skilled team from Croatia. The scores did not reflect the level of play that we witnessed. Elyssa pushed her team to play their best. She set up Leah, Lauren, and Devon W all of these hitters pounded out kills and put up a series of blocks that resulted in sideout points. Paula was a digging machine and passed amazingly well. Devon T put up a few blocks as well. After the tough loss the team had to play OK KBM from Maribor, Slovenia. This team was one of the toughest in the tournament. Earlier in the tournament Rico’s Team took this talented team to 3 games and lost. We had seen them in action and knew they were strong. The match started out with Elyssa serving tough and our team passing fairly well. However the strength of the offensive weapons that KBM had was no match for our tired group of volleyballers. Ashley for the second time of the day made a superb dig with her face. This dig resulted in a fabulous point for Blake’s team. And the surrounding coaches moaned and held up fingers to find out if Ashley was coherent. She was fine and went on to play really well. The team ended the tourney 3-4 overall and placed tied for 4th. Everyone rushed out of the gym to get changed and grab lunch and our bags to get to the bus. In the rush of the moment a funny thing happened. GET READY here it comes: Elyssa was walking with Blake, Jay, CJ, and Jenny to the bus with all of her stuff. She was talking and walking and slowly her jacket and bag were falling from her arms to the ground, she stopped set her bag upright and bent over to get her jacket. When this happened her bag slowly flip-flopped awkwardly toward the edge of the seawall where it ended up dumping into the Adriatic Sea. Of course Blake and Elyssa watched this slowly happen in astonishment. They both yelled up to us and we turned just in time to watch it hit the water and begin to float. Jenny quickly reacted and jumped down into a boat she grabbed a rope while Blake and Elyssa looked at the bag, CJ and Jay began to take pictures of the escapade. With several Slovenians watching our show and laughing at us, Jenny managed to get the rope with a stick to Blake who tied it up and made a make-shift fishing line thingy that he perfectly casted right onto the floating bag. He carefully towed it in towards the seawall where Elyssa lowered herself down on a ladder to reach the bag. It was beginning to sink and we had to move fast. The Slovenians were watching in amazement of our expertise in saving the bag. Elyssa grabbed it but was unable to lift the heavy bag now ½ filled with water. So Blake grabbed it and could not budge it either, so he yelled for Jay who was still laughing and taking picture of the whole ordeal. CJ and April were holding onto Elyssa and got her back up then Blake and Jay managed to get the bag up as we walked to the bus the water was rushing out. All the local Slovenians cheered and praised our MacGyver efforts in retrieving the luggage that landed in the sea. This is a true story and not a fabrication in any part. Elyssa is still doing laundry now as we write the journal and get ready for bed.
We are in Maribor and after a great dinner many of our kids went out on the mountain in front of our hotel to play in the snow and sled. Several people brought little sleds and shared them with all the girls wanting to sled. It was a great time. We had some hot chocolate and then went into bed to get ready for our big day of skiing, snowboarding, spa treatments and great memories.
|
