Flying overseas can be a tough journey for us big guys.  It’s cramped, there’s little leg space, and sleeping is tough.  At one point over the Atlantic Ocean, our very own woke up from his sleep terribly thirsty.  He grabbed a small red packet labeled “Hydrate” that the flight attendant passed out before the flight.  Being thirsty and tired, he tore the packet open, ready to quench his thirst, and ate hand lotion!  We knew that this was the start of a great trip! 

Tired but pumped, we arrived in Venice, Italy and met Cory, the head of Bring it Promotions and the guy running the Global Challenge.  We boarded a bus and went to Pordenone, a big volleyball city, about an hour away from Venice.  There we grabbed lunch and headed to practice.  We were jet lagged, but practice went fairly well.  Sleep came easily that night. 

Day 2

After a good night’s sleep, we were ready to get in the gym and practice.  Things were starting to click and we were getting excited to play.  We ate lunch and then got on the train headed for beautiful Venice.  Venice is a city completely closed to motor traffic.  Their streets are canals, their cars are boats, and their taxis are ferries.  This was certainly a unique place, especially being from Southern California where we can’t live without our cars.  We spent the afternoon cruising the canals, shopping, and sight seeing before heading back to our hotel in Pordenone.

We woke up to the sound of thunder, lightning, and downpour.  This was not what we expected to see in Italy!  Donning our flip-flops, we boarded a bus headed to Maribor, Slovenia, the site of the Global Challenge.   We checked in to the hotel, ate lunch consisting of meat and potatoes (no more pasta!), and headed to the gym for practice.  Dave and Matt worked us pretty hard, but it was worth it.  This was our best practice so far. 

We headed back to the hotel to have dinner with the teams in the tournament, Northern California’s High Performance, Slovenia’s Junior National team, and the United Arab Emirates’ Junior National team.  After dinner, some of the UAE guys were so impressed by the Big Dog Jake Piva’s height; they took pictures with him like he was a celebrity!  Tomorrow the tournament starts, our first match verses our new friends, UAE.

Today the Global Challenge tournament officially started.  Our first match was against the United Arab Emirates and we were fired up.  We lost the first two games, 23-25 and 24-26, but played pretty well.  In game three, with some changes to the line up, we came back and beat them 25-22.  In game four we continued to gain momentum and won 25-21.  Game five went back and forth until we were able to earn a couple points from Ryan Perryman’s serve and Tucker Pelusus’ attack.  Victory was ours at 15-13.  Both teams played a great match, and we definitely gained some confidence with that win. 

The next match we faced the host team, Slovenia.  Things didn’t go as well as this morning.  Colton Echave brought some heat, but overall, we were a little flat.  We lost the match in 3 games, 21-25, 19-25, 15-25.  Despite the loss, we’re all in good spirits, and are looking forward to our match tomorrow against NorCal.