Today the team had a free morning to walk around Austin and see all that this beautiful city and campus has to offer. After another great lunch buffet Stefano, Monica, and Manuela headed off to the gym for a press conference to help advertise the two matches they will play against University of Texas on Friday and Saturday.

This evening we were lucky to train at the Austin Sports Center where the Austin Jr.'s club is run out of. The Italians really appreciated the state-of-the-art facilities they were offered and took advantage of the camera (with delayed playback on a flat screen TV) system. Yesterdays practice was a bit rough so the girls really got after it today.

After training they were prepared to run another clinic, but unfortunately it was middle-school volleyball night and only two girls showed up. Lucky for the two that did show up, they got a lot of one on one attention and were able to work closely with Stefano and the Italians.

Austin Jr.'s took the team out to Freebirds for dinner and the Italian team very much enjoyed the burritos! Apparently, the tradition at Freebirds is to mold the foil wrapper from the burritos into a design and place it on the wall. As you can see the Italians fully embraced this tradition by molding the foil to say "Italia."



It was a very fun evening!

Tomorrow is the first match against University of Texas and I think everyone is excited to play hard and try to beat the very strong Texas team.

The team arrived in Austin yesterday and checked into the luxurious AT&T Hotel and Conference Center. They were very relieved to enjoy an excellent buffet lunch and get some rest before it was time to head out to training. They trained for two hours and then ran a clinic for Austin Performance. About thirty-five kids showed up, ranging in age from twelve to seventeen and it was a huge success. They were able to watch the girls train for about an hour and a half and then participate in a clinic run by Stefano and his team. Stefano talked with the girls before their practice to let them know what they would be doing and that they needed to try their hardest to work the clinic even though there would be a language barrier. The "campers" had a really good time and the Italians did an amazing job working with the girls. Mauro "fisio" Proietti warmed up the kids with a "Euro" style warm up and then Stefano, with no lack of enthusiasm, put them through some drills followed by a little six on six competition.





Austin Performance sponsored a really nice meal for the Italians following the clinic. They had a BBQ meal catered in the courtyard of our hotel. It was another new meal for the team and there were zero complaints (I believe that many of the girls even went back for seconds and thirds). Following dinner they had a quick team meeting to discuss what they needed to improve on in the next days practice and then it was off to bed.

Monday we traveled from Las Cruces to College Station. With a drive on each end of the 1.5 hour flight it was a bit of a long travel day. We checked into the hotel and quickly left for evening training. It was a good opportunity for the girls to move around and stretch out. The girls were very disappointed to learn that dinner would again consist of chicken (by this point in the trip they were already sick of chicken). Everyone was off to bed immediately after dinner to rest for morning practice.

Under strict instructions from the technical coordinators in Italy, coach Stefano needed the girls to get in a lifting session after four days of strictly volleyball. Half of the girls trained for an hour and then went over to Texas A&M’s astonishing strength and conditioning facility. Thirty minutes later the rest of the team joined them to finish their workout.

The Italians girls spent about fifteen minutes chatting with Texas A& M golfer Andrea Pavan who is originally from Rome, but has been in College Station for four years now. You could see the smiles on the girls faces when they met someone who could speak Italian to them.

Lunch was at the highly recommended Italian restaurant Frittella, owned by Italians Adriano & Vancene Farinola. Again, the girls were pleasantly surprised when they were able to order their first meal in Italian. Stefano wasn’t sure if it was their ability to order or the familiarity of the items on the menu, but the girls ended up with enough food to feed an army. I think it’s safe to say that they were happily stuffed as they left the restaurant and snapped a quick photo with the owner’s niece who runs the place.



Spirits were high as we headed to the gym for the match. The girls were expecting a big crowd and were ready to play a good match. Reed Arena quickly came to life as about 1500 fans filed into the arena and were led by the yell leaders and the band. What an amazing place to play. It was a very exciting environment and started out to be a very close match with some really long rallies. One of the highlights of the match was when Stefano nearly tackled the line judge for calling a ball in that was clearly 2 feet out of bounds. The referee pulled out a yellow card, and the crowd yelled the traditional, “sit down bus driver.” The crowd got a kick out of that one!

Unfortunately, Texas A&M’s quick offense and solid defense was too much for the young Italians and they lost the match three straight. As A&M fans started to leave the announcer surprised them with a fourth “Bonus Match.” The Italians came up with some strong attacks and some tough serves, seemingly motivated by the attempted distractions yelled by the fans, and won the “bonus set.”

After the match, we headed to the Blue Baker for the promised pizza dinner. College Station was a great memory for the girls. They experienced the unique tradition that few schools offer, an incredibly animated crowd, some of the country’s best athletic facilities, and first-class hospitality.

The day of the match against NMSU started with a free morning for the girls to go shopping. Best Buy and Mesilla Mall were the two stops. The girls quickly discovered that electronic items and athletic gear are much cheaper here in the States than in Europe. No one was empty handed when we met up two hours later.

After a quick team lunch and some rest we were off to meet with the NMSU boosters who tailgate in front of the gym before every match. These are some serious fans. The boosters openly welcomed the Italian girls to Las Cruces, asked them a few questions, and then took a picture with them. Vince from Lorenzo’s Italian restaurant was very generous in sponsoring the event and delivered some of the best pizza I have ever had (Vince’s pizza was voted the best in the Bay Area when he had his original restaurant in San Francisco). Unfortunately, the girls were unable to enjoy the pizza pre-match and had to head into the gym for their match vs. NMSU.





It was a very good match with NMSU winning the first two and Italy coming from behind to win in five; 23-25, 18-25, 27-25, 25-19, 15-10. About 2500 fans showed up and created a really great atmosphere and a fun match.







Following the match, we headed back to the hotel for dinner and some rest before a big travel day.

Today the Italians had the chance to play two matches. They were well rested and recovered from their grueling 24+ hour trip, and began with a morning match against Florida State University. USF, coming off a tough five game match versus Florida and a 3-0 win against Illinois, proved to be too strong for the young Italians. FSU won in three straight; 25-16, 25-23, 26-24. Florida's Drujic served quite a few aces and really forced Italy out of their system. The Italians did improve with each set and made some nice plays throughout the match.



Lunch at Cafe Don Felix, in the Old Town Square of Mesilla, was amazing. A very cute setting and a delicious meal of homemade flautas with rice and beans made everyone forget the loss. Coach Stefano let the girls walk around the old town for 20 minutes and some of the girls bought Mexican Sombreros. They definitely appreciated their free time.





Illinois came out strong in the second match of the day and Italy struggled to put the ball away. Illinois hit .450 while Italy only hit .250 which made the difference in the match.





It was a fun match to watch and the best thing about the evening was the dinner that followed. The two teams ate together, and the girls mixed in with each other. The Americans helped the Italians understand the menu and attempt to order a healthy meal.



Stefano gave them tomorrow morning off and we will take the girls shopping. Tomorrow night they will face New Mexico State University in the Pan Am Center in front of what we hope to be 1,500-2,000 people.