USA Youth Team Journal
Friday, December 29, 2006
By Ariana Filho

Today was a great day. We played two matches, one against Hungary and then one against Czech Republic. We won both of the matches, which was great on our statistics for the pool. We don’t know what happens now because it all depends on who wins in the match of Czechs vs. Slovenians.

(Editor’s Note: Czech won 2-1, 25-23 in the 3rd set, so the USA Youth Team will be in the finals tomorrow vs Croatia at 1:00pm)

First we all woke up early, which was a little hard to do but I think we are all starting to catch up on this whole time change thing. We had a nice breakfast and then headed out to play Hungary. I think losing to Slovenia yesterday gave us all a stronger passion and push to play harder today. We stared by having a great warm up. Then the game began. We played really hard and never broke down our composure. Yesterday we started a lot of our games hard and then lost our composure throughout the game. That did not happen today. We started off our games extra hard and kept our energy and fire for the whole game. Having our consistent fire put a lot of pressure on the Hungarians. We won all three games against them, and earned a little sticker that they gave us. It was a fun match. After the game we talked with each other about how we played and what we needed to do against the Czech republic. I think our main goal was to not get cocky from that win and understand that the next game was not going to be easy. Even though we beat Hungary we still had to step it up another notch in order to beat Czech. So then we walked back to get a quick lunch. It was really good pasta that I probably cannot pronounce but it was good. I wanted to eat a lot of it but we couldn't’t over eat since we had to play again shortly. After we ate we left to go play Czech Republic.

Czech Republic was going to be a tough match. We had no room to get ahead of ourselves. Our focus was to play each game at a time. So we did just that. We took the first game from them, which put a lot of pressure on them, but it wasn’t enough. We had to put that game behind us and focus on the second game. So we did. We played extremely hard and had some very long rallies. So we won the second game. Then we got a little excited about winning and thought that we would get the third game easily. We soon learned that that was not going to happen.

The Czechs got a lead on us and Coach Collier had to call a timeout so that we could get our focus back. After a small lecture on keeping our composure and focus we went out with more passion and fire again. It felt like we were starting a brand new game. We all had new goals and a fresh attitude. It helped us cause we came out of our hole and were tied back up with the Czechs. Now the competition was really on. Point by point both teams fought, but no one could take the lead. The game just kept going back and forth. 23-23, 23-24, 24-24. It was a very close game. Then it was game point for them. They served it and Tara banged it down the line. Our point. Then it was game point for them again. They served it and we had a really long rally but pulled off a side out and tied it back up. Then they had a third game point. We were not going to give up now. We fought and fought and then sided out and tied it back up again. I think we started getting tired of being that close so we pushed extra hard and got the next two points to pull out a win 28-26. We were jumping and screaming for joy. It was a great win. Both of our wins for the day really helped us for our statistics on the pool. Our goal for the whole day was
to go out and win all three games against Hungary and all three against Czech Republic. We had our goal and we achieved it. We talked after the game about how much better we played today and how yesterday will just be a blur that we will forget. I remember coach saying, "Now this is the USA team that everyone is looking for, and that all the other teams should be scared of." We are back but it is not over. Everyday gets a little harder and every match gets a little closer. We can’t stop now. This will just give us more push for tomorrow. I think our play today had a lot to do with our team bonding from last night.

Last night, wow, where do I start? We all had a great dinner and then went out in the freezing cold for a team meeting. Coach was talking about how the day was a blur and how the travel affected us. He told us a lot of stuff on how we need to get all three games against both teams the next day. So we left the meeting excited to play tomorrow. Then we all got in the elevator to go to our rooms. We thought it would be funny to put all 10 of us in one elevator. Well the elevators out here are a lot smaller then the ones in America. I guess the max number of people was 5 when the elevator looked like it could only hold 2 people. No one on our team can read Slovenian so we put all 10 of us on the elevator. Jokingly we all said, "wow, we are going to get stuck". Well we did. Right between the first and second floor we realized that the elevator wasn’t moving anymore. So I said "that’s because no one pushed a button for a floor." So I tried to push a button and nothing lit up. So we were scared to push the alarm button but we eventually did and it wasn’t working. That’s when everyone started freaking out. Everyone kept thinking we were going to die, a couple of us were laughing and one player was about to cry. I think she has a little bit of claustrophobia. I told everyone to stop freaking out or all the talking would take all the oxygen left in that little room and we would all suffocate. That didn’t help at all. That just made everyone freak out even more. So Dana tried prying the door open. She broke the silver part of the door but the main part was closed. We could only open it enough to fit our fingers through there. So we opened it and all screamed for help. Eventually a lady came and went to get the front desk. They came up with a key but it didn’t work so they had to go down and reset the elevator and hope that it would just turn back on. We just wanted them to open the door. So Dana made the lady stay by the door so that we knew she was there for us. Then we all asked her if she could go get our coach. We then found out that she was the coach’s wife and she is a fire marshal so we started to feel a little safer. Then we were thinking, "what if they get the elevator on and we all drop because of all the weight?" Then people were freaking out again. After resetting the elevator five times they got it to work and it started to go back down. It stopped again before it got all the way down to the first floor. The door tried to open but we couldn’t wait any longer so we pried it open and rushed out as quickly as possible. A couple of us were still on when the door decided to try and close again and we started freaking out. Poor little Yogi almost got smashed in the door. So we pushed and shoved our way out the elevator. We were all just really happy to be alive. We were only stuck on the elevator for like 15 minutes but it felt like a year. When we got out all the parents were clapping and laughing at us. Then coach walked up and said "This is a good sign that we are going to win tomorrow cause now we have really good bonding on the team!" That cheered everyone up and we all just laugh about the whole thing now. It was a very eventful night. I believe everything happens for a reason and that proves it. I think the elevator gave us a little bond for the day. Every time we cheered before a game I would say, "Lets prove our elevator bond." That would make us all laugh and would calm us down for the game. Well winning today gave us a lot of hope. We don’t know yet if we are in the finals but we will soon. Now we are all waiting for dinner and then we will go tour a little bit of the town and see what it’s like during the night. I am excited.

Till next time, Ariana

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