Day 9, January 16, 2007
Innsbruck Austria
By Victoria Zimmerman 

This morning Holly and I woke up, without the wake up call we asked for last night, to a great sunny day in Innsbruck. We got in at one and were ready to see the town.

Four of the girls and I walked up the street to a cafe and attempted to order in French and Spanish to an Italian waiter. We ordered the equivalent to a ham and cheese “panino” and a cappuccino and flipped through an American gossip magazine written in German. It was a great breakfast and we were excited to to walk through the city, map in hand.

We saw some high end fashion shops for window shopping and found ''Old Town'' that was packed with old buildings, great architecture, and tourist shops. On the way back to the hotel we were stopping at a place to get manicures and got a taste of European crime. A man who decided to go for an afternoon sprint through a busy street carrying his man-purse away from a woman cheering him on loudly followed by police; it was a reality check for the visiting Americans.

Later that day Holly and I watched “A League of Their Own” to get pumped for our matches.  Holly's team played an Austrian Team (VC Tirol) with an impressive American middle and ended up splitting four games. They experienced how Europeans change line-ups and mix up serve receive; everyone hit in different positions.

Deja, an outside from Baylor, came back from a tryout in Feldkirch, Austria and helped the girls come back from a 16-24 deficit to win game one. After being very up and down with their passing and hitting they ended up splitting with VC Tirol in 4 sets.

We played TI Innsbruck’s “Junior” Team, a team that let us experiment with different offenses and letting the setters swing! We beat them 25-10, 25-14, and 33-31; it was a nail biter.

After the matches we came back and some of the girls went out but we decided to get to bed early to get ready for the snowboarding on the Stubaier Glacier tomorrow!