Day 4, December 30, 2004, Team Alaska’s Morning
By Racheal Dickenson (Delta High)

We had a game in Slovenia this morning at 10:00am against a team from Belgrade, Serbia. When the teams went up to the net, we gave them our shirts from Alaska. They were all extremely excited to receive them. We started off slow in the first game of the match. When we got to the second game we were all playing very well. We were all moving fast and digging the balls that the Belgrade players hit at us. We were able to get the ball up in the air and set up our hitters. We won the second game by one point. In the third game we started off hot, but then we all started to stop playing the game and they won. This was the first time that we won a game in a match. That felt very good for each of us. Before we left the gym we wanted to get rid of all the shirts, so we went around and gave them to some of the players. One of the groups that we gave them to jumped up and down and were screaming. It felt really good to see the other players that excited.

Izola, Slovenia

Day 4, Team San Jose’s Morning
By Kimberly Schumann (Citybeach 17s)

Today, December 30, 2004, we woke up not knowing what time we were going to play at. By the time we came downstairs, we figured out that we were playing at ten. It was 8:00 am at the time and we had to leave at 9:00am. We went back upstairs and got ready to play volleyball. We found out that we were at the other gym instead of the one we had been playing at the past two days. Our team had no idea where it was so we had to wait for Brooke to lead us. We were running a bit late and got to the gym fifteen minutes before we had to play. It ended up being fine because the other team was not even there. Our opponent was a team called OK Tar from Croatia. This game allowed us to work on other skills we had not yet worked on. We tried hitting from the back row and worked our middles as much as we could. We won the first game 25-11 and the second game 25-14. We were very excited that we won our first game in this country. It was a great way to end the tournament! We are leaving this country today and on to a ski resort. It is our break from volleyball for three days until we are on to Prague! We had fun in this country and are ready for the upcoming events and what it brings us!

Girls walking back to the Hotel Marina in Izola

Day 4, Team Jacksonville 16s’ Morning
By Kelly Weaver (JJVA)

Today we got up and ate breakfast around 8:30 when we found out that we were supposed to play at 11 o'clock. After breakfast, we went back up to our rooms to finish packing and take a little power nap. We were all supposed to be back down in the lobby by 10:00 and at about 9:40, Kirstin, Leah, Laura and Justine from the 18's team decided to come bang on the door, run in, and attack us with long, rolled up pieces of paper before proceeding on to the next room. But no worries, we'll get them back! So, we all walked downstairs to the lobby and hiked up to the gym. We played a pretty good team OK Koper/Gorica. We won in two games, 25-18 and then a closer game of 25-23. Meghan and Ali both had a bunch of aces in a row and everyone played really well. After the match, we walked back to the hotel to take quick showers, eat, and load up the bus.

Girls arriving to their Pohorje Mountain Hotel (Arena) in Maribor

Day 4, Jacksonville 18s’ Morning
By Laura La Rosa (Blaze Volleyball Club)

Today we woke up at 8:00 to make it down to breakfast at 8:30. We then found out we were going to play at 12:00 at the “far gym”. We had a few hours to spare and we didn't want to fall asleep because we knew our performance would suffer. In order to keep ourselves from falling asleep Kirstin, Leah, Justine, and I decided to attack. We rolled up some tournament posters and ran from room to room attacking all who were sleeping by beating them furiously. We even beat the 16's coach, Kevin, in the hallway and he ran away fearing for his life. Now that everyone hates us we eat alone. Anyway, we played one match today against Zoc Smec Lukavac. We won in three games! As Leah predicted today was our day to win! Leah and I found a few girls from the Belgrade team to trade jerseys with. We made our way back to the hotel and quickly showered and changed and headed back on the bus. We then drove about 3 and 1/2 hours to Maribor, Slovenia, to our next hotel. We are thankful for a few days of rest and recuperation for our next tournament but I have a good feeling that there will be some interesting times out on the ski slope, especially for us Floridians. Steph, from Ohio, is already letting us know that she will be showing us up and then laughing in our faces. Thanks Steph. By the way, for all you college coaches, I am an unsigned senior. I am a 6ft-middle hitter but I am playing right side on this trip. Interested? Feel free to contact me! Thanks.

Jacksonville 18s with OK Koper, Slovenia

Coach's Corner, Volley Festival in Izola Overview (18's Division)
By Daryl Kapis

As a coach this is one of those experiences that I will never forget. Coaching a team against European teams is unlike what I have experienced in all my years of coaching. I learned that there are definitely things that European teams impress upon their players at very young ages. These same skills have been impressed upon me within USA Volleyball over the last three years of what is expected of us to be better internationally. Players of all ages and levels are so good at hitting the ball with different arm swings that it is unbelievable. Their players never hit the same shot twice, and it never involved tipping or roll-shotting the ball. Even the best team's offense was quite simple. We rarely saw anything other than a traditional 4-1-5 offense, and believe me, they were good at it. One of the things that we had to adjust to was the power behind all of the players' serves that we faced. All players that we faced either had an incredible jump serve, or an incredibly tough deep float serve, and learning to cushion the ball was definitely became on-the-job training. After our first three matches we quickly realized that our style of serving was pretty much a free ball to them as their overall ball control was impeccable. We ended up having to have all of our servers back up to about 20ft from the end line, to serve a deep float serve in hoping to cause some kind of out of system swing. Most players and coaches we faced were very serious about their play, almost to the point where we wondered if they actually enjoyed what they were doing. One of the things we realized is that teams' warm-ups were not as structured as we do it in the states. Players would jog and stretch quickly back behind the court, and immediately jump on and pepper, and then they were ready to hit. All teams during hitting lines set their balls to the setter for their hitters to hit, other than a coach ever tossing improving every ones overall ball control.

Daryl Kapis (Golden Bear and USAV) with his team's 3rd Place Trophy

For the team it has been fantastic bringing girls from various club teams together to play in a tournament. The girls quickly learned to bond and that they would need to work together in a very short amount of time. We had zero practices before we played together as our players were from all over the country. Our strength as a country is that we are very social and we were able to get it together with great communication skills. We have some very gifted volleyball players on the team and we still went 1-4 in the first tournament, we had huge improvements in play at the tournament, as we played our finest match of the tournament on the 2 nd night vs. the overall winner. Prior to the match the team got a little fiery after some pre-game extra curricular hitting line activities. How great it was to have the first lead at the scheduled time-out at eight points, and to force them to call the first timeout of the game. We might have lost that match but all the girls agreed that that was the finest team they have ever faced as individuals, and smiles abounded.

Coach's Corner, Volley Festival in Izola Overview (16's Division)
By Kevin Paul

Izola was such a great learning experience for our team both on and off the court. We learned the European game is much different, from the way they warm up, officiate and coach. They are very serious about playing the game and it is obvious by the coach's demeanor on the sideline.

Kevin Paul (Jacksonville University) after checking into the Hotel
Arena in Maribor

In the beginning our team was intimidated by the seriousness of their athletes but as the days passed there was more interaction amongst the girls that led to us playing with more confidence. It was a great level of play with a good balance between the teams. Comparing the two styles of play, I think the Europeans play with a ball control focus and the Americans have more of a “first ball kill” attitude. Our team played well, finishing the tournament with a 3-1 record. I am very proud of the way we handled ourselves and competed all 3 days.

Day 4, Thursday, December 30, 2004
Part 2: After the Tournament
By CJ Sherman, BIP East Rep Coast!

After a tremendous tournament in Izola, we loaded up the buses and made our way to Maribor. The drive was uneventful, but we were able to take in many sites along the way. The mountain tops with snow and the little towns with churches and bell towers were magnificent. Everyone noticed the beauty of this small amazing country. We arrived at the Arena Hotel at the foot of the Pohorje Mountain. We are really right at the bottom, our hotel rooms open up to balconies that view the mountain and the final ski slope that many of us will attempt to conquer. We unloaded and went to our rooms then met up with Brook, Cory and Tim to discuss our plans for the next two days. In Maribor we will be able to ski, snowboard and go sledding. We can also go to the city center and take in the views of the 300 year old vine, the Drava riverfront area, and many unique shops. We then headed over to a local Slovenian ski store, Elan.

We were able to purchase items to ski in and other stuff to stay warm. The store hosted a small informal party with hors d’oevres and warm cider and tea and offered us some nice discounts to get outfitted for the coming days. After the party the bus took everyone back to the hotel. Some of the coaches and I went to my Slovenian friend’s flat. We enjoyed this very much. He and his wife and kids were so incredibly hospitable and we shared in conversation and became aware that we are not different at all. This was my first experience visiting someone’s home in Maribor. The coaches and I were very excited about this opportunity. The day was just an ordinary day on tour!

The Pohorje Mountain at the Hotel Arena

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