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Day 4, June 11, 2005
USA "White" (Kevin and Santiago’s Team) vs. ARG Youth National Team By Regan Hood, LSU
Today we left Buenos Aires and went to Rio Cuarto to play. Our bus left Buenos Aires at 6:30 in the morning, a little earlier than most of us wanted to leave, but our bus was extremely nice and we all slept until around noon. We finally got into the city at around 2:30 and went to eat lunch. Here before games the players eat "merienda" (=breakfast) so we had yogurt with cereal and little ham and cheese sandwiches. After lunch we went to the gym and got ready to play.
There was a great crowd there who chanted and had lots of spirit. We started off a little slow but eventually picked it up. We lost the first game and then won the second game so we thought that we could definitely come back and win but fell short this game. It was such a great environment to play and made you want to play that much harder. Although the games were close we are still having trouble playing as a team but since we have only played together for three or four days there are kinks that will work themselves out. It is especially frustrating because our opponents have been playing together since they were 13. I am very excited to play again tomorrow because our team really feels that we have a point to prove.
All the fans were so nice and wanted autographs and pictures after the game.
It was real cool to see and get to talk to people from that city. They have so much pride for their country it was neat to watch them with their flags and their spirit. I hope the other cities are similar to this city and hopefully we can win the rest of our games.
Day 4 continued
USA "Red" (Tom and Mark’s Team) vs. ARG National "B" Team By Karen Augspurger, Wichita State
We arrived at the gym, after a couple hours of down time which consisted of what else but shopping, and much to our surprise we entered a gym full of screaming and cheering people yelling, "Vamos vamos Argentina!" It was at that time we really got excited and pumped to play. It was such a neat environment to walk into after not knowing what exactly to expect. We finished watching the "White Team" play and in between games there was a group of people dancing in what we would consider a half time show of some sort.
It was finally our turn, and most of our first time competing in an international match. We started game one off ahead and just kept telling ourselves that all we needed to do was serve and pass and we would come out on top. Game one was going smoothly until the end when it was getting close and on our game point we could not get a sideout. We decided to try to make a substitution.
In international play, the person coming in has to be holding a sign with the number of the person they are going in for on it. Since we were not used to that, Sydney, who was coming in, did not have a number in her hand so we were not able to substitute and we were given a warning. Luckily on the next play we were able to sideout and get a kill and won game one.
Game two started out much like game one, where we were ahead and we could tell we were getting used to one another. Things were running more smoothly than the couple days before, despite the yellow card we received for one of our players who was going in not having her number visible because her sweatshirt was not off as she approached the court to enter the game.
Although we had some complications in the process of getting used to new substitution rules, everything else was working for us and we were working well together and we ended up winning the match in three. Afterwards we were given a huge trophy for winning and there were fans everywhere. It was like we were famous. There were people coming up to us asking us for autographs and pictures. It was so cool to see so many people enjoying the game of volleyball and really having a passion for the sport and for their country. The children that were that followed us to the buses, still trying to get autographs and pictures and waved goodbye as we left for dinner.
It was 10:30pm by the time we got out of there and to the place we ate so you can imagine how hungry all of us girls were. We went to a buffet type place with the Argentine team and I think the only thing we really cared about was getting ice cream at the end of the meal. During dinner we were all noticing how it was so late and the place we were eating was packed. There was not an empty seat in there and the place was huge. I couldn’t imagine eating this late all the time like they do. It is interesting to see the different customs of the people down here though.
At dinner a few of the girls from our team interviewed girls from the Argentine team. ("Meet The Players" articles will be posted tomorrow and all future
days.) It was a cultural experience because they did not speak the same language so they had to figure out what each other was saying. Now we are on the bus driving to the next city where we will play tomorrow and hopefully we keep on winning!
Day 4, The Press Conference
By Emily Huston, Baylor University
One of the first things we did upon arriving from our eight-hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to Rio Cuarto was attend a media conference. Tim called me off the bus to join him and Santiago in the conference. The people interviewed were the coaches from the Argentine team, two of their players whom were the captains, ourselves, and some representatives of the city of Rio Cuarto and the Cordoba Province. The conference was the same as all media conferences in the United States except that it was in Spanish. Thankfully I understood most of what was going on. They asked a lot of questions about the level of play they were expecting and how they were preparing for their trip to the Youth World Championships in Macao, China. The grand finale of the conference for me was when a reporter asked me a question and I got nervous because the reporter spoke so quickly that I wasn’t sure whether she was speaking to me or Tim. Tim asked if I understood and I didn’t so he translated for me and then I had to answer in Spanish in front of about 30 people! Tim and Santi said I did well but who knows whether or not they actually understood!
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