USA Select Team to Argentina
May 30 to June 11, 2006
Day 2 – Thursday, June 1
By Shannon Krug (University of Utah) - USA Select “All-Frosh” Team &
Mandy Bible (St. Mary’s College) – USA Select “A” Team
We started off the day at breakfast in the lobby. Breakfast was sort of unusual with meat and cheese as well as some different sorts of juices. Luckily there was a taste of home with some frosted flakes. Then we headed off to the match. The USA Select “A” Team played against the volleyball team of Riverplate*, which housed a(n) school/academy for argentinian children.
The team of Riverplate consisted of woman between the ages of 18 and 37. This club was very deceiving with their appearance being small and stature. They displayed their in depth knowledge of the game by serving tough and tooling hands. The first game started off a little shaky but we turned it around and lost a close game 25-23. The second game went much smoother with the USA team defeating their opponent. The following game was another close battle, but we lost by a small margin. The next game displayed our lack of experience, as the margin grew larger. Although we lost we weren’t disappointed in ourselves because we knew we had time to learn to play together.
Lunch was next. We traveled to the next facility that was the home of the club Banco Nacion. We ate in small restaurant located inside of this complex. Lunch was another time for our teams to get acquainted. While the “A” Team was showering the “Frosh” Team was enjoying some playground time with swings and such.
The freshman team’s game followed. They were matched up against Club Banco. Their match was extremely close. The first game looked like it was wrapped up, but then the opponent came back, but we won the nail clencher 28-26. The next game you could see a little more of our inexperience to each other and we lost a close one. The third game was another close one but we couldn’t quite get it together yet. The forth game however showed signs of the team that we would become, and we won the game easily. The fifth game seemed like the team was here to stay, but with the let down later in the game we lost another close one 15-13. Overall it was a pretty good game, and it showed that after a few days of playing we have a lot of potential. I think that this could turn out to be a very good trip with a ton of winning coming from both teams!!
We then got to walk around for a couple of hours and enjoy the city before we got on the bus for a lovely thirteen hour bus ride!!
*There are two large sport clubs in Buenos Aires, Riverplate and Boca. As is consistent with many nations of the world, these clubs have teams of many different sports, the most popular being “futbol” (or soccer as we know it). These two soccer teams have budgets of about 50 million per year, allowing them to compete with the top club teams of the world. Because of the high level and the loyalty that this sport draws, the rivalry between Riverplate and Bocas continues to be one of the strongest one can see in the world of sports. The Riverplate gym is located inside their soccer complex and the girls were lucky enough to have the opportunity to see this historical stadium that holds 100,000 people.
Link to Official Argentinean FEVA Page
