USA Select Team to Argentina
May 30 to June 11, 2006
Day 3 – Friday, June 2
By Nikki Gonzalez (St. Mary’s) – USA “Frosh” Team
After our 13 hour bus drive, we finally arrived in Mendoza at the Park Suites Hotel. We found the hotel to be super nice and around so much entertainment: internet cafes, shopping areas, and the Plaza de Independencia. After walking around for a couple of hours we finally got ready to play.
We drove to CMR, Club Mendoza Regatas, and game time was set for 7:30. As the first whistle blew we were all a little nervous because we were playing in front of a large crowd in a noisy gym and this game would start the first game of our tour. Game one was close, but we pulled out the win, 25-23. Although we were up the whole time we had to fight hard. Game two started a little rough and we were down in the beginning. Regatas had a very smart game plan, they knew we were six feet and taller than them so they hit off our fingertips and dug us really well. They ended up winning game two, 19-25, so we fought back and knew we had to win the next two. In games three and four we picked up our enthusiasm, our defense and our confidence. In game three we won 25-15 and game four was 25-13.
It felt really good to come together in the last two games and felt like we had played together before. After our game we were ready to cheer for the older team. We went to dinner and got to mingle* with the REGATAS team and pick up on our Spanish. It is good to know we all now have new friends in a new country.
*Our team is showing some signs of being one of the more “social” teams we’ve had on tour. They seemed to be having a great time getting to know each other at dinner, and even invited their Argentinian friends back to the hotel with them to hang out some more.
Day 3, Friday, June 2nd
By Julie Rubenstein, Pepperdine University - USA Select “A-Team”
We arrived today in Mendoza after a thirteen hour bus ride. Needless to say, we were all very tired, but excited to be in a new city. Once we got settled in, we were able to walk around the town. We shopped, talked with the locals, and ate at one of Mendoza’s cafes. During our outing, my teammates and I made the mistake of feeding a stray dog, which we named Pedro. From then on, it followed us all around town and it made sure we got back to our hotel safely.
After a day of site seeing, we all loaded the bus and headed to the site of our next match at a local club in Mendoza. The team we played against was San Juan, but we played at the site of CMR (Club Mendoza Regatas), the home of the “Frosh” Team opponents. While we watched the freshmen team play, my teammates and I made friends with the kids that were at the club. We exchanged gifts, stories, and laughs.
After the freshmen won in four games, my teammates and I prepared for our match. Once we were warm, it was game time. The first game went very well. We were able to start off strong and work really well as a team. That resulted in a 25 to 9 win for us. Game two went well for us; although, we had some trouble passing their best jump server. We beat them 25 to 13. In the third game, our lack of sleep and hunger started to show. We struggled with passing some serves, and found ourselves down by six points. We fought back and were able to gain more points. We ended up winning 26 to 24. Afterwards, Coach Nick told us that nineteen of their twenty-four points were our errors. I think that with a little more playing time together, these errors will decrease, and we will be even better as a team.
Link to Official Argentinean FEVA Page
