USA Select Team to Argentina
May 30 to June 11, 2006
Day 4 – June 3, 2006
By Bridget Fonke - USA Select “Frosh Team”
After spending a fun night with the Argentinean team “Regatas” in Mendoza, we had free time this morning. Some girls used this time to relax and check emails, while others chose to shop at the booths in the park and walk around beautiful Mendoza. Regardless of their activities, everyone was ready to play by the afternoon.
At 5:30pm, we loaded onto the bus and headed for the gym. This first match was USA Select vs San Juan, a club team from Western Argentina, about 2 hours away from Mendoza. The score was even for most of game one, with the USA and San Juan trading serves, but we pulled ahead in the last points of the game and won by eliminating some easy mistakes and playing solid defense. We went on to win games two and three with some great line and slide kills from Lindsay and Carly.
After our matches, we loaded back onto the bus and headed to a pizza place called “Andres”. Even though it was midnight when we arrived, the place was packed with tons of families. We found tables wherever we could, and enjoyed some amazing pizza and salad. After dinner, we loaded back onto the bus and started our nine-hour over-night trip to San Francisco (Cordoba Provnice).
Day 4 – June 3, 2006
By Christina Kirk (St. Mary’s) - USA Select “A” Team
Last night, we were able to spend some time getting to know the girls from the Argentinian team that we had played. They showed us around the town a bit and we shared a genuine meal at Mcdonalds after exploring for a bit. The next day, we were able to sleep in as late as we wanted to because our games were scheduled for the evening. Some chose to do some laundry, some visited the internet café’s, some explored the area more, and others decided to just do some good old team bonding in our lovely apartment like hotel rooms.
We then went to the gym to prepare for our matches. As we settled into the gym we decided we should probably start bringing more layers to wear before games because the temperature was rather low. The younger team played first against the team we had played then night before, San Juan. The “ninja” (the Argentina player with a really strong arm) came out in full force, but the freshmen team still swept them in three games. Following their match, our team stepped on the court against the team that the freshmen had played the night before, Club Mendoza Regatas. The rest seemed to work to our advantage as we came out strong, playing as a team. We won the first pretty easily, 25-19, but were unable to maintain and struggled in game two. After being down quite a few points, we made a comeback and captured the second game, 25-23. During our match, we worked especially hard on serving specific areas, and were able to force them into some trouble with their offense. We also swept them in three (26-24 in the 3rd set), and said goodbye to our friends and opponents who we enjoyed our time with in Mendoza.
We returned to the club to shower, and proceeded on to a pizzeria where we ate dinner. Our bus got a little bit lost because it was too big to make a U-turn and was therefore abandoned by the car it was following. However, we made it safely to our destination and ordered our food. Now, we are on the bus heading to San Francisco, where we will arrive in ten hours.
Link to Official Argentinean FEVA Page
