Day 7: Tuesday, June 28
By Katie Rademacher '07 and Amy Gordon `08
 The day started off with another traditional Italian breakfast: fresh bread with jam and honey, coffee, tea and hot chocolate. Then we were off for a day at the beach, stopping for pictures along the way with fields of sunflowers taller than us. Once on the beach we relaxed with our Ipods, swam in the Adriatic and tried to find shade from the 100-degree sun. We left the beach around 3 p.m. and headed back for some rest before dinner. Later in the evening we drove into Comunanza for a team dinner of delicious fresh pastas and meats over a rousing game of name-that-Nation's capital. Finally it was time to head to our scrimmage. We arrived at the village of Montefortuna at a lighted outdoor court overlooking the surrounding mountains and valleys. We faced challenging competition against Urbino, an Italian club team, loaded with girls we have gotten to know on the trip. It was fun to be playing again at night. We came together as a team to step up to the competition. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but tonight was a step towards making us better. We are in good spirits going into our match tomorrow night. Buona Notte! (good night)
Day 8: Wednesday, June 29
By Whitney Fair '06 and Heather Young `06
We rolled out of bed and headed to a grass soccer field to run some early morning sprints - got to stick to our summer workout! Then we had a quick breakfast and it was off to the beach again. Six of us played in a 3-on-3 beach tournament, but none of the U.S. teams was able to with the whole thing. We left the beach and went shopping at a mall where some of us where able to buy some clothes, but most of us were just glad to be in air conditioning! We had another incident with the language barrier when Whitney and Roddy (Katie Rademacher) tried to buy peaches from the supermarket in the mall. After several explanations in Italian from the cashier, he finally just put the peaches to the side, and we went away empty handed. We headed back to the monastery for a quick nap and to prepare for our match. We headed down to Comunanza for a pre-game meal and then up to Montefortuna again for our match against the team from the Czech Republic. We had to face many obstacles that we have never encountered before. We had to deal with high winds and a power outage at the end of game three. The match was tied at one game apiece, and the score was 26-25 with the Czechs in the lead. During the blackout they were able to play some music and the generator lights gave us a little illumination. We danced to the music as they tried to find a solution for the lights. After about 15 minutes, we were able to begin again. Unfortunately we did not play as well as we needed to and we ended up losing the match 3-1. We are going to take this loss and learn from it so that our next matches will have a different outcome. Arrivederci!
Day 9: Thursday, June 30
By Kelly Kramer '06 and Elizabeth Bishop `07
Today we woke up early and went to Ascoli-Piceno for a day of shopping. The town had great shopping and a beautiful square. We even found pants long enough for our team (not an easy task, since we tend to be taller than the average human being). After a tasty lunch, we headed back to the monastery, which has become home to us, for a few hours of rest before dinner and our match. We went to a new restaurant for dinner which had amazing food (once again) and loaded up the bus for Montefortuna. Upon arriving, we found puddles covering the outdoor court where we were to play. We didn't realize the amount of rain that came down during our dinner. We spent over and hour with paper towels and squeegees wiping up water to make it a safe surface for us to play on (you should have seen Coach with a mop!). We played a team named Vassas from Hungary, and we managed to win the match in 5 games. The scores were 23-25, 25-15, 25-27, 25-18 and 15-13 in the tiebreaker. They were a young team with great ball control and impressive athleticism, but our energy and smart ball placement gave us the victory. This tournament has really challenged us to anticipate the other team's movements, since the language barrier has left us unable to understand what plays the opponents are running. After a late start and five games, we finally got back to the monastery at 1 a.m. Time to rest up for another big day.
Match Result: Cornell 3, Vassa Budapest 2 (23-25, 25-15, 25-27, 25-18, 15-13 )
Coach Deitre Collins on the match: " We had good performances from our
defense led by Kelly Kramer. Our middles, Heather Young and Katie
Rademacher connected well with setter Amy Gordon. Elizabeth Bishop led our team with 27 kills on 53 attempts. Katie Rademacher was next with 15 kills in 23 attempts. Tonight we play against OOK Lazarevac from Serbia and Montenegro for a chance to play in the finals tomorrow."
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