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Day 7, Saturday, March 26, 2005
By Laura SLAGTER (will attend South Dakota State University)
Everyone was excited for today because it was our first day in the tournament. It was a nice morning because we had about 10 hours of sleep so all the girls were ready to go. The gym we played in was extremely nice. It was big and we had our own locker room if we needed it. We watched the two teams playing before us. The play volleyball a little differently than we do. The game is slower, and they don't run any quick sets. But, all the teams were very scrappy and athletic. Our first game was against a team from Rome called “Appio Roma”. They all were about a head shorter than us, but had a lot of energy. Hitting warm-ups were a lot longer than we have back home. It seemed like we were warming up for at least a half-hour.
Getting ready for our first match of the tourney
Our team came out ready to play. Since we are the first team from the USA ever to come to this tournament we wanted to do especially well. In the first game, we pulled ahead early and kept a large lead to win it. During the second game many fans for Appio came to support them. They were cheering and yelling a lot, but we couldn't understand their language, so it didn't bother us very much. In the beginning of the second game, the other team got a bit of a lead, but we responded well and won that game by quite a few points. In the third game we changed up our line up and fell behind by a lot. But we fought hard to come back and win it. Final scores: 25-9, 25-12, and 26-24. After the match we took pictures with the other team and they joked that we could sit down to take the picture so we could be the same height. Then we got on the bus to go eat lunch at the hall.
KNL vs. Appio Roma
After lunch we had a little time before our next match so we went back to the hotel for a couple hours and rested. Then we went to the same playing site and had two more matches. The first match was against Banatul Lugoj, a Romanian club team. They were better than our first opponents, but we still won by a lot. But unfortunately, during the middle of the first set, Jesssica Houts, one of our stud middle-blockers, was injured.
Many thanks to the doctors and ambulance drivers at Pordenone’s Ospedale Civile!
She was taken off the court and an ambulance took her to the hospital. Our team was a little shaken, but we pulled through and won the match. The scores were 25-14, 25-21, and 25-19.
KNL 18’s vs. Banatul Lugoj, Romania. It’s Chad’s fault that the picture is blurry, sorry.
Then we had about an hour to sit and watch another match. The next team we played was the Luxembourg National Team. To win the pool, all we needed to do was win the first set. We won it 25-18. During the second set, a men's team from Belgium came to watch us and cheer us on. In the banquet hall our team table is next to ours, so we kind of know each other. They speak English really well. Jessica also came back from the hospital, so we had many people to play for. During the rest of the match, the Belgians cheered a lot, so it was a lot of fun. The scores of the last two sets were 25-21 and 25-19.
KNL vs. Luxembourg. Sorry, another blurry one
After each match we took a picture with the team we played against. We also got to talk to the men’s team for a little and we might go and watch them tomorrow. We are the only team to go 9-0 today. Tomorrow we play in the Quarterfinals against the San Marino National Team, which is an independent republic in Italy.
Ps. Before the first match, we saw that the teams were handing out gifts to each other and we didn't bring any. So the parents had to go out and get something for us to give to the other teams. Thank God for our chaperones!
Are chaperones allowed to have this much fun?
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