By Katie Virtue
Well, our last day in the Sibillini Mountains. We can't believe it has gone so fast. We spent this morning in Comunanza at the weekly Saturday market day. The main street was full of tents selling clothes, jewelery, purses, shoes, meat, fruit, so you can imagine that all of us girls had fun. Before checking all that out though, Tim took us to the local wine store that is owned by the President of this Tournament, Gaetano Chioma. Most of the girls bought wine and olive oil to bring home with them, which are always great gifts from Italy.
It was amazing to see the town today, all set up for market day and everyone in the town was out buying necessities for the week and just hanging out at the cafes. One of the guys who drive our team around, Pepe, told me that it is always like this on Saturdays. We all found our own lunch at one of the cafes in town. Most of us grabbed a tasty piece of pizza and then we had to head back to Casa Giosa to rest for our games tonight and to unfortuately pack up our things.
Tonight both teams are going to have dinner together before Third Degree plays and 6:30pm so that VolleyHut can watch the match. Third Degree is playing Ancona (Italy) for third place and after that VolleyHut will take on Slavia Bratislava (Slovakia) for the Championship. The USA teams are excited we have done well in this tournament and we are looking forward to a strong finish tonight. I want my team to win another Sibillini Championship! After the matches and closing ceremonies, there will be a huge party on the court in Montemonaco for everyone and then we have to head back to Rome at about 3am. I know that all of us had an unbelievable experience for volleyball and for the culture. We can't wait to tell a lot of you about it when we return home in the next few days. Ciao!
By Tim Kelly
Well, as usual, we're off to the "Final Party" with not much time to write...
Unfortunately, VolleyHut lost 0-3 to a very very strong Slavia Bratislava team tonight. We came out strong, and it was tied at 6-6 after 12 great points of high-level volleyball in the beginning. But then our passing and offense started to falter and the Slovakians just kept on their game. They outserved us, outpassed us, outattacked us and outblocked us, and in the end, won the game fairly easily.
After the game captains Katie Virtue and Lindsey Sherburne accepted their teams' 2nd and 3rd place trophies, and then we were greated to a nice surprise as Third Degree's Jackie Godber won best defender in the tournament and Sarka "The Shark" Barborkova from VolleyHut won best attacker.
We'll be back to try and win it again next year!
By Joanne Marshall and Bri Frech
Tonight's game started off extremely slow for Third Degree. We would also like to mention that for some reason we had to play with a beach ball tonight. Trying to adjust to this new situation, playing very flat the first game, and not communicating well, we lost 14-25. We came into the second game with new energy. It started with a straight down block from Bri Frech. Even though we were fighting for every point and playing good defense we were unable to take the game. We lost 23-25. During the third game the we were tied 15-15 until Monique hit an overpass to take the lead. Tammie and Lindsey ran an effective offense with their hitters and we were able to take the third game 25-21. Continuing to push and playing hard as a team we took the fourth game 25-22. The final game Joanne finally decided to come out and play. Jencie and Lindsay set great blocks on the outside while Jackie and Katie played amazing defense and came up with some great balls. After the struggles in the first games we worked hard and came out on top winning 15-12. Great job! Bronze medal for Third Degree.
Note: Leading point scorers for Third Degree in this match: Bri Frech, 19 points; Jana Havlova, 12 points; Monique Mettler, 11 points; Joanne Marshall, 10 points
by Mike Jordan Head Coach of New Mexico State University and more importantly, Head Coach of Team VolleyHut
Everyone's heard the expression "You don't get out much do you?" Usually you use it as humor directed at someone when they are naive about something. I was fairly certain that no one would ever be able to direct that quote at me - then I managed to find myself here in Italy!
It has been an absolute daily learning experience for all of us and I can't begin to tell you how naive so many of us are about the rest of the world. Fortunately my fellow coaches Andrea and Jackie as well as myself have been able to learn things about culture and people that few have and at the same time been able to be part of a great group of volleyball players from the USA. It's been the best of both worlds!
As for the volleyball, I think all of us have been pleased with the showing of both American teams; VolleyHut and Third Degree. When you don't know many of your players and have only a couple of practice sessions to get on the same page, it can be a little difficult. Remember, we are playing against teams that have competed and trained together for quite some time which is a huge advantage when competing at the international level!
All of our US contingent of players has been completely receptive to our ideas and worked hard at becoming a team in a short time. I can't begin to tel you how impressed I am with these young women. There are so many players of differing skill levels and backgrounds and it takes a tremendous amount of maturity to step into this environment and do as well as they have.
The European teams play a different style of volleyball than we do in the US. It's a slower tempo game built on size on the antennas and the goal is to get the ball to the big hitters 90 percent of the time. Things like 'offensive balance' are not in the European repetoire. Because they don't run a lot of quick offense they have had a hard time defending the US quick attack. It's something we pride ourselves on and we've done it very well - again no small task considering the short time we've spent together. On day 2 of practice we worked hard at passing serve recieve the same way, getting the ball to the net quickly to help our quick attackers and setters. We've talked and worked at it daily and the results are showing. Team VolleyHut, my group of talented and funny young women plays in the finals tonight!
I have to mention what a great experience it was to have the 2 US teams playing each other in the semi-finals last night on the 4th of July. The people of Commanza were gracious enough to play the National Anthem and I know I wasn't the only one feeling the chills up my spine!
What Tim Kelly and his people have put together with Bring It Promotions is an absolutely tremendous experience. I know I'll come back and I hope that everyone gets an opportunity to experience Italy the way we have! The people have been great, the weather and countryside beautiful and the opportunity to work with great young women representing the US in this environment has been priceless!
Ciao! Mike
Coach's Corner By Andrea Leonard Head Coach (to be released shortly) Boston College It all started with several different players and coaches who did not know each other prior to arriving in Italy, and now it is coming to a close with 2 teams of best friends with experiences that will last a lifetime. This past week was a crash course in the best classroom possible for volleyball. On the court players and coaches alike learned how to come together and set aside all differences to reach a common goal of becoming a TEAM in a few short days. Players were challenged to take their physical and mental focus to the next level. Each match this week brought on new perspectives on how the game of volleyball is played by different cultures. Our match versus Slavia Bratislava was especially challenging because we had the opportunity to play against Slovakian National team players. Third Degree rose to the challenge and I heard several times in the huddle, "Let's see how we match up against this level!" As a coach, you are rewarded by watching players who rise up to the challenges in front of them, with confidence.
On the beach our players also made some great strides in teamwork and competition. They learned how to put their best skills to the test. I saw some great matches in the sand! This opportunity has been a wonderful experience as a coach who came to learn the many different approaches to the game, players perspectives and the challenge of the international competition. It is so exciting to see how well received Bring It has been in Europe. We arrived with fanfare, a parade, autograph sessions and admiration from everyone involved. As the week winds down, I will never forget my experiences with these players, coaches and Tim Kelly. This has been a culmination of new ideas, beautiful scenery and a broader perspective of the game of volleyball. I'm coming back next year! |
