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Team VolleyHut’s Sibillini Journal 2005
Volume 4: Competition Begins, Days 1-2 of the Tournament Day 1 of Competition, June 27, 2005
By Meghan Macdonald (AKA: Billy the Blister), University of Illinois
Ciao! So far our trip has been so much fun. We have seen so many things and the people here are so kind. Monday morning we started off by being able to sleep in a little bit. We were starting the day with morning practice at 11. We all met together outside Casa Gioiosa at 10:15 A.M. We then walked up the mountains to the court we would be practicing at and then playing at that night. On the way to practice we saw such beautiful scenery. For the local Italians to be able to live in these little towns with such breathtaking mountains in their backyard must be amazing. We also tried to get some fruit on the way but couldn’t find the store that the girls have gone to in the past. So we just went straight to the volleyball court.
This isn’t your average volleyball court. First of all, the court is outside. The sport court is lined with a fence so that the balls don’t go down the mountains. That’s right, the court is by an edge of a mountain! It’s very safe though. It was so different playing outside we even had to play with sunglasses so that we could see the ball. It was hard to adjust to at first, but then we got used to it and started to have some fun. We practiced for an hour, took pictures of the team and the court, that was lined with ruins of an old castle, and then headed back to Casa Gioiosa. On the way back, we found out where the fruit was being sold and got some to eat on the walk back.
After a quick shower we headed to Comunanza for lunch. We ate at Ristorante Futura, which is always a guaranteed great meal. We had a few hours to spare, so we hung around town and checked it out. Comunanza is a small very cute town. We ended up getting Gelato, which isn’t a big surprise. Mmm mmm. I love my gelato! It was 95 degrees in Comunanza so we had to eat Gelato fast! After a few hours in town, we headed back to Casa Gioiosa to rest before our match.
After we got back, many of us took a nap to rest up for our first big match in the Sibillini trip. We then got ready for our game and went to eat our pre-game meal at Montemonaco. The food was very good and we made sure we drank a lot of water. We then went to the court after dinner and started to warm up. We were playing the Czech team that night (Olomuc). We warmed up to some American music like Will Smith’s "Hitch", that they played and then got ready to play our first match as a team. The game went really well from Kristen’s jaw breaking swings to Kate’s dances after she shut down one of their outsides. We won the match in three games. The first two games were close, but the last game we won it 25-14. We were all excited and had some team bonding with some Gelato after the game. It was great experience and I can’t wait to keep having these wonderful experiences for another week! Ciao!
Day 2 of Competition, June 28, 2005
By Katie Bruzdzinski, University of Michigan
Today we woke up early and headed off to the beach. It was about an hour drive, but it was worth it because the weather was absolutely beautiful. I don’t think there was a cloud in the sky, so we all loaded up with sunscreen and spent the first part of the day relaxing on the beach. There were umbrellas and chairs already set up for us, which was nice because then we were able to just dump our stuff and start having fun. We didn’t do a whole lot while we were there, but it was nice just to relax and swim because I knew we would be doing a whole lot later that evening. We ate our lunch there and a few of us had some squid; it looked a little gross but turned out to be delicious.
Our author with her cohort from Michigan after playing with Urbino
We left the beach around three in the afternoon and drove back to ‘The House of Joy.’ This time the ride was not quite as long because Erin Virtue had some of her CD’s, so we got to listen to some American music for a change. Dancing in the car made me forget about how much the sun drains you, but when I got back, I laid on the bed and fell right to sleep for a good hour and a half, just like every other girl did. When we woke up, we were all refreshed and ready to go. However, the match that night turned out to be a little different from all the rest.
Cornell University, one of the teams in the tournament, was supposed to be our competition that night, but they had to forfeit because a university team is not allowed to play another American team while on tour. So instead, the directors of the tournament had Urbino, an Italian team from about 2 hours up the coast, come play them tonight in our place. As it’s summer and some of their players are on vacation with their families, Urbino’s coach asked some of us to play with the Italian team, and I was lucky enough to be one of those people. I thought that it would be a good experience because I have actually thought of maybe playing overseas one day. We got to the match, and those of us that were asked to play put on our Urbino uniforms and began to warm up. It was even different to warm up with them because I would just hear different sounds than I was used to. When it was time to begin playing, Daniele, the Italian coach called us into the huddle and began to talk about the game plan. It was difficult to understand him, but I was able to make out key words. He also had a piece of paper and drew pictures for those of us who did not speak Italian. That is one of the great things about volleyball, you can draw out different plays and are able to understand it without actually talking about it.
The match didn’t exactly go in our favor, and Urbino lost to Cornell. The first game was close with no team leading by more or than 3 or 4 points, but some mistakes late in the game forced us to take the loss 22-25. In the second set we came out better and went up 6-2, but we gave up 3 points in a row and next thing we knew we arrived at the technical time-out down 6-8. Somehow we started to play together and find a way to get some kills and pulled out the win 25-23. Cornell had been playing a very good match and came out strong again in the third set. With several attacking and service errors we couldn’t find a way to win it and Cornell won 25-20. We knew it was our last chance and that we had to find a way to play with the Italians even though it was difficult to communicate and adjust when playing together for the first time in a match setting. Daniele made some substitutions after we went down 4-9 and we tried to earn some points by running a 6-2 with Katie Virtue attacking from the outside hitter position. She got some good kills, but again we made too many errors and lost the fourth set 18-25, to lose the match 1-3.
Brynn Maurer with some of her Italian Teammates, "Grazie Mile Ragazze!"
Even with the loss, it was still a great experience for those of us who played with them. The Italians have a different style of play that was interesting to see. For example, they set their outsides a lot higher than we do, so it took some getting used to because I had to wait a lot longer to take my approach. Also, I don’t speak any Italian, so when the setter wanted me to hit a different set, she would actually walk to the spot where she was going to set it so I could see what she was talking about. Because of this, the time in between plays was a lot longer and things seemed to go slower, which was a little frustrating for me. Also, when we were called into time outs, it took the entire time just for the coach to explain to our American middle where he wanted her to go on blocking. This was also frustrating because you just want to know what to do right away, but you have to focus on what he is drawing and trying to say and I was just not used to it and got impatient sometimes. Since we threw together girls from different teams and two different countries, there was some miscommunication on the court as well. I remember trying to explain to an Italian girl to get the tip, but there was no way that she was going to understand me. Things like that just made the experience one I will never forget and made me realize what it would be like to play overseas. Chances are that if you are an American going to another country to play volleyball, you are not going to speak their language and are going to have to make a lot of adjustments. So even though Urbino got to play in the match instead of us, it was still a great experience for some of us.
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