NJ and the Netherlands

We started our crazy traveling schedule with a trip to Pt. Pleasant, NJ, where we played in the Corona Wide Open beach volleyball tournament.  It was a fun weekend of "old school" big court volleyball.  The Corona Wide Open uses the old system of the larger court (3 feet longer and wider on all sides), no antannae, and also the service-scoring system.  They also use a much heavier ball than is currently used internationally.  After 9 games in two days, we made it to the finals, where we played in a rain and wind storm, playing completely drenched!  We ended up 2nd place, and then hopped on a plane the next day to the Netherlands.

After flying overnight on Monday night, then connecting and finally arriving in Amsterdam Tuesday afternoon, we rushed to the tournament site to make the qualification team meeting, where we found a beach with 30-40mph winds and crazy rain!  This tournament is the FIVB international beach volleyball tour (the tour that qualifies for the Olympics) where the modern system of playing is used - short court, antannae, and the newer and very light balls.  We played our first match against an Italian national team and we beat them in 2 sets.  The weather was much better than the night before, but there was still quite a bit of wind.  We felt as though we handled the jet lag quite well.  Then we had nearly a 4-hour break before our second match against a solid Dutch national team.  By then, the 9 hour time difference had set in and we started to feel the zombie-like effects of jet lag, having slept very few hours on a plane only two nights before, and the rush-rush of our schedule....  We lost that match to eliminate us from the qualification tournament.

It was a disappointment, but a lesson well learned!  In speaking with more teams, nearly all of them arrive at a tournament site 4 days to 2 weeks earlier than the start date to adjust to the new conditions (time zone, court conditions, etc.).   We had been through something similar three years ago when we played for Greece and arrived in Montreal, Canada, from Greece at 3am the day before playing.  We had a 10 hour time difference to deal with along with exhaustion.... and had a similar "zombie effect".  These two tournaments we had to leave late, but from now on, we will arrive early and be much more prepared and enjoy much more success!  This is part of the process of becoming a top team.  Teams usually take years to get used to the greuling schedule of traveling and adjusting and performing at their peaks.  And we know we will expedite this process and learn and grow and improve with each time we step on the sand court to train or play!  It is such a beautiful process of developing a team and a partnership in all of these interesting conditions! I am so excited about what we have ahead and of our success to come - and they will very quickly!!!!

Thanks for following us and I will post more soon!

Olympic Qualification Changes!

Big news! As of this year, there is an added process for qualifying for the Olympics in 2012! They have added a Continental Tour to the mix, among another change. I will keep you all posted as to the details. What this means for us now is that we go to Greece next month to play in that added tour! Yippee!!! It feels like it has been forever since we have been in Greece and I am SO VERY EXCITED to visit the other homeland again!!!! More details to come!

This summer's schedule

Our schedule for the rest of this season is as follows:

August 21-22: Karch Kiraly's Corona Wide Open in Pt. Pleasant, NJ

August 25-29: FIVB Milner Open in The Hague, Netherlands

September 2-6: The Motherlode/AVP Tournament in Aspen, Colorado

October 26-31: FIVB Sanya Open in Sanya, China

November 2-7: FIVB Phuket Thailand Open in Phuket, Thailand

Follow us along as we travel around the US and the world to prepare and build points and experience and success for our Olympic goal!!!

The FIVB is the international beach volleyball federation. It is the Olympic qualifying league and participating in its worldwide tournaments is the only way to qualify for the Olympics. We are going to be in the last three events of the FIVB season (Netherlands, China, and Thailand) where we will be playing against some of the best teams in the world from all over the world! Noteworthy also is that the balls that they play with on the FIVB tour are completely different from those on the AVP tour! International balls are a different material, weight, and feel. They are purple and yellow and they require much more precision in order to control. In other words, if you do not use your legs while contacting every ball, you lose control of the ball and it can ping in any direction.

Manhattan Beach 6-man tournament

Christina and I participated in the famous Manhattan Beach 6-man tournament this past weekend and it was an absolute blast!!! For those of you unfamiliar with this famous annual event, it is a costume 6-on-6 beach volleyball tournament held every summer in Manhattan Beach. It is like taking the indoor game to the beach, which is fabulous fun for all, since opporunities to play indoor volleyball are rare after college.

I got to play middle hitter again, which I have not done since playing for Greece! Christina played outside hitter and we had a team of wonderful girls, mostly from Manhattan Beach, who get together once a year to play. We had amazing defense and we had so much energy and fun! Our team was the "Mile High Club" in association with Memphis Restuarant/Bar in Manhattan Beach. We had pink and orange flight attendant dresses, hats, scarfs, and wore gold and white bikinis. We were full of energy and played a whole heck of a lot of volleyball games in two days with little sleep... yet feuled by an amazing group of energetic, sweet, and wonderful gals! We chanted and cheered before each game and had amazing support from the families of the Manhattan Beach core group of girls. It was just like playing club volleyball back in high school with the parents being the biggest fans and best support!

It was my first year playing with this fabulous group of gals and it was super fun! We ended up tying for 3rd, which isn't too bad for a group that just got together to play the moment the tournament started!