June 2004 Archives

Took some photos this week that just look a little weird...Check em out:

Kinda freaky looking isn't it?? Anyway, Austin is rolling over now so look out he is on the move!!

Taylor's reaction when she saw these:

Just got back from our national tournament in Atlanta, Georgia. We jumped up to the Open division which allows professionals and international teams/players.

After winning 2 out of 3 championships at the highest amateur level, we decided to make the jump up.

On Day One we defeated a team from Seattle(Seattle Athletic Club), a team from New York (Creole) and a team from Arizona(Molten VBC). 3-0 on our first day was a good way to start, especially beating Creole which was a very close 5 game match. I played outside in the first and last matches and libero(today's version of the defensive specialist) in the middle match.

Day Two started with a very tough test. We were playing Team Paul Mitchell who has won the Open division many times and has never finished out of the top two. They were made up of UCLA, Pepperdine and other California Division 1 all americans. We got down two games, fought back to tie the match at 2-2 before dropping game 5. Then we played the Bermuda national team and beat them badly in 3 games. Our last pool play match was against a local rival, a team called World's Strongest Men, we bounced them in 3 quick games.

Day three started the playoffs with a match against Milwaukee Valley, many of whom we know from the midwest. The first game was in our control but almost slipped away, the game finished at 39-37(games played to 25 win by 2). We dropped the next game but bounced back to win the match in four games. Ten minutes after the match was over I found myself on my knees in the bathroom stall as I involuntarily gave back my meals from the previous day, so that was about it for me playing that day( I tried our third match but half way in to game one, I pulled myself out). Our second round was against a team from Canada that had a few former national teamers. That was a quick three game match which we controlled from the first serve. Round three brought Bameso, a team of Dominican national team players. This team was by far the best team we played all tournament. We lost game one, fought back for game two, lost game three and missed on two game point opportunities before losing the match in four games.

Day four: We again met Paul Mitchell and ran out of gas. we lost in 3 games, none of which were all that close to be honest. So that put us in 5th place, very respectable playing against some of the best players in the country and abroad. We played, All Americans, NCAA players of the year, National team players, and players that play professionally in Europe. All in all I would call it a success.

For all the results you can check this link:
http://www.usavolleyball.org/media/adult//04Results/04MOpbracket.pdf and http://www.usavolleyball.org/media/adult/04Results/04MOppp.pdf. Our team name is Summit.

This weekend I will be competing in the Manhattan Beach AVP Qualifier in California. You can track my matches on Friday at this link:
http://www.bvbinfo.com/Tournament.asp?ID=1473 or http://www.bvbinfo.com/Tournament.asp?ID=1473&Process=QBracket Hopefully I don't lose in the first round, that way there will actually be something to follow and track. I still don't know what seed I have but I know there are over 100 teams registered, I will be among around 80 teams competing for 8 spots in the main draw on Saturday.