I woke up early Saturday morning to get in the van to go to Borås, Sweden, for our first tournament. We had two red 8-passenger vans that we took on our two-hour ride. Lena drove our van with Malin in the passenger seat. Meghan, Selma, and I were in the middle row, and Nata and Linn were in the back row. We had some very interesting conversations courtesy of Selma! There were a couple times where I literally had tears in my eyes. Not sure how many of you know this next fun fact, but while I was at Illinois, I kept a Kevin Hambly quote sheet. There were many times when Kevin said something funny or inappropriate, and I had the joy of keeping track of them all. Well, I have a new person now take Kevin’s place, and her name is Selma! For instance, the whole van ride Selma was drinking my water bottle because she thought she left hers in the fridge at home. All of a sudden, she turns to me with a completely straight face and says “I think I am stupid” after figuring out that her water bottle was right next to her the whole time! Shortly after this incident, she points out the window to a group of cows and says “Look Jo! There is my family!” I am always anxiously waiting to hear what she has to say next!
Our first match on Saturday was against ____ (I don't remember who we played...). We played like we were still asleep, and lost in two to a team that I believe we should have beaten in two. This match though was a good wake up call to us, as we played way better in our next match. We played Lindesberg, which is a team that is in the Elit division so we will be playing them again in league play. We won the first set! Meghan told me later that she felt like she could set anyone that game and she would get a kill. That’s exactly how that set it; I think it was the best and most consistent game that our team has played so far. The next game was not like that. In fact, it was almost the opposite. The third set, we came back out strong. The score was tight the whole set. At 14-14, our middle back hit a back row attack that Lindesberg’s middle blocker CLEARLY touched. To our dismay, the refs did not call it. We ended up losing 14-16 in the 3rd. This brings up another interesting difference between here and the United States. There are no line judges at any matches until you are in the playoffs. Could you imagine the final point of the September 24, 2010, Illinois victory over Penn State without line judges?! If the ref had called it out (which it was), Penn State would have gone crazy. But if the ref would have called it in, we would have gone crazy yelling at the ref too!
Our last match of the day was a big match for me personally. From January to August, I did not have many opportunities to play volleyball. I have felt like my blocking has been terrible (at least in my own terms) every time I play. I wasn’t closing blocks like I normally do, and I wasn’t making moves with my hands like I normally do. I felt like I was just trying to get out to the ball and throwing my arms up wherever they would go. This match was the pivotal changing point where I finally felt like I was blocking like me! I was able to actually feel when I was reaching high on the block and when I was staying low and reaching far over the net. I blocked their huge outside sitter twice with my left hand (volleyball people know what I’m talking about here). There was a streak of points where I think I got 6 blocks out of 7 points! It was just such a confidence boost for me to finally be back to the point that I am happy with my blocking. I forgot to mention who we even played!? We beat Halmstad in two sets. They are also in the Elit division so we will be playing during league play as well.
After that we still had a few hours before we would be going to dinner, so we went to the salad bar at the grocery store. It was soooo good! I had pasta with corn, green olives, avocados, mozzarella balls, and crawfish! It was just so yummy that I had to take a picture.
I should have taken another picture at the salad bar at dinner Saturday night too. I had green olives with garlic inside, garlic cloves in a marinade, pickled onions, cherry peppers, marinated mushrooms, corn nuts, sundried tomatoes, and more! I am in love with salad bars here. The dinner that Meghan and I both got though was a chicken breast that came with the salad bar. So this is what the plate looked like that they brought out to us…
I learned a valuable lesson on this trip also about the sleeping situation. There were three of us each in a room so I thought there were beds. But when I was the first person to walk into the room, I was surprised to only see two beds! I was in mid-sentence asking Nata and Mia what we were going to do when they both jumped on to the two beds claiming them!!! I have learned my lesson now, and I do not plan on sleeping on the pullout couch again.
Our first match on Sunday was against Vordingborg, Denmark. This just so happens to be my friend Tara’s team! We played much better in our first match today than we did in our first match the day before. We won in two sets! There were three matches before we had our next match. It was nice in the beginning to just sit around and talk more with Tara. I can’t say enough how nice it was to see her! I also took a little nap on the bleachers during the break. Even though all of this was nice, we were all completely cold before our next match. We had to totally warm up again. I thought this was apparent in our last match, which we played Halmstad again. We came out flat and with not a lot of energy. We ended up losing in two this time.
After this weekend, it was obvious that we need to spend a lot more time working on serve receive. This was probably our biggest problem. Our other main issue still is just consistency. We had moments where we were playing really well and moments where we were playing really bad. The good thing about all of this is that it is still only like pre-season matches. Our first real league is not until October 15th. We have a lot of potential, and we still have time to work hard in practice to get there before our start the matches that ‘really count’.
We ate dinner in Borås before heading back to Ljungby. Where did we eat dinner you ask? Burger King!!! I walked into the restaurant, and the very first thing I said was “It smells like America!” I had a Whopper with cheese (med ost) with french fries and a Coca-Cola. It all tasted exactly like it does in America. It was a nice taste of home, no pun intended! Now if only I could find a Chipotle…
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