ŽABA: Our First Tournament

So here's a report of the tournament we hosted. As most of you know, my ankle is hurt so unfortunately I didn't play. Luka (my coach) stressed that these were not important games and that resting was a much better idea so thatI'm more than ready to compete when the time comes. I'm glad he was so understanding because I feel like it was a good idea for me to sit this one out.

The first day of the tournament, we didn't have a match. Instead, we came to watch the first match of our pool and size up the competition. It was POURING on our walk over, so I was glad to get inside the gym to take cover...buuuut this wasn't exactly the case. The skylights in the ceiling were leaking which was definitely NOT good considering it was also leaking onto the court. In the first few plays of the match, at least three girls slipped during the rally. When I say slipped, I mean full-on, Mario-Kart-banana-peel, you'd-only-see-it-in-a-cartoon slipping. The first solution was to assign a girl to the job of "water wiper". She came out between every rally and wiped up the various drips of water on the court. That clearly didn't work because girls were still stumbling and slipping every once in a while. So what was the solution you may ask? (prepare yourself for the ghetto-ness that is about to follow..) The refs folded up a towel and placed it where the water was dripping and it just permanently stayed there. How awful to have to make sure you don't step on a sopping wet towel while trying to play competitive volleyball. You could tell it was an obvious hinderance to the outsides that had to tip-toe around it. There was also another few towels around the court and a bucket catching water right outside the court. I'm pretty sure this wouldn't have been allowed in the states.

Thankfully that was the only day of the tournament that it rained. The next day we walked over to the gym about an hour before our match started, watched a little of the match that was in progress, then changed into our jerseys (I was suited up "for journalists"). Here's the uniform:

no one will make fun of my self-timer pose because there are lots more where these come from

We lost our first match to a really tough team from Croatia. Their setter has two sons, which was shocking to me. (There was also a woman in the tournament who is 40. Gives a new meaning to the term "team mom", right?) Next, we played a team from Montenegro and beat them in three sets. It was nice to end the night with a win and we headed home.

Today was the final day of the tournament and unfortunately we lost our play off game. Both of these teams were really good, but we will have a chance in two more weeks to play them in a tournament in Croatia. With a few more training sessions and some time for us to improve, I think we'll beat both of these teams when we play them again. Hopefully this time I'm suited up, rather than hanging out on the sidelines :(

Here are a few pictures from the tournament: