Postcards From Argentina - Day 8 & 9
September 24, 2012 | Men's Volleyball
Journal Day #9 – by Collin Mehring
The last day of competition began with our established morning routine. We woke early for breakfast as a team, and followed it with a quick video session on our previous day's practice match against Canada. The only notable adjustment needed for the upcoming match was for the blockers to leave line open for their pin hitters, and for our back-row defense to adjust accordingly. Otherwise we were to continue improving our blocking system. After video ended we had just under two hours until lunch to either sleep or otherwise prepare. I opted to play cards with a few of the guys for most of the time before grabbing my gear and heading to lunch.
We ate a quick lunch at the hotel before being bussed over to the playing site with Canada. Once there we had plenty of time to suit up and mentally prepare for the match, as warm-ups are tightly restricted to only 30 minutes before the beginning of the match in international play. Luckily the length of pre-game practice time was not much of a problem as the match was in the early afternoon and the gym managed to maintain a reasonable temperature. We started the first game strong, managing to secure a lead and initiate both of the technical timeouts. Unfortunately, several unforced errors coupled with a great service run by Canada allowed them to gain the lead at the very end and take the first set. The next two sets played out similarly, with varying degrees of success score-wise.
Ultimately we lost the match in three close sets. Our execution of systems definitely improved over the course of the tournament and, while we lost, it showed in the Canada match. Our defense was much better and it was ultimately our own unforced errors that lost us the match. The good news is that the majority of these errors were due to miscommunication, which will improve along with general team cohesiveness as the year moves forward. I felt the other errors in basic execution could be easily explained by the short amount of practice time leading up to the trip, something that will not be a problem for the actual season.
After our match we went back to the hotel for a quick snack before turning around and heading back to watch the finals between Bolivar and Brazil. The arena was packed for the finals and the player's entrance was filled with busy TV crew's getting ready to film the match, which would be broadcast on ESPN 3. The match itself was incredibly intense as both teams played amazingly well. Brazil took a quick lead and held it until only a few points were left in the first set, when Bolivar made a come back run and won in extra points. Brazil deflated a bit after this and Bolivar took set two handily. The third set was close once again, with both teams trading set point opportunities until into the 30's, but Bolivar came out on top to a huge home crowd celebration.
Canada was kind enough to share their bus back to the hotel where all of the teams ate dinner together for a final time. We all finished dinner quickly and prepared for a night of post-tournament celebrations prepared by the hosting Argentine team.
Kniffin's notes:
The difference in the service game at the international level seems to transcend "aces and errors." When Giba toed the line at 22-22 in the first set, it was as if his time had arrived. He fired two consecutive aces. Later, Filardi (Bolivar) fired three consecutive aces, again in the late 20's. Inspiring to say the least…
Journal Day #8 – by Chris Austin
Eater Nation! Chris Austin here from Argentina. Today we had some time to sleep in which was awesome. Prince (Michael) Brinkley and I enjoyed switching roles in that I got a little sick while he was feeling much better. However, as lunch and match time approached I started feeling better. Although it was a friendly match, we were able to take our first game off of a team this tournament playing against Canada. T'was good times.
After heading back to the hotel we watched video, showered up, ate some good food, and continued the ice cream eating contest after dinner. An early night to bed because we have a match against that same Canadian team tomorrow. Chao!
CA
Kniffin's notes:
This was our first daytime match of the trip, competing at 2:00 p.m. The roof on the gym where we competed is what you would typically see on a greenhouse, and the court itself is about ten feet below the outside ground level. This lack of insulation from above, and constant contact with the 55 degree sub terrain generally created a nighttime playing temperature which hovered around the high 50's… Today however, the greenhouse effect was a welcome reality. The only physical distraction we faced was the passing of clouds, which was a new experience, but nothing like trying to play catch with a strobe light on. I was proud of the fact that the boys didn't make anything of it.
My take on the match, is that while we came out of the gates strong, the casualness of the match lulled us into a vulnerable position after game one. Once again a valuable experience to see the team respond to these differences. There is no word in Spanish for "scrimmage" and the direct translation for a non-counting encounter is "amistoso." The most direct translation I can give this would be a "friendly" match. These are difficult matches to get up for. Half of Canada's team was lifting or warming up while the other half took the court to gain the international experience. This was clearly comfortable for them. I'm not sure we ever really fully understood how to prepare and compete in this environment.
Tonight was also the semi-finals of the tournament. The Brazilian team beat the Torray Arrows (Japan) in three sets. Bolivar bested host Buenos Aires Unidos in a thrilling five set match that began at 10:15 p.m. and ended close to 1:00 a.m…
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