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 Liz Rondone, Stephanie Dragan and Carrie Minogue. |
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July 28, 2008
I have finally returned to the Whee and the trip seems like a complete whirlwind.
Our time in Pula, Croatia ended with an upsetting loss to the Italian Youth National Team. We lost 1-2. I sincerely believe if we would have played them in a full five set match that we would have ended on top. The big advantage that we had against the other teams was our depth (we literally played all 13 student-athletes evenly) and that our athletes have been doing their college strength programs. The Italians were younger and taller, but we were definitely stronger and in better physical condition. It was disheartening that we were not able to bring back a bronze medal to the USA.
Exchanging t-shirts with the opponents after the match was something that each team did. It was a nice way to give away old t-shirts. Over my years I had accumulated a lot of t-shirts and gave mine to Liz [Rondone] and Carrie [Minogue] to hand out. It's a really neat experience to trade with the opponent.
There were four local little girls that made it to everyone of our matches. They were so cute in the stands cheering for us, learning the girls' names and doing little service cheers for them. We were able to talk with these girls each day and they wanted autographs and pictures with the team. Liz was the first to hand one of these little girls a t-shirt and it made her day! Petra lived in Pula, and was maybe 12, and was so proud to get a t shirt from a USA player that she immediately put it on and started bragging to her friends and running around. This simple act made me smile. There's a little Croatian girl that is running around in a Western Carolina University Volleyball t-shirt and she thinks it is the coolest thing ever.
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Friday morning we left in a bus for Venice, Italy. It was a four hour beautiful drive. The topography is very similar to ours. There are mountains, rolling hills, and once we got into Italy, there was a lot of corn. I never thought of Italy as being a big producer of corn. Once we arrived at our hotel, we were all hot, hungry, tired, and grouchy.
We were able to catch a quick lunch and then we headed into Venice to do some site seeing. Venice is a beautiful city with a history I can only read about and imagine. Both Croatia and Italy have buildings standing that are older then our country. The architecture is gorgeous. The night ended with a few of us playing Euchre (a Midwest card game)
Saturday was our last day of the trip. Liz, Carrie, Branagan, Jozeph and I went to the city to go for a gondola ride. Liz also had a list of "things to see." Liz is an art major and loves art history so this day was a dream come true for her. We went to a museum that had all of DaVinci's engineering work. I never knew he had so much influence on aviation, war, and transportation. I have learned so much on this trip!
To make a long story short, I was separated from the group and could not find them! I was lost in Venice for close to three hours. I managed to find all of the big touristy spots, but also found the neighborhoods that tourists did not go to. It was kind of cool to experience the real life of a local, but it stunk that I was so lost. Venice is an island and I kept going from coast to coast. I found the good and the bad neighbor hoods of Venice and can say that I managed to stay alive, not get mugged, and take some incredible pictures.
It was sad to leave Italy but we were all ready to come home to the great USA. We wanted a super sized Coke with a lot of ice, to be able to read the street signs and billboards, and to completely understand how much money we were actually spending.
The flight back to Atlanta was 11 hours and for the most part was smooth. Once in Atlanta, we watched Branagan go to her connection flight to Greensboro knowing that the next time we saw her she would be in a UNCG uniform across the net. We will also play one of our setters, Erin, as her school hosts the Illinois State University tournament we will play in Sept 4-5.
This was an incredible experience for me, and I know it was for the girls too. I have always wanted to represent our country in volleyball and this was a dream come true for me. Liz and Carrie did a great job representing Western Carolina University and Catamount Volleyball. They were respectful to other cultures and worked very hard on the court. I am so proud of them.
I have previously traveled internationally with a college team and it was a great experience. I have talked about taking our team on a tour and this trip really forced me to put a lot of thought into taking the Catamounts to another country to have the incredible experiences that I have had. This may not be the last blog about an international trip...stay tuned!
Ciao Bella!
