Well.....

Well it's been a long time inbetween blogs, and I'm gonna do my best to keep you up to date.

Well our last match of the season was against the 6th rank Eltmann. I think this in many ways was a turning point in the season. We decided to drive to Eltmann the same day on a bus, and everything was going really smooth. We started the match well and soon found ourselves up 2-0 and in complete control. However Eltmann stepped it up, they had the chance to finish 6th instead of 8th if they won this game. So they were a little better in the 3rd, however we always maintained a 3-4 pt lead until the end of the set, then we threw it away.....stupidly (after having 2 match points). No problem however we would just win the 4th, again in complete control until the end of the set and we throw it away again. So yeh very annoying, and then we were again up in the 5th 9-6 i think, only to lose like 15-13. It was an annpying loss, however it didn't mean anything to us in the scheme of playoffs. So we needed to regroup for the tough quarter final against Unterhaching mid week. However I felt that this was a turning point in the season, we had been playinng very well and we really needed to finish these guys off 3-0 when we had the chance too.

We were full of confidence heading to Unterhaching, I felt that we were a better team than Unterhaching, and if we played our best they couldn't touch us. Well it certainly started that way. We were unstoppable the first 2 sets winning both to 19. Then we dropped maybe 10% and Unterhaching stepped it up 10% to take the next 2 sets. We were looking lost at this stage but still managed to take a 9-6 lead in the 5th and it looked like we were in control again. Then we had the yips and let it slip. 15-13 in the 5th again, the similarities from the previous game only 4 days earlier really showed. It was very dissapointing.

So the 2nd match was in Wuppertal, not a lot to say really. Unterhaching won the first, but then we controlled the rest of the match to take it comfortably 3-1. Giving us a 11-1 home record for the season which was the best in the league.

The 3rd match was a disaster, I'm not sure why but our team didn't come to play. We served over 20 service errors in 3 sets and got blovked so many times it was hard to comprehend. I atually got to play as a pass-hitter for the first time in a few months in this game (i was still mainly training as a middle) and i thought I did ok and tried to bring some energy back to the team. However it didn't help at all as I watched from the sidelines as Unterhaching smashed us to about 17 in the last set.

This was probably the most dissapointing match of my European career, I still believe we were a better team than Unterhaching, however we did not take our chances in that 1st match and that cost us a semi final spot.

So that was the end of the season, it was really weird because I had set myself to be around for another 3 weeks or so, but the reality was I was going to go home in 5 days. I spent my last days in Germany playing a bit of beach volleyball in the 30 degree weather!!!! (summer came early) and we also had an end of year party which was a real blast. (I have to get some photos from it sometime) All in all it was a good year in Wuppertal, made some great friends and although I think I could of played better it was by no means average. I'm not sure where I'm gonna play next year but i'll keep you informed if something happens.

So suddenly before I knew it I was back in Australia! I had 6 days in Adelaide....and it wasn't nearly enough to catch up with everybody. Even though I tried incredibly hard and didn't get a whole lot of sleep some nights! I was able to have a BBQ with some close mates on the Saturday night which was awesome, as well as get down to state league to see a lot of familiar faces.

So now I'm back training with the national team in Canberra, I've been here a week and a half and the first few days were pretty shocking volleyball wise, took a while to get rid of those cobwebs and get used to the Australian setters again. It's a bit better now, but still a lot of work to do. We have a tour leaving on the 15th (team is named at the end of this week) going to France, Denmark, Croatia and Japan. I would really love to make the tour, especially playing in and against Denamrk where I will be playing and seeing a lot of good friends.

Also have to give a special shout out to Kaz and Igor who are still plugging away in there European seasons, Igor is into the final in Poland and kaz is fighting relegation from the first division. Theres a chance Kaz could be home late June!!!! talk about a long season! Were all looking forward to seeing those guys and the other senior team members after the tour.