2nd Senior trip 2007

Well it's been a long time between posts and a lot has happened in my life. First of all I had about 10 days back in Canberra before we set of on the second senior tour for the year. The first stop on this trip was India for the Commonwealth Championships. Having been to India a few times before I felt like I knoew what to expect and how to look after myself while playing a tournament. The first few games of the tournament against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nigeria were fairly uneventful, we were the stronger team and we beat up on them. However the first real tough match came against India, and we lost in 4 close sets. It was dissapointing as we had control of the first set and a half only to let it slip. We felt that our passing and just our overall unforced errors were the problem and we were deteermined to make an improvement in those areas over the final 2 games.
The semis we lined up against Pakistan, we played a solid match and were able to finish them in 3. Therefore it became a re-match between India and ourselves. We again started the match in a blaze of glory, winning the first 2 sets with India not getting above 2 points. But all credit to India as they fought back well in both the 3rd and the 4th to take it to a 5th set much to our frustration. We got a great start in the 5th set and were really never headed as India couldn't breach the gap due to our consistent side out play.
So champions of the Commonwealth, a pretty good feeling, and also Benny was able to pick up the 'Best Spiker' award for the tournament. So far so Good.

From India it was onto Greece to play 3 matches against the Greek national team. Like most European national teams Greece are strong and up until last year were in the top 12 teams in the world. Also in Greece we welcomed the return of Dan Howard to the team for the first time since World Champs. I can't actually remember much from the games against Greece, so i'll try and recall what I can! The first game was a game of missed opportunities. We lost 3-1 but i believe in at least 2 of the set we lost it was close and we definitelly had some chances to take the sets. Also in this game Captain Ben Hardy injured his knee and was on the plane home the next morning to await surgery, in the hope to be fit for Asian Championships. The second game was a better performance. We lost a close match in 5 sets, led by Dan's 9 blocks and some great play from the whole team we played a good match, but could not finish the job as we made a few too many erroros late in the 5th set.
The 3rd match was one to forget, we didn't look like the team from the day before and the Greeks were able to stay aggressive with there serve and keep us under control, a 3-0 loss was not the best way to end our stay in Greece.
During our stay in Greece we were able to spend 1 hr in Athens! So after seeing the old Olympic stadium me and Igor decided to run to the top of the Acropoliss and take some photos! Although we were only up there for 20 minutes it was the best tourist site I think i have ever been too, a great view and it was really interesting.
Tunisia was the next location for 4 matches agasint Greece and 1 match against just crowned European Champions (from yesterday) Spain.
The first match against the Tunisians was dissapointing, it was played in a stadium that was probably 33 degrees with 90% odd humidity. It was unbelivable the amount of sweat pouring off the guys, something I've never experienced before. So we lost the match in 3 sets, every set having just 2 points the difference. I felt like we were a much better team than we showed that day. Sure enough we proved it the next day with a win in 5 or 4 ( i can't remember) agains the Tunisians.
The next day was the double header, game against Tunisia and a game against Spain in the one day! It was tough! Against Tunisia it seemed that we couldn't find our rhythm and struggled throughout the match, we lost in 4 close sets. So to the Spanish game. I think we suprised the Spanish at first with our level of play, they were quickly on the back foot and we won the first. They struck back to win the 2nd, only for us to take the 3rd. We were playing a good game and again took a lead in the 4th, and had a few match points, and even a few side out opportunities for the match that we were not able to take. So to another 5th set. It was fairly even throughout the 5th until just after 8 where we were able to make a few plays as well as the Spanish making some errors. At 14-10 a yellow card to the Spanish after a ball was kicked into the stands gave us a great win against a quality opposition.
The last game against Tunisia was a 3-2 win, we won the first 2 sets easily and then relaxed to lose the next 2. Only to get over the line in the 5th. Personally I was unlucky to do my ankle in the 5th set against the Tunisians, I was pretty worried about it due to the swelling and the fact I had never done my ankle before and did not know what to expect! However I suprised myself and was able to play both matches against France.
The 2 matches against France were not good result wise. We lost both 3-0 to a very good French team. However personally even given the result I thought I played my best volleyball of the tour during this time. Either way I think it was a good lead up to Asians to play such a strong team that never give you a cheap point.
So that afternoon about half the team went into Paris to see some of the sites, unfortunatelly there was no real time to climb te eiffel tower or go into the Lourve, however i still thouroughly enjoyed my time there and will definitelly be going back at some stage!
So after returning home we had a day off and then trained for the 2 games against Korean champion Samsung, which we beat 3-1 and 3-0. Next step Asians!