Disappointment in Belmar

I am flying home from Belmar now cramped with my husband on a small plane because of a connection in St. Louis.

I will say it was a disappointing finish considering the top 4 teams were gone competing overseas. We finished 5th place but I had my mind and heart set on winning the tournament. We had made significant gains in our game leading up to Hermosa and I think I fell back into the bad old habits. My blocking was horrendous. It is embarrassing when a blocker comes away from an entire tournament with only 3 blocks. That is my job. If we are going to do well and win, I have to start blocking balls.

We won our first match versus Snyder/Davis but then lost to the Lindquists. They dug like crazy and won the points that made the difference. We did not take care of our opportunities and we lost.

Next we had to battle back against Pavley/Polzin. We jumped to an early lead but quickly gave it up and had to battle point for point till the end. We won in two close sets.

Next we faced Lewis/Lima. We were not playing our best volleyball. I wish I could say we had a turning point here, but we didn't. We battled with them for two close sets and won, but it wasn't pretty.

We were done for the day and we were sitting in 5th with a great road ahead of us to the finals. We had 2 teams in front of us that we had beaten before. We had Fontana/DeNecochea first thing in the morning. We had an opportunity to close out game one and let it slip. The second set was just as close but we lost.

It is very frustrating because we did not play good volleyball. We have lots to work on and I cannot wait to get back home and start working.

We have another week off and then we go to Boulder for the first single elimination tournament of the year. We must be on our game there. Its do or die! The top teams will still be out of the country so it is a great opportunity to take it while they are gone.

This is our last weekend off before the August break for the Olympics. We have six back-to-back tournaments then three weekends off while our top two teams compete in Beijing. This week is important for making improvements in our game.

That is all for now. Still 2 hours left in the flight so I am going to try and get a little sleep.

I hope all is well and thanks for reading.

Angie