Cincinnati

Before I recap the Cincinnati event, I thought I would share with you a video that was made at K-Town in Germany. Check it out...

Cincinnati...

There was a major upset this weekend of our Gold Medallists by our other Olympians, EY and Nicole Branagh. I did not see it, but from the scores it must have been an incredible match. Misty and Kerri had an extremely long win streak and I think it is good for the sport to show that they are not invincible.

All four athletes must be emotionally exhausted after spending three weeks in Beijing. Misty and Kerri have not stopped since winning the gold. They have managed extremely busy schedules since returning. Misty is rehearsing for Dancing with the Stars in addition to everything else. Their stardom has done so much for our sport. Thanks to our "Golden Athletes," the Cincinnati tournament was sold out on Saturday evening and Sunday! That is very exciting news for our sport! Hopefully we can capitalize on this and get all of America excited about beach volleyball and gain some popularity.

Here is how the tournament went for me and Holly:
Coming back from a long three week break is a bit harder than it seems. Instead of the rest and recovery I expected, I battled a nasty bout of food poisoning. We practiced through it but I was a bit of a waste of space. It lasted 5 days and I eventually had to take an antibiotic to get rid of it.
I did not feel my usual self going into the tournament. I had lost 10 pounds and did not have my strength back yet. It is times like this that really make me appreciate my partner. Holly did a great job of helping me through it with good communication and great defense. I found myself struggling through play on Friday, feeling really weak and affected by the extreme heat and humidity.

We won our first match against the Lindquists. Of course, we had a battle with them and won in three sets. We lost the first set after blowing a huge 13-8 lead and giving up 7 points on one side. It was a bit of a wake up call. We played much better after that.

Our next match was in the evening against Boss/Ross. We played under the lights at a near capacity stadium filled with an awesome crowd.

They played really well and took us out of our game. They served tough and got us in a little passing trouble which, in turn, led to siding out problems. We gave up too many points and could not make up any ground. We sort of took a beating.

The next day we had to battle back through the contenders bracket. We played in the afternoon against Roca/Fendrick. We played pretty well. We were able to get points off our defense which is something we are working on. The match went three sets but we controlled the third and won 15-8.

Our next match was an hour later against Fontana/DeNecochea. We played really well and took care of our side whenever we got the chance. We started out 7-0 and eventually got a 10 point lead before giving up a string of points. Thank goodness for that cushion. We won 21-14. The next set was a battle back and forth. We took care of our opportunities and did not give up any points which helped us get the win 21-19. That win secured us in 5th place.

We were finished for Saturday and could rest. We would face the loser of the 9:30 evening match of May-Treanor/Walsh versus Davis/Jordan at 8:30 Sunday morning. Davis/Jordan lost so we faced them for the 5th time this season. Despite getting little sleep, they played us extremely well and won in two sets 21-19, 21-19, ending our Cincinnati tournament run. We finished in 5th place.

Cincinnati was the last qualifying tournament for the Glendale event. We were in a very close race with Fontana/DeNecochea and Dodd/Minello. We actually were trailing both teams going into the tournament, but only by a few points. With our 5th place finish and a win over Fontana/DeNecochea, we moved ahead of both teams and grabbed the final slots for Glendale! I am really excited about that!

We leave tomorrow for Santa Barbara. It will be a 16 team main draw tournament. Only those that finish 9th or higher will continue on to San Francisco where it will be a 12 team main draw. Our goal is to finish the season strong. We want to make a good push now while some people might be feeling the effects of a long season. I am happy to be back in good health and am ready for a great weekend!

Angie