AVP Kickoff - Spring Break - Panama City

After what seemed to be a long off-season, the AVP kicked off the 2009 season in Panama City Beach, Florida this past weekend. The event was scheduled for a Saturday/Sunday 24 team double-elimination tournament. However, the weather was incredibly bad on Saturday and the AVP was forced to cancel play for the day. We watched from our hotel room as torrential rains and 30 mph winds ripped across the venue. It was a crazy sight to see. We were glued to the Weather Channel hoping to see this huge storm blow by us fast, but more just kept coming. The good news was that the rain did clear for play on Sunday. The forecast was for sunshine, but the winds did not die.

Because we lost an entire day of play for the tournament, the AVP was left with no option other than to make the tournament a single-elimination event: you lose, you’re OUT! The top 8 teams in a 24 team main draw get a first round bye. This means that the top 8 teams are guaranteed a 9th place finish or better in a single elimination tournament. Fair or not, it is the way it is. Tyra and I were the 4th seed of the tournament, which is a great place to be.

We played our first match on Sunday at 10AM. The winds were howling. We had an idea in our heads that a tournament in Florida would be hot and humid; not the case with this tournament. The temperature was 67 degrees, but the winds were gusting between 15-25 mph. (Now that is WINDY for beach volleyball!)

We came out strong and won our first match 21-16, 23-21 against the 13th ranked team on tour, Paula Roca and Heather Lowe. The first set we played really well and maintained a lead throughout. The second set, we fell to an early lead and had to play catch up. We came up with some big plays at crucial times which helped us get the win in that second set.

Our next match was against the 12th ranked team, Lauren Fendrick and Ashley Ivy, who upset the 5th seeds, Holly McPeak and Jenny Kropp. We won that match in three sets, 21-13, 19-21, 15-11. The first set, we were clicking and things were going our way. They made some adjustments for the second set and it took us a little too long to recognize and adjust ourselves. Going into the third set, we were patient and knew what we needed to do. We took care of business and won the match. That win put us into the semi-finals.

Our third match of the day was against the Beijing Olympians, Elaine Youngs and Nicole Branagh. We played them very tough, but came up short losing 28-30, 13-21. The first set, we blew a 14-7 lead. It makes me sick to think about it, but the good news is that we were in a good position. We will definitely learn from the loss. That put an end to our tournament, finishing in 3rd place.

As soon as the match was over, we ran off the court to our hotel room. We were determined to catch our flight home out of Pensacola. We left the beach at 3:30 and our flight was at 6:15. We quickly showered and jumped in the rental car and drove 2 hours to Pensacola. We arrived at the airport at 5:55. We ran with all our belongings to the rental car desk, throwing the keys at the nice worker, and continued running to the ticket counter. We had to check our bags, print our boarding passes, and get through security. It was 6 o'clock at this time and it seemed impossible to make our flight. The ticket kiosks would not print boarding passes because we were cutting it too close. We somehow managed to sweet talk the lovely woman working at the counter into checking our bags and printing out boarding passes for us! This was 15 minutes before our flight was to leave! We raced through security and were blessed with no lines. We got to the gate just in time to get on the plane. Thankfully, we made it and so did our bags! It was seriously unbelievable.

So our first tournament of the year, cut short by bad weather, was a 3rd place finish for us and full of excitement and adventure! Not a bad way to start out 2009! We have 2 and 1/2 weeks now until Riverside which is our next AVP event. We know what we have to do and we are working hard to improve everyday and be the best we can be! #1 is in our sights!