Day 2 in Stavanger, Norway

Stavanger is beautiful! Tyra and I arrived late on Monday after our little flying fiasco. The worst thing that happened to us is that Tyra's luggage did not make it. I am sure it will be here in a day or two, but in the meantime, we have had to do quite a bit of shopping. Yes, yes...life is rough! We were forced to shop.

The weather has been phenomenal! We arrived with sunshine and today has been cool, crisp, and sunny. It really is a perfect day here. I took my camera with me when we first went out, but as I tried to snap the first picture, I realized that the battery was dead. I will charge it back up and start snapping on our next outing.

The tournament site sits right next to a port, Cruise Pier. Today an enormous cruise ship was docked right next to the courts. It would have been a great picture if the battery in my camera would have had a charge!
(The volleyball courts are to the left of the cruise ship. They wouldn't fit in the picture!)
Today we discovered the Norwegian strawberries! So so good! I ate an entire package myself! The flowers and fresh fruits here are really spectacular. All the flowers that I see here are ones that my mom has in her gardens back in Indiana. It reminds me of my momma!

We are heading out now to go practice and get dinner. Last nights dinner was a bit suspect. We thought we were ordering chicken, lamb, and beef at a Greek restaurant, but we are pretty sure that we were given reindeer. We asked and were told it was beef, but it was very gamey and didn't taste like beef! Hope it wasn't Rudolph! ;)

Pictures and video to come!!!

More later!

Angie Akers

From Ocean City, Maryland AVP - on to World Championships

I am sitting in the Frankfurt Airport Lufthansa Business Lounge waiting for my connecting flight to Stavanger so I thought I would take this opportunity to write about Ocean City and the journey to get here, in Frankfurt.

Ocean City... we made progress. We kicked the curse of our 7th place finishes on the AVP tour. We finished 5th place. Still not where we want to be, but progress. We played pretty well at times and then at other times, we forgot which way was up and which way was down. It happens. It is all about growing as a team and making progress, which I feel we really did.

We flew into Washington Dulles on Wednesday before the event started. Jeremy, my husband, arrived just before us so he picked up the rental car and then came back to get us. It is a 3 hour drive to OC, so instead of fighting traffic at rush hour, we decided to take a detour through DC and drive around Jeremy's old stomping grounds. We drove through his old neighborhood, by his school (St. Albans's), and then ate at me and Tyra's favorite place, Whole Foods. By the time we finished eating, traffic had cleared and we hit the road.

Once we arrived, we crashed right away and slept in on Thursday. We woke up to pouring rain and miserable weather. Once we got up, we walked down to the event site and watched a bit of the qualifier, visited the medical tent for some chiropractic treatment, then practiced a little later in the day.

We woke up early on Friday to beautiful weather. Our first round match was scheduled for 11 AM against Hall/Kuk. We were a bit shaky, but pulled things together and won handily, 21-16, 21-16. Our next match was against Stonebarger/Koester who pulled out an upset over the 11th seeds, Mason/More. We came out strong in the first and won big, 21-12. We lost a bit of our momentum, maybe had a lack in concentration after the first set and lost the second set 19-21. Then we decided to get down to business and take control of the third. We won 15-10. That was it for Friday.

Saturday morning we faced Hanson/Rutledge to get to 5th place. We started out strong with good ball control and a good game plan and won the first set 21-16. We were down big early in the second, but came rallying back to take the 18-17 side switch. Rutledge had a few key blocks which shifted the advantage back to them. They took the second set 21-19. We fell apart in the third set. We lost our ball control and made setting and hitting errors which absolutely killed us. We lost 10-15. Time to regroup....

After the loss, an enormous storm system blew in. We watched as teams played in the torrential downpour that ensued. The rain slowed down just in time for our warm up for our next match against the Lindquists. We actually started the match, took a side turn down 3-4 when the beach officials came in to declare that the entire beach was officially closed until further notice. Everyone had to evacuate the beach. There was quite a bit of thunder and lightning and more rain to come, so we were put on a 2 hour delay. Tyra and I went to the nearest hotel and sat in the lobby to wait it out. Once it cleared, we went back to the beach and had to warm up all over again.

We had another all-out battle with the Lindquists. They play crafty, scrappy volleyball so you must stay on your toes. They won the first set 21-19. We stayed patient, made some crucial plays, and won the second set 21-18. The third was a bit back and forth. A controversial referee call fired us up and put our backs against the wall. We pulled together as a team and fought our way out, winning 15-11. A big sigh of relief.

Next we faced Minello/Lima whom we lost to in Atlanta. We were fired up for this rematch. Wind was a factor and we used it to our advantage. We served aggressively, we hit aggressively, and we played good defense. (All important things to win!) We won in two sets, 21-17, 21-13. That win broke us of our 7th place curse. We were now in 5th place and moving on.

After we finished the match, we were getting treatment in the medical tent when another storm blew in. It was another torrential downpour that lasted about 15 minutes. Once it blew by us, an enormous rainbow formed over the ocean. It was beautiful.

The next morning, we faced Dodd/DeNeccochea in some seriously windy conditions. We did a great job of controlling the ball on our side of the net in the first set. We got a few aces and we sided out very well. We had a very big lead towards the end of the game, but Di served more than a few "tricklers" over the net that were untouchable. That pulled them in closer until we won 21-18.

We are not really sure where our ball control went after that first set, but it left us. We struggled through the next two games and ended up getting creamed. It was a big bummer, but in the grand scheme of the tournament, we made progress.

After the match, we got more treatment before hitting the road again back to the airport. Traffic was very heavy, so it took a bit longer than the 3 hours we anticipated. We still had plenty of time to stop by a Whole Foods and get our last kombuchas and salads before heading to Europe for 5 weeks.

So now for the second part of the story.... We boarded our flight from Dulles to Frankfurt, actually took off in the air and were flying about 20 minutes when the captain came on and said that one of the generators was not working so we would have to dump fuel and turn back. We would have an extra heavy load since we just took off so it would be a very heavy, potentially dangerous landing. For precautionary reasons, they called in the emergency team at the airport. We flew around dumping fuel (which made me cringe at the thought of such waste) for about 15 minutes. We had to dump tons and tons of jet fuel to get the plane to a safe weight for landing. Then we made our descent and landed the plane, without incident back at Dulles. The runways were cleared except for the dozens and dozens of emergency vehicles all waiting for us. It was an eerie sight to see all the flashing emergency lights lining the runway as we landed. Thankfully, we were safe on the ground.

We had to switch to another aircraft at a different gate, so we gathered our belongings and waited at the next gate. The whole ordeal took just under 4 hours, so we missed our connecting flight in Frankfurt to Stavanger, Norway. No big deal...we were booked on a later flight leaving in the afternoon, which is why we were sitting in the lounge when I started writing this. I am finishing it while we are actually flying.

So far our adventure is off to an exciting start! Once we arrive in Stavanger, we will have 2 full days to acclimate and prepare for our competition. Because it is the World Championships which consists of the top 48 men's and women's teams in the world, the event lasts 10 days. There are only 3 courts for competition, which means we will play one match every other day. We start off with 12 pools of 4 teams and from there, the top 2 will advance plus the best 8 of the remaining 3rd place finishers in pool to complete a 32 team single elimination tournament.

We begin play on Thursday. The forecast is for high 60s and sunshine! I can't wait!

I am bummed that we will miss the Coney Island AVP event, but we plan to do our best representing the USA here in Norway.

You can follow our results at http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/index.asp?sm=12
(Sorry! Can't figure out how to hyperlink this with my new computer!)

Thanks for reading!

Angie Akers

Beginning of a Long Journey

Tomorrow morning I am leaving for Ocean City, Maryland. This AVP tournament stop will mark the first week in a 15 week-long stretch of consecutive tournament play for me and Tyra.

We are traveling to many interesting places. Our journey begins in Maryland and will take us to Norway, Switzerland, Russia, France, Austria, Spain, and several stops in the USA.

We will have the opportunity to compete for Team USA at the World Championships in Stavanger, Norway from June 25th through July 4th. Unfortunately, World Championships coincide with Coney Island AVP, so we will be missing Coney Island. However, we intend to post video blogs from the road to let you all know where we are and how we are doing.

Be on the lookout for some articles and other publicity about AVP stars Jeff Nygaard, Ryan Mariano, Brooke Hanson, and Matt Olson. These athletes just returned from visiting our Troops stationed in Afghanistan. This is the third trip overseas to visit our troops that I have had the opportunity to do behind the scenes work on the logistical side, but the first that I could not actually attend myself. I was extremely bummed not to go with the other athletes, but my injuries and preparations for the World Championships kept me from going. I will be sure to make it on the next trip. From what I hear, they had a wonderful time interacting with lots and lots of our military men and women. Certainly, it was an experience never to be forgotten. I am anxious to hear their stories.

It is back to packing for me. I need to finish up some last minute details before I relax for the evening and then I hit the road!

Hope to see you at the beach!

Angie Akers

Month of May Review

The month of May has had several ups and downs. It was extremely busy, which is why I am only writing about it now.

The last thing I wrote about was the San Diego tournament. Since then, we have had three consecutive tournaments: Houston, Osaka, and Atlanta. I will start with a recap of Houston.

Wouldn't you know, going into Houston, I got the worst sinus infection of my life. I felt absolutely horrible and wanted nothing but to crawl in my bed and stay there. Knowing that was not an option, I got my butt to Houston.

Tyra and I struggled from the start. Her knee was bothering her to the point that she could not bend or move very well. Knowing this, I wanted to do my part to make things easier for her, but my head was in a fog from all the over-the-counter medications that I was taking. We were a pathetic sight.

We lost our first match of the tournament to Fendrick/Ivy and had to battle back through the contenders' bracket. We beat ourselves. We were not physically able to do things that we normally can do, but we did not make up for it with intelligent play. Live and learn.

Anyway, I am not going into detail about the matches because my head was so foggy I can barely remember playing. We finished 7th place and caught an early flight home. 12 hours later, we were jumping on another flight to Osaka, Japan for our first FIVB tournament.

We almost did not make it to Japan. The swine flu had recently made its way to Osaka, and the airports were quarantining every plane from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. My sinus infection was in full force and I was coughing, sneezing, and constantly blowing my nose. Upon arrival, our plane was stopped on the tarmac while a team of health professionals boarded our plane and inspected each individual. I was very nervous at this point because we had to fill out health questionnaires asking if we were experiencing a cough, congestion, runny nose, sneezing, etc. Thankfully, I did not have a fever, which is the main thing they were looking for. When the examiner questioned me, he red-marked my health form. That meant the doctor had to come inspect me to decide if I would be placed in quarantine or not. Let me clarify that, the doctor would decide if, not just me, but everyone within a 2 meter radius of me would be quarantined.

The passengers seated around me were all nervous, as well. I assured them that I had seen a doctor in the United States and that my sickness was, indeed, just a sinus-infection. I was cleared and we were all on our way.

The Osaka event was really great. I was so nervous, excited, and anxious. It was my first FIVB main draw! We were seeded 26th going into the event.

Our first match was against a very good German team, Goller/Ludwig. We played very well and won the match in three sets, 15-10 in the third. We were excited to get that first match win under our belts.

Next, we played a team from Czech Republic. We played very well again, and won in dominating style in two sets. That put us into 9th place and finished for the day.

Our next match was against the 2nd seeded team from Brazil, the Salgado sisters, Maria Clara and Carol. We were on a hot-streak and won this match in three sets, 15-10 in the third. That win put us into 5th place. Then we faced a very good team from Greece. We were clicking and continued to play well, winning in two sets, securing our place in the semi-finals.

The strange thing was that by winning that match, we had the next day completely off. We did not really know what to do with ourselves. We had never had a "day off" in the middle of a tournament before. We thought it would be a blessing since we were still battling our health issues, but it turned out that it broke our momentum.

We lost in the semi-finals to Talita/Antonelli from Brazil. We played in the bronze medal match against a very good ball-control team from the Netherlands. They were hot and we were NOT! We finished 4th place, which we were very happy about considering it was our first tournament of the year. The difference in those two matches between winning and losing was serving. Those two teams served very tough consistently throughout the entire match. We never found our rhythm with serving and did not get either of them in any trouble. In order to beat those teams, we will have to serve tougher and control our side of the net.

Osaka was a very valuable tournament for us. By placing 4th, we were able to improve our seed dramatically. Because I had no finishes to report, I was given a 25th seed which was averaged with Tyra's 4.5 seed. Now I will replace that 25th with the 4th! It is a huge deal for us! Especially since the next tournament we play in on the FIVB tour will be the World Championships in Norway!

We flew back to the US on the Monday following the tournament. We were home for about 36 hours before we had to fly to Atlanta. We did not know where on the planet we were at and what time it could or should be. Sleeping was a challenge. I was wide-eyed in the middle of the night.

We started the tournament on Friday against Pavlik/Rouwenhorst. Tyra's serve was en fuego. She had 6 aces in the first game. Tough serving and steady siding out helped us win convincingly, 21-12, 21-16. Unfortunately for us, we were finished for the day.

Our momentum was broken up the next day by Dodd/DeNeccochea. They dominated us by serving really tough and keeping us on our toes on defense. They played very well and gave us a beat down.

We moved to the contenders' bracket and played Fendrick/Ivy to get to 7th place. We did not play great, but we played good enough to win.

Next, we played Lima/Minello. We were out served and lost in two sets. They just bombed serves at us, getting aces and creating trouble for us. We did not return the favor and had trouble scoring points. We lost, simple as that. We both were extremely disappointed. We know we are better than that. We have had some challenges set before us, and I am absolutely positive that we are going to be better off down the road because of them. I am not discouraged, only frustrated at not getting immediate results, but I know they will come.

We are home now and have taken a few days off to rest before the next phase of tournaments. We will have 15 weeks in a row filled with tournaments. All of them, except Manhattan and Hermosa will be on the road. It will be exhausting, but I am excited for what is to come. I will do my best to keep you informed and up to date, but forgive me if I fall behind. The good news is that we are healthy again and have our injuries under control. We are anxious to get back out there and prove that we are one of the best teams on tour.

I am going to enjoy being home for the next two weeks and then it's go time! Summer is here!

AVP San Diego County - Harrah's Casino

Oh boy... where to begin. I am trying to forget this past weekend as quickly as I can, so here is my last attempt to rehash before I move on and put the weekend way way way behind me. From that sentence I am sure you can tell it was not a great weekend, volleyball-wise, for me and Tyra. We struggled from start to finish. Boy was it UGLY! Before the volleyball began, we did have some fun moments worth mentioning.

We arrived at the Harrah's Rincon Casino and Resort on Thursday evening and grabbed dinner with Hans Stolfus, Anthony Medel, John Moran, and Annett Davis. Tyra, Annett, and I pretty much listened and laughed the entire dinner. Those three guys are highly entertaining. They have opinions on pretty much everything so we shared quite a few laughs and had a great time.

Tyra and I did not have our first match of the tournament until Friday afternoon at 3:30. We tried to sleep in, but an unhappy, screaming child in the room next to us provided an early morning wake up call. We took our time getting ready and eventually made our way out to the courts which were across the street. We still had quite a few hours to kill, so we watched some of the women's matches and then moved around on the practice court.

Our first match was against Paula Roca and Heather Lowe. It had to be the longest match of the tournament at 1 hour and 15 minutes. The first set, we were down big pretty early. We made a late set rally which pulled us in close, but we lost 19-21. That momentum helped us win the second set 21-14. However, they adjusted and came out battling. We traded early leads, but were neck and neck at 13. We served 5 match points before finally winning 23-21 in the third. We were relieved to escape this one with a victory.

We only played that one match on Friday. Afterwards we watched Brooke Hanson and Lisa Rutledge play against Ashley Ivy and Lauren Fendrick. Brooke and Lisa were amazing. Lisa is putting up a great block. She is averaging 2 blocks a game. That is the same as Phil Dalhauser. If she isn't blocking the ball or getting a good touch on it, Brooke is digging everything else! This team looks really good. They made the final by beating several very good teams. They are definitely a force to watch out for!

Saturday, we did not play until 1 in the afternoon. We had Dianne DeNecochea and Carrie Dodd. I thought our funk from the first day would be done and gone, but it was there to stay. We started off this match making some good plays, but absolutely killed ourselves by making 11 errors as a team in the first set! The second set was not much better. We made 9 errors. You cannot beat good teams making that many errors in a match. We lost 18-21, 18-21. We moved to the Contenders' Bracket.

Our next match was against Ivy/Fendrick. We were still struggling. We were down early and had to chase from behind. At the end of the first set, we were able to set up a few points and win 24-22. The next game we started out with a lead but blew it. We were tied around 17 and then we came up with some plays to finished it out. Tyra had two huge blocks and I came up with a dig and transitioned it out. We won 21-17.


We had to play again right away against the Lindquists. One would think that two big girls like me and Tyra would have no problem against this team, but we did. We came out smashing the ball in the first set and won 21-15. The second set we tried to overpower them by hitting it hard at them. That is one thing you cannot do against that team. They are not afraid of hard hits! To beat them, you have to hit perimeters away from them. We did not do that and we lost. We had our opportunities, but did not capitalize on them.

We finished 7th place. I am extremely disappointed in that finish, but it is a long season and we have plenty of opportunities to improve.

After we were eliminated, I stuck around the tournament and watched a few more matches. It is hard to stay after a bitter loss, but I figured it would be a good humbling experience.

I was shocked to learn the news on Sunday that Holly McPeak is done. The San Diego Harrah's event was her last one. She will continue to do the television announcing, but she is hanging up her bikinis. She talked about retirement all last year, but when she started this season I did not think she would ever find the right time. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to play with Holly last season. She is such a great competitor and a wonderful friend.

On the men's side, I am so happy and excited to see Jeff Nygaard back in the winner's circle with John Mayer. This was Jeff's 8th win overall and first since 2005. Congrats to Jeff and John!

We have an off weekend coming up and then we have three tournaments back-to-back. We start off in Houston, then Tyra and I will be missing Huntington Beach in order to compete in the FIVB tournament in Osaka, Japan, then we fly to Atlanta. The summer is just getting started and I hope to see you somewhere at the beach!

On a side note, if you are looking for other players' blogs to read, here are some of my favorites:

Hans Stolfus - http://www.hansstolfus.com/
John Moran - http://www.provolleyballlifestyle.com/
Todd Rogers - http://toddjrogers.blogspot.com/

Also, if you are an Xmen fan, go see Wolverine-Origins. Awesome! It's summer blockbuster time and I am excited!

Angie Akers

Taking the Beach to Riverside!

Riverside put on a great AVP tournament this past weekend. With only 3 months of prep time to get ready for us, the city did a good job. The tournament was held in a park and parking lot near the Riverside Convention Center.

It was a scorching hot weekend. Friday was mild with temps in the high 80s, but each day it got significantly hotter. Sunday, my car thermometer read 101 degrees. I love playing in the heat and that is certainly what we got.

Tyra and I arrived in Riverside on Thursday evening in time to get in a light practice. We then ordered room service, showered up and went to sleep. We had to be up early Friday morning for the KTLA morning show with Gayle Anderson. We made our appearance there and then started our preparation for our first match of the day.

We played two rounds on Friday. Our first match was against a new team to the Main Draw from Florida, Flarity and Sweat. We won 21-9, 21-16. Our next match was two hours later against Paige Davis and Brooke Langston. We won 21-10, 21-10. That was it for Friday.

The next day, we had a 12 noon match against DeNecochea/Dodd. We had to be at the top of our game against this team. They are big and physical, like us. We came out a little shaky and fell behind. We were down 9-12 at the time out. We pulled ourselves together and came out of the time out strong. We made some big plays which earned us points. We pulled ahead and took the first set 21-19. The second set, we controlled our side of the net and took care of every opportunity we had. We got a big lead, up 20-14 and closed it out. It was a big win. We did not play our next match until 8:45PM that night.

It was hard to gear up for the night match. I usually go to bed on the early side, so getting amped up to play at 8:45 was a challenge for me. We lost two very close sets 19-21, 18-21. I could not pass a perfect ball to save my life! Yes, they are one of the best serving teams in the world, but I can usually pass pretty well. This presented us with problems in our side out game. We scrambled pretty well, but we just did not have a consistent side out game going. We were disappointed, but it was our first loss, so we were still alive. I had that night to stew over it, but I had to be ready to play again the next morning.

We went back to the hotel and tried to get to sleep right away, but neither one of us could. We had to get up and play at 9:30 the next morning. I tossed and turned for quite awhile going over play after play in my head.

The next morning we played my old partner and friend, Brooke Hanson and her new partner, Lisa Rutledge. Brooke is such a good player. She had to sit out the 2008 season after having her shoulder reconstructed. She is back at 100%. She led the tournament in digs with an insane amount per game. This will definitely be a team to watch this year.

We came out strong and jumped to an early lead and pretty much kept our pace throughout the match. We won 21-12, 21-16.


An hour later, we played Kessy/Ross. We did not play our best match. We lost 16-21, 18-21. I made stupid mistakes and was not aggressive. It is frustrating, but I did learn a lot about this team that you can only learn from playing them again and again. While Tyra has played them over 15 times in the last 2 seasons, that was my 3rd or 4th time. It is frustrating to lose, but Tyra and I have played in only 2 tournaments together. The first was Panama City which turned into a single elimination event and we only played 3 matches. Riverside we played 6 matches. We only have 9 matches under our belt as a team. We will get better. We are still figuring each other out.



In other news, we added a new member to our team a few weeks ago. We hired Canyon Ceman as our new coach. Canyon retired after last season and was attempting to move into the job market. Even with a Stanford education and multiple Masters degrees, he is having a hard time finding a job in the current economic climate. Lucky for us, he loves the sport and is not ready to step away completely. We have worked with Canyon for the last 6 weeks or so and we really like what he adds. We will be taking him on the road, which is great news for us. I always think having a coach on your bench is a big advantage.



We were supposed to be competing in Brazil this week, but I have a knee injury that needs some rest. Nothing too serious, but a week off was the doctors recommendation. We are home and taking the time to recover and then we will hit it hard to get ready for San Diego. Valley Center, California to be exact, in San Diego County at the Harrah's Rincon Casino.

On a completely separate note, my husband, Jeremy Akers, tried out and made the team of Notre Dame Football Alumni traveling to Japan this summer to compete against a team of Japanese All-Stars at the Tokyo Super Dome! I am so proud of all his hard work to get in shape for the tryouts and for his commitment to continuing his training for competition. He is blogging about his experience. You can follow it at www.onemoregame.blogspot.com.

Lastly, I was asked to write about what my diet looks like in a typical day. I did it and if you are interested, you can take a peek here.

That's all for now!

CIAO!

Angie Akers

Changes all around the AVP - Commissioner and Muskegan

This last week presented several major changes within the AVP. First, the CEO and Commissioner of the last 8 years, Leonard Armato, is no longer in charge. A press release was issued which you can click here to read if interested.

It is too soon to tell what this means for the tour. We are in a very scary economic climate, but we are managing to stick around. I can only hope that things turn around quickly. There are mixed opinions about the job that Leonard Armato has done. One thing is for certain, he brought the sport back from nothing. He deserves to be recognized for his role in beach volleyball's revival in the United States. Having played with Holly last season, I got to spend time with both Holly and Leonard. They are such generous, amazing people. Their contributions to the sport have been bigger than most people are aware.

Another big announcement was made regarding the 2009 schedule. The tournament in the Hamptons has been replaced by Muskegan, Michigan. While I was very interested in a tournament in the Hamptons, I believe this is a great move. First, getting to the Hamptons in the middle of August sounds like a logistical nightmare. I believe Michigan will be easier and cheaper to get to. The date is set for August 21st-23rd, the week before the Chicago event. That means more time in the Midwest! I love that!

For you sports fans out there that are interested in things other than volleyball, check out this new blog written by my husband, Jeremy Akers. He is writing about his thoughts, expectations, and training as he prepares to play in one more game for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame under legendary coach, Lou Holtz! The team will travel this summer to Tokyo to compete against a team of All-Stars from the Japanese Football League. You can find the blog at http://onemoregame.blogspot.com.

Tomorrow we drive to Riverside for the next tournament. I am excited to see what this new site is going to be like. We have had some serious wind at the beaches the last few days, so I am anxious to see if it is windy inland, as well. The forecast calls for some heat which will be nice!

We are scheduled to leave for Brazil on Sunday night right after the Riverside event ends. That will be our first FIVB tournament of the year. I still have lots of packing to do, so I am going to get to it! Be sure to follow our results this weekend!

Angie