The Last Hurrah

Yesterday was our final tournament. It was Friday/ Saturday tournament at Club V but since we haven't talked about volleyball in a while I'll catch you up. We had a tournament at the LA Convention Center right in downtown Los Angeles. Going into the first game, I thought we weren't going to do very well because a lot of the teams their were local which means they were really good. We ended up by taking 15th out of around 150 which is good, especially for our team. But volleyball is pretty boring to listen to if you don't play so I'll tell you something actually interesting about our tournament. The convention center was right next to the Staples center so walking to our car we got to see all the fun things happening every night. Most of the time it was basketball games or something like that but one of the nights was the MTV Moive awards. After a game, me and three other teammates walked to a restaurant. On the way, we were right next to a HUGE line of people and a bunch of security guards. It was really cool!

Photo courtesy of: VolleyballMag

Our next tournament, the Triple Crown Sports Salt Lake one, we took second. It was a pretty small tournament at the Salt Palace but I was fun to win-ish. Not a lot of teams traveled to this tournament especially not in my division but there was some really good teams who came from California and Texas. When my team wasn't playing, some girls and I watched this really good club, T-Street, play. Their 18s one team had a 6'6 setter who was amazing! She's on the USA youth national volleyball team and she's only a junior. Back to my team, we were the runner ups and got a really cool trophy. They even wrote an article about my team! Read it here.

This past tournament, the AAU power league championship, wasn't a great one but we did okay. We took first in our pool the first day then second the second day. During single elimination play, we took third over all.

I'll miss my team and it will be really weird not driving down to Club V three or more times a week. However for some of my team, we will be together by doing Project V. Project V is a three hour session everyday starting this Monday and going until the end of summer. I would do it too but that would mean I'd have to leave right when I got home and wouldn't get back home at about 8:00.

It was a good season and I''l miss playing with my teammates.

Colorado Crossroads

This volleyball season has brought a lot of exciting adventures such as COLORADO!! My friend, Audrey, her dad, my dad and I left on Friday morning for our Denver, Colorado tournament, the Colorado Crossroads.

At the beginning of break I had done nothing exciting because I was preparing for our first out of state tournament of the season. The team I'm on this year will go to two or three this year depending on how well we do. 
The drive down there was pretty boring and the best way to pass time is listening to music and count firework signs. If you've even driven to Denver you know how many firework signs you will pass. I only started counting after I had already seen a couple but I ended up with about nine signs. Nine. That's a lot.

SO CROWDED!

The first night I was there I felt really uncomfortable and I didn't really know why. It was really dark outside and I had never been to Denver before so I wasn't quite sure where I was. On our way to dinner we got lost and ended up driving for about an hour when the restaurant was only 20 minutes away. Once we got back to the hotel and went to sleep I felt much better! :) Our first game wasn't until about 3 on Saturday so my team and I ran around the hotel bothering our coach.

We just ate breakfast in the hotel but it was so gross. They only served omelets and muffins. Last year, at the Far Westerns Qualifier tournoment in Reno, I ate eggs and got food poisoning so I quickly opted out of the omelets. The muffins were not very appetizing either. I had to convince myself that there were nuts in the blubbery muffins because they tasted crunchy for some reason.
My team loves Chick-fil-A so we had lunch there, then went to the convention center in downtown Denver. After the second day, We went to Olive Garden and I can't stand Olive Garden. I've only been there twice and they were both at tournaments. I ordered the same thing as one of my teammates so I could make sure I wouldn't get sick but with just my luck I got food poisoning again. I was staying in the hotel throwing up for the rest of the night.


The actual tournament-
I had know idea what the convention center would look so you could say I was impressed. Most facilities we play in are usually just very big gyms with lost of courts and that's about it. Walking into this one was very different. First of all, it was HUGE. I'm surprised we actually found our court. Just imagine being surrounded by about 3,000 screaming girls and over 70 courts, and not to mention they're all tall. This isn't including all the girls tall parents either. I wasn't just surrounded by people though. Walking into the gym, Gatorade gave every player energy chews and leaving protein shakes. All around were vendors selling socks, t-shirts, sweatshirts, thousands of headbands, face wash, bathing suits, etc and even CARS! 

We ended up by doing very well the first day. My team broke pool (which just means we won all of our games during pool play). The second day of playing we won our first game then lost the last three. On the last day, We were put into an average pool. The first game in the set we lost, the second we won, then we lost the third. Since it was a single elimination day, we went home that morning. My team got 55th place which actually isn't too bad because it was a national tournament.
If you want to see what the other teams at the tournament places, look at the results.

The entrance to the convention center we played at.

We were in Colorado the week that the snow hit hard so we from a hot sweaty gym to a snow storm. At first it felt nice but then my toes were numb because I forgot my boots!