Long Beach State University Athletics
Hawks Blog - Italy Edition
6/15/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
Since my last update which was the night of the match, we had a day to practice from noon to 2pm primarily to give the players who didn't play much the chance to pass and serve some balls as well as hit some balls off the setters so they could maintain some rhythm with each other. It was a very productive hour in the gym. We headed back to the hotel in our bus and a few guys took naps, some played cards, a few went downtown to sightsee and a few took a train into Amsterdam. Going into Amsterdam is what the staff chose to do although we didn't leave `til about 3pm.
Amsterdam was wild! We got to cruise the city and see the canals and the infamous, Red Light District. WOW! I think the guy who greeted us off the train was right when he said' "Welcome to Hell". And you know something else, it's amazing that you would actually see kids walking around there with their parents. Hmmm, I wonder if they'll grow up with any issues. Anyhow, we made it back to the train and we were headed back to Rotterdam for an early flight to Rome then it was off to Florence.
Arrived in Florence with no problems, the weather has been HOT! After checking into the hotel, we made our way to the Nelson Mandela Hall for a practice on the competition floor. It's a cool little place that seats about 5,000. The match is a sell out! Practice goes smoothly with one exception, we had a minor issue as Alfee Reft went down with a rolled ankle while setting an out of system ball. The doc, David Dyck from Kansas City, and Aaron Brock were all over it and have since gotten Alfee back on the court less than 18 hours later. Our interpreter, Lucy, has been wonderful. She and Rob Browning have arranged for us to all go into the city that evening to walk around and see the sights for a couple hours and then eat at a traditional Italian Trattoria. On the menu: Steak Florentine after a dish of pasta. Truly Magnificent! The city is unbelievable, a must for everyone. On the way back we grabbed some Gelato and took a cab. These trips can be hard, we're in such a beautiful city and you want to sight see and be a tourist all day but we're not here for that. We're here to win two tough matches against a team that finished fourth at the Olympics and is currently the sixth-ranked team in the world.
June 18, 2009
Woke up and had the same meal again. This is the only bummer and a big reason I lose weight on these trips. I skip on the runny eggs, greasy sausage and go for the more appetizing fruit and toast with a hard-boiled egg. We went to practice and the guys played real well today, highly competitive. Serve and pass with a wash drill at the end and a game to 25. We're ready for Italy on the 19th. Return to the hotel and grab some much needed vitamin D out by the pool for about 45 min before heading to lift weights with the guys. Video at 6:30pm--we watch Italy by rotation and go over the game plan...the guys have plenty of input as some of them play in the Italian pro league. Our plan is to bunch fairly tight to allow for some help on the back row attacks and when we make a move to the pins, stop short and give some line, they will set Martino #9 and Gavatto #3 a good share of the balls and love to get the ball to their leading point scorer, #11 Savani. We feel we can drive them off the net by serving Savani #11 with the ball. Free balls, we want to send to short 2/3 seam and disrupt the 40 route. Offensively...it's simple. Set the quicks and set them a lot! We have recently had great performances on the pins and especially the bic that there is no way they can pop on our quicks, should be open season for our middles.
That's it for now, game day tomorrow. I'm going to bed. I've attached a few photos for you all to look at if you want.
USA vs Italy, 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time Feel free to check on www.usavolleyball.org for World League updates. I think you can even watch the internet broadcast of the match which I hear is great.
Arivé-derchi!
John
Previous Editions of Blog: June 11th
After a 9 and ½ hour flight from LAX, we landed in Amsterdam. The FIVB had a nice bus for the ride into Rotterdam. We are staying in a nice little hotel called the Domina Hotel...everyone has been great! Our travel party is 21 deep...14 players and 7 staff. The outside attackers are Scott Touzinsky, Matt Anderson, Sean Rooney and Jayson Jablonsky. The middles are David Lee (Captain), Andy Hein, David Smith and Russell Holmes. Brook Billings and Evan Patak are at opposite with Kevin Hansen and Donald Suxho taking the setting duties. Our two liberos are Rich Lambourne and Alfee Reft. The staff is head coach, Alan Knipe...assistant Coaches, Gary Sato and me. Chris Jackson is the technical coordinator. Aaron Brock is our trainer. Dr. Michael Terry is the team doctor and Rob Browning is the head of delegations. Our host is a very nice man who we call Jos, short for Joseph.
After settling into the rooms for a half hour, we decided to get the guys out for a work out and get the legs moving...we had an efficient practice as we handled the ball quite well. Felt great to get going. Dinner and bed was the call for the guys as we were pretty spent from the day's travels.
June 12th
Wake up a little jet lagged and grab some food downstairs. The hotel has provided some very good food for us and the service is perfect. Everyone helping us is wonderful! We head out to practice at noon and get a good sweat going...the guys were great...they are all truly professionals. We get back to the hotel and after another meal, the guys sort of do their own thing as we've got some free time. I joined a group that headed to the Rotterdam Zoo, some guys went into town and a couple others cruised out to Antwerp, Belgium. I wish I had heard the door when that group was leaving. Actually it was only Jackson and Brock, good bonding for them. The travel schedule may seem a little brutal to some but it is good for us to get on the road early and knock out the Europe stop right away, and really for a new staff and a mixed group of veterans and young guys this provides us a big challenge to get on the same page quickly. Off to bed, it's game day tomorrow!
June 13th
Wake up a little more refreshed and head out to a serve/pass. The guys seem ready and we're in and out. We watch some video on them and essentially are blind going in as we have limited information on the Dutch team. I can tell you that they're BIG! It's 3pm and we're boarding the bus to the Sports Palace Ahoy. I believe that the guys are ready to play an opponent in a different jersey. We start the match with Hansen, Patak, Rooney, Touzinsky, Lee, Hein and Lambourne. The Netherlands come out hitting the serve and really controlling the serve/pass game. We have a difficult time sustaining any momentum. It was a strange match in that every time I looked up at the score, I found myself surprised that we were only down by one. David Lee has been a warrior and Kevin Hansen came up with some timely stuffs. He brought some great energy to the team. I have to give a ton of credit to the opposition. They played hard all night and drove us off the net. We lose the first two sets 22-25 and 19-25. We make a couple changes to the lineup. We insert Anderson for Touzinsky, Billings for Patak and Suxho for Hansen. This line up provided us a nice change of speed and that change kept us hanging around. We never led by more than one and only had one scoring run of more than one but we had plenty of chances. Team USA lost set 3 and the match 24-26. Message in the locker room: We are going to be better, we know it! Let's come out and play each point completely and show everyone how much it matters!
June 14th
So we get up after a long night of video with the staff. We feel like if we can pass the ball we can have our way with them at the net. We need to be in system more to accomplish our objectives. We decide we're going to go with Suxho, Patak, Anderson, Rooney, Lee, Hein and Lambourne for the match at 3pm. Anderson gets us off to a nice start, then goes back to serve and comes up with a huge dig in area 6 and Rooney buries the ball to turn the point. Tons of credit to the guys and David Lee, the captain, for turning it up a notch and having that relentless approach to the match. That point turned into two more for us and we never let up until we won 25-16 in set one. Set two saw some different matchups and we played even the whole way losing 30-32. We had opportunities but we had no answer for #14 Niels Klapwijk. He is a young lefty with quite an arm! Set 3 sees the Americans out strong behind the serving of Patak and the good decisions by our setter, Suxho. We win 25-17. Close out the match! We enter set 4 and immediately go down 1-4. Alan takes a timeout. This provided us an opportunity to refocus and get back to what was working. We played them fairly even the rest of the way never really threatening and lose 20-25. On to the deciding set five and the Americans are ready. We discuss matchups and where would like to start. We settle on Row One. Suxho is scoring at 40%, next server, Anderson is scoring at 40% with Patak following shortly after, he is scoring at 45%. Donald set Rooney big right away and we're off. By the time we get to Patak, we're up 8-3 and switching sides. Touzinsky came in and scored a huge point off the bench and we were running to the finish line. Up 10-6, we sub in David Smith as a blocker for Suxho. We win 15-6! Smith was big, he was involved in several key plays as we closed them out. Great win for USA! Rooney and Lambourne deserve to be mentioned here, they were both huge passing and Rich came up with dig after dig totaling 18 in the five sets. Sean bailed us out in a few high ball situations and stuffed some real nice overhead sets. Anderson was unstoppable on the bic!!! Great job to Donald for getting the right guys the ball at the right time, and great job to the entire staff for getting Coach Knipe his first National Team win!
We have practice in the morning and the rest of the day to sight see, probably Amsterdam. Departing Holland for Italy on Tuesday. Looking forward to getting to Italy and earning another win!
Go USA!
John
