Journal Entry #9

July 31st 8:40am

Sometimes things just don’t have the storybook ending that we hope they would. After an hour and twenty minute battle, Russia won the opportunity to play Brazil for the gold medal today. I was so disheartened by this that I didn’t have it in me to write the journal last night. Funny how easy it is to write when things are going well, and how I avoid it like the plague when the story doesn’t have a happy ending.

Last night Italy also lost in the other semi-final match. Even though the Brazil/Italy match was projected to go to Brazil, Italy fought a good fight. When we walked into the gym during the first game, the score was 22-8 (Italy). I’m not sure what happened before we got there, but clearly Brazil was not playing the way they have been. None the less, Brazil bounced back taking the next 3 games from Italy. Strange things happen in the play-offs…as we found out later.

After Kris gave Ashley Engle treatment on her ankle all day, she warmed-up with the rest of our kids. She gave us the go as her status and this heightened the morale of the team. We had a great hitting warm-up before the match and looked to be very loose and ready for battle.

We started the match with the line-up of R. Holloway, A. Klineman, L. Williams, A. Engle, M. Hodge, K. Cooper, and K. Kuzma. Last night’s match would prove to be an exciting spectator match as it almost looked as though we were playing ourselves. Player for player, we believed we were better by position, but they ran a very similar set distribution to us. It would come down to who’s outside hitters got hot first and stayed hot, and both teams ball control.

We got off to a great start running a slide set to Lauren Williams right off the bat. Throughout game one, we passed well and terminated when we needed too. Meghan Hodge was elevating and thundering balls early, and then Klineman picked up where she left off when she got to the front row. Game one we sailed to what I would consider an easy win with a score of 25-19. We controlled the tempo throughout that game, just as we wanted to and never allowed Russia in.

Game two would be the same type of thing as I distinctly remember turning to Ted when the score was 21-14 (USA) and said, "We are really grooving." In retrospect, I wish I had kept my mouth shut because that’s when things went south. After a missed serve, we struggled to get out of a serve receive rotation, committing 2 hitting errors in a row. We called a time-out and went back at it looking to go up 2-0 in the match. After losing two more rallies, anyone in the gym that saw our China match, thought they were seeing déjà vu, including me.

We went on to finally side out on a mistake by the ref’ing crew. After that, the Russians hit a ball off of our block out of bounds on our side, and the ref never saw the touch. This would put the game at 23-22 (USA). From there, we couldn’t seem to stop the Russian outside hitters who continued to put balls away over the top of our block. It seemed as though any time we got a side-out, Russia would do the same thing right back.

At the end of the game (25-25), we had a couple of really good chances to take back what was seemingly being taken from us. Alix Klineman took her text book approach but ended up meeting the block of Russian outside hitter, Victoria Rusokova, who had switched to block on the right. After one last time-out, we ran the same thing hoping that Klineman would do what she had done all game, but the set was a little far out and Alix tried to work a line shot on it. The game would go to Russia with a score of 27-25.

We were stunned once again, having been up 21-14 it seemed almost impossible that we could lose another game like that.

Heading into game three we needed to find some new momentum and it just never seem to come. We had some moments of brilliance by each one of our players, especially Ashley Engle (10 kills on 16 attempts for the match), but it just never seemed like we could pull ahead. Russia’s two outside hitters (Kosheleva & Rusakova) continued to put on a hitting clinic over Engle, Williams, Cooper and even at times Klineman. It was almost surreal. USA, clearly the biggest blocking team here, couldn’t stop these two players. The game would go to Russia with a final score of 20-25.

Game four was our last opportunity to get back in the match. Although every player for Team USA fought with all that they are, it just wasn’t meant to be. After breaking down late in the game in serve receive (mostly due to frustration), we lost the last game of the match 17-25.

As Russia rushed the floor, Ted and I just sat on the bench with nothing to say…not knowing what to do. Our players walked off the floor with their heads down, realizing that their dream of a gold medal was now over. The teams went on to shake hands and Team USA made its way to the locker room.

Meghan Hodge and I, however, had other plans.

Meghan’s number was the random draw for the drug test. She and I, along with #7 from Russia, made our way down to the doping control room. Meghan, having just used the restroom in the middle of game four, wasn’t quite sure if she would be able to give them the urine sample they needed.

The process is actually quite interesting. They sequester the chosen athletes immediately after the match and will not let them leave until they provide a sample. So, there we sat as these two young ladies drank bottle after bottle after bottle of water. Finally, Meghan was the first one to provide the sample. One small victory in the war that was gauged last night. She was then asked to pick a box and pull the two bottles out of the box. One was titled ‘A’ and one ‘B’. She had to fill both of the jars up with her urine and then wait for the Ph test to be completed. Once completed, we were told that she would need to provide another sample because the density of the first sample was not strong enough.

So, back to the bathroom she went.

After repeating the process again, the density proved to be better this time. We then proceeded to sign a bunch of forms and were allowed to leave. Meghan and I were both very excited to have the process complete.

It was a quiet night at dinner as I think the team and the coaching staff were still stunned. As we mulled over the events of the evening, we finally came to the realization that the best finish ever for a Youth or Junior USA National Team at the World Championships was still within our grasp.

With such a young and internationally inexperienced team, I can’t help but wonder what’s going through their minds right now. After losing a match like last nights, it’s tough to find it in your heart to play hard for 3^rd. However, that’s exactly what we are going to have to do.

It’s been said by some of our opponents coaching staff, that USA will give up today because we are no longer playing for the gold. Erikka told the team that today in our video session. I truly hope that it sunk in because I believe that a loss does not define a team, but rather their reaction to it.