July 12, 2017
Spartan volleyball players Breann Robinson and Nandyala Gama sent us more blogs from the European Global Challenge.
The Mountain West team went 3-0 in pool play, defeating Falconara 3-0 (28-18, 25-19, 25-15), NKMB Branik 2-1 (20-25, 25-23, 25-20) and BIP SE U23 2-1 (25-18, 25-16, 21-25). In pool play, teams play three sets no matter if a team wins the first two sets.
The MWC team begins championship play on Thursday. All information regarding the tournament, including a livestream of all matches, can be found at http://bringitusa.com/gc2017/
Below are two blogs from our traveling Spartans. Enjoy!
July 9 & 10 - Breann
On July 9th we arrived in Maribor, Slovenia, and joined a few other American teams who had been staying there for a few days. When we got there, we had a couple hours before practice so we took a chairlift to the top of the mountain to ride the rail all the way down. Nanj and I were the first to get in our carts and fly down the rail (of course). It was so fun! Then we had a scrimmage against a Slovenian team, and afterwards, we headed to dinner.
Breann and Nandyala on the chair lift.
We ate with two other American teams. We took a gondola to the higher peak of the mountain and ate at an amazing restaurant at the very top of the mountain. We were up so high, our ears were popping in the gondola on the way up. The next day (July 10th) we woke up early to travel to Pula, Croatia.
There were three teams to a bus, and we all got in and started our five hour bus ride to Pula, Croatia. We slept most of the way, and when we arrived, our hotel was swimming with volleyball players of all ages. Huge welcome signs in different languages were hung everywhere. It was so exciting! We all went to the beach after eating, got to swim in the waves, and jump off rocks. It was beyond beautiful.
At 7:45 p.m., we loaded the buses and headed into town for the opening ceremony. We were given an hour of free time to explore the town before the opening ceremony, so we looked in all the shops, got some gelato, then gathered in the center for the ceremony when it was time.
The ceremony was awesome, they introduced all the teams from all six different countries. This year is the 13th annual European Global Challenge, and the people who organize it were also recognized for their efforts. Afterwards we were able to hangout a little, talk to other teams, and explore the town further until we loaded the buses back to the hotel to get a good night's rest before our first day of competition.
July 11 - Nandyala
Game day!!!!
Today at 10 a.m. we started the tournament by putting some great work against Falconara, which is a really good Italian team. We beat them 3-0!! Since our next game would be at 8 p.m. on the same day, all of my teammates and I went to the pool at the hotel, which is right across the street from the gym, for some relaxing moments. We did some stretching exercises and exchanged ideas about our previous match and how we could play even better on the next one. We relaxed at the pool, ate, drank a lot of water, napped, water, relaxed in the room, water, more food and more water, haha! ... With two games in one day and 87 degrees outside, we have been really attentive to drink a looot of water all the time!
After our long break, the "Mountaineers from the West" (cool name, uh?) got back to the gym and beat a strong Slovenian team. We had played this same team two days before in a scrimmage on their home court, and they beat us winning 3 sets against 1.
It has been amazing to play all of these high level teams!! Tomorrow we have our last pool match at 10 a.m.. So far, we are leading the pool with 5 points!! :)))