Today started a little earlier with me getting up at 7 a.m. to work out with our trainer. I needed to do some physical stuff; been sitting and watching a lot of volleyball. Needless to say, by the time we were done with his warm up I was cashed. It was good and I felt better later.

Afterwards, we had our typical morning schedule with breakfast and practice. In practice, we went over the scout of Brazil on the floor, took a bunch of float-receive, and had some good reps. We then headed back to have a little down time and lunch. In the meantime, Rob and I watched video with individual guys. It good to see the guys eager about getting better.

Our scout on video was at 1:30 and Ken gave the guys some things to focus on. For me, it’s really exciting to play Brazil. The rich tradition of USA against Brazil in volleyball is awesome. The few times I've been a part of matches against them is so exciting. I felt like if we improved on our play we could definitely beat them. We had a little down time left before we were leaving at 3:30. I got to visit with my wife a little, which is awesome. Excited to get back home in a few days.

USA pride for sure. That's what it feels like when listening to the National Anthem, looking at the guys and the USA flag right at the beginning of warm-ups not to mention your opponent is Brazil! The match was really good, we competed hard and definitely improved on some areas. We put a ton of serve pressure on them, which helped our block defense. We just needed to capitalize on opportunities a little more and be better in serve receive. We lost in 3 but were right there at the end of each game.

Rob and I stayed to scout the Mexico vs Puerto Rico match next. The place was packed and loud. It was a good match going 5 but Puerto Rico squeaked it out. That meant our match for the bronze medal is going to be Mexico; an opportunity for the guys to redeem themselves with a victory. I know they will be excited to do this.

It ended up being a late night with doing some scout work with Ken. We are going to have an early practice, ouch; but we are in the air-conditioned gym.

mas tarde

Coach Friend