USA Volleyball Blogs

Saying Goodbye

Tue Aug 23 18:55:00 -0400 2011

Chloe Collins here! Today has been filled with memories that every last one of us will cherish. We started our day off by having a scrumptious breakfast that consisted of very filling bread. As time past from breakfast most of us took naps until we left for practice then later in the evening we… Read More

Semifinal Excitement

Sat Aug 20 17:48:00 -0400 2011

Merhaba, Lauren here! Over the past few days the team has been trying to learn some basic words in Turkish, Merhaba being one of them, meaning hello! Yesterday we had our second free day and we all got the chance to go shopping! We only had two hours so we had a plan and were on a mission! We went… Read More

A Lesson in Cultural Differences

Sat Aug 20 09:46:00 -0400 2011

Hey Everybody! My Name is Jordan and I’m an Outside Hitter for the Youth National Team. So far our trip in Turkey has been amazing, full of exciting experiences that opened our eyes to not only new styles of play but also different cultures. Today was no exception! We started our day with… Read More

Bring on Egypt

Wed Aug 17 17:03:00 -0400 2011

Hello Everyone! Our match against Thailand is at 12:30 p.m.  Instead of having practice we had a stretching and abs session before breakfast. After breakfast we watched video on Thailand. Most of their team was shorter than me and I’m the second shortest on our team but they were a tough… Read More

Back on the Winning Side vs. Slovakia

Wed Aug 17 16:58:00 -0400 2011

Hey all! Kadie here. So we woke up a little early than normal this morning due to our practice at 8 a.m. We grabbed our to-go breakfast from the hotel and then headed out to the training facility for pre-game practice. We got a few good reps in passing, serving, and hitting wise to get us up and… Read More

Volleyball, Food, Fun and Shopping

Tue Aug 16 08:24:00 -0400 2011

This is Amber Rolfzen! Today was our off day after three tough matches. We got to sleep in a whole hour later this morning, which was very refreshing! To begin our day we had our typical fruit, bread rolls, and cereal for breakfast. We got a lot of good and really needed reps in at our practice.… Read More

Heading into Round Two Pool Play

Mon Aug 15 13:33:00 -0400 2011

Round one of pool play is now complete. We finished third in Pool C falling to China and Serbia. We are now in Pool G for round two, which is the bottom half of the bracket. If the team can put together the same game they played against China, they could have won against Serbia in the second… Read More

A Day Off

Mon Aug 15 09:54:00 -0400 2011

Merhaba! This is Molly McCage writing on August 14, 2011 aka Melissa Wolter’s birthday! J We celebrated it after the match when we got back to the hotel and had this delicious cake that Heath brought us. We also had Turkish delight. Yes, it’s the same dessert from Narnia. It tastes… Read More

First Day of Competition at Worlds

Sat Aug 13 11:39:00 -0400 2011

Today was a highly anticipated day as it was our first day of play here in Turkey. We got the day started off right by getting up for practice around 8. After that it was back to the hotel to eat, rest, and prepare for our first match against Puerto Rico. Our match against Puerto Rico went well as… Read More

Turkey and its Fabulous Food

Sat Aug 13 11:36:00 -0400 2011

Hello everyone, my name is Paulina Prieto and I am a member of the Girls’ Youth National Team. Breakfast was good. They had hard-boiled eggs, fruits, cereal, and French fries. They had a large variety of bread and cheese which both were amazing. Today we had our first practice in the… Read More

One Last Plane to Turkey!

Sat Aug 13 11:28:00 -0400 2011

Hi Everyone! Our travel day is finally here! Yesterday we practiced and drove through Canada and so we started our day this morning on a long flight to Munich! In Munich a lot of the girls went through a lot of the food shops to look for German chocolate.  Our team loves chocolate! Our… Read More

Pit Stops on the Way to Turkey!

Tue Aug 09 14:42:00 -0400 2011

Hey everyone this is Nicole Dalton! Throughout these past 20 days together we on the U.S. Girls’ Youth National Team have become really close and have grown a lot as a team. We have learned about what it takes to be a good teammate and how to solve our problems on the court. It has been… Read More

One Championship, Many Memories

Mon May 03 16:32:00 -0400 2010

by Mimi Eugene and Haley Pouliezos After a good night sleep, we woke up to go to a morning practice. It was a short practice, but we managed to get a lot done and found out lots of information about our opponent (Mexico). When practice was over, we went back to the hotel to relax and get focused… Read More

One More 'Til Singapore

Sat May 01 23:41:00 -0400 2010

by Regan Peltier and Brittany Howard Quote of the day: one more ‘til Singapore For the past 24 hours, three of us have been ill. But after being horizontal for the whole day, we recuperated and “got vertical” first thing in the morning to meet with the team and do a 15-minute… Read More

Shopping, Puking and More!

Sat May 01 17:18:00 -0400 2010

by Madison Bugg and Molly McCage Yesterday morning we woke up bright and early to go to practice at the all-boys prep school. On the way to practice we experienced the best driving manuever possibly ever made by man. Our big yellow school bus takes up quite a bit of the road, and when two cars are… Read More

Big Win, Yet Still Improving

Fri Apr 30 01:13:00 -0400 2010

by Lauren Sieckmann and Shelby Sullivan Today we woke up with one goal in mind - to beat Canada and get better as a team. Words of wisdom from Coach Stone today were “Big game today, Aye?” That got us fired up and ready for practice. On the way there we tried to wave at everyone on the… Read More

New Friendships and Learning Cultures

Thu Apr 29 12:35:00 -0400 2010

by Andie Malloy and Allison Palmer So today we had to wake up early for a morning practice. I actually woke up even earlier because every morning the maids come to our door and go "HOUSEKEEPING...HOUSEKEEPING...HOUSEKEEPING!" hahah. We waited for everyone to come down to the breakfast place and… Read More