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 to a few jewelry shops and some sports stores and before we knew it we had to hustle back to the hotel. After practice a few of us weren’t feeling too well and felt sick to our stomachs. So everyone had the rest of the day to recuperate and relax. Today was our semi final match against our NORCECA rival, Mexico.  We had our usual breakfast and practice in the morning and of course the nap after lunch! We played Mexico at 4:30 and beat them in three sets. After the game we stayed to watch the Italy vs. Slovakia match to see who we would play the following day. But before the match started we were keeping tabs on the semi final between Serbia and the host country Turkey. In a five-set battle Turkey was able to pull off the win 16-14. After that excitement we were able to watch the first set of Italy vs. Slovakia and were surprised to see Slovakia take the first set. After that we left and went to dinner, thank god because everyone was starving! At dinner we kept a point by point tab thanks to my dad! Then finally we found out we were going to be playing Slovakia in the final round for ninth place. Everyone was super surprised to hear that Italy had gone down in three straight sets. To add more excitement to this semi final day the match that took place after Serbia and Turkey was China vs. Poland. After dinner we were happy to hear that in the finals for first and second place it would be a rematch between China and Turkey! So tomorrow we will play Slovakia and after that match we get the chance to watch the finals- it should be an amazing crowd! Thanks for reading!

–Lauren Carlini