Tuesday, Oct. 13

We have now entered the second round of play and are challenged with the format for this tournament. We are placed in another pool for additional playoff matches but will only play teams we have not played before. Bottom line is we know we need to keep winning to get to the gold medal.

Our first match is against the winner for Pool A, which is a strong and tall Brazilian team. The play starts out with some long rallies, but our passing is spot on and our middle attack is effective early in the match. We jump out to an early 8-1 lead and then cruise through the rest of the game winning with a final score of 25-12. The second set follows as the first one with Linda McClellan and Ursula Geiger pounding the ball from the middle. Final score for set 2 was 25-10 and we are starting to believe that the gold medal is a definitely possibility.

The second match is against another Brazilian team - which is now our 4th match for this tournament against the Brazilians. This match was very quick and our team is now running on all cylinders. Everyone gets to play, including me (player/coach) for the second half of the final set. Final scores are 25-10 and 25-17. This win insures that we are now in the final gold medal match tomorrow.

Toni Clubb