July 23, 2011

Lauren Plum

Before I start talking about today events, I just want everybody to know that these USA girls and coaches are a blast to be around. This trip has been nothing but fun and an amazing experience that I will treasure for a long time.

GET OUT THE WAYYYY… USA commin through

Me and crew, we swaggin in PERU!!! (A little preview of the team theme song).

This morning we got to sleep in an extra hour and woke up at 8 with breakfast at 8:30. It was the usual eggs, sausage and French toast. We got on the bus and headed out for serve-and-pass, of course while being escorted by Peru’s finest police staff, one car in the front and one in the back with sirens just in case the locals didn’t know that USA was coming through.

Everyone seemed wide awake, ready to play and continued with the momentum we had built up the night before playing Belgium. We served-and-passed at the same private school as we did the day before and we were again welcomed with nothing but kindness and open arms. We practiced for an hour and in my opinion we had the best serve-and-pass session to come yet. We took a few photographs with some local volleyball fans and got back on the bus.

The car trip on the way back to the hotel was a blast as everyone was singing Spanish songs they didn’t know the words to and punching each other when calling out the color of the next slug bug they saw (every 20 seconds).

We watched an hour of game film on Poland (the team we played tonight) and talked a lot about those hitters' tendencies and the best way to defend them. After that was lunch time with the usual amazing rice, chicken, fish and beef. We went back to the rooms before the game to chill for a little bit and get ready, but not without stopping and hanging out with our favorite back yard llamas.

As game time rolled around we loaded back up on the bus focused and ready to do work. The first game playing Poland was a blast and everything was flowing great, the passes were on point, which allowed me to set all over the court. Our energy was way up and we won that set no problem. As the next game started we came out with that same energy, but we struggled to pass nails like we did before. We gave them a few runs of points that we just couldn’t come back from so they took set two. After switching sides, we felt confident to pass and emphasized it big time in the huddle. We fixed that one no problem as Natalie Hagglund - aka Nat daddy - and Kelly Reeves - aka K Money six-pack Reeves - stepped it up big time. The set was going smoothly again, we were in full control until we started missing serves. At our worst moment we missed three in a row to keep Poland in the set, just keeping things interesting. We had to fight really hard at the end for some crucial points and won 29-27. Set four was similar to the first set and we won the match 3 sets to 1. By that time the crowd had grown tremendously to watch their home team of Peru play the next match and they were all cheering and grabbing us from the stands after the match.

We got on the bus to continue our singing and slug bug adventures back to the hotel to eat dinner with more delicious rice, chicken and pasta. Today was a blast and I am looking forward to the next few days with my girls swaggin in Peru!!

Lauren Plum