July 27, 2011

by Sallie McLaurin

Today we woke up at 9 and ate our usual breakfast of bread, eggs and butter. After breakfast we went for a run on the streets of Lima for our daily light exercise and stretch through the park.

On our way back to the hotel, we were escorted by a police car, motorcycle and bus so we never had to stop while crossing the busy streets of Lima. Once we got back to the hotel, we watched video of Italy to prepare for our evening match, and also got to see the last 7 points of our fabulous third set comeback against the Dominicans the night before. Then we napped and fueled up with a delicious lunch, and eventually departed for our match at 4:30.

We played hard against Italy, but had some unlucky points and ended up losing in four. Our bench came up with some really awesome cheers as well. For example, “Lets go Haleigh Hampton Inn & Suites” or “Go Kelly, Go Kelly, the other team is smelly, they got sisters from New Delhi, we like PB& jelly”. Not only did our cheers get the team to smile, but the crowd also enjoyed our yells and unique dance moves.

Also, during the match a couple of birds joined us for the game and were flying around the gym ceiling and would occasionally go to the bathroom on our court in the middle of plays (good thing we had people to clean the court).

Afterwards, we watched a bit of the Peru and Dominican match, and then came back to the hotel for some dinner. The Italians were clearly annoyed to see us so cheerful and positive after they beat us, which was very satisfying.

We are super pumped for tomorrow and know we can play much better than we did tonight. No worries, because we are taking Peru DOWN. Owwww owwwww! Let’s go USA!!

Sallie McLaurin