I am on the airplane heading to Baton Rouge as I write this entry. I have to rewind a bit to bring you up to date. Probably you are already aware of our results. Seems we love the five game “thrillers” as the journalist like to write. We beat both Japan and China in five. Woohoo! We lost however to Cuba in five, and Italy in four (I think, it seems so long ago, hehehehehe). Yikes I am getting old, but physically I certainly don’t feel it. All praise be to God.

Though the Grand Prix is a long tournament, I really enjoyed going to the different countries and to be greeted by some of our familiar followers of USA volleyball, Keikei, Naa, Kin and gain new fans. It was awesome playing in front of a nearly sold out arena of about seventy-five hundred fans against Japan in Japan, and more than four thousand fans in Poland… Not to mention, the interpreters from each city are the best, so sweet and helpful. They worked so hard to make us comfortable and to have everything we needed. Thanks, Grand Prix organizer, and everyone who made our stay smooth.

You know, our results weren’t really indicative of what our team can do. I think the best is yet to come as we are still getting to know each others tendencies, bettering our skills and working at minimizing our error (which not doing so really made a difference in wins and loses). Everyone was giving an opportunity to play so we are also are building our team chemistry with whomever is on the floor. Finally getting everyone healthy and staying healthy over the next several weeks will be key to what I expect to be USA’s best finish yet.

However before we get back to pooling our gifts, love and passion for the game, we get a short break to visits our family and friends. Though we won’t play volleyball we will have to do cardio and weight lifting twice.

That’s it for now.
Blessing to ya and thanks for your prayers and support,

GO USA!

Danielle