June 25, 2013
Follow Georgia Tech middle blocker Chanell Clark-Bibbs on her journey in the Czech Republic as part of the 2013 USA Volleyball Women’s Junior National Team. Chanell will blog five times during her stay in Brno and today’s blog documents her first week of training in the Czech Republic. Stay tuned for her next blog post Friday after the team competes in the playoffs.
The 2013 U.S. Women’s Junior National Team
June 21 Recap: WJNT Falls to Bulgaria
June 22 Recap: WJNT Falls to Brazil
June 24 Recap: WJNT Tops Mexico
June 25 Recap: WJNT Falls to Russia
My past weekend in the Czech Republic was a very relaxing and busy one! On Friday we had a big match against Brazil. We woke up to eat breakfast then went off to practice. After practice we had plenty of downtime to get ready and mentally prepare for the match. Later that afternoon we left for the gym to get ready for the game. Our game started early that evening, and it was a very exciting match. We ended up losing to the Brazilians, but that game taught us a lot. From there it was time to get ready for our next match against Mexico.
Saturday was our off day from competition in the tournament. Our day consisted of an hour practice and film to get ready for our match the next day. The weather was cool and rainy for a change. The only outside activity we did on Saturday was go to the grocery store and stock up on food and European chocolate, which is the best chocolate I’ve ever had! The chocolate was definitely the highlight of my day, and then it was back to preparation for put match on Sunday.
On Sunday we woke up around 8 am for breakfast and prepared for our early afternoon match against Mexico. After breakfast we had a film session, and then headed for the gym. Our match ended up going to four sets, and we came out on top in the end. The win was great, and was tremendous help to our team chemistry. It always fun playing good volleyball against a good team, and coming out on top. From the gym we went back to the hotel to have a quick lunch so we could head back to the gym to watch our next rival, Russia. After the Russia vs. Brazil match, we headed to a restaurant to have dinner with some of my teammate’s parents that traveled to Europe as well. I don’t remember the name of the restaurant, but it was very nice and looked over the whole city. For dinner we had goose, cabbage and dumplings; it was a very interesting dinner. For desert we had some sort of apple pie with ice cream, and hot chocolate. It was nice meeting my teammate’s parents and getting to know everyone a little better at dinner. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to reflect on our great victory, and go to bed.
