Finland

Won in Finland but not without some sparks and fun. Beautiful island by the way. Wish I had more time to check it out. We went to Stockholm for a day to do media for the promoter in Aland so didn't get into Aland until late Tuesday night. Then Wednesday was pouring rain all day long and didn't feel like exploring in the cold rain. Thursday through Sunday was pretty nice though. A touch of wind but no big deal.

Played two matches vs. a Swedish team and then Estonia. Sweden we smoked in the first and then they were up 15-9 in the second as we got a bit complacent. Came back and won 21-18 though. Estonia we were in control by a couple of points most of the game and won by a couple of points. Friday we played only one game vs. Brazil's Benjamin/Bruno. They played great in the first game and won. Second game we were smoking them by 6 or so points when Benjamin hurt his shoulder. He finished the second game and then forfeited the third game to us. Saturday we played one match against China. Had not played them since we lost to them in the finals of Moscow, Russia. We played very well and beat them handily in 2 games.

Sunday we played the Spaniards in the semis. We again played very well and won both games by 5 or so points. In the finals things got more interesting as we played Marcio/Ricardo from Brasil. The first game was back and forth. Neither Marcio or I were siding out very well so there were a lot of points. We ended up winning the game in overtime 25-23. In the second game at 4-4 we lost a controversial call and I went balistic. Not sure why, but I can tell you it felt really good. No hard feelings towards the ref either. Good ref who in my opinion made a bad call. We ended up getting smoked in that game as I was in the weeds. Sometimes it is good to get it all out in one shot. I collected myself in the third game and we ended up winning 15-13 on a short line shot I shot over Ricardo to sideout. Good way to end a long FIVB season.