Note: If any of you are interested Tom, the man who runs my website, was able to retrieve my post from Long Beach. It is about 5 posts below this one.
Stare Jablonki is very similar in beauty to Klagenfurt, Austria. The event is set on a lake in the woods. The difference is that Klagenfurt is a town of like 100,000 people or something like that. Stare Jablonki can't have much more than 250 residents. It is a tiny village. Pretty cool that they pack 'em in for the weekend.
It was a good weekend for Phil and I. We never lost a match, lost one set the whole tourney but that set ended up being a record breaker for the men's game. In pool play we first played a young Polish team. Good players but inexperienced as you can imagine. We won 19 and 15. I was impressed though. The Polish Volleyball Federation is clearly putting a lot of money into their beach programs as they have a lot of really good young talented players coming out. The top Polish team was the #3 seed in the tourney. They ended up at 25th losing 3 tough matches but one of them broke his big toe or something like that. Our second match we played Switzerland and won in 2 tough games. Our third match was against Pedro and Harley. Really high level match from both teams. We won 19 and 24.
In single elimination we had a bye first round and then played the Netherlands just like in Austria. The games were not quite as tight as in Austria. We played better and won both games by a couple of points. We played Alison and Emanuel in the next match, a round earlier than we played them in Austria. They were neck and neck until about 16 and then we pulled away in both games.
On Sunday we played probably the highest level match we have played this year and probably top 5 if not top 3 I have ever played in. The semis were against Marcio and Ricardo. The first set we lost 41-39. Longest set ever in men's play surpassed only when Kerri/Misty beat Larissa/Juliana 42-40 in Acupulco in 2006. Crazy high level game. We came back and won the next two games 21-19 and 15-12.
In the finals we played Reckerman and Brink from Germany. It was a tight match but we prevailed 19 and 19 in front of a packed house. Energy from the crowd was great. Not quite at the level of Klagenfurt but edging up there.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Todd...These updates are great, and thanks for retrieving the "lost Long Beach" post.
Is there anything we fans can do to help with the AVP situation? Short of becoming a sponsor, should we write letters, make sure attendance is what it should be, etc.- any suggestions???
If you know some "people" that would help. Can't really do anything unless you wanted to bring an investor to the table and even then it should have been done weeks ago so probably to late to start now.
Todd-
Great win in Poland. Do you and Phil do any sightseeing of the WWII battlefields over there? The closest I have been to Norway is the Norway section of EPCOT at Disneyworld. Usually lots of great looking Norweigian girls working there and they have great beer.
I was looking for some info on the AVP situation and saw this article about Karch's "Wide Open Tour" in Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15763489
Quoting Cosmo Kramer this new beach tour is scratching me right where I itch...sideout scoring...regulation court..WONDERFUL. Not sure if you can comment on a rival tour but could this tour come to the fore front someday or do you see the FIVB taking over the US territory?
Over on the AVP site there are a lot of angry people commenting on the article about the San Fran event being postponed. Some lost money on hotels and airfare. Not good. One thing I think us fans could do is write to Nivea and Johnsonville and thank them for supporting the AVP...cant hurt...have a good weekend...Scott
Just saw this...looks like this season is toast...I feel like I just got tombstoned by the Undertaker....my thoughts are with all the people and families that will feel the financial impact...this sucks:
***************************
The AVP Tour today announced it has closed its doors due to financial hardship, cutting short the 2010 season. AVP ownership is not funding the tour and the AVP has been unsuccessful at finding new investors.
“On behalf of AVP staff we want to express our sincere gratitude to fans, players, partners and sponsors,” said Jason Hodell, AVP CEO. “Words cannot express our profound disappointment.”
will be interesting if the fivb posts some US tourney's in 2011
Hi, it was great pleasure to watch You and Phil in action. You did incredible things in this World Tour season absolutely dominated in this contest. Congratulations!!!For me big experience was a chance to made some photos with Olympic Gold Medalists that was awesome!!! I'm a big fan of You. It is amazing how you play and especially defence. Unfortunately I didn't catch Phil's blue jersey after the final, maybe next year I'll got much more lucky :D I hope you comeback to this beautiful land in future. Greetings from Poland.
Post a Comment