As witnessed by many and stated by several, we kept things interesting last night. I thought we came out focussed and ready. Good blocking, good presure from the service line and good sideout. Our reception broke down in 3rd set which is what made things more difficult. However, to take something positive from a negative, I thought it was great that Pavlov and Lee both stepped up and made huge plays down the stretch in the 4th set that helped us close out the match. That is a great indication for the future. Every match will have it’s challenges and different guys on different nights will need to step up and make big plays to compensate for what we may lack in other areas.
So a good team win overall and a step in the right direction. Now we start preparing for Dinamo and our trip to Moscow and then on to Kuliningrad for the Finals of the Cup.
Don’t forget to tune into The NET LIVE volleyball podcast tomorrow on The Volleyball Network.
I feel the urge to explain my silence…to apologize, justify and assure you that I wanted to continue the communication but was for whatever reason unable to do so. Instead though, its time to place my thoughts on the current moment and execute the here and now. So, to quote the future voice of volleyball Kevin Barnett, ”One sideout, shut the door!”
We are nearing the halfway point of December and putting in a lot of work here in Siberia. If you have been following at all you will notice an almost entirely new team here in Novosibirsk. The club did a great job in purchasing more talent in the off-season. I’d be lying though if I tried to make out that I believe thats all you need to do to win. However, with great investment comes great expectations. This is a huge month in the minds of the team, the club and the fans. I think everybody is waiting for this team to come alive, find itself and play to its potential. We have two more league matches this month and then the Russian Cup starting on Christmas Day. Though I am against the notion, professional sports is largely based soley on results (much to its own detriment I must add). When the pressure is placed on todays result there is a tendency to lose the “golden nuggets” and lessons along the way. This team needs time to grow and I am confident, if/when the team matures, the wait will be well worth it, for the fans, the sponsors, the city and us the players. I am reminded of a quote that Doug Beal said to me early in my career with Team USA, “You don’t just get to win”. Here’s to the PROCESS, here’s to the JOURNEY…back at it tomorrow night against Kaliningrad.
For up-to-date league info or to follow teams, results and stats check out the newly refaced www.volleyservice.ru
The full team is here in Novo and the General Directors of the Team (who are also our title sponsor, Siberian Railways executives) called a team press conference. Here I got a shot with wrestlings greatest champion, the Russian Bear, Alexander Karelin (3 time Gold Medalist and 4 time Olympian). He is on the board of directors for our club and is also a neighbor at our new house. Training this week and kick off the season next week against defending champs Kazan next week.
To say the summer is flying by is a major understatement. Jan-May seemed to drag-on forever but conversely, the time here in the states has been blowing by!
As mentioned before, I was on a 30 month binge of competition. Since early 2007, I have been playing without any significant break for 2 and a half years!! That is no exaggeration, and I have the scripts and inflamation to show for it. So much took place in that time…a stint with the Greek Team Olympiacos, 2 seasons in the Russia Super-League, 2 World Leagues and of course the Olympic Games in Beijing. With no off-season built into the schedule it became apparent that something had to give…either take a break or drive yourself into the ground…so that is what lead to my break from competition.
We had a blast putting together this small sampling. We are off for a few weeks as I transition back to So Cal for the summer. So stay tuned for upcoming episodes that cover ALL THINGS VOLLEYBALL FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TO SIBERIA!!!
There is still a pulse and we are fired up for Sunday’s match to try and even the series at 2 a piece. If you live here in NOVO, come out out tomorrow night and be loud!!!
Not the start we were looking for. Both nights were plagued with unforced errors and lack of execution. It was an extremely frustrating few matches as we were constantly battling our own mistakes. To Belgorod’s credit, they really put a lot of pressure on us last night in particular from the service line. As a team, we already have a really hard time getting balls to our middles and with 4 out of 6 servers swinging for aces, it reduced our offense to high ball scenarios. But even with that, we had our chances and it is virtually impossible to win if you don’t control the ball on your side of the net.
In general, our team has been very poor at adapting to teams and exploiting weaknesses, however, there is no more time, for our backs are against the wall. We have to change. We must defend home court this weekend to stay alive.
Not a moment too soon….we are ready to kick off the series against Belogord. Though it is the winners championship of the losers bracket (playing for 5th) there is a lot on the line. The winner of this series will be the 5th and final Russia team enrolled in European competition next season. Both teams were in the CEV CUP classification this year (which Belogord won in Greece) but as it all shakes out, only the winning team will have the opportunity to play in Euro competition next year. We head out early tomorrow (thankfully on a charter this time!!! no more trains please!) with the first whistle on Monday night. You can follow result updates on my TWITTER account.
It wasn’t easy and there were moments of drama but we were able to close out the series against UFA with a 3-0 win tonight at home. Its a good feeling and now we are down to our last series against Belgorod that will start at their place next Monday night. The winner of that series will finish the Russia Championship in 5th place and qualify for European competition (CEV CUP) next season. So, even though we aren’t playing for the Championship now, it is an important series for our club and for the future. We are being given two days rest (much needed) and Picky is talking about visiting the zoo. We are both here without our wives right now and trying to find ways to occupy the time. The end is in sight. Looking forward to a tough series against Richie Lambourne and his Belgorod team.
