Day 14

A late start this morning, team breakfast at 8.30 am. However, since we were leaving almost straight after training today we packed all our stuff up into one room before heading off at 10.45am.

Even though we are away and our focus is volleyball, the floods at home had us all worried. We held a one minute silence at the start of training for those who lost their lives, and commemorated them by wearing a black arm band. Our thoughts and best wishes go out to all those affected.

We had the luxury of a longer training during which we worked on improving our movement in both defense and attack.

Back at the hotel we all packed into the lift to have quick showers before hopping back on the bus. But……..on entering the room we found Mani standing there with a note. The coaches got us good!!!! They punk’d us!!! We were staying here after all and the coaches were waiting very happily at lunch for us. We weren’t even angry, we were impressed :) and super happy not to go back to cold showers and hard beds.

After lunch we went to watch the semi-finals, with the Thai team losing to the top Vietnamese team.

For our second training session today Nam took us through a circuit in the hotel gym. It was (only) 20min, but a very intense combination of cardio and weights. Good session girls!!

After dinner now and setting up for a movie night. Till tomorrow!

Rowie and Neira

Day 13

The day started with an earlier training then usual, it was quite an intense training to get us ready for our last game of the tournament, which left us sweaty, hungry and ready to win!! After training we went straight to the pool for recovery and then was a long wait for lunch.

It was time to leave for our last game at 5:00pm against Tian Jin University of China, with a long 5 setter before our game left us with only 4 short minutes of ball warm up and pepper before we had to start hitting, but this didn’t get to us we were determined to win this game starting the first set strong and siding out consistently we took the set out 25-21.

Set two saw aggressive serving and blocking throughout the set which set up a good lead which we managed to hold during the whole set to give us the set 25-22

Sweet victory at long last!

The last set we smashed them 25-13. Yet again with great blocking and serving along with some great defense we were able to get a run of eleven points in a row with Tara West getting 4 aces! Eliza Smith coming on and getting a huge kill from position 2 and backing it up with an ace was a highlight of the game!

Our supporters traveled 6 hours to watch us play.

During our matches we had some Vietnamese fans cheering us on with an Australian flag, which was great. After our amazing win they came and met us at our bus to sign some shirts and take some photos. Turns out they were Aussie fans from way back and had supported us at many Vietnamese events in the past. They had even travelled 6 hours to come and watch us play this event!!

Once we got home it was our last dinner in our amazing hotel, the highlight of dinner was spaghetti bolognaise until we found it was seafood, which was very disappointing for us non-seafood eaters! But there was bread and butter pudding, which kept people happy.

It was a great day for us with a win to finish off the tournament but now its back to Tan Binh for a few days of training before we head home on Tuesday.

Hannah & Nat

Game 6 v Tian Jin University China

Hi Folks, sorry for the late start there has just been an epic 5 setter before us, Lopburi (Thailand) just qualified for the finals.

Our warm up has started and we should be underway in about 20 minutes.

Tian Jin have not won a game in the tournament as well, both teams will be keen for a win (I know the Aussies are).

1st set starting rotation; Maycock (C), Orchard, West, Sloane, Day, Borcic, Choat (L)

Australia is serving

Maycock to serve

Day with the kill, Aus 1-2

The internet connection is slow again so I will be updating at TTO’s and between sets (sorry)

Aus 3-5, ace by West

Kill by Borcic off the B-quick

1st TTO Aus 5-8

kill by Maycock, 6-9

kill by West, 8-10

Side out volleyball at the moment

kill by Day after a good dig by Choat, 9-11

Orchard kill after, defensive set by Choat

11 all, Tain Jin time out

Maycock from the backrow kill, 12 all

West with the ace

Aus 13-14

Kill tip by Sloane

2nd TTO Aus 15:16, if we can decrease our hitting errors we would be ahead

Kill block by Borcic, 17-16

Orchard with the ace

Maycock again with kill, Borcic took the block nicely

Aus 19-18

19 all, time to step up Aussies

Maycock with ace, she is having a great game

Aus 21-20

Kill by day off the block, time out Tian Jin

Ace by Day !!! 23-20

West with the kill set point AUS

Aus win 1st set 25-21, shut out one on one by Borcic

2nd set starting rotation; Maycock (C), Orchard, West, Sloane, Day, Borcic, Choat (L)

Aus 0-2

West with the slide kill, steadies the ship

Chinese have stepped up their attack

1-5, we just can’t terminate on attack

Orchard with the kill

Borcic with the block

Pulling it back 3-5

Borcic with the kill

Ace by West, time out Tian Jin, 5 all

Aus 7-7

1st TTO Aus 8-7

Borcic shut out

Kill by orchard

Aus 10-8

Kill by Maycock

Another kill by Maycock

Another Aussie block

Aus 13-9

Coach Manser calls a time out to settle the ship 13-11

Frostick in for Day

Maycock with the tape worm winner

2nd TTO Aus 16-12

West with the kill

Aus 18-14

Ace by Frostick, time out Tian Jin, 19-14

Connection in the middle just isn’t working at the moment

Aus 20-17

Frostick kill from the backrow

Watt in for Sloane

Aus 21-19, we are tightening up a bit

Sloane in for Watt to serve

Aus 22-20

Time out coach Manser 22-21

22 all, great attacking by Tian Jin

Aus 23-22

Orchard pulls out an ace, set point

Aus wins second set 25-22, referee called a caught ball on the Chinese

3rd set starting rotation; Maycock (C), Orchard, West, Sloane, Frostick, Borcic, Choat (L)

2 all

Kill by Borcic in transition

6 all

Kill by West

1st TTO Aus  8-7

Ace by Frostick

10 all

Kill by Orchard

Kill from the backrow by West

Time out Tian Jin, Aus 13-10

2 aces in a row by West !

Orchard with kill

2nd TTO Aus 16-10

Borcic shut out, 17-10

Kill ouff the block by Orchard

Ross in for Borcic, 18-10

Ace by West, we are playing great volleyball

Another ace by West, time out Tian Jin, 20-10

Smith in for Sloane

Kill by Smith, her first international kill !!!

Ace by Smith with her first serve !!!

Kill by Orchard

Sloane in for Smith

Ross with the kill, match point !!!!

Kill by Maycock, Australia wins the 3rd, 25-15

Thank you all for your support during this tournament, unfortunately we didn’t make finals, so the girls have 3 more days of training ahead of them so please keep checking the blog for daily updates.

Day 12

Today started with a little sleep in, breakfast and recovery in the pool. After our recovery day and some serious acupuncture, we were all feeling a lot fresher and ready to face a Vietnam team with 2 European imports.

We had the first game at 3pm, and after a proper length warm up we started the game strongly with a kill block from Westy. The Vietnamese came back strongly and with some tough serving, finished the set out.

The second set was neck and neck all the way with Vietsovpetro taking out the set 26-24. The final set was also close but the opposition came away with the win.  We did however achieve our aim of keeping number 12 out of the game, and although big stakes were riding on six packing her, we had to be satisfied with a few massive shut-outs.

After the game we had an early dinner, watched some footage and are about to watch a movie before a well deserved rest to get us ready for our final day of competition tomorrow.

Love Lize and Jen xx

 

Game v Vietsovpetro

Hi again from a smoggy Dong Nai.  We are first match up today so we will be starting on time in 45 mintes (6pm on the Australian east coast).

Before we start talking about volleyball, I would  like to express the team’s  thoughts and best wishes to anyone involved in the floods in Queensland and the bushfires in Western Australia.  The hardship we are seeing on TV over here puts life into perspective.

Now to the volleyball.  Vietsovpetro is the 3rd ranked Vietnamese team but have a distinct Russian flavour with the coach and two of the players from Russia.

We are here warming up and Pluto, one of our liasions, has arranged with his brother who is a PE teacher to bring in excess of 100 students to support us.  We have thrown some t-shirts into the crowd and boy have they fired up!!!  The drummer has just arrived, it is crazy in here and we are still 38 minutes away from a start.

We are just starting spiking so we are 13 minutes away from the start.

Australia is serving.

1st set starting line-up; Maycock (c), Day, West, Sloane, Orchard, Borcic, Choat (L)

Day with the kill, Aus 3-1

Aus 4-5

Sorry internet connection slow today

1st TTO Aus 6-8

Aus defence needs to lift

Two aces by Vietsovpetro

Serving by orchard gets a 3 point run

Aus 9-14

2nd TTO Aus 11-16

Passing needs to lift

Great swing from the backrow by Maycock

Aus 13-20

Vietsovpetro attacking the lines from both sides

Watt in for Sloane

Timeout Vietsovpetro

Viersovpetro take the 1st set 25-16

2nd set starting line up; Maycock, Frostick, West, Sloane, Day, Borcic, Choat (L)

2 all

Borcic forces through a triple block on the quick

Maycock uses the hands to wipe off the block

Aussies are attacking smarter, using the soft part of the block

6 all

1st TTO Aus 8-6

Katya (Russian) blasts through the Aus block, West returns fire with a c-quick kill

Shank by Vietsovpetro, time out, their coach is going crazy and the translator

Aus 12-10

Ace by Vietsovpetro

12 all, time out coach Manser

14 all

Kill by Day

2nd TTO Aus 16-15, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, the crowd is yelling

18 all, updates will happen in break in play as it is taking two minutes to load

20 all

Watt in for Frostick

Aus 21-20, Vietsovpetro time out

Aus 21-24, hitting errors are costing us

Ace by Sloane brings up 24 all

2nd set Vietsovpetro 26-24

3rd Set starting lineup; Maycock, Day, West, Sloane, Orchard, Borcic, Choat (L)

Shut out by West 1-0

Sloane another block 2-0

Maycock serve ace 3-0

5- 2 Aus

1st TTO Aus 8-5

Aus 9-6

Errors creeping in again, 9 all, time out coach Manser

Tip winner by west

11-10 Aus, Day to serve

Backrow kill by Maycock

Watt in for Orchard

12-13, Aus

Sloane tip winner

2nd TTO Aus 13-16

Aus 13-18

Aus getting very rushed, need to play at their own pace

Block by Maycock

Watt goes through the court signage

Aus 17-22

Smith in for Sloane for her first sneior team appearance

Day with the ace, we are still fighting

Vietsovpetro take the 3rd 25:19

Thank you for joining us

Please join us tomoorrow for our final game of the tournament at 5pm Australian Eastern Summer Time.

Day 11

We started our day off with a nice sleep in and a later breakfast before heading off to a world-class shopping centre (a lot like Chadstone, but without the shops).

A lot of the girls bought some ground coffee from different regions of Vietnam from a little specialist coffee place, which pretty much sums up the extent of the shopping options at the centre.

A restful afternoon was had with some DVDs and treatments followed by a trip to the local café with the team and some planning for our upcoming ‘Games Night’.

We went to scout our opposition for our match tomorrow and a reward has been named for any of us who can six-pack a particular #12…. An update will follow tomorrow on the outcome of the situation.

The usual buffet dinner with a lot of seafood was improved tonight with some spaghetti bolognaise which was enjoyed by all the girls.

We had a team games night tonight with some adapted versions of games from the show ‘A Minute to Win It’ and some difficult clues in Pictionary and Celebrity Heads.  Team ‘Swingers’ came out victorious, thanks to Rowie’s impressive pictionary skills.  Team ‘Sniffles’ and coaches ‘Coxes’ followed closely, with team ‘Moist’ lacking in results.  Lots of laughs were had.

Overall it was a good rest day with the team recouping some energy both mentally and physically.  An early night now before tomorrow’s game.  Stay tuned online for results and footage (7pm AEDT).

Night night, Shae Bae & Olive.

 

Day 10

Day 4 of the tournament started well as our beloved friend and valued team member Mani the mannequin was waiting for us at breakfast. After taking hostage of prime suspects possessions in previous days, we were able to negotiate the return of Mani.

Morning training again had a strong focus on passing and defence. Everyone appeared to be feeling the effects of the previous three days of competition, and had to dig deep to find the energy for the early morning session.

After pool recovery and a bit of down time, the feeling amongst the girls was positive as we were keen to take on e young Chinese team (Jiangsu aka Jis…) that plays a similar style of game to ours.

The game started slowly, and we took a little while to settle into service reception as the Chinese serves were floating much more than in previous games. Their blocks were also much bigger, and we had to work hard to hit around and off them. Jiangsu took the first set 25-20.

Our team went into the second set with confidence, knowing that if we could reduce our unforced errors, that we would be right in the match. Some consistent serving and strong hitting took us into both technical time-outs in the lead. We went on to win our first set of the tournament 25-20.

Spirits were high in the third set, and the momentum was definitely on our side. We played a solid third set and the crowd was really vocal, led by a man with a big drum. We took the third set 25-16.

The fourth set didn’t go as we had planned. Jiangsu came out firing and we started tentatively and gave them a strong lead. We were much stronger in the second half of the set but unfortunately the lead we had given them was too much to peg back.

The Chinese again started strong in the 5^th, and although the set was tight Jis came out on top leaving everyone with mixed emotions. Despite the results we are happy with the progress the team has made in certain areas of the game. Particularly the areas we have been focusing on over the last few months.  We are looking forward to a rest day and finishing the tournament on a high.

Choaty and Rhi

Game 4 v Jiangsu China

Hi everyone, welcome Dong Nai stadium once again.  Good news the game will be starting on time at 9pm AEDT, about 33 minutes away.

The Aussie girls are out to make big improvements tonight and hopefully go home with a win !

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are only minutes away from a start here in Dong Nai, Vietnam

Australia is receving serve

1st Set starting rotation; Maycock, Frostick, West, Sloane, Orchard, Borcic,  Choat (L)

Aus 1-4

West to serve 2-4

1st TTO Aus 4-8

Too hitting errors by the Aussies

Aus 8-12, time out Jiangsu, strong serving by the Aussies

Great transition block & kill by West

Aus 11-13, we are getting some momentum going

2nd TTO Aus 12-16 but playing a lot better

Sloane kill tip in broken play

Aus 16-17, keep fighting Aussies

Aus 16-20, time out coach Manser

Just can’t convert runs in the clinches

Jiangsu take the 1st 25-20

2nd set starting rotation; Maycock, Frostick, West, Sloane, Orchard, Borcic, Choat (L)

Aus 4-1

Comsistency is the key

5 all, great serving by Jiangsu

Day in Orchard

1st TTO Aus 8-7, ace by West

Aus 10-7, great serving by West

11 all

Aus 12-11, Day to serve

2nd TTO Aus 16-14

Shut out by West

Aus 18-14

Great blocking by the Aussies 20-15

Jiangsu coming back, Aus 21-19, timeout coach Manser

Borcic with the tip winner

Shut out by Borcic

Aus 23-20

Set point Aus 24-20, kill by Day

Aus win 2nd set 25-20

3rd set rotation; Maycock, Frostick, West, Sloane, Day, Borcic, Choat (L)

Momentum definately swang Australia’s way, the girls are enjoying themselves

Smart hitting off blocks by Maycock

1st TTO Aus 8-6

Block by West, she is on fire

Aus 11-7

Good serving by Jiangsu pulls it back, Aus 12 all, Orchard in for Frostick and nails the pass, West quick winner

2nd TTO Aus 16-13, Ace by Sloane

Aus 18-13

Fantastic serving by Sloane, Aus 20-14

Kill by Borcic 22-16

Ace by Borcic

Block by West, set point Aus

West with anothr block, Aus win 2nd set 25-16

4th starting rotation; Maycock, Orchard, West, Sloane, Day, Borcic, Choat (L)

Jiangsu come out firing, Aus 0-3

Unforced errors are creeping into Aussie’s game

1st TTO Aus 2-8

Jiangsu playing some great defence, Aus 2-10

Frostick in for Day

Time out coach Manser, 2-12

Watt in for Sloane, immediate kill

Aus 3-15

2nd TTO Aus 3-16

Kill by Borcic, 6-17

Aus 7-19

The crowd is getting into the game supporting the Aussies, especially the drummer !

West with a block

Aussies fighting hard, creating momentum

Jiangsu win the 4th set 25-12, we are going to five

Australia is receiving in the 5th

5th set rotation; Maycock, Orchard, West, Watt, Frostick , Borcic, Choat (L)

Jiangsu come out firing, Aus 0-3

Aus 1-5

Time out coach Manser 1-6

Change of ends, Aus 3-8

Sloane in for Watt

Aus 5-9, need to create some momentum

Aus 6-11

Match point Jiangsu

Jiangsu won the 5th, 15-10

Tomorrow is a rest day for us so please tune in again on Thursday

Game 4 Live Streaming

Game 4 today against Jiangsu Junior team from China will be streamed live on VTV website on channel VTV2.

Jiangsu’s average height is 183cm compare to ours 180cm. They play a slower European style like ours and not the fast Asian style of the three teams we have played so far.

The quality of the teams we have played is of a  high standard and this young Chinese team is no difference. Hopefully we can break through for our first win of the tournament today.

Once again Bill will be at courtside for his updates.

Apology for the schedule mix up once again. Today’s match starts at 9pm AEDT rather than 7pm AEDT as advertised.

Day 9

Day 9 started off with a 7:30 breaky and a 45 minute training session, working on defence and picking up tips, which we struggled with in the previous game. Then a quick recovery session in the pool followed by group video sessions run by the players and a bit of treatment. Then off to lunch where we loaded up on freshly baked bread rolls and headed off to the game.

Liv got one through

With a five set match before ours we got to see some good quality game play, which fired us up for our game to come. The Thai team had four new starting players which arrived in that morning which made the team much stronger then their previous games.  We started off with a slow start with the Thai team getting a quick lead, which made it hard for us to catch up later in the set. The Thai team was too strong for us in the following 2 sets being relentless in their defence and making it hard for our outsides hitters to put the ball away.

The twins at work...

Though another disappointing loss we did achieved goals that had been set with almost no tips going down throughout the game and we continued to work well in our serve reception line up passing at 2.12

It was then back to the hotel for dinner followed by a quick trip to the supermarket to stock up on cereal. Then back to the hotel for a meeting and some episodes of Summer Heights High and bedtime…Goodnight Tara & Anna