When signing for Switzerland I turned my back on Spain. I mean Spain is a beautiful country and I had some good times there... off the court. Ok I wont say that, but with all the good there is bad right. SO I went to Schweiz thinking I would never return to Espana, at least not soon. So when my coach Hannes picked me up at the airport and informed me we would be traveling there to play an Europa Cup match, I almost turned pale in the face. Oh how fate holds us close all the time.We arrived at the airport. The exact one I lost my passport in last year and made that huge crying scene. Don't judge me. :) I even thought I could impress my coach with my Spanish since I speak a little. Nope he still didn't trust me. Oh well. But I did understand and was able to help a little bit. So Cool. The team stayed in the Hotel Marina. No, its not named after my teammate of the same name. She wishes. Our rooms all face the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. The Sunsets at this place were indescribably amazing.
Later that night we arrived at the Polideportivo Palma Arena. OMG! This place was huge. I felt so big time. lol I mean our gym is really small compared to this place. There was even a race track surrounding the main floor, so I assume there are some type of cycling races here as well as concerts and other events. Hey not matter the size of the arena, the volleyball court is still the same size.After a couple of practices in the big gym, it was time to play. The only two people that really knew anything about this team was my setter Jana & I. We both knew and had played against members of Palmas team. So that was really all we had to go on for the match. Oxidoc Palma is ranked in the middle of the Spanish Super Liga. But overall I think the league in Spain is a little bit higher level than it is here in Spain. All you can say is go out there and compete. No matter who you are playing.
The match started off in our favor for once. We had a pretty nice lead on them. Things were going well. Passing was crucial and we were defending balls. This all meant Jana could run our offense properly. Then we hit that one plateau where Palma went on a multiple point run and we just could not get momentum back. Our 15-6 lead, was not 24-25 in their favor all of a sudden. We could not finish and our opponents came back and took the first set. 26-24. So demoralizing. To have the lead the whole game pretty much and then not being able to finish just takes the breathe out of you. I was especially thrown off since set point was set to me and I could not convert. I almost injured my knee and took out their player as well.
The second set, Palma ran with the momentum from the first game and jumped out to a big lead. We could not stop their two top hitters, Brown and Marti. There was so much confusion and discombobulation and negativity on our side, nothing positive was coming from this set and we ended up giving them set 2 as well. So were down 2 sets, definitely not a position we haven't been in already this season. All we had to do was fight our way back in the match. One point at a time. Jumping out to a solid start this game, I just knew we would and could take set 3 and at least force a 4th set. But low and behold Palma stayed right in it, and inched their way back to within 5 points. We got stuck in a bad rotation where we just could not pass, hit or defend a ball. It happens, but for us it happened at the wrong time and once again Palma came from behind and stole set 3 and the match. Super Fail, if you ask me. But you pick you head, your pride, your face, your spirits up and move on. This battle is this not won.
It was a blow to all of us I think. To not perform on the big stage in an arena where you know you can be successful. It hurt. So the team decided to do some publicity shots for Basel TV. Its a way of letting out stress while site seeing the beautiful island of Mallorca.
We saw La Cathedral de Palma de Mallorca. This was so beautiful. We walked along the docks of the Mediterranean Sea. What is so funny, back in school I used to remember identifying and studying the Mediterranean Sea, but never did I ever imagine that I would one day be there, live 15 minutes away or swim in this sea. So awesome.
After all was said and done. Spain was far to beautiful to complain for too long. I was really upset about the match, but not too long.
Check out the rest of the photos from our journey below. Click the photo.
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