New Position. New Direction?

January 22 & 29, 2011- After a heart-crushing defeat last week in Duddingen, I have been a little perplexed as to how to pursue success again. But like I always say winning and losing is apart of sports and life for that matter. Gotta get back up and try again. But what happens when you are thrown a curve ball? Well that is exactly what happened to Team Sm'Aesch.

After the Duddingen match, injury took out one of starting outside hitters and prominent players on the court. Anouk Verge-Depre has led team Team Sm'Aesch time and time again. One of the Swiss leagues most promising young talents, Anouk was a force on the court both in the front row and back. Her absence would definitely hurt our team. After finding out she would be out for the season, we had to come up with a plan to overcome. Well that plan would be for me to more to opposite so I could get more balls to terminate. I had become a #1 option.

I had mixed feelings about this. I was excited about the opportunity for sure. I started my career on the right side, so it was not new. I had not really played there on this big a stage though. So there was a little bit of insecurity. The big thing was our next match happened to be against Nuchatel, the team I wanted revenge on so bad I could taste it. But I was not in the middle I was on the right side and that would be very different.

Walking into Nuc's gym, I could feel this would be such a big opportunity. I felt like it would either go really really well, or really really bad. I dreamed that I had balled out and was this hero. Revenge was served up on a cold dish. It felt great in my dream. But could it happen in real life. Well it didn't happen. I played okay by my standards. But so worried about carry the team, I fell into that timid afraid to make mistake player that I started my career as. If only I had played like I knew I could. It only I had just let go and balled, would the outcome be different. Nuc didn't even play their real lineup and we still lost. Yeah I got the most points, but I also had many errors. I hung my head. I felt like I had let my team down.

Another Opportunity**********

Our next match would be out last game of the season against Koniz. After a week of beating myself up, self loathing, and complete non confidence in myself. It was time to come back up and play. I cant say it was the best of times at practice. Partially, because chemistry on the court was not flowing so well. Practice became hard to focus, and I felt like I couldn't better my skills for fear of messing up and letting the team down. But I know I can play. Just have to go out and do it.

Koniz is a team I always respected but at the same time thought we matched up really well with. They are led by 2 really good outside hitters, a strong American middle blocker and setter and a pretty good libero. They can be a very strong team, or they can become very vulnerable. Which is almost like out team. Lots of potential, but just have to let it shine.

The match started off well, and then went bad really fast. The next thing I knew we were down by like 10 and I was stuck in middle back, which to be honest with you is bad for us. Bad for me as well as I would try to score constantly from the back row on bad balls against a solid block. We lost the game something terrible. Passing just went out the door. Sorry no passing. No volleyball really.

The next three games would be some of the most intense, tiring, great, and awful times Ive ever experienced on a volleyball court. Sometimes we look awesome as a team and other times we were running into each other like the three stooges. But I think the most important thing here was to stay the course. Jana, our setter was getting us great one on one opportunities, blocking was arite, and Laura Tschopp or the Swiss machine I like to call her, was having an amazing offensive night. She was keeping us afloat in many situations.

After tying the game up, Sm'Aesch had a new life. We were focused up. And things were starting to go in our direction. Exhausted and sore both teams scrambled back to the court. One team wondering how they got in this situation. The other team was wondering how to make the best of the situation. Ill let you decide which team was which. All I know is that Team Sm'Aesch was playing some good ball we should have been playing the whole match and maybe the entire season. It felt good to be in that moment with my teammates. At some times it was not pretty, but success is success. Especially since I was having a very streaky match myself, with a poor hitting percentage. I am my worse enemy at times, but I had my teammates to lean on and help me through. It was game 5 and I knew I needed to show I did indeed know what that round white thing was.

Once we changed sides we were able to put a little cushion between us and Koniz. Had a couple of match points. One of the most controversial calls came this game, when our libero Nadine made the best sprawl out with everything pancake and got the ball the up. I mean she literally dug it with the tips of her middle and fore finger. Jana managed to make a playable ball out of it and we got it back over. Well Koniz thought the ball hit the floor and proceeded to catch it when it came back over. The ref then called a lift on them. They of course were infuriated. But it was a good call. The ball was up. Hey, play until the whistle. May I also take time out to just praise the officiating this match. Best I have experienced my whole time in Switzerland.

Finally it happened. Game point was put down by Sandra Stocker on a nice slide ran to perfection. Perfect enough for the Match. I looked over at Jo and she had collapsed on the floor. lol It was a very exhausting match, but I think it showed us what we were capable of doing once we get out of our own way and do it. Ive always said, there is so much talent and potential on this team. There have been glimpses of it all season, but the most important thing was that moment. The moment that last ball hit the floor. Gotta love moments like that. By the way, this team we defeated that night, beat the number one team in the league the week before. Like I always say... numbers mean nothing in the heart of an athlete that wants to win. Hopp Sm'Aesch!

"Think you can. Think you can't. Either way you will be right." -Henry Ford

THe Super Bowl.... EPIC!

February 6, 2010- A day that will go down in epic history. A day when two teams, the two best teams came together on the grid iron. They fight through 4 quarters of blood, tears, sweat, and of course an halftime concert that has included some of the most controversial events ever. This year's battle would not be any different. The Green Bay Packers vs the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Cheeseheads versus the Terrible Towel wavers?. Heck, they even made songs for this battle. There is the already popular "Black & yellow" by Wiz Khalifa. Actually this song was already in existence; he just campaigned for it to be hailed as the song for Pittsburgh. Weeks before the big game, Lil Wayne came out with his own version named "Green & Yellow." Oh who cares, my Colts weren't playing. Honestly I just wanted to watch some football and hang out with friends.
So the stage was set.

All of us Americans decided to all get together and go to Lausanne to watch the game. I know the girls all went last year when my Colts played and lost. Tear! So this year I was so excited to be apart of the festivities. As you may recall last year I watched the Superbowl on my teammates computer which was skyped from her big screen back home in New Orleans. IT was absolutely soul crushing to sit and watch my Colts get beat by her Saints in front of almost 20 Saints fans. :( So this year I jumped at this opportunity. We went to a lil bar called Darlings open late on this Sunday for the Super Bowl. We got there and fellow American from VFM Kristen Kelly had made shirts for both teams. I reluctantly picked the Steelers, but my heart was still with the Colts. I even asked her if she could make me a Colts shirt. lol That night I had to be Hines Ward. He's alright!



The group of about 30 of us all gathered in front of the big screen. The bar was even gracious enough to serve us food, which included chicken wings, the perfect Super Bowl food.

We sang our National Anthem so loud, we didnt even notice that Christina had messed up the lyrics. Aww God Bless! Then it was on. Everyone was cheering for their teams, we ate, we drank, we talked and met the locals. It was a real good time. Its always great to get together with my American Chicas. I was having so much fun walking around and meeting people that I didnt even see the half time show. Good Times.









OH yeah... Nice job Green Bay Packers, 2011 Superbowl Champs!

A week of Almost; Could Have, Had it All

Controversy. Disappointment. Frustration. Adversity. All these words could be great descriptions of the feelings going through my head in the past weeks and matches. Here is what I know... Losing sucks. PERIOD! No one wants to be a loser. You want to win. That is the whole reason of playing sports or any game for that matter. Ever heard that saying, " Winning isn't Everything. Its the Only thing." I am a total believer in this. I literally eat fast so I can finish
first. Funny as that sounds, its true. But the other thing you must know is that you cannot win everything. Sometimes you lose, some people more than others. Its the truth.

Again we played Cheseaux and Neuchatel; both for the fifth time this season. Not gonna lie, I am really sick of playing both these teams. Such is life. Not much to say about the Cheseaux match. It was definitely not my best stuff. Some days you just cant connect, and that happen to be the day. All my slides behind the setter were ineffective that day, and whelp that's pretty much all I have to off these days. I mean could it be the outside hitter matched up against me was having a great blocking day. Yeah, it could be, but somehow that is never the case when I am involved. But as a team, we were able to move on and win in four games. Actually I cant really remember anyone who really stood out this game on either side. It was just one of those matches for both team.

The frustration accumulated from that match on Saturday could not last long, because the very next day we had a Swiss cup match against NUC. This would be the forth time we have played them and yes, we are both very sick of seeing each other. But every time we meet it seems to be a pretty interesting match.



After the previous match, I would say I had a lot of caged up anger about a lot of things, but mostly about how I had played the day before. I was just waiting to release it though. And I tell you what; the first set was my anger management coming out party. In that first set, it was like everything I touched was golden. The slide that was so awful the day before, now was great. What a difference a day makes. Actually we jumped ahead of them with a pretty big lead, but like the story of our lives this season, we could not keep it up and lost the first set. Totally deflated our bubble.

After that happened, the match pretty much went the same way it always goes when we play NUC. We play okay enough to steal a set, usually with a score in the high 20's or 30's. But the end of the story always ends with us losing to NUC in 4. Every time. This time was not any different. A late comeback in the 4th was going well, but we couldnt get over deficit we always build. Come to think of it, we probably were leading at some point in this set. BUT.... That was all she wrote. 1-3 NUC!


And... I could not serve one ball in this match. #FAIL


Okay... I wouldnt be me if I didnt talk about the officiating this game and boy was it TERRIBLE. I mean I have played in many games and matches with three different sports. I have seen the worst of the worst, but this night was so bad, it was almost funny. Where do i start? First, the line judges are questionable every night. Its athletics you are gonna get bad calls. The up ref seemed like he had a personal stake in this match. At one point I asked Bryn, the setter from NUC if he was related to one of the girls on her team. It was that bad. He was making up rules that match. He even called a 8 second serving violation on Marina on Game Point. Who calls anything like that on game point. The funny thing is, we went back and watched the video and it was about 7 seconds. Counting 8 seconds is not hard, so he really had to have decided to call that before it happened. Another case... Joanna free balled a ball back over the net, clearly in bounds, and the ref called it outside the antennae. Unbelievable! Like he really had it out for us. I believe in games like this you need to let the teams play. Stop looking to blow your whistle. It was unfair, and I think that also had a lot to do with our demise. In our home gym of all places too. SMH!


So Im pissed we lost. But what pissed me off the most was the party they threw on our court. I mean they have a nice fan club. I would call them a little rowdy, over zealous, and noisy at times, but hey they support their team like no other. But after the game there was birthday celebrations and people singing Happy birthday. There was loudness and they were running all over our court, like it was theirs. It was like we bent over for them to kick our butts and then we gave them permission to throw a festival in our gym. I'm a friendly person and yes we all have friends on the other team, but please take a mental picture of this and keep it handy for when we play them. Im not a cocky person, but I am a proud person. The one thing I wanted my teammates to do was have some pride about this. They came in our gym, the refs screwed us and now they are having a party on OUR court. Pay back needs to be sweet for this.... To be continued!

Koniz Makes it a 2 Game Skid

November 14, 2010- Its been an up and down couple of weeks for Team Sm'Aesch. With a plethora of injuries and lack of players, Team Sm'Aesch has had to face a number of adversities. First off we have been playing without team Captain Laura Tschopp, a key member of the team and producer on the court. Also from bad knees to bad shoulders, a number of us have not been at 100%. It sucks because you want to move forward and train at a level that is conducive of pro-level volleyball, but with 4 or 5 main people training at a time its pretty hard to maintain a high level of volleyball. That's the nature of the beast. I mean you do need 6 people on the court to play volleyball and lately it feels like a ton of individual practices. Which is great too because you get to focus on certain skills individually that you may not be able to do when the whole team is there.

Team Sm'Aesch traveled to Koniz, a little town right outside of the capital Bern last last Sunday to battle. Koniz presented with a pretty strong group of athletes and they were currently standing at 3rd place in the league. The offense is run by American setter Brittney Murray out or UC Riverside. They also have a pretty nice arsenal of attack in American MB Mindi Wiley, opposite Barbara Degi and OH Antonina Polyakova. All very capable of putting the ball down and scoring points. They also have a very strong libero in Maria Bertelli. SO we had our plates full coming into the match. But still obtainable. I don't believe there is a match I cannot win going into games, no matter who is on the other side. You never know what is going to unfold, and if you don't believe before you play you are already handicapped.

Sm'Aesch got off to an excellent start. Everything was almost perfect. It was one of those moments where you could do no wrong. Our serving was pretty bad, but we managed to jump off to a huge lead with great blocking and kills. It wasn't until my setter Jana collided with one another that we actually started to lose momentum. It was a freak accident of me and her going for the same ball and she ran into me at full speed. I was down for a moment and according to one of my American friends, it was pretty scary. We both were down. Not good since we only had 8 players. I was out for a minute and the room was spinning afterward. Not going to lie it did affect me for the rest of the match. I felt dizzy and had a massive headache, but I remained in the game. From that point on the momentum definitely shifted to their side and we ended up losing that set.

Once getting the first set, they quickly jumped on top pretty decisively in the second set as well and we went to the locker room down 0-2 at the break. Luckily, my team was not one to give in so easily and came out of the third set on fire taking a huge lead of 10-0. Its just amazing how we lost the first two sets and it looked like we were not going to bounce back and then we come out of the break and jump on them so badly. It just show the potential and level my team can play at when we are all on the same page and playing to the best of our abilities. The fourth set was close all the way to the end, with no team getting no further than 2 or 3 points ahead at a time. Sm'Aesch was able to grab set 4 and force the decisive 5th set.

After being down 2 sets and having to fight our way back, was exhausting and on top of that I was still feeling light-headed. We also were having a hard time of stopping and slowing down the hitters Degi and Polyakova. Both played very good matches. Wiley in the middle made huge plays in the blocking area, as did I. We tied for blocking honors at 7 a piece. The 5th set is all about taking it. Its there, 15 points and you have to go and take it. The game is so short there really is not time to be timid or for errors. Team Sm'Aesch rallied to stay up with Koniz, but in the end, it was too much and our tired team was defeated in the 5th set 15-10. It was a great match and both team were exhausted afterward.

Like the Schaffhausen this match really showed us how good and how bad we can play. The highs were really nice and that level is something that we need to be able to contain. Its definitely an attitude. You can't just kinda want to win. You have to WANT to win and then go out their and bust yours and TAKE it. The End!






My highlights of the game. Enjoy!