Bonjour from the other side of the world once again. Just woke up from a 13 hour sleep after one of the most physically taxing weekends I've ever done. We had the Super Cup on the weekend which is the Pre-Season tournament for the NLA volleyball competition. It is essentially the NAB Cup of the AFL. It is held at Lausanne University each year which is handy as its only 1 train stop from my flat.
The format of the weekend is that 10 teams are put into 3 groups. The winner from last year, Chenois Geneva (Chenois is the big sponsor and gets naming rights) are automatically put into the semi finals. So there are 3 groups of three with the Saturday being the pool games and the Sunday the playoffs. In our group we had Zuri-Unterland (Zurich) and EN Gas & Oil Lugano. Lugano are the richest team in the league with a $3 million sponsorship deal that just feeds money to the team in the Italian region of Switzerland. Most of these players are young and poached from the A1 or A2 league in Italy (up there with the best leagues in the world) and paid ridiculous amounts of money to play. Someone said a bench player would get $10,000 a month. Now that's just stupid.
We ended the weekend with 2 wins and 2 losses and I'll go into each game with more detail but the quality of volleyball, organization of the tournament and professionalism of all teams just blew my mind. We all got a lanyard with our club name and free lunch and dinner on each of the days in the dining hall run by a catering company. I was pretty stoked to not have to think about cooking anything.
Game 1 - Zurich
This was the first time in my life I was actually nervous before a game of volleyball. I was told I would start the first game and not the second as Lugano was almost a game where we'd try different rotations. The goal of coming to play in Europe at a high level had finally become a reality and I'm given the chance to start and show what I've got. We lost the first set 27-25 with a few nervous things done by everyone. But once that was over with we smashed them 25-15 and similar scores to win 3-1. There was a big crowd but it was a different feeling as when playing at home in AVL you have friends and family watching but not knowing anyone was an odd experience. Highlights of that game was getting the biggest one on one block of my life into his face and also the best dump I've ever done putting it well inside the attack line on a transition play.
Game 2 - Lugano
Didn't start this game but the warm up was something to be seen as balls bouncing into the roof was just normal for these blokes. Their setter was a dead ringer of Nick Gianopolis from the Wog Boy but with a shnoz twice the size. Think he was Italian. Hard to tell. Only one bloke did a float serve with everyone else melting jump serves at us at pace. I was put on about ten points into the second and played the rest of the game. Highlight of that game was when I blocked their opposite on one of our overpasses. Everyone in my team got super excited and started shouting out "Kangarooooo Kangarooooo". Try to picture a bloke 6'10, bald, tattoos build like a fridge. Was safe to say I weighed about as much as his right quad. After that point he literally looked at me and growled like a dog.
Game 3 - TV Schonenwerd
My team had never beaten this team from the German region who came 3rd last year and after winning the first set we had super confidence going into the rest of the game. Something that really frustrated me and can be a downfall of a player coach is I got subbed off at a bad time in the second set when I did one set too wide to him which frustrated him. Having a player coach can be good at times but this frustrated me as I thought I was doing a good job. I was only on for a small amount of time though. Highlight of the game was having one of their most experienced players wrapped around my little finger. I just targeted him all day with serves and got him on a couple of jousts as well as blocking him one on one. I'm never one for talking shit through the net but I couldn't help myself after a block saying "hey mate in Australia we hit the ball over small blockers like me" a pretty weak effort at trash talk but it confused the shit out of him as he probably didn't understand a word I said in an accent sounding like I'm talking out of my nose
Game 4 - Lausanne University Club (LUC)
A local derby and a friendly one at that as we socialize with these guys on a regular basis on the weekends. We won the first set and were playing well but the whole weekend caught up with us and definitely myself. End of the 3rd set we were up 24-23 and a bad error from someone from our team followed by two bad sets from myself let the set slip away losing it 26-24. In the changeover I've never received a bigger spray from a coach in my life. It was all in French and I could understand exactly what he was saying pointing at his head the whole time saying to stay focused. I was expecting to be dragged but was kept on for the 4th and final set which we lost 25-19.
An awesome experience with some of the best volleyball I've seen and played in. After each day we were huge on recovery with ice baths and 20 minutes on the spin bike to get get lactic out of the legs.
I hope I've proved myself and can hold the starting spot for the season as it will be so rewarding.
Updates will keep coming after games, first one is away this weekend against Laufenberg.
Ruggers
