	13th in Belmar
13th in Belmar, New Jersey Another flight, another weekend and another 13th. It has been 13 straight weekends of competition and Sarah and I played in our second AVP together. Last weekend we were lucky to win the local tournament in Long beach, which will help us out in our upcoming trips. I flew into Philadelphia on Wednesday afternoon where I met my "agent/friend" who doesn't get paid near enough (meaning nothing), Peter. He is originally form New Jersey so we drove an hour and a half to Belmar to stay with his long time, junior high friend Marty McHugh, his wife, Cheryl and 2 cute kids Marty Jr. and Liam. They opened their home to us and I was lucky to get my own bed and a comfortable home to sleep in. My whole experience as a player is such much richer when I am able to share with the people I know or meet. Marty and Peter have been following the AVP tour for many years, in fact I was able to go through a brochure of players from 10 years ago. The next morning I tried to get up and get used to the east coast time. I never realize how hard it is to trick my body into believing that it's normal time, when trying to fall asleep at 7:00pm and wake up at 6:00am. For some reason, my body doesn't like it and is a little achy all day till I adjust. You can even ask my college coach, Tom, I was NEVER a morning player, and every morning practice I think I got in trouble! Ha ha! So it's good that I get there a day early to try to adjust. My adjustment was a lot easier thanks to a fun morning. Peter took me to breakfast at a Bed and Breakfast, Cashamara inn, his friend Mary runs it and we had a SUPER delicious breakfast overlooking the Jersey shore and were welcomed by the cute house dog, Lucy. Everyone there was so friendly and Mary took us around to tour the place they had an in-home theatre, where she was kind enough to let us watch a movie after we ate. She even brought us popcorn. Peter and I, well I should say I watch the movie "The Saint" while Peter slept on the floor! Ha ha! After our relaxing breakfast and afternoon matinee we left to head to the playing site since I had agreed to help two other players run the AVP youth clinic with local kids. Well, the other two players forgot to show up, so I had a run a clinic with 25 kids by myself before a friend Austin came to help about 45 minute later. Luckily I love kids and have run clinics before, or that would have been a tough one. Surprisingly all the kids did really well and we had a great time. Although, I think most of Jersey heard me cheer and yell with the kids! The clinic ended and Sarah showed up for a short practice before heading to a local restaurant with Peter, Marty and a couple of their friends for a great dinner. It's so neat to see how each person you meet has another "network" of people. It is so evident that Marty and Peter are very loyal and all weekend it was fun watching them catch up with old friends. The next morning, I woke up to a great breakfast by my personal chef, Peter and we headed to the site to play our first game. Despite the fact this time we were actually on a real beach and they didn't have to build courts, the first round again was single elimination. A lot of players were confused, since the AVP told us that the reason for single elimination was the cost of bringing in sand and making courts. (Like Atlanta, Kentucky, etc) Anyway our first match was against Kristi Martin / Laurel Riechmann. They played really well in the first game and it was a battle until 12-12 when Sarah and I stepped up and won game one 21-16, and kept the momentum in the second game to win 21-9. With this win, we made it to the double elimination bracket and would play against the #4 team, Dianne DeNecochea / Barbra Fontana. They are a really good team and actually we practiced with them the other day and hoped to do well against them. The first game was close, 14-14, until a couple of points where Diane who is 6'5" started jump serving. It was really windy and when she jump serves it's like a 7'10" player serving straight down. Well, she caught on fire in the first game and they won 21-16, and unfortunately for us it never stopped and she ran off 5 aces in the beginning of game two. We weren't able to recover and they won game two 21-12. After the game, Peter and I headed back to Marty's house since Peter offered to cook a BBQ for everyone at their house. But this wasn't your "normal BBQ." For those of you who know/have met Peter, he should own his own restaurant and has actually been hired to do the food at weddings. So his "BBQ menu" entailed, bacon wrapped shrimp skewers, Jersey corn on the cob, Portobello/sun dried tomato penne pasta, butterfly chicken, and of course my favorite, strawberries over angel food cake for dessert. Are you drooling yet??? Well, we all were. There were about 20 people there, all friends of Peter and Marty's and my teammate Sarah and her husband Greg came as well. We all feasted on this amazing meal and enjoyed the time together. It was fun to be a part of this experience where normally I would have gotten dinner to go and then hung out in a hotel room all night. Needless to say I felt so blessed to be amongst nice, kind people. The next morning we would be playing my ONE of my "old" teammates, Stacy and her partner Whitney for a 9th place. We played them in Hermosa and were able to beat them in three games but unfortunately it wasn't our day and they played really well to beat us 21-13, 21-13. It was definitely a hard loss to swallow. I never like losing but it's really hard to lose to a former partner. Luckily, I was able to focus more on the great people who we met at the BBQ who came out to support us and was able to talk with them. I never like losing and am still trying to process that one, since I know I only have five more tournaments left and really want to make a good run at them. With that, my NEXT AVP tournament will be in BOULDER, COLORADO and I CAN'T be more excited! I am thrilled to be back in CO and can't wait to see all you wonderful people! I will be playing on Friday, July 4th at Folsom field, and even though it will be on that "other school's" campus, I am happy to be in Colorado! Unfortunately the entire tournament will be single elimination, which most of the players are not happy about, but at least I will be "home." After Colorado, it is going to be a sprint every weekend to the end, with Colorado (July 4th), Chicago (July 11-12th), Brooklyn, New York (July 18-19), Long Beach (25-26) and San Diego (August 1-2). This could be my last season depending on what happens after the Olympics so please keep us in your prayers for our final tournaments. Also, if any of you know anyone or anywhere to stay/not to stay in Brooklyn, New York, that is the only place left I am trying to find a place to stay. I will be playing in Coney Island and will be there July 16-19th. Thanks for all your help and I look forward to seeing many of you in CO!

13th in Belmar

13th in Belmar, New Jersey

Another flight, another weekend and another 13th. It has been 13 straight weekends of competition and Sarah and I played in our second AVP together. Last weekend we were lucky to win the local tournament in Long beach, which will help us out in our upcoming trips.

I flew into Philadelphia on Wednesday afternoon where I met my "agent/friend" who doesn't get paid near enough (meaning nothing), Peter. He is originally form New Jersey so we drove an hour and a half to Belmar to stay with his long time, junior high friend Marty McHugh, his wife, Cheryl and 2 cute kids Marty Jr. and Liam. They opened their home to us and I was lucky to get my own bed and a comfortable home to sleep in. My whole experience as a player is such much richer when I am able to share with the people I know or meet. Marty and Peter have been following the AVP tour for many years, in fact I was able to go through a brochure of players from 10 years ago.

The next morning I tried to get up and get used to the east coast time. I never realize how hard it is to trick my body into believing that it's normal time, when trying to fall asleep at 7:00pm and wake up at 6:00am. For some reason, my body doesn't like it and is a little achy all day till I adjust. You can even ask my college coach, Tom, I was NEVER a morning player, and every morning practice I think I got in trouble! Ha ha! So it's good that I get there a day early to try to adjust.

My adjustment was a lot easier thanks to a fun morning. Peter took me to breakfast at a Bed and Breakfast, Cashamara inn, his friend Mary runs it and we had a SUPER delicious breakfast overlooking the Jersey shore and were welcomed by the cute house dog, Lucy. Everyone there was so friendly and Mary took us around to tour the place they had an in-home theatre, where she was kind enough to let us watch a movie after we ate. She even brought us popcorn. Peter and I, well I should say I watch the movie "The Saint" while Peter slept on the floor! Ha ha!

After our relaxing breakfast and afternoon matinee we left to head to the playing site since I had agreed to help two other players run the AVP youth clinic with local kids. Well, the other two players forgot to show up, so I had a run a clinic with 25 kids by myself before a friend Austin came to help about 45 minute later. Luckily I love kids and have run clinics before, or that would have been a tough one. Surprisingly all the kids did really well and we had a great time. Although, I think most of Jersey heard me cheer and yell with the kids!

The clinic ended and Sarah showed up for a short practice before heading to a local restaurant with Peter, Marty and a couple of their friends for a great dinner. It's so neat to see how each person you meet has another "network" of people. It is so evident that Marty and Peter are very loyal and all weekend it was fun watching them catch up with old friends.

The next morning, I woke up to a great breakfast by my personal chef, Peter and we headed to the site to play our first game. Despite the fact this time we were actually on a real beach and they didn't have to build courts, the first round again was single elimination. A lot of players were confused, since the AVP told us that the reason for single elimination was the cost of bringing in sand and making courts. (Like Atlanta, Kentucky, etc) Anyway our first match was against Kristi Martin / Laurel Riechmann. They played really well in the first game and it was a battle until 12-12 when Sarah and I stepped up and won game one 21-16, and kept the momentum in the second game to win 21-9.

With this win, we made it to the double elimination bracket and would play against the #4 team, Dianne DeNecochea / Barbra Fontana. They are a really good team and actually we practiced with them the other day and hoped to do well against them. The first game was close, 14-14, until a couple of points where Diane who is 6'5" started jump serving. It was really windy and when she jump serves it's like a 7'10" player serving straight down. Well, she caught on fire in the first game and they won 21-16, and unfortunately for us it never stopped and she ran off 5 aces in the beginning of game two. We weren't able to recover and they won game two 21-12.

After the game, Peter and I headed back to Marty's house since Peter offered to cook a BBQ for everyone at their house. But this wasn't your "normal BBQ." For those of you who know/have met Peter, he should own his own restaurant and has actually been hired to do the food at weddings. So his "BBQ menu" entailed, bacon wrapped shrimp skewers, Jersey corn on the cob, Portobello/sun dried tomato penne pasta, butterfly chicken, and of course my favorite, strawberries over angel food cake for dessert. Are you drooling yet??? Well, we all were. There were about 20 people there, all friends of Peter and Marty's and my teammate Sarah and her husband Greg came as well. We all feasted on this amazing meal and enjoyed the time together. It was fun to be a part of this experience where normally I would have gotten dinner to go and then hung out in a hotel room all night. Needless to say I felt so blessed to be amongst nice, kind people.

The next morning we would be playing my ONE of my "old" teammates, Stacy and her partner Whitney for a 9th place. We played them in Hermosa and were able to beat them in three games but unfortunately it wasn't our day and they played really well to beat us 21-13, 21-13. It was definitely a hard loss to swallow. I never like losing but it's really hard to lose to a former partner. Luckily, I was able to focus more on the great people who we met at the BBQ who came out to support us and was able to talk with them. I never like losing and am still trying to process that one, since I know I only have five more tournaments left and really want to make a good run at them.

With that, my NEXT AVP tournament will be in BOULDER, COLORADO and I CAN'T be more excited! I am thrilled to be back in CO and can't wait to see all you wonderful people! I will be playing on Friday, July 4th at Folsom field, and even though it will be on that "other school's" campus, I am happy to be in Colorado! Unfortunately the entire tournament will be single elimination, which most of the players are not happy about, but at least I will be "home."

After Colorado, it is going to be a sprint every weekend to the end, with Colorado (July 4th), Chicago (July 11-12th), Brooklyn, New York (July 18-19), Long Beach (25-26) and San Diego (August 1-2). This could be my last season depending on what happens after the Olympics so please keep us in your prayers for our final tournaments. Also, if any of you know anyone or anywhere to stay/not to stay in Brooklyn, New York, that is the only place left I am trying to find a place to stay. I will be playing in Coney Island and will be there July 16-19th. Thanks for all your help and I look forward to seeing many of you in CO!