Every weekend the Indonesia Volleyball Proliga matches are held at a different location . All the teams, both men and women, travel to one venue and play. This past weekend we were the hosts, but for Surabaya to host we actually travel to Malang, a city about an hour and a half south....this puts a bit of a different spin on having “home court advantage”.
My team, Surabaya Bank Jatim, won the league last year and, of course, the pressure to do so again is evident with nerves emanating from coaches, players and devoted fans. A little bit of this anxiety was eased as we took both Saturday’s and Sunday’s matches in 3 sets straight. Sunday’s match was a little more challenging as we faced the infamous Barb Bellini who just that morning walked off her international 2 day flight. My expectations of her at that point we not extremely high due to the way I felt upon arrival, but once again, Bellini showed her stuff. She was able to manhandle our right-side block, but to no avail. Our experience and wide-spread skill maintained her one-man show.
I am now being shuffled around my hotel looking for just the right room. Apparently having a window as well as a room that isn’t located right beside the noisy lobby is hard to come by, but I’m hanging in there as maybe Friday will be the day where my wish will be granted. So far today I haven’t eaten anything as I battle a bad case of last night’s calamari. I can already feel my body breaking down at the thought of tomorrow’s practice. But so it goes.....life in Indo, taking odd challenges one at a time.
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