14th Asian Junior Womens Championships
Live scores update for the all important match between Australia and Kazakhstan can be accessed here.
The winner of this match will progress to the quarter finals, most likely against the all conquering Japan team.
Please join us at 3pm AEST for the start of the match.
We had a late breakfast(9am) with an 11.30- 1pm training at the old training venue at the university.
Jenny, having bored the girls with her newly acquired magic trick proceeded to bore the Taiwan coaching staff with the same old trick. They politely acknowledged her wizardry and couldn’t get out of the training venue fast enough.
Training was focussed on the game plan against Taiwan, having been able to scout them for three days. The girls are training smarter as they try to apply what they learn each day.
From there we went back to the hotel for some needed lunch and a session of video anaylsis afterward which “Geekboy” (Chau Le) had prepared earlier.
A recovery session followed and the team departed at 5pm for the game with the host nation.
The girls stepped up and played great volleyball applying the pressure and making the Taiwanese earn their points.
Looking forward to day eleven, a big day for the Australians, with a win against the Kazakhstan giving the team a quarter final berth.
Bring it on.
Our match against the host Chinese Taipei is scheduled at 9pm AEST. A live scores feed will be provided here.
Thank you for all the well wishes thus far and please keep them coming. The girls are really enjoy reading them.
We had a great sleep in today until 9 o’clock. Training was at 11.30 so there was plenty of time after breakfast for more cards. After receiveing back our uniforms from the laundry we discovered that some of the uniform needed to be repaired. After extensive searching Jenny and our fabulous liason, Julie, found a presser to repair and re-print the missing symbols.
Training today was the toughest so far resulting from a poor perfrormance last night. Training at a high intensity we all contributed positively.
We had a relaxing afternoon visiting a Mizuno shop. Karl lead Beth, Kirsten and Karley on a trek through the streets after mistaking the shop and stopping the taxi well before the store. Proceeding to cross the freeway by running and dodging the traffic they eventually met up with the others. Some members of the team, lead by the shopping expertise of Karl, spent a long time purchasing goods. Kirsten, Taliqua and Karley raced water down the gutters helping occupy their boredom.
We watched some entertaining volleyball later in the evening spectating our opposition as we had a break day. Socialising with numerous teams including the Chinese, Japanese and Kazakhstan girls the team enjoyed attempting to break the language barriers. Taliqua was extremely pleased with her efforts managing to get a photo with Ma Ma the youngest in the Chinese team, standing at approximately 200cm at the age of 14. Possibly Ma Ma’s newly found biggest fan Taliqua is quite amused by her cuteness.
Dinner was again delicious with the girls creating uncontrollable laughter as we started to find characteristics in each other and relate them to animals. Extending this conversion into the team meeting each member now has their own animal.
Jenny-Fox
Allan-Owl
Chau-Turtle
Karl-Gorilla
Xanthe-Parrot (aces everything she tries)
Jo-Deer (Bambi eyes)
Kirsten-Hyena (laugh)
Taliqua-Spider Monkey (long limbs)
Kat-Kung Fu Panda (fighting spirit)
Katie-Meerkat (observant facial expressions)
Karley-Cheetah (eyes and running technique)
Beth-Sloth (facial expressions)
Taylor-Dalmation (spots on her face)
Loren-Goldfish (forgetful)
Katty-Baby Giraffe (body stance)
Rowdy-Wombat (quiet and burrows in)
Waking to another buffet breakfast we inhaled our food as usual. Making a characteristically quick exit we rushed back to our favourite hallway to undertake another competitive game of old maid, our newly found favourite card game.
Leaving for training at 9.30 we again made our way to our telstra dome stadium. The talls were again troubled during our warm up when Taylor and Loren lost their ball during pepper and were unable to find it for an extended period of time. Looking in the esky, under chairs and near the coaches they eventually found the ball in a box. We were all amused. This behaviour from talyor was typical of her day as she woke with numerous spots on her face which were self inflicted and appear as bruises the shape of 5 cent pieces.
Where is the ball?
It's in the box!
Completing this session an hour and a half later we left, again surviving the heat to make our way back to the hotel for lunch.
We watched India and Sri Lanka battle it out in a five set match and then progressed to warm up for our own game.
Opposing Thailand we were disappointed in our efforts but positively showed fighting spirit towards the end. Kaite assisted in lifting the spirit with an amusing self six pack, kicking the ball into her own face.
Later after dinner we were visited by the Kazakstahn team with Katty assiting in translation. We taught them to play old maid and became quite loud enjoying the company or our newly found friends. The New Zealand girls also joined us contributing to the fun.
Block kills by the Australian girls.
The dramatic last few minutes of the match. Indonesia was serving for the match at 14-10.
The match between Australia and Thailand is scheduled for 7pm AEST. You can catch the live scores feed here.
Please note that you can leave your messages by clicking on the “Comments” link located just under the title. We would love to here from you.
The day began as any other; waking up for a buffet breakfast, getting ready for training, but today was the day we would be playing our first game against Indonesia. Upon completion of an intense and rewarding training session, we spent our time in the hallways, playing the card game: Old Maid, in order to keep our mind on anything but the upcoming match. After four games, all of which Xanthe lost, it was time to make our way to the stadium.
We waited as Japan took five sets to beat the Chinese team, nerves slowly building. We were lead onto the court by tournament officials to the sound of the Star Wars theme song and went straight into warm-up. For those who wish to know how the game went, there is a link to a live commentary in the previous blog. The final result was a loss, 3 sets to 2, though the final set was 14-16.
The Opening Ceremony was straight after the match, we were forced to get into our tracksuit uniform while running to our starting area. the ceremony was long, especially seeing as we had just played a five set match and were thoroughly fatigued. After many long and then translated speeches, it was finally complete and we were free!
And now… It’s off to bed to prepare for our second big match tomorrow against Thailand.
Today is the first day of the competition. We are due to play Indonesia at 4pm Taiwan time (6pm AEST).
You can follow the match’s progress here
We woke to a buffet breakfast full of mixed countries cuisine. We then started training at 8am for only an hour so we worked hard to get the necessary skills complete in preparation for our first game the next day against Indonesia.
We then had the rest of the day to relax. Karl taught us some relaxation massages that we all enjoyed recieving not giving. The rest of the afternoon was filled with naps and dvds.
The team left the appartments fully dressed in our formal uniform to attend the welcome dinner that started at 6pm. As we sat there starving and thinking about all the wonderful foods that could fill our stomaches we were suddenly distracted by music and dancers that were performing a traditional dance for us. It consisted of 3 men with painted faces acting out some sort of fight and an asian dragon that Xanthe got up and danced with in front players, coaches and officials from 10 other countries.
After the performance and the speeches we finally got to get into the food and pig-out.
We then got back to our apartments for a team meeting about our first game tomorrow. We are starting our first game wearing green shirts.
We will all be going to bed with tomorrow’s game on our minds!
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