St. John's University Athletics
Volleyball Postcard: Greetings From Vietnam Part VII
5/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
- St. John's Volleyball Travels To Vietnam
Hello Loved Ones,
Today was our first day off after five days of intensive games. So we woke up early at got on the buss to take us to one of the hottest spots in town ??? the Caravelle Hotel???s swimming pool. We had about three hours before our match with Hong Bang University so we took advantage of it. Some of us were lucky we were able to tan, while others got burned and the rest, well, the sun didn???t help them much.
But we just didn???t lay out in the sun, we used the pool, too, and the person who dominated the pool was Coach Joanne [Persico-Smith]. She took the ???day off??? to beat Coach Li [Chen] and Coach Mario [Treibit] in a freestyle swim. They can say whatever they want, but hands down, she beat them fair and square.
When finally leaving the Caravelle, we noticed a KFC, Vietnamese style. Actually, it is really the same thing, except for a couple of menu items and the ordering process. That could have been really challenging if we didn???t have Dr. Le and our hostess Nguyen to help.
Later in the afternoon, we played a friendly match against Hong Bang Unviersity. The first game was really close, but we won. Coach Joanne was our setter and Coach Li subbed in, but the MVP of the match was our athletic trainer Jennifer [Hamilton]. She played defense like a true defensive specialist. Way to go Jen! The second game was really fun because we mixed up the teams. Alanna [Rutan], Ruisa [Scheffel], Jenna [Schweitzer] and I joined one half of the Vietnamese team and the rest of our girls played with the other half. Our team was in a disadvantage most of the game, but we found our way and won the game. The hardest thing by far and something that I appreciate a lot more now in our team was communicating. However, we have something in common. We all love playing volleyball and know what we have to do to win.
From the gym we drove back to Caravelle Hotel to get ready for dinner. After we were all dressed, we walked towards what was the highlight of the day ??? a dinner cruise. We sat and interacted with our fan from Hong Bang University and our fans from home, the psychology students. We ate a lot of seafood and sticky rice, which I like a lot, and then there was fruit for dessert.
Our final destination after the cruise was our hotel. Everyone is probably sleeping by now. We need our rest for tomorrow???s match against Japan. To all the moms and dads back home reading this, I know many of the girls wish that you were here to share in this experience with us.
Good night for now.
Dana DeMayo #5
