May 29, 2011
 
Hello All,
 
US Open Championships Day 2!
 
The last day of pool play ended a little bitter sweet. Team Red opened up the day at 9:40 a.m. against a team from Toronto. We played quite well and won 3-0. The Toronto team was a challenge, in that they were a team that liked to take different shots and tips and rarely ripped on a ball. However, our defense handled the shots and tips well and we were able to run our offense and get our middles more involved.
 
We knew that our biggest challenge would be USA Team Blue. Team Red started off hot! We were high energy just playing our game and rolling along. We took the first two sets, but then struggled in the third set. We ended up dropping the next two sets. Red just kind of lost our energy and let a few error plays snowball to put us down and just out of reach. We battled back for a close 5th set, but again dropped it and lost 3-2 to Team Blue. We got ourselves a little motivation for the next time around though!
 
Golly, as if I wasn't thankful enough, my parents drove all day Saturday to come watch me play Sunday! They are truly the best parents ever! Unfortunately, work called too, so they had to start for home after my match, but I am so blessed to have such loving and supportive parents!
 
Also, ya'll will never believe whom I saw the last two days... Kim Fletcher! For all of you who may have forgotten or don't know, Kim was our Assistant Coach at South Dakota State for my freshman year in 2008. Kim has a great passion for volleyball and walked away from her position to keep playing, and folks, she is still going! It was so great seeing her and catching up with her.
 
The loss slotted us into the No. 2 seed heading into the playoffs. Team Red and Team White face off again for the second match of the day at 12:10 p.m. Our schedule after that will be determined on the outcome of the first match.
 
Also, sorry for the lack of photographs, apparently my camera died and my mom's memory card does not work in my computer. However, USA hires a great photographer who walks around the convention center and snaps photos of all the teams and players throughout the tournament. Click on this link to the photo galleries. New photographs are uploaded daily.

The galleries to look at include 5/28/11 USAV Open National Championships and 5/29/11 USAV Open National Championships. If you look through, you may even find a pic of Ms. Kim Fletcher!
 
Go Big. Go Blue. Go Jacks!
God Bless,
Kelli Fiegen