Game 6 - Aris vs Iraklis

We had another match this past weekend.  In attendance were some special fans from home.  Brett's sister Casey and her boyfriend Joey were in town for Thanksgiving through the weekend.  We had such an amazing time with them and Joey is still being brought up by guys on our team for being the best fan in the gym.

On a volleyball note we played what was considered a derby match.  We had a one point lead in the league on Aris and needed win.  Also, there was a lot of chatter in the locker room in the week leading up to the match regarding an incident last season with this team.  Apparently the opposite for Aris, who was the captain of the national team of Greece, played for Aries last season as well.  In the playoffs our team, Iraklis, was leading 2 sets to 0 when this guy must had done something really bad to piss off our fans.  One of the fans threw a bottle at the guy which hit him in the elbow.  The story goes that he was hit by a bottle and reacted like a soccer player by saying that he could play anymore and the referee forfeited the match due to it.  THIS is the reason our team finished as low as they did last season.  In other words the fans were out for revenge and a lot of them showed up.  It was a nice atmosphere in our gym.

The first set was a battle which went back and forth but Iraklis pulled out the victory 31-29.  To be honest I felt that we were and are a way better team but we kept them in the game with a lot of missed serves.  That first set set the tone of the match however.

The second and third set both teams exchanged leads back and forth through the 2nd technical timeout at 16-15.  Then our team decided that we could put pressure on them with our serve and defense.  We outplayed them at the end and won 3-0 fairly easy.  It was a great win for our team and a nice win in front of our fans.

A friend on facebook sent me an email with some video from a few of our previous matches with Aries, Kalamaria and Lamia.  I will post them up on here for you all to see.

The weather doesn't feel like Christmas but we have lights up in our living room and a small Christmas tree...Some neighbors have started to put up lights as well.  Its going to be a great Christmas!

Here is a link to our last home match with Kalamaria:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfoq8T4G9pw

and here is the link to a previous match we had with Lamia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEvmusCt0Ic

We are now 4-2 and are sitting in 3rd place of the Greek championship.

Happy Thanksgiving from Brett and I :)

Two of my favorite people got married!

Peter and Annie Grant

Peter and Annie

The wedding party

Peter and I.  Such an honor to have been in the wedding and be there for two people I love

Meeting the party via boat

SC Marching Band! 

Jim Toasting the to be Bride and Groom at the rehearsal

SC Marching Band

Giving my toast to Annie and Peter.  "If it wasn't for me, none of us would be here"  I  introduced these two 10 years ago :)

Annie and her Barbie Cake

This is a little late as Peter and Annie got married on Oct 2nd.  Better late than never.  Here are a few pic's of their special weekend.  

Me, My Stache and I on Thanksgiving Eve

Me my Stache  and I

HAPPY THANKSGIVING and MOVEMBER!

Game 5 - Patras

We traveled to the bottom of Greece this past weekend for our fifth match with Patras.  It took us about 7 1/2 hours on the bus to get there.  We have played this team a few times already in the pre season and knew their strengths and weakness'.  In our three meetings we have only won once but our team was confident that if we played the level OUR team can play and didn't worry about the other team as much we would come out with a victory.

The bus ride really took its toll on us.  One of our OH's, Ryan Owens, back went out and was a maybe for the match.  He wasn't able to train in the morning and was on the floor all day.  The back is probably the worst thing to injure as an athlete or in general.  He was pretty stiff before the match started but managed to play.  I could tell that it loosened up through out the match as his movements were more relaxed.

We came out in the first set and smashed them with a high efficiency in attack and block.  Kostas, our setter, was setting the ball everywhere and he was confusing their blockers.  I can't remember but we must of had a high passing rate as well.

The second set was a battle through 18-17 for us.  Then we went on a small run and were leading 23-21 and even 24-22.  We missed a couple serves which kept them in the set but we sided out.  At 24-23 we had  the opportunity to finish the set but with a low reception and low set to our middle blocker we didn't finish the point.  They blocked us to tie the score at 24 all.  Then the next play was an ace due to lack of communication...it was a float serve.  Then we made our third mistake in a row on a ball that was hit out of bounds from position 4.  They won the set 26-24.  It was pretty hard to swallow.

We came back and regrouped in the 3rd set and won it fairly easy.  To be honest I don't remember a lot of key moments in the set but we closed it out by a good margin in the end.  And in the 4th set we lost our marbles and our passing.  The caught us in a few rotations where they scored multiple points.  This lead to Freddy changing both our OH's and them taking the set fairly easy...even though we made a strong comeback at 24-20...we came back to 22 but a missed serve killed our chance to come back in the set.

The fifth set Freddy, our coach, decided to leave Rodrigo on the bench for Zenia.  Zenia had been playing middle for us but is really an OH.  He did well but he has not had that much training this season. It was hard to focus and the referee's were def Patras fans.  I don't want to give excuses but they really killed our momentum a few times with some terrible touch calls.  It was 5-7 Patras when their OH hit a ball over our block to the back wall and the ref gave them a touch call...this lead to a 8-5 side change and a yellow card to our coach which gave them a 9-5 lead.  After this it was a lot of catch up and we just didn't have it in us.  We lost 15-9.

On to the next.  We play Aries this weekend at home.  Brett's sister Casey and her boyfriend Joey are coming to visit us for Thanksgiving.  We can't wait to have them here with us.  It is def going to be nice to be able to spend the holiday with some family!  Right now they are leaving London for Barcelona...then Greece!

Keep your fingers crossed for this weekend!

Dana and Bill visit Thessaloniki!

Here are a few pic's from Dana and Bills recent trip to visit us.  It was so nice having them in town and we miss them so much already!  

A little taste of Santa Barbara

Movember

Below is an email from my friend Pierre and he is doing a good thing.  If you are interested please feel free to help out.

I can grow a mustache on command

Hello Good Friends, 

I hope all of you had a restful weekend. For those of you on the West Coast, I know you are enjoying this rather peculiar warm weather we are having. For those of you in the Midwest/East Coast, I apologize for the not so warm weather. :-)

Now I know most of you are aware of my fund-raising efforts during the month of Movember. Having spoken to many of you, I want to take this time to thank those who have either joined my team or donated to the cause. For the rest of you who haven't visited my Team Page:Mo Money Mo Hope, I encourage you to do so now.  

I completely understand people not being able to donate monetarily, however joining my team and spreading the word is free and only takes a few minutes for a good cause. If you are still not sure what its all about, I have included a brief synopsis of what its all about and a link to my Teams Homepage. I look forward to seeing more of you on my team and please feel free to forward this on to anyone you think might be interested. Besides, you will get a chance to see some truly uncharacteristic facial hair growing on my ugly mug if you visit my page. 

This Movember I’ve decided to donate my face to raising awareness about cancers that affect men.  My commitment is the growth of a moustache for the entire month of Movember, which I know will generate conversation, controversy and laughter.

I’m doing this because:

·     1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer in his lifetime

·     1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime

This is a cause that I feel passionately about and I’m asking you to support my efforts by making a donation to support the great work of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG.  To help, you can either:

-  Click this link http://us.movember.com/mospace/412626/ and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account 

The money raised will help make a tangible difference to the lives of others, through the world’s most promising prostate cancer research and LIVESTRONG’s programs that support young adults and their families battling and surviving cancer.

For more details on how the funds raised from previous campaigns have been used and the impact Movember is having please visit 
http://us.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs/. 


Kind Regards,

Pierre Zado

Orcas / Killer whales

These guys were shot surfing of the shores of New Zealand.  

For Brett

The Beatles

Now on Itunes!

Winter is around the corner...Here are some hats!