May 21, 2000

We played our final two matches of the year. We had breakfast at 8:45am and had a team meeting at 10:15am before we begin our match warm-up. we asked everyone what they have learned since last August and we see how far we have come. We played Ireland at 11:30am and played very well, winning the match in two sets, 21-14, 20-22, 8-6 and 21-15, 21-13. It was an outstanding team effort but there was a downside. Dawn Hough went up to block a ball and dislocated her little finger on her right hand. She was out for the rest of the second set while our trainer put her hand in a splint to protect it. She will have it X-rayed when we return home.

We had only one hour before we play our next match at 2:00pm. The team runs upstairs to the sandwich buffet and east a quick meal before meeting back in the other gym for our final match of the tour against the Danish National B Team. We came out and won the first set 21-18 and 21-12 but they came back and took the second set 14-21 and 19-21. We went to a third set tiebreaker, a rally game to 15 points, and lost 7-15. We appeared to be a little fatigued during the 10th game in only a few hours. We posed for pictures with the other team and then invite others to have their picture with us -- Pam Overton, Gary McDaniel and Racheal Maxwell (our tour leader).

We took time to shower and rest and met for dinner at 5:00pm. We took a bus to the train station and off to Copenhagen where we had dinner at the Copenhagen Hard Rock Cafe before heading back to the training center for a small party. It was Sue Woodstra's birthday so we helped her celebrate with cola and birthday cake. We reviewed how to pack for our upcoming excursion...tomorrow we will spend sightseeing in Copenhagen and then we'll board an overnight train for Hamburg, Germany and switch to a first class sleeper car for the trip to the airport in Frankfurt. We told the team it was going to be hectic until we got home so make sure to be patient! I think they're all looking forward to the train ride since most of them have never had that opportunity.