Meghan Matusiak's National Team Tryout Blog
3/2/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Junior opposite side hitter Meghan Matusiak reports on her experience at the National Team tryouts in Colorado Springs.
Thursday, Feb. 24
Today after our classes Alyssa Warren and I left to head to Colorado Springs to try out for the USA National and Junior National Team. We both have been signed up for this since Christmas break and the time has finally come. I can't even express how excited I am to go and play with friends that I have played with before and play with new people. Right before we left I was extremely nervous because I have never been to something this big before. But when we were finally heading to the airport I was so excited and I couldn't wait to get there already. Once we were there we got to our gate and I decided to switch seats on the plane so that I could sit next to Alyssa so we could chat. Well once we got on the plane we both passed out so that didn't really work out to well. Our connecting flight was back home in Chicago. We both asked our parents if they could come meet up with us but obviously they couldn't, but just being back in Illinois felt amazing. To get to our other flight we had to walk across the entire airport to get to the gate. By the time we got there, we were both exhausted. Once we took off Alyssa and I watched Remember the Titans. As we were watching it, I turned to look at her and she was just bawling. It was so funny. Right when the movie was ending we were landing in Colorado Springs. We were both extremely excited but nervous at the same time. After finding our transportation, we finally pulled into the Olympic Training Center and I seriously couldn't believe my eyes. I couldn't believe that we were finally there. It was by far the coolest thing I have seen. After pulling in they took us straight to the Athlete Center to get checked in. We finally get our keys and start walking to the dorms. Alyssa and I both walked into the dorm room and just stood there staring at the room. The room was a dorm sized room, with two queen size beds and a sink inside. It was AWESOME. I didn't expect this at all and it made me even more excited for tomorrow. Once we got settled in we both got into bed and immediately passed out.
Friday, Feb. 25
Alyssa and I both woke up this morning at a reasonable time because we didn't have anything to do until noon. It was nice to be able to sleep in and not worry about anything. Going to bed early the night before helped me feel refreshed and ready for the next session of tryouts. When I woke up I didn't really feel that nervous, I was more anxious and just ready to start playing. After getting ready, Alyssa and I headed over to the Athlete Center to eat breakfast. I can't even explain how amazing this cafeteria was. In order to even get into the cafeteria, your dorm room card had to be scanned in order to get in. Once we got inside, we just walked around to see what it looked like. All of the food was separated into the different food groups and it was all healthy. You couldn't find anything that was extremely unhealthy. After eating, we decided we wanted to walk around and see everything and find the Sports Center that we were going to be playing in. The main walkway where everything was had every countries flag lining the sidewalk and also the huge USA Olympic Symbol with the five rings. As we kept on walking there were boards that described every single sport that the Olympics have and had pictures of the top athletes on them. Some of them had these huge cut out fake people representing the sport. It was really cool. After looking at all of the boards, we finally found where we were playing. There was a huge window where we could look in. Once we got all checked in we immediately went back to our rooms to start getting ready because we both had a session from 2-4 p.m. I was originally in the 6-8 p.m. group but because a lot of other players' flights got delayed they asked if I would switch to the earlier group, so I did. It was nice because I was able to be with someone I knew. I was so excited to put my numbered shirt on and start playing already. Once we got to the gym, we put all of our gear on and started warming up. The National team's trainer took us through a series of dynamic stretching. After stretching, we had five minutes to warm up hit and we immediately started playing. At first I was extremely nervous again because I didn't know what to expect and because I knew I was going to be playing with really good players. After playing for the first round, I started to calm down and relax a little more. After every break I was exhausted, I worked extremely hard during the time I was on and did the best I could. I didn't think I played as well as I normally do but I was okay with it because it was a completely different atmosphere. It was very hard to adjust to different setters and different players when you're used to someone. After the session was over I just kept thinking about how much I enjoy playing with my team at school and how hard it really is to adjust to different people that you have never played with before. I am very grateful for my team and how well we can connect with each other. At this point, I was just physically exhausted and hungry. So we both went to the cafeteria again and I just shoved my face with food. I didn't even care because I was so hungry. After dinner, I finally got to meet up with some friends from high school. It was so good to see them and to finally catch up with them again. One of our friends Kelsey Robinson ended up coming back to our room after dinner and hung out with us for the rest of the night. She definitely made our night. After she left, we both crawled into bed and immediately fell asleep. I tried to go to bed at a decent hour because we had a session at 8 a.m. I can't wait for the next session and be able to play again.
Saturday, Feb. 26
So we both had to wake up at 6:45 a.m. to go to breakfast before our first session. We both woke up extremely tired and extremely tight. Like normal, we walked to breakfast. While we were eating Michael Phelps just casually walked on by. It was so funny because no one noticed him at first because he had facial hair and had huge baggy sweats and a hat on to hide himself. I guess the rules there are that you're not supposed to take pictures of the professional athletes because it's about having respect for them and also because technically we are in their home. This was the second time we saw him. We saw him last night at dinner too but I had no idea. Once we got to the gym, we started to warm up and prepare for the session. The trainer led us through a different series of stretching and I was tired from doing that. During the first session we served the entire time!!!!!!! For the first half we went through the technique of serving a jump float. For the second half they had the liberos and outsides passing. The coaches would "stat" everything we did. They "statted" every serve you had whether you aced them, had a decent serve, or if you missed. They also "statted" the passers and how well they passed. It was almost like the game of serve and pass but without the score. After this session, I thought my shoulder was going to fall off from serving so much , but it wasn't in pain, which made me extremely happy because that was what I was worried about the most. When thinking about this session, I would say that serving in Colorado is a lot harder than serving anywhere else. Every ball I served went flying to the back wall and it took me a little bit to get used to it and finally control my float again. Of course we went back to the cafeteria and ate a massive amount of food, like normal. After eating, we wanted to go to the USA store and while we were there we stopped at the Olympic Hall of Fame. It was so cool to see everything that was in there. The best part was seeing the USA hockey jersey that one of the players wore when they beat the Soviet Union. It was the coolest thing ever. After looking around and taking pictures, we went inside the store and I immediately wanted to buy the whole store, but don't worry I didn't. I ended up buying extremely comfortable sweatpants, a sweatshirt, and a shirt that says USA Olympics Team. So now I can pretend that I played for the Olympics....just kidding. Once we were done buying things we finally got back to the room. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep for two and a half hours until I had to go to the Athlete Center and find out what time I was playing. I ended up sitting around for 30 minutes to find this out and I ended up having to play at 4:30 p.m. So I went back to my room and got ready for the next session. During this session we scrimmaged the whole time. I thoroughly enjoy scrimmage because it's the most realistic thing to a game. I don't think scrimmaging will ever get old. The way the scrimmaging worked was there were eight different teams. Every session was 20 minutes total. Each team started in a certain rotation, after five minutes you flipped back row to front row, after another five minutes, the setters switched sides, and after another five minutes we switched back row to front row again. This went on for two hours, so by the end of the session, I was ready for bed. After the session I just kept thinking about wanting to play with our team again and not having to worry about getting used to new players. I also thought about how I played and I definitely thought I played a lot better than yesterday, which made me extremely happy. But I was also sad because I only had one more session left and it was back to Jersey. Being here has been one of the best experiences and I would not have had it any other way. I just wish it could last longer. Anyway, Alyssa and I both went to dinner and I pigged out with pasta and meatballs, a chicken breast, steamed and raw vegetables and some chocolate frozen yogurt for desert. Let's just say I was extremely full after this. After dinner we both just went to our rooms and did some homework and sat around waiting for the announcement of when we would be practicing in the morning. Around 9:30 p.m. we found out that we would be practicing at 8 a.m. again. So we both got into bed and passed out, ready for our final session.
Sunday, Feb. 26
So once again we both woke up at 6:45 a.m. ready to go to our final session. I was exhausted still and just wanted to sleep in more. This was probably the most tired I have been in a very long time. We headed to get a small breakfast and went straight to the gym. Once we got ready, we started warming up again. The trainer took us through the same series of stretching and we had five minutes to warm up hit and serve. Today we were picked to be on specific teams. We would play a team for 20 minutes and whoever had the highest score won. We played a mini tournament with three teams to a court. The first place team played the first place team on the court next to us and the second place team did the same thing. While we were playing my shoulder didn't hurt at all, it was just very tired from all of the swinging we did the day before. I was extremely happy because all of the rehab I've been doing is finally paying off. My team was an okay team. We ended up taking 2nd and had to play the team on the other court. We lost that match and took 4th over all, which isn't too bad. I wish my team did better but we can't always get what we want. After this match, the session was over. I was very sad that the weekend was coming to an end because I had such an amazing time being here. I enjoyed every minute and enjoyed playing with a ton of different players from different conferences. If I could I would definitely consider coming back for another tryout and having this experience all over again. I've learned many different things while being here and I hope I can come back to school and try to teach my teammates the things I learned because I believe it could help us in the end.
To see a video chronicle of Meghan's time in Colorado, click here.
