Volleyball Plays First Game in Russia
May 19, 2001 | Women's Volleyball
May 19, 2001
... When we last left the Cardinals, they had just flooded the internet with emails home from Time Online Internet Cafe. Unlike the German internet cafes that are small, dark and smoky with the emphasis on Cafe rather than Internet, the Russian Internet Cafes are huge and efficient with more than 200 terminals. By contrast, the one in Dresden had eight and the one in Klagenfurt, Austria had two. I used to be one of those Americans who resented Bill Gates and the Microsoft Windows monopoly. However, knowing all the Windows commands and icons has been invaluable at these cafes because I do not read fluent German or Russian. Nor am I familiar with the mysteries of the Cyrillic alphabet ...
After leaving the Internet Cafe, the Cardinals returned to the Compound on Ol' Wheezy the Bus. The next morning, both of the Evgenys met us at the river where we boarded a big water taxi. While participating in the favorite Russian national pasttime of waiting in line, the group from U of L met four homeless boys who were bathing in the river. This is the Moscow River, the one with no fish because of all the pollution. The boys were all 12 years old and skinny as x-rays. The Louisvillians soon emptied out their backpacks off all the treats nd bottled water they had. Despite their dire circumstances, the boys were lively and outgoing, but obviously had nothing. The boat ride went through the edge of downtown Moscow past several large parks and the Olympic Stadium from the 1980 Olympiad. I was surprised to find out that few of the players realized the United States had boycotted the Olympics that year. (It was a teaching moment). After the boat ride we were scheduled to go to an amusement park when one of the Evgenys casually mentioned that the MSCA (our host volleyball club) considered the match to be one of the most important of their season. It was later translated that the MSCA had taken a very dim view of our talents as portrayed in the mixed practice.
This fired up the team and as a group they decided to skip the amusement park, get a pre-game meal and save their legs for the match. As Emily Roberson said, "Oh, it is ON NOW!" She explained that the team had been in leisure mode since we hadn't played in four days and after taking a quick poll, realized they had switched back quickly after the gauntlet had been thrown down.
We arrived at a large Sports Academy gymnasium where a large crowd was already forming. The Cardinals took off their tourist clothes and dressed for the showdown. The President of the Russian Volleyball Federation was in attendance to show the importance of the match. For the first time on the trip, there were national anthems prior to the game. In attendance for the Cardinals were Anastasia Zaitseva's dad and grandmother, Marina Sinichenko's mother and our Evgenys and our intrepid bus driver Dmitri (aka Costya). Dr. Jean Cerra, the provost of Barry University held her own up in the crowd who stacked benches one on top of the other to see better.
As one might suspect, Anastasia had a wonderful match and didn't seem fazed by the pressure of her parents seeing her for the first time in a Cardinal uniform, or the fact that she had trained once at the MSCA facility and therefore knew some of the players across the net. The Cardinals lost 26-28, 25-22 and 25-22. Despite the loss, the Cardinals were assured that they had quieted the trashtalking. The President of the Russian Volleyball Federation gave the Cardinals a backhanded compliment by inferring that he did not expect the MSCA club to have a bit of trouble with U of L. He stopped short of saying that U of L was good ... but we knew we had represented the University of Louisville quite well. We regretted the fact that our university president John Shumaker and his wife were not there in the crowd as planned. A strike by Lufthansa made it impossible for the Shumakers to fly into Moscow and so they proceeded on to South Korea which was their original destination. It seems that the pilots of Lufthansa strike on Thursdays (which is the busiest day of travel). Since U of L is scheduled to fly home this coming Thursday, the girls sporadically have panic attacks that our flights will be cancelled.
This morning the Cardinals toured Star City, part of the Russian Space Center. They say many exhibits devoted to Yuri Gagarin, the first man to reach outer space. He died at the age of 34 in a routine training flight. Unbeknownst to the adults in the group, the Russian Space program lost many more cosmonauts during the Space Race than the United States did. Valentina was our guide through the museum and spoke wonderful English. She is the wife of a former Cosmonaut and escorted us to the gate of the Star City compound. There were armed soldiers guarding the gate and we had received special permission to go into the museum which is not generally open to the public.
We will soon be returning to Camp Mosquito on Ol' Wheezy the Bus where the team will practice and rest.
Some Personal P.S.'s: Jeremy Miller wants his parents to know he is fine. (And may I say the boy is a born shopper?) Emily's finger is progressing fine. Groupwise mail can not be accessed from the internet so the staff has not been able to get into their email.
