BEIJING, Aug. 13 — Well we made it through hump day ... and what a hump it was for us to go over. Our match against Venezuela was a momentum builder for us despite the one-set loss. We changed to a different venue for today's match and it showed in our passing and timing on our attack. We again were plagued by service errors. However, we stuck together as a team and pulled out another "W", which in the long run is all we care about.

We have our match against host country China on Friday evening Beijing time and are really looking forward to playing in it. Actually as we speak, my room is watching the Cuba-China match on our closed-circuit TV. It's kinda cool, all of the rooms have a live feed from every venue in the Olympic games so we can watch whatever we want with only the sound of the crowd ... and as you can expect it's all ooohhhss and aaahhhhs right now at the start of the fourth set. China is up 2-1 (Cuba won in five).

And guess what is sitting right behind me ... our bikes!!!!! Yep they arrived today. I guess we were supposed to get them yesterday, but there was a little problem with getting all of them through security in their boxes, so each and every one had to be unpacked and checked before coming on complex. In case you were wondering, mine is silver, but there were two pink ones one blue one and the rest silver. So I went with the majority and took silver. I believe the two pink ones went to the two Kims (Willoughby and Glass) on the team. So now all that is left to do is adjust the height of the handle bars and the seat, which should not be too hard since I saw Tayy (6-foot-7 Tayyiba Haneef-Park) riding hers today before we left for a USA Volleyball reception that was held in honor of the athletes competing in the games. Both indoor and beach.

It was held at the USA House that is set up downtown for friends and family members to go and relax and eat while running around from venue to venue. It was super nice of them to do. We all got to spend some quality time with the people that have made the journey to watch us here in Beijing.

OK, it's really entertaining right now about the dialogue going on in our room about this Cuba-China match. Any sports person could relate to how easy is it to talk about teams and comment on things when you are not playing, but this match is awesome to watch. It's really about the fight and competitive desire to win. But the comedic comments coming from (Stacy) Sykora right now are killing us. Always count on her for an ab workout from laughter.

Well it's bedtime again ... I'm gonna finish watching this match and then hit the sack. We have a fun-filled day of video meetings in the morning and practice at BNU in the afternoon to prepare for our China match. Wish us luck.