University of Georgia Athletics
Georgia Splits Matches in Puerto Rico Between Beach Practices
March 30, 2005 | Volleyball
March 30, 2005
ATHENS, Ga.----Georgia earned a win over the Puerto Rico National Training team and dropped a match to a professional team from Mayaguez last week in Puerto Rico.
The Bulldogs' trip started out with travel problems, as they arrived in Puerto Rico at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, but managed to defeat the training team just four hours later.
Workouts on the beach highlighted the remainder of the weekend and on Monday the team bussed across the island for a second match.
Georgia's spring schedule continues on April 5 at Clemson, and will conclude with a tournament at the University of South Carolina on April 9.
Players Journals
Day 1 - Meagan Welch
The first day of our Puerto Rico adventure began with a trip into the city of Caguas to scrimmage the Puerto Rican Junior National Team. It was exciting to finally put it all together and play against someone besides ourselves. We adjusted well to the 90 degree gym and played well against "the locals."
Once we made it back to our hotel in Luquillo the team decided to go explore the public beach, Playa Luquillo. Needless to say we stuck out like a soar thumb: We didn't have a tent with coolers, grills, loud Latino music, our clothes weren't all drying out on clothes lines, ect. In an effort to fit in we figured we should try some of the fried food from the local beach vendors. Empanadillas, fried tacos, and alcapurrias made us feel a little Puerto Rican. After catching some much needed rays at the beach it was time to head into San Juan for dinner (in case you haven't noticed the volleyball team pretty much lives meal to meal!). Dinner in San Juan gave us the chance to get to know another local favorite, Plantains (some type of banana...we think). We had plantains fried, mashed, breaded, and even braised. Dinner also came with a special treat, the wedding reception being held on the restaurants' patio came with a very special wedding singer (as the night went on and the drinks went down so did her voice!). We had some time before we met up with Steffi so the team decide to go on a walking tour of Old San Juan, guided by our visitor's guide compliments of Hertz. The old buildings, forts, and churches were spectacular; we even got to watch some of the Saturday nights Easter Masses that were going on. The first day of our trip was amazing, even though the Ben and Jerry's in Old San Juan was closed. We were having a wonderful time that would be remembered by all of us.
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