I would like to take this opportunity to thank an organization who has helped me to get where I am today. The Estonian Foundation of Canada offers scholarships to students and athletes of Estonian descent, and I am honoured to be selected for the scholarship this year. The basic funding we get through our sport federation is not enough to cover all of my expenses, so this has helped us pay for flights 
to important tournaments so I can compete in the sport 
I love and ultimately reach my goal of competing in the 
2016 Olympics.

Nationals 2012 - Bronze Medal

I am extremely proud of my Estonian heritage. Although I was born in Canada, I feel a strong connection to this tiny country, especially through my grandparents who were born there. Some of my relatives are still in Estonia, but many of them also live in Toronto, where the Canadian-Estonian community is quite strong. I attended Estonian night school as a kid so I am able to speak, read and write the language. It's important to me to stay connected to my roots, so it means a lot to me when I am recognized and supported by organizations like the Estonian Foundation of Canada.
Suur tänu!

2012 Nationals

Here's a breakdown of what went down on the weekend of August 17-19.
Friday August 17 - Day 1
We had only 1 game on the first day of the tournament. We were matched up against Mel and Taylor, a team we have seen quite a bit of this summer. They beat us in the finals at the Vancouver Open, and we beat them in the finals at Centre of Gravity in Kelowna. Needless to say, it was a bit of a grudge match to settle our 1-1 standing with them. Jamie and I started playing aggressively, attacking whenever we could and really going after our serves. We're proud of the way we played, and it won us the match, 21-14, 21-16.
Saturday August 18 - Day 2
Next we faced last year's national champs, Kacie and Julie, our good friends and a team that also competes on the World Tour. We fought hard but couldn't manage to beat them. They took us in 3 sets, 18-21, 25-23, 12-15. This put Jamie and I in the loser's bracket of the Double Elimination set up. We played another game, essentially our second chance at a quarter final, and our ticket to the Semis on Sunday. We played the scrappy team of Jackie and Tori. I think we unleashed some of our pent-up frustration from the previous match, and we took this match 21-12, 21-9.

Cold morning game. (photo: Blair Shier)

Sunday August 19 - Day 3
We faced the top ranked team of the tournament in our semi. Heather and Liz won nationals in 2010 and have been working their way up the rankings on the World Tour ever since. Jamie and I are disappointed with our performance against them. It was definitely not our best game, and it's a shame we had to play so poorly at that point in the tournament. We lost 21-12, 21-13... which meant we were out of the running for claiming the National Championship title for this year. That was a tough realization, but we had to move on from it and focus on the bronze medal game coming up. As it turned out, Mel and Taylor worked their way through the loser's bracket and earned their way into the semis, taking on Kacie and Julie. They played great and won in 2 sets (28-26, 21-17). This meant we would play Kacie and Julie for bronze. It was such a battle!! It was clear that both teams wanted a spot on the podium. We won the first set 21-19, then they came back to win the second set 21-17. The third set was intense. At one point Jamie and I were down 3-8 but we fought hard and managed to come back for the win, 17-15!! We were thrilled, and exhausted, and glad the tournament had finally come to an end.

Bronze!

I sincerely want to thank everyone who has supported us this year, and especially those who came out to cheer us on. In particular, my parents, Austin, Julie, Blair, Amy, Mike, Nadia, Kat, Karlee and Sam. It means so much to see you in the crowds and hear you guys losing your voices for us. THANKS!!
I also want to mention that this was Julie's last tournament as a National Team athlete. She has made the decision to take her life in a new direction. She will be seriously missed in the beach volleyball community. It was such a pleasure to get to know her over the past three years. There are few athletes who have such a great positive and competitive attitude. I totally admire her as an athlete and I'm honoured to call her a friend! Best of luck Julie, may you be successful in whatever you choose to do!

We had the loudest fans. You guys are the best!

 Thanks for the pictures Wayne!!

Centre of Gravity CHAMPS!

We're pumped to be holding up another giant cheque!! We went undefeated this tournament, which made it extra sweet. Now we're setting our sights on Nationals at Spanish Banks. This is the last domestic tournament of the year, and it's a big one. It's a 3-day tournament in double-elimination format. We play our first game today at 3pm against old friends, Mel and Taylor. I sense another battle... and we're ready for it!!

Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna

After getting back from Korea, we had a couple of days to adjust back to Vancouver time. We spent a lovely day stand-up paddling boarding along English Bay with Mila, enjoyed some delicious, familiar food that we missed in Korea and watched the start of the Olympics!  

Dandelion coffee. Who knew?!

My friend and UofT teammate Elodie at opening ceremonies!

Shortly after that, we competed in BC Provincials July 28&29. We had a blast playing under a sunny sky at Kits, and ended up winning the tournament! Many thanks to our cheering squad, Kat and Karlee! 

Karlee, Kat and me with our celebratory Caesars :)

Passed by nude cyclists on my way home.... awesome.

 We decided to take a little break after Provincials, so Jamie took me to her hometown Victoria, on Vancouver Island. It was my first time taking the ferry over to the island, and I have to say, it was really beautiful. I wish I had more time to explore!! I have a really good feeling I'll b back there some day soon!

A few sights from the trip to Victoria... sigh 

Now we're in Kelowna, gearing up for what is probably the most fun tournament of the year. It's part of Centre of Gravity, a multisport festival with music acts and parties all weekend long.  Some of the top teams from Canada will be here to the competition will be tough!! Jamie and I are ready for anything, so bring it on!!

Korea 2.0

Jamie and I just got back from competing in 2 Korean exhibition tournaments occurring over 10 days (August 16-25). There were teams from Spain, Norway, Czech, Austria, Netherlands, New Zealand and Korea.
The first tournament was in Busan.

First Venue

The way the first tournament was organized was a little bit strange... The organizers only wanted 6 teams playing, 2 of them being Korean teams, so they drew seeds out of a hat for the remaining international teams. The thing was, there were 4 available spots and 7 teams hoping to play. We were lucky enough to draw a spot in the tournament. But Norway, Spain and China weren't so lucky. They had to sit this one out. Good thing we pulled a lucky ticket, because we ended up winning the first tournament! It felt really good to stand on top of that podium.

Immediately after the finals, we were supplied with Big Macs for lunch and herded on to a coach bus that was to take us to the next venue. Little did we know, it was going to be an 8 hour bus ride! That was fun.... 

When we finally got to Gyeongpo Beach, we had a day off before the second tournament started. This location was actually pretty cool, there was a boardwalk along the beach that we walked to get from our hotel to centre court. This tournament was set up in a double-elimination format. We went undefeated all the way to semis, where we lost Spain. Later on, we beat Norway to take the bronze.

This was such a fun experience, we got to play some great competitive volleyball and make new friends. I hope we get a chance to participate in these tournaments next year... even if that means it will be Jamie's 7th trip to Korea!

Sunset on a lake by our hotel

Celebratory waffles and gelato. Too good.

Mandatory post-tournament karaoke.
(Jamie and I won this competition too, with our rendition of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody)