Kristina Valjas: Hello Asia... we meet again

Jamie and I wrapped up our FIVB World Tour season with two stops in Asia. First we went to Xiamen, China to compete in the last Grand Slam of the year. You might recall we kicked off the season in China this year with some pretty good results! (9th in Fuzhou and 17th in Shanghai) so we were looking forward to working hard and getting some more good finishes.

Visa, 15hr flight, jet-lag! Getting to China is a process...

China was good to us again! We played in some of the windiest conditions we've ever experienced, and improved our game with each day of playing. The first day of pool play was a little rough, we lost both our matches to USA and Germany. The next day was much better, we beat Japan to advance out of our pool. Then we matched up against Italy in the first round of playoffs. The wind was so strong, but we used it to our advantage and kept hitting the ball hard when we could. We won that game, which took us to the second round vs. another team from Germany. It was close, but we just couldn't quite pull off a win. We came away with a 9th place finish, which we are very proud of!

Our last World Tour stop of 2013 was an Open in Phuket, Thailand.

Ok, you probably think that as a beach volleyball player, I get to spend all my time on a beautiful sandy beach under the sun. That's definitely not the case, as we usually play at venues that are man-made beach court set up somewhere away from any water... and sometimes it's cold and rainy to the point that we have to wear full-body spandex. Anyway, as the above is all too true, I do have to admit that Phuket is EXACTLY what you'd imagine when it comes to living the beach volleyball dream!!

The courts are on white sandy beaches, the sun is usually shining and the ocean is at the perfect temperature for you to feel refreshed, yet able to swim all day! We love it there. Such a treat to be able to travel there after a long and gruelling season! I'd invite anyone to come down there and cheer us on :) it's a great spot to travel to.

The view from centre court.

Pad Thai and other delicious food every day!

In the tournament we lost to Sweden and Brasil but beat Norway to advance to the playoffs. We beat Vanuatu, but lost to Argentina, landing us another 9th place finish.
This has been our third 9th in a row, and our fourth this season. It's really nice to see hard work paying off, but we already have our sights set for bigger and better things next season. We came pretty close to some even better finishes, we know they are within reach, and that's so encouraging and inspiring for us!