N O T E B O O K The conversat ion Emily Day
College math major now fi gures prominently on the professional beach circuit Interview by Connor Hastings
catch lightning in a bottle in their fi rst season together in 2013, winning the AVP tournament in Cincinnati and fi nishing in the top fi ve in four FIVB events. In this their second full year of international and domestic competition, the high fi nishes haven’t come quite as easily, as Day and Ross have found themselves slogging through a thunderstorm of hotel breakfasts and increas- ingly tougher opponents on their quest to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The Olympics is “the goal” says Day, who
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fi rst qualifi ed for a professional sand event in 2007 while in college at age 19. Day was an applied mathematics major and all-conference player at Loyola Marymount University, and her progression to the international stage has been more linear than exponential, the result of a strong work ethic that earned Day the “Most Im- proved Player” award on the AVP Tour in 2013. Day could also win an award for “Best Atten- dance” at The Yard training center in Hermosa Beach, Calif., where she resides. In late August, Day took some time between
playing, training and traveling to talk to Vol- leyballUSA about what’s helped her succeed and stay sane on the road.
This is your second season of competing full-
time on the international tour with Summer. How are you feeling about this year compared to last?
Last year everything was new to us and
anything we did was a positive. Coming into this year we set the bar very high for ourselves, in terms of fi nishing high every tournament and being one of the top teams on tour. Obviously we haven’t been doing as well as planned, but everyone’s so good out there, and it’s kind of the luck of the draw with playoffs. So it’s been tough. It’s been a long season, 14 tournaments in a row.
Is it hard to maintain the same energy level fl y-
ing back and forth between FIVB and AVP events? That’s one of the struggles of having so
many tournaments in a row, being mentally in it every time. But there’s something that turns on inside of you no matter where you are in the world, whether you’re putting on a USA top in Poland or at an AVP event playing in front of your domestic fans. When you step on the court you’re ready to go.
Do you enjoy traveling with the other American
teams and getting to know the players from other countries on the international tour?
Yeah, it’s fun with everybody there. We hang out a lot with the other USA teams whether There are a lot of athletic 27-year-olds out in
the world. What’s allowed you to separate yourself from the pack and become one of the top Ameri- can sand volleyball players?
For me it took a while. Some people kind of
step into that level. For me I’ve been playing a while and have really worked my way through the system, where I started playing in NORCE- CAs and got points from that and was in quali- fi ers on the world tour and got points from that. So it’s been a lot of hard work and dedication. A lot of people might have given up by now and kind of said ‘Oh, I’m not making enough money, screw this.’ But I’ve had a great support system with my family and friends to keep me going.
18 | VOLLEYBALLUSA • Digital Issue at
usavolleyball.org/mag
he United States beach volleyball team of Emily Day and Summer Ross seemed to
we’re playing Bananagrams in the lobby or some type of card game or an interactive app against each other. If you just keep to yourself, I think that would be pretty miserable. It’s fun to open up and get to know other people and learn about other countries and how they train.
Is there a sense of camaraderie amongst the
players on the international tour? Kind of, but then there isn’t because you play
against each other. It’s a weird dynamic because you have these players that you travel around the world with, you eat breakfast together at the hotel, you’re eating lunch together at the hotel, dinner … They see you at your highs after win- ning and your lows when you have a tournament that’s not good. Then you step on the court and you have to battle them, and no longer are you friends with them. You’ve got to play as hard as you can because everyone’s out there to win. It’s so weird. Summer says it’s like a traveling circus. We go to these different locations, put on our show, which is volleyball, and we’re like this road family.
Is it hard to ignore the distrac-
tions of being in a foreign country when you’re there for a volleyball tournament?
It is hard, because you’re overseas
and you want to go see everything. I love traveling, so when we’re in Berlin I would love to be able to go see the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie and do all that cool stuff. But you have to wait until after the tournament because you’re over there to play volleyball and you don’t want to do anything to jeopardize how you’re feeling. But then, I’m not very good at staying in a ho- tel room all day. That gets me insane. So I’ll go to a cafe and read or walk a little bit just to get fresh air outside before practice, stuff like that.
So do you try to bring a workman-like attitude
and high intensity to every match, whether you’re playing the top seed or a team out of the qualifi er?
Yeah, I remember our coach talking to us
about this, that everyone deserves the same amount of respect. The qualifi er team doesn’t want you to go out there and take it easy against them, or all the sudden start playing left-handed; that’s disrespectful towards the team. They want you to play your game. So whether it’s a qualifi er team or you’re playing in the fi nals, everyone deserves the same amount of respect and you go out there and play to win. Because I remember when I was a qualifi er team some teams were killing us and joking around and they started serving skyballs, and I was so mad. So I won’t do that to a team. Unless the skyballs are effec- tive. Mine aren’t.
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