April's Hot Winter Nights Come To An End

As the AVP / Croc's Hot Winter Nights came to a close late last month our girl April Ross Chalked up ANOOOTHER win on the Portland leg of the HWN tour --the second to last stop on the tour.

Overall, It was her third CONSECUTIVE win! Could it be it all that POM Juice and POMx she's been consuming? Either way, The AVP gave her top-billing, smack dab -- front and center on their website!  

What about Aprils Monthly Blog? We didn't forget about it! April was just too busy WINNING to write it -but she finally finished it. Enjoy!

         [ APRIL ROSS  - - - HOT WINTER NIGHTS - - - PART II ]
Well I guess you could say I’ve had a pretty good pre-season thus far. After my travels to the coldest parts of America for     my first two Hot Winter Nights Tour tournaments I had a...

... week off that consisted of some very hard training. It was great because I was able to see what I still needed to work on, where my weaknesses were and what I had gotten better at during the two tournaments and apply that to my practice plans.

Apparently it was effective. I ended up getting first place in the next three HWN Tour stops that I played in. So overall I won four in a row, which surprised me, but more importantly, reinforced all the hard work that I have been putting in since January and has prompted me to continue striving to be as good as possible before our first 2008 Olympic qualifying event in Australia at the end of March.

The Hot Winter Nights Tour just culminated with a tournament in Las Vegas this past weekend, which I was lucky enough to be selected for. Alas, I could not make it five in a row, but this tournament served more as a fun, end of the winter season tournament. I was upset about not winning (of course), however, I let it go and decided to have a good time the rest of my stay in Sin City.

 My sister, a couple of her friends, my boyfriend and my dad all made it there to watch me play so after the tournament we went to dinner where I took a POM Wonderful antioxidant pill, had a couple drinks and then headed over to finish the night off at club Rain. All in all, it was a good trip.

Right now my partner, Jen, and I are really buckling down trying to increase our chances of getting off to a really good start in ’08. We have taken a vow with each other to give up sweets, pre dinner bread and appetizers for the last three weeks before the Australian FIVB tournament. That might not sound like a lot, but if you knew me or Jen personally you would understand. Spinach-artichoke dip is a HUGE weakness of mine. That vow is in addition to practicing everyday, studying video, learning everything we can about anything that might help us get better, being diligent about physical therapy, eating healthier, doing extra plyo’s and cardio, and everything else in between.  We will not wait until tomorrow to accomplish what we can today.

Many factors can and will come into play when determining who goes to the Olympics in Beijing this summer, I just hope that the amount of hard work we are putting in right now will be one that is heavily weighted.