2008 Volleyball Blog - Week 3

by Amanda Trask - September 30, 2008

This week was very interesting for the volleyball team. It started with a heartbreaking Conference loss at WPI last Tuesday. We won the first two sets after an intense warm up session. However, WPI started to pick up its pace and won the next two. We lost the fifth set of the match, and we were determined to learn from our mistakes for our next contest on Saturday.

After some tough practices, we were up for the challenge. We came out and beat St. Joseph College. In the first set of the match, our senior libero, Kathryne Schwartz, was injured pretty badly. We were all crushed when we realized that she would not be with us for the rest of the day, but instead of letting up, we stuck it out. Thankfully, we were prepared to take on the setback with help from everyone on the team, from starters to reserves. We had key players come in to help us clinch the match right away, winning the first three sets. 
We were all really proud that we were able to adjust to the changes and keep up our momentum to beat St. Joseph.

As the season progresses and academic schedules become more challenging, people are starting to adjust to the daily duties of being a student-athlete. It's getting to a time when people are learning how to balance their homework time with practice time, along with time dedicated to other committments like acappella or jazz band. We are proud of each other for being able to commit to such diverse activities, while working hard and playing a sport we love. Fortunately, we have been able to maintain a steady amount of team time with nightly team dinners and weekly "Game Nights" at the Thirsty Mind. Whether it be Scrabble or Taboo, we always have a good time. It really brings out the competitive edge in us. Who wouldn't love a challenging game while bonding over coffee with good friends? We hope that as courses become more intense, activities like this will help us to come together, getting our minds off of the rigors of academia to re-focus as a team each week.