Sept. 5, 2005

A Weekend On The Road

This last weekend ISU volleyball traveled to UC Davis for our first tournament of this season. The weekend was filled with excitement, nerves, and some struggles. We won our first match against Washington State University, and that night was filled with excitement. Our team was fired up and playing better than I had yet seen. Felice and I had our share of kills and digs, but the great part was how great the middles and defense did. The middles established themselves as threats early in the game, and from then on out they were steeling the attention of the other teams blockers. It was awesome. Every time the ball was set out to the antennas there was a whole in the block for us to swing at. And Katie had three game winning swings on slides (a set that she had been struggling a lot with last season). We played some great volleyball, and had a lot of fun with one another.

But the weekend was not all full of sweet kills and awesome defense. On Saturday we really struggled, losing to Davis in a short and shameful three game match, and later losing to Toledo in a five game struggle to the finish line. Our spirit was not there. The spirit that we have been bringing to all practices and games since we started was missing. Bengal defense was not what it should be, there were balls falling around us, and we were not stepping up to the challenge of getting them up. It was a frustrating, yet useful match for us to play. Useful in the sense that we hopefully will learn from it. Learning what that game felt like will be the juice that pumps us to never leave our spirit behind.

I think that the most important thing that I heard this weekend was at pizza the night after the last match. Bri Beal said, "I don't want to talk about it, I am just hungry." And I hope that is how we all feel right now. Talking about that feeling will not keep it away, but the hunger that we all felt on Friday night will. If we keep that fire going through our veins our spirit will shine through, and the Bengals will be a force to be reckoned with.

This week we have two home matches, tue and wed. be there or be square. You bring the noise, we'll bring the fire. Nikki Havens