Sept. 11, 2006

School is just starting to become a rhythm for the ISU Bengal Volleyball team. This is great because as of this week every match matters. Not that preseason isn't important; it's just that once conference starts, every team has a clean slate. Yes, that's right today marks the beginning of our first conference game week. As I'm sure you can all tell we are super excited. We play Eastern Washington this week along with the newest team in the Big Sky Conference, Northern Colorado. Before we spring into next week, I want to talk a little about this past week.

We played our second home game this past Wednesday against Utah Valley State College. We were up two games to none when they came back to win the last three. This was definitely a hard loss. I think that sometimes it takes a good loss to put a team back on track. This is exactly what I feel our loss did.

We traveled to New Mexico this past weekend where we played New Mexico State University, Akron University, and San Diego, who was ranked 20th in the nation earlier this season. We lost two of the three matches, but made some great progress as a team. We lost our two games to NMSU and USD; these are two great teams and we played right with them. These two games were actually confidence builders for our team. A lot of things really started to click for our team. Overall the weekend was actually a great success, I think, even though we came away 1-2.

THIS WEEK'S PLAYER SPOTLIGHT
This week's player spot light is on Amanda Bevens, our sophomore setter. She is originally from Eugene Oregon. She is the middle of three children; she has an older sister and a younger brother. Amanda is a disciplined person, not only on the volleyball court but also in the classroom. She is nutrition major. She loves to snowboard in the winter and to be outside. A funny thing about Amanda is her crazy water obsession. She is very particular about the kinds of water she will drink. Sadly, for most of our pre-season Amanda has been recovering from a severe ankle sprain. It was a big loss for the team even though freshmen Christine Collette stepped in and did a great job. It has been great to have her back on the court the past few weeks. She gets stronger everyday. Amanda is a real asset to our volleyball team at ISU. She brings a unique competitive spirit to the team.

Well this is a simple summary of another week of ISU volleyball. We look forward to seeing you at our two home matches this upcoming week. GO BENGALS!