Shelly Swendig Diary: 9/4/07
9/4/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 4, 2007
After practice last Thursday, we traveled to Waco for the Baylor Invitational, hoping to perform at a higher level than last week. Friday following breakfast we had a short passing practice, went to lunch at Cheddar's, where we had a particularly endearing and attentive waiter, and then headed back to the Ferrell (not to be confused with "feral") Center for our first match against the Bears of Baylor University.
The match versus Baylor was disappointing to say the least, as we fell in three. After the match we went to Cracker Barrel in hopes to raise our spirits after the loss, in addition to satisfying our hunger. The food was phenomenal, and we all loaded back onto the bus feeling much better about life.
As we arrived back at Hotel Waco, we received a speech from Coach, inspiring us to engage in more team bonding. Contrary to popular belief, "has anyone seen my new red hat?" is not the best line in "A League of Their Own," but is in fact, "There is no crying in baseball!" Then, to enhance our time spent as a team, our cell phone privileges were revoked temporarily. Luckily, I still had my beeper.
Saturday morning we awoke to the likes of old-fashioned alarm clocks and wake up calls from the hotel concierge, since we did not have our ever-so-reliable cell phones. We ate a satisfactory breakfast at the hotel, and then proceeded on to the gym.
We played Oregon, who turned out to be actually pretty good. We lost in three, and now in the midst of a four-match slump, every single person on the team - and our fans for that matter - was itching for a win. After lunch at McAllister's, freshman Whitney Schott handed out some donuts as a sort of dessert. After everyone had eaten one, Assistant Coach Erin McClanahan informed Schotty that if we lost, the blame would be on her generous act.
For the last match in the tournament, we were up against Mississippi State. As a side note, the chairs surrounding the court were dangerously close, and a few of us ran into them: to name a few, Laurel Kuepker flipped over the chairs in the back, and Lauren Railey banged her shin into one on the side, which resulted in a bloody, but awesome, hematoma. Perhaps we just hustle too much. We took the match in four - even with a crazy lineup, and to paraphrase the words of Coach Humphreys, winning never felt so good. Oh yeah, and long live donuts as a pre-game dessert.
This weekend, we'll be looking to win a few more matches, this time on our own turf. We play Northwestern State on Friday night, Sept. 7 at 7 PM, and then on Saturday we play ULM at 12:30 PM and Tulsa at 7 PM. Hope to see you there!
