Today we had team breakfast again at the hotel, but this time it was in close quarters along with Penn State, which made for some awkward eye contact. Russ Rose was sitting with his little coaching entourage and Dave was with his across from each other.
After breakfast we all gathered up and sorted our dirty lanudry (wow, does it add up quickly) for Tats our equipment manger to wash.
We had study hall again. I think everyone is concerned about finals and trying to balance thinking about volleyball and academics at the same time. Today I studied for my intercultural communications class.
After study hall, I finished watching Saturday Night Fever. I wish going to a disco like 2001 Odyssey was still a thing. I took a nap after the movie and had a sandwich for lunch.
We had practice today at the Wells Fargo Arena. It is also a really nice facility. It is huge! I heard it seats around 17,000 people. After practice our hosts gave us some snacks and made us feel very welcome.
We had team dinner at the hotel. Afterwards, Casey, McKenna, Clare, Tayler and I went to this local restaurant down the street to get dessert. It's a cool place with zombie art and I got a yellow cake and vanilla shake. It was so good! I could go here every day.
I really hope we play like we know we can and win!
-Olivia
Blog Entry #1 - Dec. 9, 2015The TCU match was hard fought to say the least. I felt like we were all nervous before the game and the first set was very tense. After that we settled down we got more into our groove. I am so proud that we were able to fight back and show our resiliency.
Texas A&M was a completely different match. We came in confident in ourselves and I thought that translated in how we played as a team. It also helped that we diversified our offense. I think that it takes an entire team to win as handily as we did. Savanah was absolutely amazing!! You can tell she is a passionate player. I am lucky to be on a court with a libero who will fight so hard to get a ball up. It felt so good to win that match. Even though I did not have my best match, it is about how the team performs overall at the end of the day.
Yesterday was a long travel day. We are used to them but that doesn't make it any easier. After a light practice at Texas A &M, we had lunch and packed up our stuff. I feel like I have mastered the art of packing over a week's worth of clothes in a small carry-on. Our flight to Atlanta was a little delayed so we almost missed our flight to Des Moines. Luckily they held the plane for us and we were all able to make it to Iowa.
Today was our first full day in Des Moines. I have never been to Iowa before so it is cool being in a new place. It kind of reminds me of Spokane, Wash. I got up for team breakfast at around 8:30 a.m. and after that we had study hall for two hours. I studied for my Portuguese final and felt like I got some good work done. After study hall, I watched the movie
Saturday Night Fever and then took a nap.
We watched some film on Penn State before practice. I have played against some of those girls in club before and it is crazy to think that we are seniors now.
We had practice at Drake University and they have some really nice facilities.
It is also pretty cold here! I forgot what a real winter is like!
GO 'BOWS!!
Olivia
