Aug. 24, 2007
by Michelle Kandell – After two weeks of intense training, we finally donned our business casual entire and headed to the airport for our first tournament of the season. The anticipation grew as we waited at the gate – our flight was delayed a little over three hours headed into Arkansas – but after the delay we finally made it to the Clarion Inn in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Every single one of us went to sleep last night with butterflies in our stomachs, but excited that the season was about to begin.
We woke up early this morning and went over to the gym to get a quick pass and serve in the prepare us for our first match. (Pass and serve is similar to a pregame shootaround for basketball games). Our warm-up spoke for itself though, because we were loud and focused.
As we put on our jerseys, everyone was thinking about how badly we wanted to beat Pitt. The first game of the match went well, as we got most of our jitters out and came out with a win. Having a win in that game made us feel good to have one under out belt. We let Pitt back into the next game, but never gave up because we won both the third and fourth games by communicating better and displaying a focused determination.
Overall, we served very tough, passed well, and ran our offense at the tempo that we wanted. We walked out of that gym with huge grins and complete confidence that we will get after it in our next match, which comes tonight at 7 p.m. CT. Hopefully our fans that were there this morning (thanks to all those parents!) can bring some noise back to the gym as we face Arkansas on their home court tonight. Check back after the match to see how it goes!
