The last week of our regular season is here. I love this sport with a passion as the rest of our team and this week just came too soon. Senior day is on Sunday and we play Delaware. Personally, it is the biggest day of our season for us seniors and as a team. Delaware is a fine opponent and will be great competition for a final match. We had a great weekend coming away with two wins. We had everyone step up and when everyone does their job, we come out on top. This weekend everyone did their job and out hustled both opponents. Friday we play Towson who is another opponent we cannot underestimate. We beat them on their home court and I am sure they want a chance to return the favor. We all have to continue to carry and feed off of this past weekend's wins going into these final two matches.  

I am not going to talk about Friday's loss, because I don't want to. It would just take away from Saturday's win. It was a fight that showed what we are made of. Everyone did their job and stepped up for the changes in our lineup because one of our best middles was injured (Anissa Whitney).  Each conference match gets tougher every weekend. We are in 5th place in the conference. After Friday night, there were some big upsets in conference play that shifted things a bit for us to have the opportunity to be where we are now. We have 6 matches left, 5 of which are in conference, and 3 which will go by pretty fast this week. We we have Northeastern, Georgia State, UNC Wilmington, Towson, and Delaware left. All of which we have unfinished business with in some form or fashion. This is a set of matches that couldn't be more perfect when it comes to fighting for the win. I know this past weekend, mentally and physically, was just a taste of what's to come for the next matches ahead. It takes a lot and it takes everyone. In volleyball, individually, you could have your best match, but it means nothing when you don't win. It takes everyone. Mentally, everyone needs to be there and the physical will follow.  

As I sit on the bus for the 7 hour trip to VCU, all I can think about is the importance of this weekend.  There are so many different thoughts running through my head it's even hard to sleep.  Am I prepared? Yes, that's an easy question to answer.  Coach has prepared us very well, giving us scouting tapes and papers, and practicing all week on what will work to win against them.  Although I can watch hours of film and know exactly what they will run in each situation, it all comes down to how we play.  That's my main focus.  I have to be great at the things I can control.  I know I will be served at a lot, but that's how I like it.  My assistant coach told me once to look at it as a personal challenge.  I take pride in being a good serve receive passer and encourage the challenge.  I have to control my emotional state.  I can't come out flat and have to try and help any other teammate that might be a little sluggish.  I've never been the loudest and that's not my role on the team but I must have a consistent sense of urgency while I play.  I want to give my team something they can feed off of, not take energy away from.  Confidence.  Yes, I admit it can get shaken but it's always there.  I'm not backing down, and am going to take whatever you want to throw at me.  I want to be there for my team.  Work for my team. Win for my team.  Together I have no doubt in my mind we can do it. 

The win against JMU was necessary for our spot in CAAs. Our next focus is another big weekend coming up against VCU and William and Mary. Both of these teams have always been great competitors and every team from here on out will be coming at us full throttle. The position we have put ourselves in is a tough one nonetheless, but it is nothing new and we are very capable of taking on any obstacle. Like I have said before, our biggest competitor is ourselves. This weekend was definitely a reality check and all of us could feel things become real when game time came around. Our motto for the conference matches we have left is to "PLAY WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY." This weekend will be a great opportunity for us to clench two sweet wins to move up where we belong in the ranks. 

We have a big weekend coming up in CAA's. We play George Mason on Friday and James Madison on Sunday. We have to take both to still be in the running for the CAA tournament. This past weekend was an okay weekend for me. We played Delaware and Towson away. We are the only team that has taken Delaware to 5 sets. They are undefeated, and I really thought we were going to give them their first loss. We came out playing great. We were passing their serves and running our offense the way were suppose to. We were up 2 sets to 1, and I remember looking up at the score board in the 4th set and telling myself we have this set and we have to win in 4. We were up in the middle of the set, then we got stuck; they caught up and pulled away and took the win. This was defiantly a change in momentum but I know we were still motivated to win. The fifth set seemed like it happened so fast. We started playing scared, timid, and stopped thinking. This is our downfall. The 5th game is the game where you go all out. This is what every athlete dreams about; shining in clutch moments. That was a hard one to swallow for myself. But I had to bounce back. We had a match the next day against Towson. Now, not only did we need this win to keep our chances for the tournament alive, we needed it for our confidence and emotional state. Well I know I needed it. So the next day we took down Towson in 4! Good win for us.
We are finally home after having 5 straight away matches. I love everything about playing in our gym. I love the floor, the old bleachers, the banners hanging in the background, our locker-room, the warm-up music, our announcer, and our fans. Everything. This weekend we have to come out firing on all cylinders. No more moments of miscommunication or being timid. High energy from start to finish. It's my senior year, and by now I decide how I want to play. I want greatness.

It is a nice change of pace to play at home for the week. We just had our first sweep at home this past Tuesday against LIU which felt pretty nice to do on our home court. We are definitely starting to come together as a team with our consistency to finish matches. I personally feel that the loss to Delaware was a huge impact and something I never want to feel again. The determination is there to finish matches and not give these teams the opportunity to get to 5 sets with us. On Friday we play George Mason and Sunday we play James Madison. We need to win both of these matches in order to be in position to possibly qualify for the CAA Tournament. 

Finally conference play is here! We have been working hard all preseason towards this coming Saturday. This week has been an important preparation week for our match against Northeastern. Our practices have been geared towards every possible situation that could and should happen on both sides of the net. Playing Northeastern will be a great first conference match for us because they are last year's championship finalist and are said to be just as strong this year like every other team in our conference. It will be a nice introduction for what we have coming up in the months ahead. Every match from here on out is crucial to getting to CAAs. We are getting stronger emotionally and physically as a team and I believe that our preseason matches have made us tougher in the mental aspects of the game. It is a great feeling on the court to have everyone hungry and anxious to compete on Saturday.

After last night's win I will say that it is a great thing to have under our belts going into this weekend's tournament in Texas. This is definitely going to be a sweet one. It's my home state and we are playing the best of the best. No lie, I am going to soak in every moment of this tournament. To play near my stomping grounds and to play in front of family members that have never seen me play in college before will be even sweeter. In addition to the fan base that coach will have at our tournament our team will be well supported for this one. This weekend we play Texas A&M, Texas Southern and Texas State. These should be the type of games that have the feeling that we had during the Stony Brook match. That anxious and relentless feeling. If we keep improving from Tuesday's win and play our game we can definitely give these teams some good competition. Thinking about this tournament, Texas State's gym was the very same gym that I played in the Final Four tournament in high school when we made school history and took our team to state. To be there again will be something I will never forget. It will be something that my family will never forget. Our team must keep the focus and build from yesterday's win.

We had 3 days to practice before this upcoming tournament and we needed to make them good ones.  We practiced mainly on our offense, which seemed to be one of our weak points.  We have the best defense in the conference, and we need to use that to our advantage.  Every dig we get is just one more chance to put the ball down! We can tire teams out by digging them all day, and now we can put the ball down which is what we needed.

All week I had a feeling of urgency.  This is a big weekend.  All we need is one win to get the streak started and this has to be it.  We won't have anything handed to us because everyone wants to win. We have to be the team that works harder for every ball and don't be afraid to go after it.  It takes heart.  It takes every ounce of energy that you have left in your body.  Leave it all on the court.  A real championship team does that every night.  We will do that every night!