Another Crazy Win

Wow, what another crazy weekend. We have played three five game matches in a row! Thank goodness we came out of it 2-1.


Sacramento State has a reputation for being very good on their home floor...and they did not disappoint. From the first point of the match they came out swinging. It took a little while for our girls to come around, but eventually we did. In the fifth game, we were up most of the game, but then couldn't come up with the plays to finish the match. We were up 13-11, then suddenly down 13-14. We sided out with a tip from Kelley, then made a couple plays (and took advantage of a couple of their errors) to finish the match. Sac State is a solid team, especially at home. I definitely credit them with some very hard play. We fortunately came out with the win.

Of course, no trip to California is complete without a visit to In-N-Out. Brittany, Marissa, and Tom are all California natives, so it was a little slice of home-heaven for them. Everyone else on the team took the opportunity to enjoy a burger you just can't get here in Colorado. Although...on our trip to Weber State this past month, we did see an In-N-Out nearing completion in Salt Lake city...

Over all it was a good trip. Girls were tired (as were the coaches) when we got home.

Bears Split on the Road

We just got back from a pretty tough weekend. We headed to Portland State on Thursday afternoon and played Portland State Friday night. As expected, their crowd was what their usual selves. They can get...how can we say...a little rowdy. They always have a group of guys that are a bit obnoxious, but in a lot of ways, it creates a fun atmosphere. They had two guys dressed head to toe in green spandex...you couldn't even see their faces. They were pretty funny. Thank goodness we practiced for it the whole week before...(no...I didn't wear spandex during practice, but I did taunt them). The match didn't work out in our favor as we dropped the match in five. That is OK though...we have never even taken a set off them in their gym, so it shows our girls that we can not play our best and we can still beat them. Plus, if you are going to pick up a loss, five games is the best way to do it.

Saturday morning we headed to Spokane to play Eastern Washington. Their record isn't great this year, but they have been very good at home. Having to fly between the two cities and being kind of rushed from one place to the next is tough on the team...let alone losing a five game match the night before. Our girls were in good spirits though. We came out a bit slow, but turned it around by game four to win in five...again. Ten games over the course of two days! That is a lot of volleyball!

I attached a short film of us at Eastern right before our practice. Because the conference tournament was there last year, we almost felt at home in their building (minus the yelling and taunting from their crowd). We sometimes do the "hit the roof" challenge. Their ceiling in their gym is ridiculously high. So much so that we challenge each other to hit the roof with a volleyball. That may seem like it isn't too hard...but like I mentioned, the ceiling is WAY up there. This is Amanda and Jenny going after it...

Homecoming Week

Sorry this is once again delayed. Although we have been at home for the past weeks, we always seem to find a way to stay very busy...

A few things have happened since I last updated this blog. The team walked in our annual Homecoming parade, which was very fun for the girls. It seems to be pretty rare that we get to be around for our homecoming week. It was great to be able to take part in the festivities and attend the football game, even for a little while.

As far as volleyball goes, we have been having quite a nice stretch. As mentioned above, we have been home for three weeks for a total of five matches. One of them was against Colorado State, who, we found out, is ranked 18th in the country for a reason. They are definitely a talented team, but I think we all feel as if we didn't play our best.

The other four matches were against Big Sky opponents. First, we beat Sacramento State in four games. Then, two weeks ago we beat Northern Arizona in three games. Last weekend, we faced off against Montana State on Thursday night (we won in three), and Montana on Saturday night. The Montana match was great because they were ranked in the pre-season pole above us. Anytime you can beat someone ranked above you it is a good thing. Plus, after we got out of the break between games 2 and 3, we started putting it together. After that point we outscored them 46-18. They are a solid team, but our girls really stepped up to the challenge and beat them.

The interesting thing about that last match was Julie. During our passing warm up I saw her on the sidelines with a water cup pressed against her head. I asked her what was wrong and she said she was getting a migraine. Not such great timing. Katie (our athletic trainer) called the doc, who rushed to Julie's aid. During the national anthem, Katie and the doc pulled her from the lineup to administer aid to help her head. In the video I am attaching, notice that she is missing when her name is called, but she runs in RIGHT as we run out to exchange hand-shakes. Again, timing is sometimes everything...