Senior Insight with Beth and Kerry: Day 6
11/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
DAY6 -- Friday, Nov. 28 (Written by Kerry Hance)
Tonight was amazing. It was senior night, the night that every player looks forward to and dreads at the same time throughout their career.
We knew it was going to be a fun night. There was only one problem! We have not won a match on senior night in a LONG time.
We started off our day, meeting at Zingermans Deli. The line was out the door, so we had to chose somewhere else for our senior meal. We moved the pregame meal to Pizza House. We ate some delicious chipatis, they were great, but just not quite the same as those Zingerman sandwiches would have been. Beth and I came home after lunch, since we live in the same house, took a little nap and left for the gym at around 5.
After we got to the arena and gout ourselves ready it was time for the usual warmup to take place, except we were surprised with a new serve and pass CD which Megan Bower made. Cliff Keen Arena started to fill up with fans, our family and the Zone. I was surprised there was such a good crowd so early considering the holiday weekend, but it was great to see and got us pumped up. We even had the alumni band there since the usual band is on break. They were fantatsitc and really got the crowd going!
We played a very good game. Our plan was to win the serve and pass battle against Indiana because they are a very similar team to us. They are balanced, but we came out and executed our game plan to perfection (after we knoced the rust off half-way through the first set).Lexi ran a great offense, and we came out on top in three sets.
After the match, the senior ceremony began. We were given a bouquet of flowers, presented by Cameron Rosen, and the department showed a video where we each explained our Michigan experience. It was a really emotional 15 minutes!
We still have so much to look forward to though, and it was weird to say goodbye, knowing we have so much left to play for.Beth and I have decided to view the events as more ofcelebration, than a good-bye. We still have another important home game tomorrow night and the NCAA tournament! We are reallyexcited for tomorrow and we are pleased that we won tonight, on senior night! It was agreat day.
Come out and support us against #1 Penn State tomorrow night! It should be apacked house and a ton of fun!
Until next time! GO BLUE!
DAY 5 -- Wednesday, Nov. 26 (Written by Kerry Hance)
Today most classes were cancelled, so we had practice at 2 instead of at 3. Pre-practice began at 1:30 where we all warm up our arms, while Leisa tosses us balls on a box. We started practice with toss and chase, which is a serving warm-up drill. We then worked on some passing and played a drill called 3.0. It was a very competitive practice, which made it fun. Both sides played well. Maggie Busch got reamed in the face by Alex Hunt's outside hit. Poor mags. After practice, we had a senior interview which is shown on Senior Night, and then went to Mark and Leisa's for a homemade taco dinner. It was delicious. We played some games with Cameron, while he ran around pretending to be a pirate. We get to have dinner at their house if we sweep both teams in a weekend. This dinner was for sweeping Ohio State and Michigan State. Everyone has left Ann Arbor for Thanksgiving break, so it seems to be dead around campus. We're thinking about renting a movie or maybe going to bed early so that we get a good night sleep for our early practice tomorrow. I don't know about you, but I am getting really excited for some turkey and stuffing tomorrow!! Yummmmmmmmmmy. A lot of our team is spending it at Cassie's since she lives in Ann Arbor. One more practice until the best dinner of the year!
DAY 4 -- Tuesday, Nov. 25 (Written by Beth Karpiak)
Today's practice started with a four-on-four tournament. Every time we get to start practice with a competitive drill we know it's going to get pretty intense, but we also know that it is going to be a lot of fun. When I was a freshman, however, my attitude towards competitive tournaments wasn't exactly the same. The announcement of today's warmup was met with a fist pump of excitement. Three years ago, I would have probably put my head down and walked on the court hoping that I wouldn't mess up. I tried to impress the seniors and the other upperclassmen so much that every time I mad a mistake I felt like I was personally letting them down. Now I realize that seniors mess up just as much as freshmen do. We are all on the same level once we step in the lines. Although the tournament ended up being very tiring, it was still a lot of fun. I don't know when or where after volleyball I will ever find myself having that much fun while also being so out of breath. Exercise without a team is definitely not in the picture for me. After the tournament, we went straight into full six-on-six drills. Megan Bower got 15 kills in a row and Sloane Donoff dug at least a thousand balls, or at least it seemed like it, and only four or so of them bounced off her neck. Speaking of which, that is one thing I will not miss about practice; being slammed in the face, or anywhere really, by an unexpected ball. But then again, who knows I might miss it. Nothing tells you that, yes indeed, you are alive like a ball to the face does.
Only two more practices before my last home weekend!
Looking forward to it.
DAY 3 -- Saturday, Nov. 22 (Written by Kerry Hance)
Today we woke up at 9:40 and had breakfast in the hotel lobby. We then went back to bed because we were still tired after getting in late to the hotel. We got a chance to watch the first half of the greatest rivalry in sports, the Michigan vs. Ohio State football game. We cheered on our Wolverines which got a few stares from people in the hotel and we were happy it was a close game (14-7) when we left for practice.
At noon, we left for practice, which happened to be not in the facility that we actually play our match in. We played in their intramural building and it was pointless. The reason we practice before a game is to get used to the facility and the people at Iowa had something going on in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, thus we got put in a really small, slippery gym for practice. We got a good stretch in and played dodgeball and knockout since serving and passing proved fruitless. We did find out that our team manager Javi and SID Matt are pretty good dodge ball players and they seemed to have fun knocking all of us out of the game!
After "practice", we went to our pregame meal at Old Chicago, which was delicious. Beth got a stuffed artichoke pizza and I got tortellini. We stuffed ourselves, but we have time to recover.
We have vans this trip, instead of a big bus and we drove back to the hotel after pre-game meal. It is always fun to have vans because we have the "party van", which consists of a group of us that like to jam our music and they we get to play the game "will Mark stay with the group". Mark has a tendency to veer from our group of four vans, and he has proven time and time again to go his own way, but he must have learned his lesson last time because he stayed with us on this trip.
We had about an hour or so in the hotel before the match and we just rested before heading out for the game at 5. Our pre-game warmup is exactly the same for each match. Javi prepares a "mojo" tape, which consists of good plays from the match before and we watch that for five minutes to get pumped up a little bit more before hitting the floor. He also includes an inspirational quote at the end.
We played a really good match tonight against Iowa. We seemed to click better on offense and our defense was played well. We played together and worked as a unit. We ended up winning the match in three sets and got out of Iowa quickly, which is always good on Saturday nights!
After the match we hoped on our charter plane and had the coolest flight attendant EVER! He told us to "lean back like Fat Joe and enjoy the ride!" The flight lasted about a hour and we got back to Ann Arbor around 12:30. On the plane ride home, Cassie learned new tips from Cosmo magazine and tried them out on the team foreigner, Juliana Paz, to see if they worked cross culturally!
Just two more conference matches this weekend and then we wait to see what happens with NCAAs. It should be a pretty emotional week since it is the last regular-season matches of our career. We have parents night and senior night and it will be weird to be possibly playing at Keen for the last time.
That's all for now! Stay tuned for more this week!
Beth & Kerry
DAY 2 -- Friday, Nov. 21 (Written by Kerry Hance)
Today we woke up around 9:40 a.m. in chilly Minneapolis. We had to be at breakfast by 10, which on our team means 9:45. We ate breakfast at Applebee's, which is connected to the hotel. We had some eggs, bacon, cereal, and french toast. It was delicious but a little weird to be eating breakfast in Applebee's!
After breakfast we went back to our rooms and hung out for a while. We had some down time, so a few of us hopped on our computers and watched a good movie with Lindsey Lohan. At around 11:30 we all had to move into three rooms before we went to practice. This is common practice for our team and it is always fun to pile all our stuff into three rooms and then fight to all get ready! Luckily for Beth and I our room was one of the rooms selected so we didn't have to move our stuff. The arena we are playing at is very close to the hotel so we walked to practice and it was FREEZING.
At practice, the passers warmed up with a passing drill, and we all worked on getting used to the Minnesota gym. After practice we had our pre-game meal at Noodles and Co., which was quite tasty. Unfortunately, the tastiness did not last very long because the noodles did not sit well in Veronica Rood's stomach, which made for a very uncomfortable car ride for everyone.
At 5 p.m., we met down in the lobby and headed to the gym. Everyone listened to their iPods, got treated by Wil if needed and mentally prepared for the game at 7 p.m. At 5:45, we served and passed. At 6:15, we started to pepper, stretch, played some defense, and warmed up hitting. The match was rough. We couldn't get in a groove, and we were having trouble connecting as a team. We lost to Minnesota in four sets, and we are glad that match is over with and excited to move onto the next one.
Right after the game we went to the airport and flew the half-hour flight to Iowa. We got in around midnight and conked!
Beth & Kerry
DAY 1 -- Thursday, Nov. 20 (Written by Kerry Hance and Beth Karpiak)
Hi, this is Kerry Hance and Beth Karpiak writing from the Radisson in Minneapolis, Minn., on day one of our last road trip. Today, we had our usual practice at 3 p.m. back home in Ann Arbor. We worked on our serving and passing, and we played a fifteen-point game. Our team won because seniors always WIN! Practice ended around 4:30 p.m. so that we had enough time to scout Minnesota. We went over a great scouting report that Mo (Assistant Coach Amanda Ault) prepared for us, and watched some video on Minnesota playing Wisconsin. We feel well prepared to take on the Golden Gophers tomorrow night.
After practice, we went home to our houses and showered so that we were able to impress our teammates, specifically Lexi Zimmerman, with our wafting fruity scents. We are trying to give Lexi a little hint on her personal hygiene.
Leisa (Rosen) had Qdoba waiting for us when we met at the Tennis Center to board the bus for the airport. It has become a tradition this season to have Qdoba on the big blue bus so we can eat dinner on the way to catch our flight at Willow Run.
We hopped on our plane, which by the way had no overhead bins, and we both slept the entire ride. Charter flights are amazing!
Although each road trip is similarly regimented, each one brings forth new experiences, which make traveling fun. Most of our team bonding takes place on road trips since we have a different roommate each trip, but we will tell you some more stories about that later in the weekend.
Our bus was waiting for us when we landed in Minneapolis. We hopped right on and drove to the hotel where Leisa checked us in and called our roommate assignments. Beth and I had forgotten the tradition that every year the seniors room together on the last road trip!
We got settled into our room and are lying in our comfortable beds which can be adjusted by a remote control! We finished watching Grey's Anatomy and are now watching our Michigan men's basketball team play UCLA on ESPN2 (GO BLUE!).
We have been pondering the enormity of these last couple of weeks ahead of us and how much each of us are going to miss every little detail about playing, but we know that we have some of our most important matches still ahead of us down the stretch.
We are excited to play in the hostile Minnesota gym tomorrow night and we both agree that we are going to miss crazy fans screaming at us!
Beth is craving Applebee's at the moment because there is an Applebee's restaurant connected to our hotel. She specifically wants some boneless buffalo wings.
Although sadness is setting in as we keep thinking that our college playing careers are coming to an end, a view of fried foods on the horizon is getting us through.
It's time for bed. We get an extra hour of sleep since were an hour behind!!!
Be sure to check back tomorrow as we give you a sneak peek into what a day on the road is like with Michigan volleyball!
Beth & Kerry
