At the Net with Katherine Mahlke
5/31/2017 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
May 31, 2017
Throughout the offseason and heading into the 2017 season, the Wolverines will give fans an inside look at the Michigan volleyball program with the At the Net blogs. This week, rising senior captain Katherine Mahlke discusses her spring classes, a visit home and preparations for the upcoming 2017 season.
Spring is finally here! After enduring long and cold winters, spring is always such an enjoyable time of year in Ann Arbor. The weather is finally nice, and campus is a bit quieter but not quite empty. With sunshine and warmth more often than not each day, there seems to be so much to do! From tanning at the docks to floating down the river to exploring Kerry Town, the beautiful spring days have only just begun! I'm excited to see what the rest of these days have in store.
This past weekend for Memorial Day, like a lot of the team, I went home. Home for me is in Downers Grove, Illinois, which is a western suburb of Chicago. I had a busy weekend, getting to spend time with my parents, siblings, grandma, aunt and some friends from high school. I even got to go downtown Chicago to soak up the sun at North Avenue Beach and enjoy some Chicago pizza. However, one of my favorite parts of the weekend was going out for breakfast with all of my siblings on Saturday. This weekend was the first time the four of us had all been home together since the end of December! With all of our crazy busy schedules, we always make sure to take advantage of the time we have together.
Back in Ann Arbor, I am taking spring classes like most of the girls on the team. This week marks the halfway point of the spring term, which is hard to believe because time seems to have flown by! While spring term often includes a condensed version of the winter and fall term courses, classes are more laid back, which is nice. The professors and GSIs, just like us, want to enjoy the beautiful weather so they try to not to load us up with too much work (or at least I like to think so). I am enjoying my Psych Research Methods and Medical Sociology classes, and I'm looking forward to keep learning a lot in the next three weeks or so!
With most girls from the team on campus, we have been working out and training together to get ready for August. Our strength and conditioning coach, Mike Favre, has given us great workouts so we can push each other to get better. We have also been having volleyball open gyms, which are fun because we just get to play! While this time of year none of us have to be in the gym, it's hard to stay away. I'm looking forward to seeing how the work we are doing now will help us as the season gets underway in August!
GO BLUE!
Katherine Mahlke
