Piedmont College volleyball fans will be able to get the inside scoop about the PC's volleyball team's trip to Texas for the upcoming NCAA Division-III National Tournament through a daily blog from freshman Jennifer Granlund. Jennifer, who hails from Millbrook, AL, is in her first year as a member of the PC volleyball team. She has volunteered to write a daily blog (journal) to give fans an inside look at the team's preparation, travel, and other behind the scenes perspectives of the team's first-ever NCAA tournament appearance.
Friday, November 9th - Return Trip & Final Words
This morning we woke up especially early to head off to the Dallas Ft. Worth airport while the realization that our season was finally over sunk in. However, it was not deeply saddening to us because we know that we fought hard and had a terrific season overall. On the plane many fellow passengers asked about where our team were from and how we did. All of the people were quite impressed when we proudly informed them of our successes. Our team is young and we show a lot of promise for next season! Our final trip home was safe, successful, and reminiscent. Our team is left with a very special bond of knowing that we all helped carry Piedmont College Volleyball to its first ever NCAA tournament! Now the rest of this week, we will wrap up our season with individual meetings and team evaluations, followed by our banquet next weekend.
Thursday, November 8th - Game Day
Today we woke up and it was game day, but before we got to play we were allowed a 25 minute practice in the morning. That went pretty good and left us confident for our game at 6:00 this evening. After our practice, we came back to the hotel for a little rest and time to relax. Then we were ready to go eat, go shopping at a country store, and play our much anticipated match against #8 Emory University. Although the game did not turn out in our favor, no one can complain about our debut in the national tournament. Now we know what our team can look forward to next year and the years to follow. I believe this experience has been an unforgettable one for us all and underclassmen want nothing less than to repeat this again! Even though our season ended with a loss, as Coach O'Brien pointed out, there is only one lucky team that can end with a win. After the completion of our match, we stuck around to watch the first game of the Austin College/Texas Lutheran match. Then we were off to eat at a highly recommended local restaurant. It was good to experience the culture of Texas and since we are so close to the border of Oklahoma, of course we had to make a stop there. Now we have pictures to remember this trip by of being at both the Oklahoma border and the Texas border. Like I have said before, these memories will just make us want to repeat this experience time and time again, so the Piedmont College volleyball team will continue to strive for excellence!
Wednesday, November 7th -- Travel Day
So today would have been just another ordinary day at school, except for the fact that when my mother called to wake me up she told me to have a wonderful time. When she said that, I immediately remembered that today was the day that my team would be leaving for Texas! We have been looking forward to this since Saturday. When myself and a fellow teammate arrived at the gym, we were surprised to see a big following of people that would be joining us in Texas to show their support for our team. We all loaded in the vans and were on our way to the airport. How exciting!!! The check-in at the airport went smoothly, we all got something to eat, and then played our favorite team bonding game, "the animal game", while we were waiting for our plane to depart. The time seemed to fly by, but once we got in the air, a few of us had to finish our hours of study hall which then brought us all the way to finally arriving in Texas! We were all pretty exhausted at this point, but our day had really just begun. We then loaded back into vans and were off to Austin College for our 55 minutes of practice. We tried to make the most out of our short amount of time and I think the practice made us all feel more comfortable about playing there tomorrow. Besides winning volleyball games, the only other thing on our teams mind is eating!! We ate a scrumptious meal at Chili's, followed by the search for our resort. Pulling up to the buildings, there was only one thing running through our minds...how lucky are we? This is definitely the nicest place we have stayed and we are all so excited. Now we are off to swim for a little, then back to preparing for what I hope will be a victorious day for my team tomorrow!!
Tuesday, November 6th -- Preparations
Today was our last day of classes for the week. It was a little hectic because we were all trying to take tests and talk with our teachers to see what we'd be missing in our classes. In between our classes and practice, I know several of my teammates including myself took a much needed nap! Maybe this is because we are all worn out from feelings of excitement left over from the weekend. Today's practice wasn't as strong intensity wise as yesterday, but we still got done what we needed to accomplished. One part that might have made practice a little more difficult is because several of the girls might be getting sick and our right-side hitter was not practicing due to illness. I'm just hoping that we'll all be healthy and ready to play at regionals! Once practice was over, myself and several other freshmen had to sit in the mandatory study hall for this week before we leave tomorrow. I can't wait until I don't have to worry about doing study hall anymore. Once we are done, we will have to go back to our rooms and get started packing since we are leaving early tomorrow morning. I know that we are all hyped for the upcoming days since this will be our first plane trip together as a team. For me, this is only the beginning of my college career, but for the seniors, it sure is the way to finish their four years of experience and leave the rest of the team striving for more.
Monday, November 5th -- Conference Champions!!
Today was the first day of classes since our big conference tournament win over Maryville College. The whole day we were hearing “congratulations” or “way to go” from our friends, classmates, and professors. Also, early this morning, we found out that we would be playing in Sherman, Texas against one of our regular season opponents, Emory University. After our amazing weekend of play on Friday defeating Huntingdon and Saturday crushing Maryville and a day of rest on Sunday, we were all ready to get back to practice and prepare for our upcoming game in the NCAA Division-III national tournament beginning Thursday. Our practice consisted of lifting weights, a few of our favorite team bonding games in the locker room, and then an intense practice. We were all working hard with a major focus on blocking, passing, and hustling for every ball. The whole team is just excited for Thursday’s game, and I know that we will come out just as pumped as we did for our GSAC tournament games!!!
