Here's an update of our volleyball season. We were going through some ups and downs during the season, especially earlier, in September. We lost one of our best players, Tamijo Foronda, due to a freak accident that left her with a torn tendon and in a cast for two months. Luckily, she is going to be able to play next year.

After she was injured, we spent the next few weeks struggling to regain the chemistry we had achieved, experimenting with a new lineup. In October, we struck jackpot. We only lost one game since the end of September, winning 15 out of 16 games since then. The single game we've lost since then is Juniata, a strong volleyball program that consistently makes a showing in the NCAA tournament, and has been 2nd seeded in the nation for Division III schools since the beginning of the season.

Last week we began postseason play, consistening of single elimination play. Since we were the number one seed in our conference, the CAC (Capitol Athletic Conference), we had the home advantage throughout the whole tournament. The whole week was nervewracking for me, knowing that the season could end my career prematurely. Tuesday we played against the #8 seed, Goucher, beating them out 3-0. On Thursday we played the #4 seed, Mary Washington, and beat them out 3-0 as well. On Saturday we had a more formidable opponent, Marymount University, making only their second showing to a CAC championship match since the CAC was established. Marymount brought some tough offense and won the first game, but once we established that we were tougher offensively, and blocked more balls and served tougher, there was no stopping us. We won 3-1, my second chance at the NCAA's, since any conference champion is automatically given berth to the NCAA tournament.

Two years ago, in 2003 I was part of the team that won the CAC's as well. Only back then it was under very different circumstances. For one, we were a much younger team. We also had less than a .500 record. This year we have a record of 22-11, going into the NCAA's. In 2003 we had to go all the way to California to participate in the NCAA's. Granted, California was awesome, and everything was paid for, but we were sent there because our region was full with more qualified teams, and our record was not good enough. We were sent where there were openings in the bracket.

This year, it's a different story. We worked hard the whole season to be ranked in our Mid-Atlantic Region. Ranking would help us stay in the Region for the NCAA Tournament. The last two weeks, we were on the bubble for 8th place in the region, and finally got it. After the CAC championship, our ranking moved up to fourth place because many teams that had been ranked didn't make it into the NCAA's. Thus, everything's going to be a flurry. Tomorrow there is going to be a pep rally specifically for our entrance into the NCAA's. Wednesday morning, we depart at 7 am. We then have practice for 55 minutes at the Juniata gym. Thursday we have a 30 minute practice at 8:30 am I think. Then at 3:30 p.m. we play against the College of Notre Dame. If we win, we will play the next day, Friday, at 7 p.m. against the host team, Juniata. If we win that, we will have entered the sweet sixteen and play on Saturday against the team that won the other bracket. I truly want to win this thing.