Iowa State senior volleyball player Erin Boeve will be writing a weekly blog this season to give Cyclone fans an insiders look at the happenings of the program, which last year advanced to the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in school history. Boeve, a middle blocker from Steen, Minn., became the first Cyclone to earn AVCA All-American Honorable Mention honors a year ago. She also was the first ISU volleyballer to be named first-team All-Big 12 and the league's Co-Defensive Player of the Year. A preseason All-Big 12 selection this year, Boeve is the school's record holder for career block assists and owns the top-two single seasons in school history as well.
November 26, 2007
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Hello to all the Cyclone volleyball fans! This week I am going to start off with the most exciting news first, we made it into the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row!!! This is the first time that the Iowa State volleyball team has gone to the tournament in back-to-back years! We will play in Madison, Wis., on Friday night against San Diego!
Now back to our final week of Big 12 play. It was a little different this week as we had the whole week of classes off for Thanksgiving break, so we were able to practice in the morning and have the rest of the day off. We also didn't have to do any traveling as both of our matches were home, so it was a very relaxing week.
We kicked of the week by playing No. 3 Texas on Wednesday night. We ended up losing in a heartbreaking fifth game. We started off the night losing the first two games, but after the break we came back and won games three and four. We had them right where we wanted them in game five with a score of 14-9, but we weren't able to finish. We ended up losing the fifth game with a score of 18-16. We put up a great fight but it would have been awesome to get the win!
We had a shorter practice on Thanksgiving morning and then we were given time off until Friday afternoon to allow us to go home and spend Thanksgiving with our families. Some players that lived closer to Ames went home, but ones that lived further away like me got together and spent Thanksgiving Day right here in Ames.
Saturday marked another important match for us as we played No. 21 Oklahoma right here in Hilton Coliseum. We won the match in four games. We each won one game going into the break, but we were able to win the next two games following! This was another much needed win for us in order to be considered for the NCAA tournament. After the match, the seniors were honored as it is the last time we will ever play in Hilton Coliseum. I was too excited about the win to be sad about the conclusion of the regular season.
Now it is on to the NCAA tournament!!! What we have been working for all season is finally here! Our tentative plan is to leave on Wednesday night after practice in order to get over there and practice on Thursday before our match on Friday. We are very familiar with the court at Wisconsin as it is the same place we played in the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament last year!
I will be back next week to inform you on the first and second rounds of the tournament! Have a great week!
Go Cyclones!
Erin Boeve
