Hello! I hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day Weekend. The Cyclones sure did after having a great time in Arizona and having the day off Monday after a busy week with practices, matches and traveling.
On Tuesday night we had another home match, this time it was against Creighton. By now you have probably heard that we came up short and did not get the win we wanted. We tried not to dwell on the loss too long as we knew we had a busy weekend ahead of us in Arizona.
We left at 5 a.m. on Thursday morning to catch our flight out of Des Moines to Phoenix. When we arrived in Phoenix it was about 110 degrees, very hot! We grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed off to practice. We were a little tired and stiff from the plane ride but we managed to make it through. That night we had a team dinner at Macaroni Grill, it was really good! It ended up being a long day considering the time change gave us an extra 2 hours!
Friday was the day the Arizona State tournament began. Thank goodness the facility we played in was air conditioned, because it was another hot day of 100+ temperatures. Our first match was against Northern Arizona. We won in four games; it sure was nice to get a win under our belt right away! We then had a break before our next one against New Mexico. The scores were close in each game, but lost that match in three. On Saturday, we only played one match against Arizona State. We took them to 5 games, but lost. The fifth game was close the whole way, but we just didn't come out on top. We really learned that every single point is very important. Sunday was our last match, which was against Long Island. We won the match in 4 games! It was a great win for us to have before we headed back to Iowa! Right after the match we said our goodbyes to our fans, showered up and headed to the airport. We arrived in Ames at about 12:30 a.m. on Monday morning.
Many of you are probably wondering how the transition from middle to outside hitter is going. I would have to say it is getting better every day! The hardest part is the timing and waiting for the sets, rather than being up in the air and the sets being shot at you. So, if you see me totally miss the ball and/or hit out of bounds and come down slightly smiling it is because my timing was way off! The tournament this weekend went much better for me than the first couple matches of the season, hopefully it continues to get better from here on out.
Now we are anticipating another busy week as we head to Cedar Falls on Wednesday to play our intrastate rival, UNI. It should be a great match, so come and cheer us on!
Go State!
