North Carolina State University Athletics
Sweet: Playing Together as a Team
11/5/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Follow freshman Nikki Sweet's first year with the Wolfpack program each week via the NC State volleyball blog on GoPack.com. Nikki will keep fans up to speed on the latest happenings of the team; discussing practices, training, matches and much more.
RALEIGH, N.C. - After coming home from our rough road trip last week, we took Sunday off to rest, and than headed back to the court for a short practice of serve and pass on Monday. We then headed down to the locker room to have a short meeting about our match coming up the next day against our rival North Carolina. We discussed using the rivalry to our benefit, and coming ready to play. It was our last chance this season to come out with a win against them.
Traveling to Chapel Hill this past Tuesday was not the experience we were looking for. We wanted to redeem ourselves so bad from the previous match against them that we came out nervous. We hung with them most of the first game, but they slowly started pulling away halfway through the game, and ended up winning. The second game we loosened up a lot, and came out ready to play. We played as a team, and fought hard each point. We were trailing behind towards the end of the game, but pulled ourselves out to tie the game 29-29. A service error from us gave them the lead to make it 30-29. Despite our hard work and intensity, we couldn’t win the next point and dropped the second game 31-29. Our spirits were down after this, and we couldn’t get off to a strong start in the third game. The Tar Heels started off well and continued throughout the third game, and they ended up winning the match in three. Disappointment and hurt filled the locker room after the match. We were upset in ourselves for not playing our level of volleyball, and allowing them to take us down. We realized, however, that we still had a long week ahead of us and that we shouldn’t allow the loss to effect our play.
On Wednesday we took the day off to rest, and than came back to another short, two-hour practice on Thursday. We did another round of serve and receive, and than an hour of intrasquad scrimmaging. After Thursday’s practice we all agreed that we felt pretty good about the upcoming match, and that Tuesday was in our past.
Friday we had a home match against Maryland. We again dropped the match in three; however, there was nothing significantly wrong with our overall play. They went on a few serving runs, and our passing and hitting broke down a few times. In the end, we couldn’t put a finger on the exact cause of our loss. After the match, we had our usual post-match discussion. We talked about a few things, but then someone brought up something that hadn’t been discussed yet. It was that we didn’t look like we were playing as a team. We looked like six individuals out there, each doing our job, but not coming together as a team. We realized that the only way that we will come out of any match with a win is by playing together as a team, and by playing for each other.
We had our last match of the week on Sunday against Boston College. We came out in the first and second game with a lot of intensity, but we couldn’t execute our plays. This hurt us and we lost both the first games. We then decided that it was time to play for each other, and not as six individuals. This gave us that extra edge, and we pulled out an exciting win in the third game. With all of us pumped up, we came out in the fourth game extremely strong. With this energy, and our ability to play as a team, we worked ourselves up to a good eight-point lead. However, a couple of serving runs from Boston College allowed them to slowly catch up with us. Determined not to let this game get away from us, we fought hard with heart, competitiveness, and intensity the remainder of the fourth game, but we couldn’t win back the lead, and lost the match in four 30-27. Happy with our ability to fight back but devastated with the end result, we headed down to the locker room for a brief post match meeting.
We are back in action at home again this coming week as we take on Virginia on Thursday night at 7 p.m., and Virginia Tech on Friday night at 7 p.m. We look forward to seeing you there!
RALEIGH, N.C. - After coming home from our rough road trip last week, we took Sunday off to rest, and than headed back to the court for a short practice of serve and pass on Monday. We then headed down to the locker room to have a short meeting about our match coming up the next day against our rival North Carolina. We discussed using the rivalry to our benefit, and coming ready to play. It was our last chance this season to come out with a win against them.
Traveling to Chapel Hill this past Tuesday was not the experience we were looking for. We wanted to redeem ourselves so bad from the previous match against them that we came out nervous. We hung with them most of the first game, but they slowly started pulling away halfway through the game, and ended up winning. The second game we loosened up a lot, and came out ready to play. We played as a team, and fought hard each point. We were trailing behind towards the end of the game, but pulled ourselves out to tie the game 29-29. A service error from us gave them the lead to make it 30-29. Despite our hard work and intensity, we couldn’t win the next point and dropped the second game 31-29. Our spirits were down after this, and we couldn’t get off to a strong start in the third game. The Tar Heels started off well and continued throughout the third game, and they ended up winning the match in three. Disappointment and hurt filled the locker room after the match. We were upset in ourselves for not playing our level of volleyball, and allowing them to take us down. We realized, however, that we still had a long week ahead of us and that we shouldn’t allow the loss to effect our play.
On Wednesday we took the day off to rest, and than came back to another short, two-hour practice on Thursday. We did another round of serve and receive, and than an hour of intrasquad scrimmaging. After Thursday’s practice we all agreed that we felt pretty good about the upcoming match, and that Tuesday was in our past.
Friday we had a home match against Maryland. We again dropped the match in three; however, there was nothing significantly wrong with our overall play. They went on a few serving runs, and our passing and hitting broke down a few times. In the end, we couldn’t put a finger on the exact cause of our loss. After the match, we had our usual post-match discussion. We talked about a few things, but then someone brought up something that hadn’t been discussed yet. It was that we didn’t look like we were playing as a team. We looked like six individuals out there, each doing our job, but not coming together as a team. We realized that the only way that we will come out of any match with a win is by playing together as a team, and by playing for each other.
We had our last match of the week on Sunday against Boston College. We came out in the first and second game with a lot of intensity, but we couldn’t execute our plays. This hurt us and we lost both the first games. We then decided that it was time to play for each other, and not as six individuals. This gave us that extra edge, and we pulled out an exciting win in the third game. With all of us pumped up, we came out in the fourth game extremely strong. With this energy, and our ability to play as a team, we worked ourselves up to a good eight-point lead. However, a couple of serving runs from Boston College allowed them to slowly catch up with us. Determined not to let this game get away from us, we fought hard with heart, competitiveness, and intensity the remainder of the fourth game, but we couldn’t win back the lead, and lost the match in four 30-27. Happy with our ability to fight back but devastated with the end result, we headed down to the locker room for a brief post match meeting.
We are back in action at home again this coming week as we take on Virginia on Thursday night at 7 p.m., and Virginia Tech on Friday night at 7 p.m. We look forward to seeing you there!
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