North Carolina State University Athletics
Sweet: First Scrimmage Under Our Belts
8/20/2007 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. - This week all 10 of us freshmen seemed to have adjusted well with our busy volleyball schedule. With school approaching, however, we realize that we have much more to worry about than what time we need to be in the gym or dressed and ready for weights. We are constantly questioning when we are going to have time to get our books, look for our classes, and get supplies for school. It seems that every time we have a couple hours of free time, all we want to do is rest our aching and tired muscles by sleeping or watching TV.
This past week practices have been pretty tough; the coaches have been expecting a lot more out of us now, and we have had a couple of frustrating practices. Even though we occasionally leave the gym disappointed in our performance during practice, we always return to the next practice with our intensity and competitiveness turned up and we take care of business. Usually the coaches are happy with our new found energy, but there are still a few drills that we struggle with and can't seem to perfect. Another challenge this past week was the heat during practice at Reynolds Coliseum. Not only does the heat wear us down physically, but it also takes a mental toll on us. It has been our goal all week to push through the heat and not let it affect our play.
On Friday we had our Red & White scrimmage. We played three full games and one game to fifteen. The scrimmage was our first "practice" match, and we did everything we would normally for a real competition; dress up and go to pre-game, do our match warm-up, wear our uniforms. We even had referees, an announcer, fans, and everyone else who helps and supports us during a match. For the upperclassman, I'm sure that it was a run through of what they have been doing forever, but for us freshman it was awesome. It really did feel like our first match. Even though we were just playing our teammates, nerves were running everywhere, but as we played we began to loosen up and compete like we know how to do.
The scrimmage overall was very productive. We learned a lot about the positive and negative tendencies of our team and teammates in those two hours. After the scrimmage we left the coliseum on a high and felt that we did well and accomplished a lot. The next day, however, our coaches had us watch the film. We all decided it wasn't as great as we thought, and we realized we still have a lot to work on and much more to accomplish as a team. Within the past few days, we have been pushing ourselves mentally and physically in everything we do.
Thank you again to all the fans that took the opportunity to come out and support us. We are looking forward to seeing you all at our future matches.
Talk to you next week.
RALEIGH, N.C. - This week all 10 of us freshmen seemed to have adjusted well with our busy volleyball schedule. With school approaching, however, we realize that we have much more to worry about than what time we need to be in the gym or dressed and ready for weights. We are constantly questioning when we are going to have time to get our books, look for our classes, and get supplies for school. It seems that every time we have a couple hours of free time, all we want to do is rest our aching and tired muscles by sleeping or watching TV.
This past week practices have been pretty tough; the coaches have been expecting a lot more out of us now, and we have had a couple of frustrating practices. Even though we occasionally leave the gym disappointed in our performance during practice, we always return to the next practice with our intensity and competitiveness turned up and we take care of business. Usually the coaches are happy with our new found energy, but there are still a few drills that we struggle with and can't seem to perfect. Another challenge this past week was the heat during practice at Reynolds Coliseum. Not only does the heat wear us down physically, but it also takes a mental toll on us. It has been our goal all week to push through the heat and not let it affect our play.
On Friday we had our Red & White scrimmage. We played three full games and one game to fifteen. The scrimmage was our first "practice" match, and we did everything we would normally for a real competition; dress up and go to pre-game, do our match warm-up, wear our uniforms. We even had referees, an announcer, fans, and everyone else who helps and supports us during a match. For the upperclassman, I'm sure that it was a run through of what they have been doing forever, but for us freshman it was awesome. It really did feel like our first match. Even though we were just playing our teammates, nerves were running everywhere, but as we played we began to loosen up and compete like we know how to do.
The scrimmage overall was very productive. We learned a lot about the positive and negative tendencies of our team and teammates in those two hours. After the scrimmage we left the coliseum on a high and felt that we did well and accomplished a lot. The next day, however, our coaches had us watch the film. We all decided it wasn't as great as we thought, and we realized we still have a lot to work on and much more to accomplish as a team. Within the past few days, we have been pushing ourselves mentally and physically in everything we do.
Thank you again to all the fans that took the opportunity to come out and support us. We are looking forward to seeing you all at our future matches.
Talk to you next week.
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