North Carolina State University Athletics
Sweet: Starting ACC Play
9/17/2007 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. The week before last, which included a week of long practices and participation in the Holiday Inn Brownstone Volleyball Challenge, was a tiring time for us both physically and mentally. We took last Sunday off to relax and catch up with schoolwork, and then Monday we were back in the weight room for an hour of lifting. We returned to the court Tuesday after a couple days of rest and began our week of practices on a good note. Most of the week, and especially Tuesday, we worked on breaking down our technique and making our serves tougher and more accurate. Overall the week was a step up from the previous one. We slowed down the game some in order to work on particular areas, but we kept up the intensity and competitiveness we found in the previous week of practices.
Friday was a busy and anxious day for all of us. We all had class that morning, but a lot of us were mentally preparing ourselves for the big match later that evening. As we patiently waited out the day, we would occasionally see another player or two around campus and talk excitedly about our match against North Carolina. Finally the time came for us to meet for pre-game and prepare for the match which was now only hours away. We hastily ate, and then headed off to the locker room to get ready to start warming up for the match. The warm-up flew by and before we knew it the referee had blown the whistle and the match had begun.
The match was full of excitement and frustration. We were all so excited to begin the ACC season at home by playing our rival team, but our frustration was evident as the match advanced. We were doing some great things that we had practiced over the past week, but we couldn’t fix mistakes that we were consistently making. We fought hard each game and always came out in the next game intense and ready to play. Our fans did a great job of keeping us on our toes and cheering us on. We had a great turn out and we thank all of you who had the opportunity to come out and support us. Unfortunately, however, our night ended with a 3-0 loss. Our post-match discussion was very productive, and we hit on a few points that we realized we needed to work on if we wanted to be successful this season. We all know that we have the ability to do some great things, but we need the right mindset in order to accomplish them.
At the end of our post-match discussion we agreed that when we woke up the next morning, the match would be behind us and that we would begin looking to the future. This is exactly what we did. We woke up Saturday and headed off to do community service. I had the privilege of getting to help out with the girl scouts in my hometown of Apex. We then headed off to the football game to sign autographs and attend our first game of the year.
It was such an amazing experience for us freshman to get to attend our first football game and see the strong school spirit NC State has. It was also great to be able to sign autographs and meet some of our fans Friday after our match and Saturday before the game. Us freshman have never had an experience like that before. We all had so much fun Saturday, and it was great for us to have been there to support our football team to its first win. We know, however, that we will be all business come Monday as we head back to the gym to begin preparing for another big match on Friday.
Thank you again to everyone who had the opportunity to come out and support us this past Friday night. Please come out again this Friday as we take on Clemson at 7 p.m., and Georgia Tech on Sunday at 2 p.m. Both matches are in Reynolds.
RALEIGH, N.C. The week before last, which included a week of long practices and participation in the Holiday Inn Brownstone Volleyball Challenge, was a tiring time for us both physically and mentally. We took last Sunday off to relax and catch up with schoolwork, and then Monday we were back in the weight room for an hour of lifting. We returned to the court Tuesday after a couple days of rest and began our week of practices on a good note. Most of the week, and especially Tuesday, we worked on breaking down our technique and making our serves tougher and more accurate. Overall the week was a step up from the previous one. We slowed down the game some in order to work on particular areas, but we kept up the intensity and competitiveness we found in the previous week of practices.
Friday was a busy and anxious day for all of us. We all had class that morning, but a lot of us were mentally preparing ourselves for the big match later that evening. As we patiently waited out the day, we would occasionally see another player or two around campus and talk excitedly about our match against North Carolina. Finally the time came for us to meet for pre-game and prepare for the match which was now only hours away. We hastily ate, and then headed off to the locker room to get ready to start warming up for the match. The warm-up flew by and before we knew it the referee had blown the whistle and the match had begun.
The match was full of excitement and frustration. We were all so excited to begin the ACC season at home by playing our rival team, but our frustration was evident as the match advanced. We were doing some great things that we had practiced over the past week, but we couldn’t fix mistakes that we were consistently making. We fought hard each game and always came out in the next game intense and ready to play. Our fans did a great job of keeping us on our toes and cheering us on. We had a great turn out and we thank all of you who had the opportunity to come out and support us. Unfortunately, however, our night ended with a 3-0 loss. Our post-match discussion was very productive, and we hit on a few points that we realized we needed to work on if we wanted to be successful this season. We all know that we have the ability to do some great things, but we need the right mindset in order to accomplish them.
At the end of our post-match discussion we agreed that when we woke up the next morning, the match would be behind us and that we would begin looking to the future. This is exactly what we did. We woke up Saturday and headed off to do community service. I had the privilege of getting to help out with the girl scouts in my hometown of Apex. We then headed off to the football game to sign autographs and attend our first game of the year.
It was such an amazing experience for us freshman to get to attend our first football game and see the strong school spirit NC State has. It was also great to be able to sign autographs and meet some of our fans Friday after our match and Saturday before the game. Us freshman have never had an experience like that before. We all had so much fun Saturday, and it was great for us to have been there to support our football team to its first win. We know, however, that we will be all business come Monday as we head back to the gym to begin preparing for another big match on Friday.
Thank you again to everyone who had the opportunity to come out and support us this past Friday night. Please come out again this Friday as we take on Clemson at 7 p.m., and Georgia Tech on Sunday at 2 p.m. Both matches are in Reynolds.
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