Throughout the course of the 2012 season, MVNU senior outfielder MacKenzie Shaw will write a weekly blog about what is happening with the softball team.

"Ready to Take the Field" (posted on March 5, 2012)

Hello Cougar Nation!

It's hard to believe it's time for our weekly blog updates to begin. This goofy weather has thrown us all for a loop this year. While you have been watching Jeremy Lin on SportsCenter or cheering for your favorite contestant on The Voice, the Lady Cougar softball team has been working hard. My name is MacKenzie Shaw and I will be updating the blog weekly. I will be filling you in on games, introducing you to our team, posting pictures, and more that likely telling you funny stories. Writing this blog is a bittersweet thing for me as this will be my third and final year writing the blog. As a senior this year, I am so excited to see what the future holds, not only for my own life, but the life of my team. So, let me start with a recap of this school year so far!

We kicked off our year in the fall with a tournament at Youngstown State University. We headed to Youngstown on a Friday night for a team bonding experience, that if I am honest, we will NEVER forget. The night consisted of giggling, screaming, falling in mud and climbing a 50-foot hill in the dark. Senior pitcher Meagan Stotts' family runs a church camp near Youngstown. We spent the night there becoming closer as a team and learning a little bit about each other. This was our first team bonding experience, so we learned everything from some of the girls' stories about their fears to even who talks in their sleep at night. The next Saturday, we played three games finishing the day 1-1-1. Unfortunately, due to the weather (imagine that) we were unable to play any more games in the fall. We spent the next few weeks working on the fundamentals of the game.

During the off-season, our team worked hard to complete weekly timed miles. This was a first-time experience for the Cougars, but we rose to the challenge. We did a lot of lifting and hitting on our own to better ourselves for the spring. In January, we worked hard on conditioning and getting into great shape for the upcoming season. February rolled around and it was time to hit the ground running. The whole month we worked hard in the gym, and occasionally on the field, to make ourselves better. We have come along way and are ready to play!

We will kick off our season March 7th at home against Ursuline at 3:00. We then travel to Rio Grande on Thursday, March 8th. We come back to our home turf on Saturday, March 10th for another doubleheader against Salem University beginning at 1:00. This is the first time we have been able to play some games before we go on our Spring Trip to Florida. We are very excited to get some games under our belt before we take the field down in the Sunshine State.

I will begin to introduce you to some of my amazing teammates next week! You will meet a few of them each week! Thanks for reading and we hope to see you out at some of our games this week! Go Cougars!

MacKenzie

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