Well, our season is officially in full swing because we have finally started our conference matches. Changing conferences this year has definitely been a different experience for several reasons. First, we have to travel VERY far in order to play these new teams. The closest team is about three or four hours away, so traveling those long hours all the time definitely can wear on you. Along with that, our new conference is definitely a competitive one. I do not know one single team that would be considered weak in any way. It is great for us to compete with all these phenomenal teams and we need to be ready to step up to the challenge.

Our first conference match was last week against Bethel, and it was our first time traveling five hours then playing right away. I will just use that as an excuse for the reason we lost in four that night. We started off a little slow, but soon after we picked it up to make it a close match although not enough to pull the big "W". I think we just did not know what to expect, but next time when we play them at home, you can guarantee that we will be ready to play them with a vengeance.

That very next weekend, we traveled up to Michigan to play Spring Arbor. Determined to play better than the Bethel match, we hustled a lot more. We did play much better, but we came up a little short losing in four once again. The little mistakes that we made on our own side is what caused us to struggle. We have definitely been working through those and will be ready for that rematch here in the near future.

The very next day we traveled to Indiana (did I mention it was a lot of traveling?) to play St. Francis. We were so determined to win a match that weekend and we were not going to lose three in a row. We were strong right from the beginning, and we played a great match. St. Francis was not going to be an easy team to beat, though, and with very close games we pulled off a win in five games with the last game having a score of 17-15. It was definitely a nail-biter, but it was great to get our confidence back and know that we can hang in this conference. A class from Avilla Elementary School in Indiana (below) came to cheer us on throughout the whole match, and they were absolutely adorable! They had an MVNU flag and signs to support us. We were able to talk to them and thank them after the game and they gave us little goody bags for our ride home. One little boy asked us for our autographs, and it felt so great to be able to win in front of them.

Then, just this past Wednesday, we traveled back to Indiana again for our match with Grace. Grace has really been playing great this season thus far, and considering our record we were definitely the underdogs for this match. After a big pep talk, we knew that we had to play our best and leave it all on the court in order to pull out a win. We had the confidence and we knew that beating this team was definitely not out of reach, and the first two games, we proved that. We were so cohesive and played so well and the result showed because we took the first two games. With only needing to win one more, the third and fourth games slipped through our fingers due to some long runs and some crucial hits by Grace. It then went into game five, and we had the hope that we could upset this team. We started off strong and were up. Then after a little run by Grace, it was neck and neck until we lost 15-13 in the fifth. It was SO disappointing to be so close and yet fall up short again. The thing is that we are getting better each and every day, and it is crazy to think that if we just believe we can beat some of these great teams, we actually can surprise people and ourselves and beat them. We may be under the radar right now, but we are going to peak when everyone least expects it and once we do I think we can do great things. We are on our way there and we are really close, but we just have to keep the "go-getter" attitude and keep on working hard in every practice and I know that we will get there. We will no longer need the "we are young" excuse because that will not be an issue. Even though we lost the Grace match, it really fueled us to just want to get better and pick it up which is awesome.

This week, I am going to introduce freshman right-side hitter, #15, Molly Gerber from Garaway. The first time I ever met Molly was last year as a potential recruit, and I was her partner for warm-ups. Maybe not even ten minutes into practice, she tells me that if she could she would put me "in her pocket." From that moment on, I knew that she was meant to be on our team. If I had to describe Molly in one word, it would be energetic! She is always ready to go whether it’s practice, hitting, or just going to dinner. She is always so lively and just fun to be around. She is always encouraging others on the team whether you do something great and she YELLS it in your ear to let you know you did a "good job" or she will tell you to shake it off and to make you feel better about a mistake. She is always talking which is great for our team to have someone like that who is so verbal. The only bad thing is that she is always constantly calling lines to let a teammate know whether a ball is in or out and she is always about 95% wrong. She is great to joke around with and I love having her on the team. She is so full of potential and has really stepped it up for us when we needed her most. She is really filling in her role well on the team and I love her dearly.
This weekend is HUGE for us because we have two big conference matches and they are home! We finally can have all our fans cheering for us once again, and that will help tremendously because these teams are no joke. We play Indiana Wesleyan Friday at 7 p.m. and Marian on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. We want to pull off two big wins in front of our home crowd. Indiana Wesleyan has always been a strong team, and they will put up a challenge to say the least. We really need to pull together and play our best to beat them. I cannot wait to play home once again, and I hope to see you all there! Thank you for all your support!! Stay classy, MVNU!