Dec. 4 - Alaina Sully

Starting with last week, we hosted the San Jose Spartans on Tuesday night. We were all very excited to play them at home and came out with fire. Our team swept them in three which was the perfect way to finish up the regular season. It was an exciting game especially for our seniors but we weren't done yet. We knew that the NCAA selection was soon to come and couldn't wait to see who we were up against next.

The team left for home the next day for a nice Thanksgiving break.

After spending the last few days eating turkey, relaxing with family, and taking a little break we are back on the court and back to work. Our team has been working so hard this year for everything we have accomplished and now we are working even harder. On Sunday we all came back from home and later that night we sat together in the Bill Russell room eagerly watching the NCAA selection show. We learned that we would play the first round versus Duke at UCLA. All of us are so excited for this weekend to fight for our spot in the tournament. We will be practicing hard and preparing for the game this week and be ready to fight on Friday.

It is great to have the coaches, parents, and our USF family behind us all the way no matter where we compete. We love them and know that they will all be with us during this important game.

Nov. 25 - Anna Berger

This past weekend we traveled to Southern California to play Pepperdine and LMU. Four girls including myself, Sarah Mendella, Chelsey Lowe, and Alaina Sully are all from Southern California so it was an exciting trip to play at home. Coming off of a big senior weekend beating Santa Clara and St.Mary's we kept the same focus going into the Pepperdine match. It was a battle and as Coach Doron said we have to give them credit for how hard they played. Although it was a night of defeat we woke up the next morning ready to work. At LMU we had a hard practice and were able to sweat out everything from the night before getting prepared for the next day. Waking up Saturday morning we had breakfast in the hotel and were off to the gym, spirits were high and we were ready to go.

Believing is what our team has done this whole year. Starting with our coaching staff believing all the way down to every individual knowing that if we believe we can do it, no one is there to stop us. Our no die attitude is contagious on the court and it showed when LMU put us to the test. In the end it was a victory and an overall finish of 2nd place in the WCC.

Coming to the end of another chapter in our season we will be anxiously waiting for the results of the selection show on Sunday for the first round of the NCAA playoffs.

A special thanks goes out to all of our fans, especially to the parents, the support is amazing! Go Dons!

Nov. 17 - Sarah Mandala

The USF volleyball team had such an amazing weekend at home that included a wonderful senior day and two great wins. We defeated Santa Clara 3-0 who is nationally ranked - No. 21 - on Thursday night with over 1000 attendants. We also broke St. Mary's winning streak of 6 games defeating them 3-1 on Saturday which was also our senior day. Our seniors absolutely deserved the win as they are such an amazing group of girls who have worked so hard the past 4 years. The week of practice before these games was very intense because we knew that we needed to work hard in order to beat these two good teams. Our team set goals for ourselves and knew that we had to accomplish them in practice if we wanted to win this past weekend. This past weekend was very fun and rewarding but we still are going to have to work hard in practice this up coming week as we will travel to Southern California next weekend to take on Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount University.

Nov. 5, 2008 - Alix Gombos

We started off the trip by leaving Wednesday afternoon, so we had enough time to get settled into Spokane before out 7 pm match against Gonzaga on Thursday night. We woke up Thursday morning and had our team breakfast at the hotel followed by film and a short practice, we had little downtime between all this and the actual match. When it came to play Gonzaga, we started off pretty bad, we weren't playing like ourselves and our energy level wasn't positive or even existent. We battled through the long, five game-match and ended up with our first in conference loss making us 7-1. We were all pretty bummed and needless to say it wasn't a good feeling especially after we made such a great comeback.

On Friday, we flew to Portland, which was really exciting for me because it is my hometown, along with Addie and Erin Kilroy. We went straight to the gym to have a short practice, just to sweat out the loss the night before. After that we went back to the hotel where Addie and I had to take a test in the coaches' room for one of our classes that we missed due to traveling. Later that night we went to my parents house for dinner and it was amazing. It was the perfect remedy for the loss the night before. There were a lot of parents there with great energy and it did a lot to uplift our spirits. We had a ton of food and a quick, 15 minute, chair massage and overall a really good time, then back to the hotel to prepare of the game.

Saturday morning came by quickly and we were up bright and early for breakfast before heading off to Portland's gym. Our game was moved to 12 for flight reasons, and it didn't last very long. We ended up easily winning in three games making our current overall record 8-1.

Oct. 28, 2008 - Zuzana Bednarova

I am so proud to be a part of USF Dons Volleyball team and even happier this year because we are about to make history. Last week was such a special and amazing week. We played excellent games with LMU and Pepperdine. I cannot even describe how I felt at that moment. We have been playing wonderful volleyball and the reflection is 7-0 in WCC, meaning that we won against all of our opponents in the first half of the competition. Keep it up Dons!

One of the great things about this season is that we have demonstrated how good we are at reacting to adversities. Our mentality has changed; our confidence is high. We made a good start to the season and now we want to keep on winning. We refused to get carried away by our very good performances. More so, we need to keep working hard, concentrate, and focus on our goal. Even though our record is 7-0, there is still a long way to go.

Playing with this group of girls is such an honor for me. I have discovered how valuable it is to have a strong team spirit. Not only have we been playing well together, but also we have had fun while playing and practicing every day. Our coach, Gilad, says that we have a mission this year! Our mission is not only to show up but to go home with the WIN every time we play. We can recall several games, and especially the last game against Pepperdine, which was a total team effort. Everybody contributed whether on the court or on the bench. We knew that we were going to win and we played with the confidence, passion, and pride of champions even though we were down 23-20 in the forth set. We came back and won. It was great! "The thing always happens when you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen." We wanted to win so badly and we made it happen.

On Monday, we started working hard and with a lot of energy. It is time to start focusing on our next victory on Thursday night at Gonzaga. We are going to continue playing with the confidence and belief in ourselves in order to be the greatest team in USF Volleyball history and the WCC Champions.

Go Dons!

 

Oct. 21, 2008 - Carly Babin

Being a senior on this USF Volleyball team has been such a privilege and extremely exciting for me this season. Having the opportunity to play with this great group of girls is a once in a lifetime experience that I still have a hard time believing.

Belief is defined as the mental act, condition, or habit of placing trust or confidence in another. I know this might seem corny, but we believe this season. Placing trust and confidence in others is something our coaches helped us learn in a team building this pre-season. It an amazing feeling when you might be down by ten points in a game, and I know that we all believe we can still win the game. This has been the X factor for us.

Starting conference play the way we have this season, my senior year, is proof of all the hard work and commitment from everyone is paying off. Taking down the Torreros, and beating St. Mary's and Santa Clara on the road was such a rewarding feeling, and it should carry us into another strong weekend at home. We will use this week to prepare for LMU and Pepperdine. Taming the Lions is first priority this week. Go Dons!

 

Oct. 21, 2008 - Darcy Carroll

Our team is coming off from an exciting weekend with a new record of 5-0 in conference! Both wins at St. Mary's and Santa Clara were huge for us! Not only was this the first time that we beat Santa Clara at their home in twenty years, but we played fully together as a team. Complete team effort helped us get through the long five game match at St. Mary's and the four game match at Santa Clara. We were able to come together and fight through difficult times in the match when we were behind. Our hitters were absolutely amazing in both matches and our blocking really helped us in the Santa Clara match. Defensively we were all over the court keeping rallies going and fighting for every point. In the front row we even had certain players do a wonderful job of switching positions for a few plays to make us more of a threat to the other team. All around it was a great weekend and a memorable one to everyone involved! We will continue to work hard this week and prepare for our matches against LMU and Pepperdine this weekend. Go Dons!!!! The fight continues...

Oct. 6, 2008 - Addie Webster

 

When our coaches told us we would be having a new addition to our team this season, I wasn't expecting something so tall, stiff and awkward. I also wasn't aware that this new addition happened to be a specially ordered dry erase board- also known as the Whiteboard. The Whiteboard comes to practice early almost every day, and is usually the last to leave the gym. The Whiteboard also notifies us of our fate. Some people like the Whiteboard because it lays out the practice plan and tells you what is to come, but some people don't like it because they would rather not know what practice brings. I would say the Whiteboard is the most protected member of the team, it is always placed in an area where it cannot be hit by flying volleyballs and our coaches always watch us as we carry it in and out of the gym making sure we don't hit it against the doors or walls. Believe it or not, the Whiteboard is a key member of our team.

Although it has been difficult at times, our team has had an eventful preseason. In August our coaches took us to a ropes course where we were thrown different challenges that we could only overcome if we worked together. Perhaps the most challenging part of the day for some was overcoming their fear of heights and jumping off a 65-foot platform. It was exciting to see some of the girls go through with the jump even though they were afraid to. The main focus of the day was to polish the way we worked together as a team and translate them to how we worked together on the court.

Another test we all faced was passing our timed mile-and-a-half running test. Not only did we have to improve on our time from last year, but Gilad also told us he would film our runs so we could laugh at it later. Luckily, he couldn't figure out how to work the camera, so our misery wasn't caught on tape...but watch out for next year girls!. Even though most people did not enjoy running every morning aside from practices, we were told that "its not fair, and its not negotiable." This being said, we knew we had no choice but to run and help each other out as best as we could. Of course the coaches tips helped tremendously.

We held two tournaments this preseason and played in two away tournaments. Our two away tournaments were in Long Beach and Fullerton. The cool thing about playing in Southern California is we always get to go to a teammate's house for dinner. This preseason we have gone to Sarah, Alaina and Anna's house. The food is always great and of course it's nice to have a home cooked meal!

While it is always fun traveling, there is nothing like playing on our home court, War Memorial Gym. Our two home tournaments were successful, as we posted a 5-1 record in our first two weekends at home. Then we opened conference with wins against Portland and Gonzaga.

Our fans have been extremely supportive this year, and I hope that our home court continues to be a very difficult place to play for visiting teams. Thank you for the support and I hope to see you all on Saturday October 11 at 2:00 PM when we take on defending WCC Champion No. 16 San Diego! Go Dons!