Juniors Anna Bartz and Elizabeth Egerer check in with the latest always-surprising and never dull edition of the VolleyBlog
The Panthers departed for Western Michigan last Monday night to prepare for their Tuesday game against the WMU Broncos.
After going down a road with about seven different hotels we arrived at the Clarion. It seemed like it wouldn’t be a bad hotel, but let’s just say it was definitely no Sheraton Inn. When we got to our rooms we found out that the Clarion’s pillows didn’t come close to the cloud-like pillows we had experienced so many times before at the Sheraton. It felt more like pillow cases stuffed full of cotton balls, basically something we’ve all made in our high school home economics classes. The beds from the Sheraton made you feel like you were sleeping on air, whereas the Clarion’s made you feel like you were sleeping on hard springs. It was hard not to shed a tear when you opened up the curtains and saw that the Holiday Inn was only a parking lot away.
We had practice at the gym the next afternoon. We wanted to get there early to get our gear on and get ready, but that campus was ginormous and finding the gym was like trying to find a four-leafed clover. We did finally find it and had about 10 minutes to get ready before practice. Then we made our way back to the hotel, packed up our stuff and got the heck out of there. It wasn’t long before we were preparing to play. We were trying a different lineup because of a couple of ankle injuries and a concussion caused by falling off a bed. We must have all had something wrong with our heads that night because the result wasn’t pretty and the Broncos beat us in three, leaving us running for the hills.
Then Friday and Saturday we had our first conference matches against Green Bay and then Loyola. We were lucky enough to be home again and have our own beds to sleep in. Plus the less contact we had with each other the better. Half the team finally figured out what the heck a Phoenix is - aka the magical bird from Harry Potter? They came thinking that they could ‘Wingardium Leviosa’ us, but that spell was the wrong one. We fought back with the ‘EXPECTO PATRONUM’ and took the Phoenix down in four.
The next day we were fed a Hogwarts type pre-game meal to get us witches ready to take down the Loyola Ramblers aka wolves aka moon-howlers. They weren’t a match for the Panthers and they crumbled in our teeth in our three (for the first win in three of the year).
We are preparing for our upcoming matches that everybody should be at this Friday at 7 and Saturday at 4.
I’m Ron Burgundy - Stay Classy Milwaukee
Special Thanks to Morgan Potter (aka Porgan Motter aka MoPo aka PP aka best libero ever) for helping us with this weeks blog!
-Anna and Biz aka Aniz aka Banna
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Milwaukee/Marquette Invitational
Juniors Anna Bartz and Elizabeth Egerer are providing special insights (and more) on this year's VolleyBlog
This past weekend, we were lucky enough to have a tournament that required zero traveling. It was a nice ‘break’ since the last thing that we wanted to do was be with each other for an extra two days on a bus.
We started the week off on Tuesday before our NIU match by recruiting people to come to our game. We split ourselves up into strategically-assigned groups according to personalities to reel people in to come to the games. A group of us were at Sandburg and lured aimlessly wandering freshmen by pawning off flyers onto them and other unsuspecting victims. It was always a treat to have someone say “yes, of course we will come to the game” as they crumpled up the flyers that we worked so hard on right in front of our faces (you know who you are).
Another group of girls were at the Klotsche, and may or may not have consisted of one of the writers of this blog. She decided to go the extra mile (literally) and hopped onto an open elliptical next to a guy taken slightly off-guard and proceeded to elliptical with him until he agreed to come to the match. Strangely enough, we couldn’t find the extremely fit Waldo in the crowd.
Another group was located on Downer Avenue, mostly because the least amount of people walk there. We were afraid to place some of these angry Panthers on a more populated street where they might possibly be denied. One poor fellow shook his head ‘no’ to a Panther handing out flyers, and it did not go over well.
It turns out the hard work and determination to get fans at the match paid off, with nearly 1000 fans there! (Quite a difference to the 10 we had in previous years). Unfortunately, they saw a terrorized Panther as the Huskies defeated them in three.
We started the tournament off on Friday against the Akron Zips. We just Googled what a ‘Zip’ is. Apparently it’s a kangaroo. Who knew? Well we didn’t, that’s for sure. Regardless, we ate some ‘Roos’ aka ‘Joey’s’ up in four.
After the match we dined by candlelight (aka sunlight) and flowers (aka weeds) and bees (aka real live stinging bees) in the park--how romantic. Our five-star lunch/supper (aka lupper) consisted of Sloppy Joe’s and chips and about 17 desserts. There’s nothing better than eating four pieces of every dessert (cookies, skotcharoos, caramel bars and cream puffs, just to name a few) until about 20 minutes later when our stomachs hated us. Because we had to play again in about an hour, using the facilities just was not an option. So we held our butt cheeks tight and actually appreciated that PantherFest stole most of our fans so they couldn’t smell the gas coming from the gym. We played the Southern Miss Golden Eagles and our pungent odor knocked ‘em out in four.
The next day we were all ready to play the Marquette Golden Eagles. Not to mention any names…but in preparation we played ‘horsey’ around the gym, minutes before serve and pass. Apparently that wasn’t the best idea because the Golden Eagles swooped down on us in three.
WELL GET EM NEXT TIME. I’m Veronica Corningstone and thanks for stopping by…. You stay classy MILWAUKEE.
-- Biz and Anna aka Banna aka Aniz
This past weekend, we were lucky enough to have a tournament that required zero traveling. It was a nice ‘break’ since the last thing that we wanted to do was be with each other for an extra two days on a bus.
We started the week off on Tuesday before our NIU match by recruiting people to come to our game. We split ourselves up into strategically-assigned groups according to personalities to reel people in to come to the games. A group of us were at Sandburg and lured aimlessly wandering freshmen by pawning off flyers onto them and other unsuspecting victims. It was always a treat to have someone say “yes, of course we will come to the game” as they crumpled up the flyers that we worked so hard on right in front of our faces (you know who you are).
Another group of girls were at the Klotsche, and may or may not have consisted of one of the writers of this blog. She decided to go the extra mile (literally) and hopped onto an open elliptical next to a guy taken slightly off-guard and proceeded to elliptical with him until he agreed to come to the match. Strangely enough, we couldn’t find the extremely fit Waldo in the crowd.
Another group was located on Downer Avenue, mostly because the least amount of people walk there. We were afraid to place some of these angry Panthers on a more populated street where they might possibly be denied. One poor fellow shook his head ‘no’ to a Panther handing out flyers, and it did not go over well.
It turns out the hard work and determination to get fans at the match paid off, with nearly 1000 fans there! (Quite a difference to the 10 we had in previous years). Unfortunately, they saw a terrorized Panther as the Huskies defeated them in three.
We started the tournament off on Friday against the Akron Zips. We just Googled what a ‘Zip’ is. Apparently it’s a kangaroo. Who knew? Well we didn’t, that’s for sure. Regardless, we ate some ‘Roos’ aka ‘Joey’s’ up in four.
After the match we dined by candlelight (aka sunlight) and flowers (aka weeds) and bees (aka real live stinging bees) in the park--how romantic. Our five-star lunch/supper (aka lupper) consisted of Sloppy Joe’s and chips and about 17 desserts. There’s nothing better than eating four pieces of every dessert (cookies, skotcharoos, caramel bars and cream puffs, just to name a few) until about 20 minutes later when our stomachs hated us. Because we had to play again in about an hour, using the facilities just was not an option. So we held our butt cheeks tight and actually appreciated that PantherFest stole most of our fans so they couldn’t smell the gas coming from the gym. We played the Southern Miss Golden Eagles and our pungent odor knocked ‘em out in four.
The next day we were all ready to play the Marquette Golden Eagles. Not to mention any names…but in preparation we played ‘horsey’ around the gym, minutes before serve and pass. Apparently that wasn’t the best idea because the Golden Eagles swooped down on us in three.
WELL GET EM NEXT TIME. I’m Veronica Corningstone and thanks for stopping by…. You stay classy MILWAUKEE.
-- Biz and Anna aka Banna aka Aniz
Monday, September 5, 2011
Winning (and more) In Iowa
Juniors Anna Bartz and Elizabeth "Biz" Egerer have graciously agreed to be regular contributors to this year's VolleyBlog. Here is their first entry, completed on the bus somewhere between Des Moines and Milwaukee.
The journey all the way to West Des Moines turned out to be worth the six long hours on a bus full of PMSing girls. On our way, we stopped at a very fancy Panera Bread smack dab in the middle of a mall with an ice rink in it (now that’s first class!). The Panera was delicious, especially the 500+-calorie practically fun-size mac n’ cheese. When we finally arrived to the world-class Sheraton Inn, a ginormous waterfall greeted us - talk about spoiled. Then we got some news; we would be having a pool workout in 20 minutes! This came as a shock to the Panthers; it wasn’t even listed on the itinerary! But like the hard-working team we are, we pushed through that pool workout with almost no one stepping in the green (we’ll call it fungus) growing in each corner of the pool.
The next morning, all of us were weary at the fact that, because we didn’t bring enough spandex for the pool workout, we had wet bottoms for practice. No one likes wet bottoms and it definitely doesn’t help with the whole chafing situation. We hiked our way to McDonald’s, crossing a treacherous divided highway, but we all seemed to make it out alive.
Later that day we had our first match against the Wyoming “Cowgirls,” or so they refer to themselves as. There was nothing quite like watching them shoot off their guns as they were announced. After a few yellow cards thrown to the same “Cowgirl” twice, we lassoed the ‘W’ in four games.
The next morning came too early, as we awoke before the rooster on the farm next door. We ate a delicious Sheraton breakfast alongside the pee-wee Patriots football team, who decided to take a break from an intense duck-duck-goose game to finally fill their empty bellies. We made our way to the gym, where we played our first match against the IPFW Mastodons (aka extinct elephants aka elephants with horns). They were scrappy, yes, but we persevered through the jungle being the Panthers that we are, and we ate those Mastodons up in four.
We watched the next match to scout the Drake Bulldogs. After that match, we went shopping at a nice mall because that’s what girls do (plus, aside from cow tipping, it seemed like the next best option). We ate at Champps (mmm-mmm good) and then made our way back to the gym to take care of some unfinished business.
We came paws forward and claws out and took those poor Bulldogs down in four. We were tournament champions, and special congratulations to Kerri Schuh for receiving MVP, and Rachel Neuberger and Morgan Potter for being on the All-Tournament Team!
Go Panthers!!!
-Biz and Anna (aka Banna aka Aniz)
The journey all the way to West Des Moines turned out to be worth the six long hours on a bus full of PMSing girls. On our way, we stopped at a very fancy Panera Bread smack dab in the middle of a mall with an ice rink in it (now that’s first class!). The Panera was delicious, especially the 500+-calorie practically fun-size mac n’ cheese. When we finally arrived to the world-class Sheraton Inn, a ginormous waterfall greeted us - talk about spoiled. Then we got some news; we would be having a pool workout in 20 minutes! This came as a shock to the Panthers; it wasn’t even listed on the itinerary! But like the hard-working team we are, we pushed through that pool workout with almost no one stepping in the green (we’ll call it fungus) growing in each corner of the pool.
The next morning, all of us were weary at the fact that, because we didn’t bring enough spandex for the pool workout, we had wet bottoms for practice. No one likes wet bottoms and it definitely doesn’t help with the whole chafing situation. We hiked our way to McDonald’s, crossing a treacherous divided highway, but we all seemed to make it out alive.
Later that day we had our first match against the Wyoming “Cowgirls,” or so they refer to themselves as. There was nothing quite like watching them shoot off their guns as they were announced. After a few yellow cards thrown to the same “Cowgirl” twice, we lassoed the ‘W’ in four games.
The next morning came too early, as we awoke before the rooster on the farm next door. We ate a delicious Sheraton breakfast alongside the pee-wee Patriots football team, who decided to take a break from an intense duck-duck-goose game to finally fill their empty bellies. We made our way to the gym, where we played our first match against the IPFW Mastodons (aka extinct elephants aka elephants with horns). They were scrappy, yes, but we persevered through the jungle being the Panthers that we are, and we ate those Mastodons up in four.
We watched the next match to scout the Drake Bulldogs. After that match, we went shopping at a nice mall because that’s what girls do (plus, aside from cow tipping, it seemed like the next best option). We ate at Champps (mmm-mmm good) and then made our way back to the gym to take care of some unfinished business.
We came paws forward and claws out and took those poor Bulldogs down in four. We were tournament champions, and special congratulations to Kerri Schuh for receiving MVP, and Rachel Neuberger and Morgan Potter for being on the All-Tournament Team!
Go Panthers!!!
-Biz and Anna (aka Banna aka Aniz)
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