Self-described as "that girl who sits on the bench and catches scarves, books, pens and sometimes even heavy necklaces that Susie throws when she gets frustrated," she will be writing the blog every week for the team and the many endeavors they encounter.
Today is her seventh installment for 2014.
This past week may have gone down in the books as one of my favorite weekends of these past four seasons.
I know I say that all the time, but seriously, so many shout outs this week! We started the week out with Western Michigan coming over and playing us Tuesday night, and what a game! If you missed the game just know that it was absolutely an outstanding game. A huge shout out goes to junior right-side Maggie Dunbar for getting her career high 20 kills against the Broncos. It was pretty awesome seeing basically every other ball Maggie touched be a kill. Way to go, Maggie. Another shout out from Tuesday nights game goes out to Hannah Blanchard who is currently tearing it up in the middle. We beat the Broncos and called it a night, and got back in the gym Wednesday for the weekend.
Friday we played our 'Go Pink' match against Wright State, who didn’t go down easy, but it was such a fun game to watch! We rallied against the Raiders and won in four. Senior outside Julie Kolinski lead the Panthers with 25 kills on the night. Susie agreed and commented at the end of the match that Wright State played well that we really had to earn that win.
Saturday night we wrapped up the three match week by playing Oakland, who is battling with us at the top for first place. We took the first set of the match, but Oakland would take the next three. Sophomore Myanna Ruiz and Kolinski both had 14 kills on the night, while junior Nicole Latzig made some noise with her 4 blocks and 11 kills, not to mention junior Kayla Prices seasons-best 55 assists.
In regards to the entire week, I believe that Susie said it best in her post match interview against Oakland: "They (Oakland) came to play, when you are the team to beat, it is very hard to win and play hard every single time. It's very hard and challenging, so we will be back to work on Monday."
So there you have it, the first half of conference play has come to an end. We will travel to Valparaiso on Friday and then head to UIC Saturday. I can not believe how fast this season is going! Only a couple weeks until the conference tournament, and as it stands now we are tied for first with Oakland and Youngstown. Hope to see you guys this weekend to kick off the second half of conference play!
