Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Coming to an End

Katelyn Hegewald, the student-manager of the team, takes over the Milwaukee Volleyblog on a full-time basis in 2014.

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 10th installment for 2014.

You could say that this weekend was a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster. The weekend started out on Friday as we took on the Youngstown State Penguins and what a game that was. We started the end of our last home conference weekend with an exciting win. We beat the Guins in four, with senior Julie Kolinski coming out on top with an impressive 20 kills. Other Panthers that helped with the W were Myanna Ruiz who had 15 kills, along with teammate Maggie Dunbar making her usual noise with 14 kills, two aces and a block. Friday night we also celebrated 'Parents Night' with the traditional calling out of everyone on the team as they as walked out by their parents.

Saturday we played Cleveland State and it was a tough one. Cleveland State was pretty close to flawless and we unfortunately were not. We lost in four, but not without a fight. Julie led the team with 12 kills and three of the teams seven blocks, while Ruiz tallied nine kills and an ace. Nicole Latzig wasn’t going down without a fight as she got eight kills and the rest of the four blocks that the team had on the night. Saturday night was also 'Senior Night', where all six of this years seniors were honored, Julie, Taylor, Hannah, Arianna, Amber and myself.

We don’t usually meet on Sundays, but this last Sunday was our Senior Banquet and let me tell you what, no one left that restaurant dry-eyed. An amazing banquet put on by the coaches to honor the six of us seniors. Players from the team had the most outstanding speeches to give about all of us and Susie did as well. All seniors then made a speech themselves, and believe me when I say, I tried to make mine as funny as possible in order to not cry, but there were some serious crocodile tears up there.

We still have a lot of season to go. We are away this weekend to close up conference play against Oakland on Friday and Wright State Saturday. The follow weekend we will have conference tournament, we are unsure of where the location is going to be, we will see at the end of the weekend to see who takes the title, and then back to the NCAA tournament, maybe? I just wanted to thank all of you that read this blog and have for the last two years, you all are so great and I appreciate all the support you all give me. Let’s finish this season with a bang!