Aug. 19, 2007

Preseason ended today. We have been going hard since August 7th. We started the first day with athletic and academic meetings and got onto the courts the next day. We started 6:30 a.m. on the 8th at the Institute of Human Performance, which is located right outside of campus, with strength training and agility work.

Practices started out pretty simple. We worked a lot on getting back into the skill of the game - passing, serving, hitting, and setting - all the basics. Within the next few days we spent mornings on skills going low-impact. The afternoons were spent on passing and system work going medium-impact, and by the evenings we were going high-impact and scrimmaging.

The team is looking really great. An awesome thing about this team is that most of the girls on the court have been playing all summer long. Kala Abdell was playing in Europe right before coming to preseason and all of the other girls were playing for clubs. And it's really showing on the court. Everyone has a great court-sense and competitive attitude.

We leave for New Mexico tomorrow morning (Monday) at 4:20 a.m. We're heading out a few days before the tournament to get some practices in out there and sight-see. I can't wait to see how we do. We are all anxious to start playing and get into the season. I think we're right where we need to be and I'm excited to see how we do in our first few matches.

Katie