Bucknell University Athletics
Volleyball Player Diary - Rachel Rodriguez
9/22/2008 8:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 22, 2008
Follow the Bucknell volleyball team from the players' point of view. Here is the next installment, courtesy of sophomore management major, Rachel Rodriguez.
For previous installments, follow the below links:
After coming out of a tough home tournament last weekend losing each of the first three matches in five hard-fought, grueling games, we finished strong with a solid four-game win against Farleigh Dickinson Saturday afternoon. Our energy was high, our defense was tough, and our hitters were racking up kills left and right. Having played a total of 19 games, the team was tired come Sunday but knew that there was no letting up when we faced strong competition in the weekend to come. We harnessed our skills in practice during the week and departed on Friday for Philadelphia and the Villanova Tournament.
We started out strong in the first match against Villanova but lost some of our focus and energy, and let them get back in the game. We fought hard to catch up, but ended up losing three games to none. Determined to step up and play to our highest potential, the team came in Saturday ready to compete. We faced the University of Pennsylvania, another talented team and tough opponent. The match went back and forth each game as both we and Penn fought for the lead and momentum. Both teams were aggressively attacking at the net and playing scrappy defense, refusing to give in easily. Despite our efforts, we fell to Penn in the first two games, and lost the third in a close score of 26-24.
After a short break for lunch, the team was fueled for the final match against La Salle Saturday evening. We came out pumped up with a positive and determined attitude, ready to prove ourselves and head home with a win. Our energy and enthusiasm transferred into our play and we came out strong pushing the tempo and never letting up, giving us wins in the first two games. In the third game, we found ourselves down 18-17 when a fire alarm went off in the middle of play! After evacuating the building for 5 minutes and having a quick team huddle, we knew we couldn't allow the short interruption to take away our focus. The team came out from the fire drill fighting, and we pushed to the finish, ending the match with a 25-20 win.
Overall, this weekend was a great learning and growing experience for us. We improved as the games went on, fixed our mistakes, worked together, and began to prepare for our first Patriot League matches against Navy and American next weekend.
