September 04, 2002
| --Sophomore volleyball player Kendra Felder will share her thoughts on the season, and other things, with us each week in AggieAthletics.com's player diary segment. September 4, 2002 To say the least, the past couple of days have been something else. We had a great opening weekend in our first home tournament! It felt so great to be back in G. Rollie, and run out in our uniforms to see the amazing crowd on their feet pumping us up and singing the War Hymn. I would have to say that is the best feeling an athlete can ever experience, especially in that gym. I don't know what it is, but it gives me the goose bumps every time I run out. I am so extremely blessed to be able to play for such an amazing school with such wonderful tradition and school spirit. After winning our first two games of the tournament and getting the chance to watch the Football team beat the "Ragin' Cajuns", we beat LSU in what had to be the most exciting game yet! After being down two games to none, we knew we had to step up, which everyone did, and not let them take this game away from us. We went out into the third game with a "no mercy" attitude, and swept the next three games out from under their feet. It was such an important win for the team because now we know early on in the season that it definitely is not over until it's over, and no matter what the circumstances, if you give it your all, you will come out on top. It definitely gave us the confidence to fight until the very end. After the LSU match the team had the privilege of getting introduced at All-U Night on Monday. That was the first time I've gotten to go because it got rained out last year, but it was fun. We got slightly embarrassed though. Laurie told the crowd that the team was young and feisty this year and the whole crowd (mostly corps members) preceded to whoop. The bad thing about being a red-head is people can definitely tell when you get embarrassed because your face turns bright red. Well, my face didn't let me down, I was glowing. One more memory I can laugh about. That isn't the end of it though. We traveled to Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos Tuesday to play a 7 p.m. match, which we played well and raised our record to 4-0. The interesting part was the trip home. Just when we were dozing off, the bus rolled to the side of the road and came to a complete stop. I thought the driver was just checking something, but it turned out that something was wrong with the bus and we had to wait for a replacement bus. Well, with no A/C and 16 girls chatting up a storm, it got really hot in there. So most of us got off and laid on a driveway to someone's ranch, and looked at the stars. I saw the most amazing shooting stars that I have ever seen. Then when we found out that there was no replacement bus, that we were waiting for the mechanic to come, we thought we would make the best of the situation. I have never played so many games and laughed so hard for and hour and a half in my life. Literally, one of the games was the "Ha-Ha game" where you lay on each others stomachs and laugh and try to make their head bob up. Pretty funny. And the talented A.D. taught us a stomp routine, which not all of us caught on to but, hey, we tried. I would say that we definitely bonded. I discovered so many things about my teammates that night...what their dream cars are, where they want to go on their honeymoons, how they want to get engaged (we're girls, that comes up), and if they had to choose between camping or a hotel, what it would be. We finally got the bus fixed and arrived back in College Station at 2:30 a.m. I was looking good in my eight o'clock class. We leave tomorrow at 5:15 a.m. for Wisconsin so we're pretty sleepy, but luckily we have a long flight to catch up on our sleep. I will be lucky if I remember my luggage in the morning. So I better end this and get to bed. Good night! |