October 14, 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. October 14, 2002 The last couple of weeks have been rough. Not in the sense that practice has been completely strenuous to where we couldn't walk (don't get me wrong--they have been hard), rather it has been very mentally stressful. We are currently 3-4 in conference play where as if we had played the way we ALL know we can play we would be 7-0. The frustrating part is I know we can beat all the teams we have played so far but it just isn't working for us. After the Texas game we had a much-needed venting session in the locker room. A lot of things were brought up that needed to be brought up and pieces of the wall that has been separating success from failure have fallen. Although, I definitely would not call them failures, more so lessons. Life is full of second chances but sometimes they are not the way you picture them to be, rather in ways the Lord wants them to happen. This road has definitely taught us a lot about what a "team" really is. The dictionary defines it as being "a group of people working or playing together." Although this hits the nail on the head, I believe there is much more to a team than just playing together. I believe it's having faith in each other and believing in each other when the situation gets tight like it did in the fifth game against Texas, telling each other ways we can improve our individual games so it will make the team better as a whole, taking constructive criticism with an open heart and making the change as soon as possible because you want the best for the team, playing your heart out and giving it 110% so you can get your teammates into the game too, listening to each other's ideas, and cheering each other on because you know that their legs are dead and it will help them get through the drill successfully. Our team is definitely at the point where we are tired of losing and we will try everything to get over this hump. I know I mentioned something like this when we lost to Colorado. But for some reason, I want to say that this time it is different. There is more urgency to it and more drive from everyone on the team, not just from a few people. Laurie also brought up another important word for us to think about before we played Texas. It was the word "fortitude". We thought about what it meant and if it applied to us. Soon the team began throwing out words like perseverance, pride, mental toughness, and fight. All of these words fit the profile. Fortitude means "strength of mind that allows one to endure pain or adversity with courage." The Texas game definitely revealed that this is something we need to work on. We had it here and there but consistency is the key. So, as always, we will look ahead and work toward the goal and someday soon we will get there. It will be put to the test this Wednesday! I can't wait. God bless you all and have a wonderful week! |