Hey Cougar Nation,
Natalie here… I wish I was bringing brighter news to everyone but the 2010 cougar season is officially over. I can say with certainty, none of us thought we would end our season how we did Wednesday night. The feeling in the gym on Monday and Tuesday was awesome. We were still playing in November something that was new to the program last year.
Waking up Wednesday morning to a text from a Jordan Olerud “we’re going to win tonight. I got that feeling!” I personally had butterflies all the way to Northwestern. The feeling on the bus we awesome and one quite different from the other road trips. We were all up dancing and singing and a few were studying for a dreaded biology test on Thursday. We had 5 minutes to run into the mall stretch our legs look around and what do you know, we run in to Kaylie’s mom. But where was Kaylie you ask? She was back on the bus because it was too cold outside for her!
After arriving at the gym, the loose feeling that we had on the bus slowly shifted to business time as we were putting on our knee pads and shoes in the locker room. As we begin to warm up with no music (something we Cougars hate!) we were relaxed and warming up well. Moving into the match the first set was very successful. We played great as a team and had a few scramble plays and we had taken the first set! We all thought, "great, 2 more!"
But at the start of the second set there was a huge momentum swing and it felt like the momentum for us was gone. The second and third sets were not our prettiest, and boy, starting the fourth set 7-1 wasn’t much better. We rallied back and all of a sudden looking at the score board it was 23-14. I gulped and looked back at Jordan and we both had the cheesy grin on our faces (both fighting off tears) and we lost that point and it was almost over. It was 24-14 and was quite embarrassing we could all agree and that fight we always had finally erupted (better late then never) and we had spark but it just wasn’t enough. Three plays (we got lucky on a couple as the refs missed a few touch calls off Allie and I blocking), but ended the game on a net call-- In essence, a fitting end to the match that night...
The water works just came flooding down my teammate’s faces and my own. After shaking hands and getting into our circle we all knew it was going to be a tough ride home. We looked each other in the eyes and thankfully Michele came in with “baby I like” and it did put a smile on a few faces. The bus ride was long and not fun. Coach did let us go to a couple different places to eat and he was a little more lenient with how much we each could spend – which was nice.
Overall the Cougar 2010 season was a great success. A special thanks to the two seniors Jordan Olerud and Megan Theis who greatly helped the program over the last two years. Also thank you to Coach B, Coach HP and Coach Stott for putting in all the hours of coaching, driving, yelling, laughing, crying, and anything else you’ve done for the program this past year.
In the words of Shannon Stinchfield, “Volleyball camp is over. College starts now.”
- Natalie Thomas
