Volleyblog Features Haley Pouliezos
August 16, 2013 | Women's Volleyball
Aug 16, 2013
Happy Preseason CARDS fans!
This is Haley Pouliezos here. I hope you are ready for a good laugh! Enjoy my blog today!
Who needs alarms or wake up calls these days?? I know I don't because apparently last night before I went to bed, I forgot to set my alarm for the morning and what do ya know? I woke up at the same time I would've if I had set my alarm ... preseason probs.
The quote our athletic trainer, Zach, gave us today was, "When you step outside your comfort zone, you're able to reach your full athletic potential," and that is exactly what we did today in practice.
As usual, we had our early 7 a.m. breakfast in the offices at our practice facility. Now let me ask you people a question. What kind of ice do you use when making smoothies? According to Lee Maes, there are many different kinds of ice. Now here's the story behind it. Zach, our athletic trainer, prepared a delicious tasty smoothie for us all to drink and Lee stops to ask, "So what kind of ice do you use in this? Is it cubed?" Everyone stops, stares, and then laughs hysterically at him and his "ice" comment. After everyone finally calms down and stops laughing, Carly Sahagian then walks in with her spandex on backwards.
In the mornings, after breakfast, we like to listen and watch music videos in the training room while we get warmed up for our sessions. Sydney Cooper likes to sing EVERY SINGLE SONG that comes on TV. Finally, Katie George threw a ball at Sydney's head today. It was all fun and games but hopefully Sydney will STOP singing so loudly every song that comes on. We all knew it was going to be a great day just by all of the laughs we had a breakfast and in the training room.
The first session of the day flew by! We worked on a lot of ball control and passing! We were all very energetic but also very focused on what we needed to accomplish today in the different drills. Coach Lee always reminds us that every rep counts, and you can never get a rep back.
After the session, we got to enjoy another nice and cold ice bath. I don't think we had any problems today with people in the ice baths. We all got along and were able to hold in any gas issues some people had earlier in the week (Courtney Robison cough cough).
We enjoyed a good healthy lunch at the VILLE Grill today! There was more of a selection today so that made our trainers much happier than yesterday! After lunchtime was naptime! Naptime is crucial. Everyone wants the couches in the locker room so it is like WWI trying to get a spot on one. Luckily for me, I went home and enjoyed a nice nap on my own couch!
Session two went very well tonight. We worked on a lot of blocking and defensive positioning. We also played many "Finish the Set," games. "Finish the Set," is a game where one team starts with 20 points and the other starts with 18 points. The first team to 25 points wins. There is a catch though. If your team is on point 24, you must get the next point to win, if you lose the point then you go back to your starting score. It was fun and very competitive!
When session two ended, we were all starving! We rushed over to UClub to eat a scrumptious dinner filled with grilled chicken, green beans, and pasta! I am pretty sure everyone, including the coaches, when up for seconds and some went up to get plate #3 (Courtney Robison cough cough). While eating dinner, somehow the discussion of getting in to fights gets brought up. All of the girls are like "Oh no I have never got in a fight," but little sweet Brooke Betts speaks up and says, "I got suspended 2 weeks freshman year for getting in to a fight." Of course we all go crazy and get so excited to hear what happened and to figure out if she won the fight. Long story short, some snobby girls were talking about her when it was her birthday! Like who does that to you on your birthday!? We all were very surprised and actually kinda happy to hear this story about Brooke Betts. She earned a lot of points in all of our books! HaHa The next topic at dinner was about how Sydney Cooper takes entirely way too many "selfies." If you all don't know what a "selfie" is, it is when you hold the camera about a foot in front of your face and smile or do a "duck-face." Sydney's theory behind it was that she got a lot of followers when she took "selfies." That may be true, who knows but we all had a good laugh about it at dinner!
Today was a great day here at Louisville Volleyball. It was filled with laughs, competitiveness, strong focus, and good chemistry. Every girl on the team is making improvements every single day. It is awesome to be apart of it and see the learning happening. This Louisville team is going to be incredible this year and I hope you all come out and support us! We love you CARDS fans! Keep looking for our daily blogs and confessionals!
