Ashley Pettibone Writes for the Volleyblog
August 21, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
Hello Card Fans,
This is Ashley Pettibone! Im a sophomore outside hitter from Southern California. I transferred here this past January and I couldn't be more excited to start this 2015 fall season. This morning my alarm went off at 6:30 for me to get up and get ready for day 11 of preseason. YES I said it! Day 11!! Meaning we have one more day after today left of double days. I got up and got dressed in our new gear that we got a few days ago, brushed my teeth, and made sure my roommates, Erin and Kali, were up and ready! We left around 6:45 to head to Yum for breakfast. We got to the Yum Center around 7.
Today we got a new machine that calculates our hydration levels. Our trainer and nutrionist wanted to see what our hydration was before we ate or drank anything in the morning and then they wanted to see what it was like after practice. We had to stand on this platform barefoot and grip our hands on a railing until it calculated our levels. After this we went upstairs for breakfast. We had an amazing smoothie that Zach, our strength coach, made us. It was a berry and vanilla protein smoothie. Just what we needed! We also have many other options that we can choose from in the morning. Breakfast at Yum is one of my favorites!B
By the end of all that it was about 7:30. After that we go into the training room to get work done to prepare us for the practice. We mostly foam roll at this time to make sure we get nice and ready for what's to come. After that we went into the locker room to get dressed. We had warm up at 8:10. Before warm up we blasted some music to get us pumped up! Many of the girls showed off their dance moves. Hopefully, that was the last time we had to see that. For warm up we did a lot of band work to get our arms warmed up and a lot of dynamic stretching. Our other strength coach, Molly, warmed us up today. We got to play music on the "Noah" and for those that do not know what the Noah is, you're missing out! The Noah is a machine that we have in our gym that is used by the setters and it tracks the trajectory of the set and also helps improve tempo and accuracy of the set. Well this summer we found out that "He" the "Noah" has a aux cord attached to him so we jammed out for the warmup. It was one of the most exciting warm ups yet.
The coaches walked in at 8:30 all set and ready for practice. We started with the usual warm up for volleyball in the morning which is up and back passing. We did this with a partner for about 5 minutes then we headed into our serving and passing drill that lasted about 20 minutes to get our daily reps in. After that we we did a drill that was left back vs. right back. The goal of the drill was to get 50 digs before the other side got 50. Alex, Tyler and Alyssa were bombing balls at us with an open net having us dig them all up. They had to be high digs and in the right spot for them to count and over passes were minus one. Every player was involved in this drill. I started out right back and when the group hit 25 digs I got to switch to the other side and play some left back until 50. As I left right back we were only up by 2 points. The score was 25 to 23. As the game continued, Aniah was playing left back all ready and Tyler bombs a ball right in her face. We all actually thought her head was blown off. It was so sad, but so funny at the same time. Nicole, our trainer took her away to make sure she was alright. The game continued and we were up. Near the end, the game got tight because a lot of the passes were not counting because Anne was the one saying if it was good for a point or not. The left side won!
After practice that ended around 11:40, Zach came and worked us out a little bit. We had to foam roll, do band resistance, abs, pushups and squats. After this, we had to go do the hydration level check again. It was really cool this time because we noticed how much we lose water during practice. I lost 3 pounds just from practice. It was crazy to see that. After we were done we went upstairs for lunch. We had sandwiches and left overs that were very yummy. Then it was nap time for the team. We all went into the locker room and slept for a little bit. I slept for a good hour and it was amazing. After that, each player had a set rehab and treatment time. Mine was at 2:30. Nicole worked out my legs for me and prepared me for the next session.
Warm up was at 3:10 and we did a few of the same things we did in our other warm up. After we were done we were waiting on our coaches to come down and start. We played music from the Noah and we all started dancing in a circle. When the coaches arrived, Coach Anne was pumped and starting dancing along with us. She always knows how to make us laugh.
We started practice at 3:30 and jumped right into it with up and back passing. Again. Our favorite. We did a few cooperative drills before we played 6 on 6. 6 on 6 started and we played a few games to 25. During this time we had a surprise guest come into practice. It was MARY! Coach Anne's daughter. Also our little sister. That's what we like to think of Mary as. Mary just did her own thing the whole time being as cute as can be. While we were playing, Lola (former Louisville Cardinal and All American) hit a ball out of bounds right into Mary's legs... you can only imagine what happened next. Poor Mary Bear :( She was a trooper and barely cried and we all died of laughter. It was so hard not too but our hearts did break. She ended up being fine!
Practice ended around 6:30 and we all did our stretching for some time and went to the worse part ever. The ice bath. Dun Dun Dun. We all had to get in for 10 minutes and it is awful. Dinner was around 7 and we got Rafferty's. We had chicken, salmon, broccoli, salad and baked potatoes. It was very good. Our team loves when we get baked potatoes so that really gets us going!
Dinner ended around 7:30 and we finally got to go home. Kali and I took a little detour and got some ice cream to make our bodies feel better. hehe Don't tell anyone. It actually made this hard day a whole lot better.
This preseason has been a great so far. It has been very challenging at times but it has also been very fun too. We all work very hard and I think that's the best part about this team. I cannot wait for the season to start so we can get after some of the top teams. We would love to see you all there wearing red! Thank you so much Card fans for reading and keeping up with us.
Goodnight Cards!!
