It seems as if every game our team learns something new.  As this past week came to a close, I knew our team has learned some valuable lessons.  This past week started off with a loss at Alabama and ended with a three-game winning streak at our home tournament against Tennessee Tech, Northwestern State and Radford.
 
Although, we did not put our best effort as a team on the court against Alabama. We used it as a growing experience but give credit to Alabama, they did what they needed to do for the win. As our Head Coach Keylor says – "It's a process and we must learn to learn."   Every time we step on the court, it is a new chance to learn and improve.  It is about the process every day and in the end the results will come.
 
This past weekend, we continued to learn and we improved each match we played.  In the first match against Tennessee Tech, we struggled with the execution of certain skills but we gutted out the win.  During the second match we found a consistent and steady pace of good volleyball and by the third match we were playing Samford volleyball; and let me tell you, it was fun.  Samford Volleyball means powerful, even and steady.  While we were playing our last game against Radford we felt like we were a train that couldn't be stopped.
 
Our goal is to keep competition classy by frustrating the other teams with our level of execution and in return, winning because we are steady and consistent.   But it also means that we are have fun with our teammates.  Our team has a very strong bond and when we have fun on the court, while relentlessly competing, then that's when we are at our best. 
 
It always helps when we dance and play fun games in the locker room before matches.  We all have our different styles of dancing, and not many of us are talented but that does not hold us back. Now don't get me wrong, we take our pre-game routines and scouting reports seriously:  but at the end of the day, if we are not having fun, we are not at our best as a team. 
 
A lot of college athletes lose the "fun factor", your sport can become a job to you because you do it every day and there is a lot of tough responsibilities that go along with being a student-athlete.  But our team is having fun and I think having fun starts with being thankful. 
 
We are thankful that we get to step out on the court; we are thankful for the abilities that God blessed us with; we are thankful for our coaches and for the Samford athletic staff; we are thankful for the new experiences we get to gain, and so on and so on: because not many people get to have an experience like this. 
 
Speaking of new experiences:  Follow us as we fly across the country to Wyoming and Colorado for our 4 games this weekend.  I am so excited for what the future holds for Samford volleyball and I consider myself blessed to be a part of the process.



-Erin Bognar #7