Oct. 23, 2012

Get an inside look at the Stanford women's volleyball team each week. In this edition, junior middle blocker Carly Wopat talks about the team's trip to Washington.

Hello Ladies and Gents,

First off, I want to apologize on behalf of the team for all the near heart attacks, gray hairs and sore throats (from screaming so much) that we have caused in the past couple of weeks with all of our incredibly close matches. Yes, we do understand that the fourth and fifth sets are optional. We just want to make it exciting for you folks!

Leading up to this past weekend, our team worked our butts off on the court and in the classroom to prepare for our Washington matches and looming midterms. Thursday afternoon we departed for the fabulous rainy state of Washington. We got there in the evening, and guess what? It was raining. Benj (aka Hannah Benjamin) had been vigorously studying flash cards while we were traveling because right when we got to the hotel she had to take a midterm. Go student-athletes!

Funny story... a group of us went across the street to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, and as we ran back in the rain afterwards, a car drove by right in front of us and sprayed us all with dirty street water. I thought it deserved to be one of those hilarious moments right out of a movie. My roommate in Seattle was the one and only Hayley Spelman, and we had an excellent time interpretive dancing to Enya, doing school work and drinking lots of tea.

On Friday, we had our match at Washington. I have ridden few roller coasters as terrifying/exhilarating as that match, but in the end we pulled out a win. There was a huge crowd packed into the very purple gym, providing a loud and exciting atmosphere. Our team quote for the year is "The harder we work, the harder it is to surrender", and I think we have been and continue to represent it well.

On Saturday, we got up bright and early to to travel from Seattle to Pullman. We had the day off, which was nice because we were pretty tired and got to watch the Big Game on TV in the lobby. Stanford won, of course. Also, it was snowing! For the rest of the day we did a lot of school work, snuggled by the fire place and drank hot chocolate. The highlight of the evening was when the hotel put out freshly baked cookies. My roommate for this trip was Ms. Madi Bugg, so we spent some quality time together as well.

The next morning, we woke up early for our pregame breakfast at Denny's and played Washington State. We won in five. Afterwards, we had a long bus ride to Spokane, boarded our airplane, and made it back home to The Farm. Weekend survivors.

It was quite a successful weekend, but we still have much to improve on. Now we are back to work preparing for Arizona and Arizona State, and keeping our goal of a championship in mind. Get ready Louisville, 'cause here we come!

This is Carly Wopat, signing off