Oct. 28, 2010

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the women's volleyball team each week. This week sophomore Hannah Benjamin talks about some Stanford campus traditions, Halloween and more!

Hey Stanford Fans!

Welcome back for another update of life on The Farm! As you all know, we suffered a tough loss versus Cal last Friday. Although this outcome was disappointing, it has really put the rest of our season into perspective. With the second half of the Pac-10 ahead of us, we see the areas that we need to improve on and the changes that we must make as a team to finish on top. We also are dedicating ourselves to much rest and recovery this week before we head up to Oregon, where we hope to show our "road warrior" attitudes and come home with two big road wins.

Life off the court has been just as busy as the practice schedule. Monday was Hayley's and my first Human Biology midterm. Human Biology at Stanford is known to be a very rigorous course with massive amounts of information, so Hayley and I were extremely nervous for the first one. We both felt very relieved when it was over. Unfortunately, we have another one next Monday, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Monday was also the night of a much-anticipated Stanford tradition. Every year on a full moon in the fall, Stanford puts on the "Full Moon on the Quad" event. The tradition entails the student body filling the Stanford Quad and at 12:00 AM the underclassmen are kissed by upperclassmen. Last year, this event was cancelled due to a swine flu outbreak on campus, so this was the sophomore and freshmen classes first experience of FMOTQ. Even though I was only an observer of the event, I enjoyed the commotion and great music from the band.

Our team also celebrated a Women's Volleyball tradition this week. Every year, the coaching staff chooses a practice to be dedicated to Halloween. Yes, this means that we all dress up in costume and attempt to practice in them. It is a riot. This year we had costumes ranging from a Stanford football player to Dorothy to Spiderman. I think the best costume goes to Gabi, who dressed up as Denise with her Stanford gear on and a UCLA hat hidden in her backpack. To say the least, we were having way too much fun and had to remove the costumes less than 30 minutes in.

We really appreciate all the support we have had from all the local fans and students at our home matches. We hope to see you in the second half of our Pac-10 matches. Wish us luck in Oregon and we will see you all back at Maples for another round with the LA schools!

Happy Halloween!

Benj