Oct. 29, 2012

Get an inside look at the Stanford women's volleyball team each week. In this edition, sophomore Kyle Gilbert talks about class and the team's upcoming trip to Oregon.

Hello friends and fans,

It has been an exciting season with five matches that have gone the full five sets, the trip to Hawai'i and then on to Penn State, and onto the Pac-12. Playing a tough schedule all the way through the season will hopefully pay off with us traveling to Louisville in December.

I want to say thank you to one of my most loyal fans who lives in Minocqua, Wis. My uncle does not have cable TV or wireless at his house so he drives 10 miles to a winebar and tunes into the Stanford matches. Needless to say, our following now includes some die hard Packer fans who are Cardinal volleyball converts. Thank you Uncle Glenn!

This past week has been pretty hectic for our team. After our long and exhausting trip to Washington, we returned to campus late Sunday night (and for the first time we were not delayed on our flight back to the Bay Area). We had a quick turnaround and practiced hard Monday with a wonderful weights session preceeding our practice. Lucky for me, I don't have class on Tuesdays so I got to sleep in and rest my tired body. However, the day was not very enjoyable after getting out of bed. Madi Bugg and I worked relentlessly in the library to finish one of our computer science assignments. Although computer science is interesting and you feel great when you code correctly, you could spend hours and hours trying to find a missing comma or carrot that changes the entire page and could make or break your grade.

We have another tough weekend ahead of us as we travel up to Corvallis and Eugene, Ore. However, the highlight of the trip is eating breakfast at the Original Pancake House! I grew up with a Pancake House right down the street and my friends and I would walk there almost every Saturday morning and order chocolate chip pancakes soaked in pure maple syrup (I will not consume any other type of syrup, Aunt Jemima doesn't do it for me) with a side of extra crispy bacon. I don't know if Coach Dunning would be okay with our team eating that for a pregame meal though.

Well this just about concludes my 9 hour (and counting) trip to the library. A lot of good has come out of it, but also a lot of bad. I get the ESPN NFL updates on my phone and after seeing the Chargers lose 7-6 to the Browns, I had to take a walk outside to cool down from all the anger that built up.

Thanks for your time and cheer us on as we take on the Beavers and the Ducks this weekend!

Go Card!