Posted: Nov 16, 2018

Reflections from Nationals - Day 4

by Paige Sweeney (Sophomore) and Paulina Velderrain (Freshman)

Game Day. Alarms go off at the crack of dawn - 8:30 a.m. and it's time to start preparing for the day ahead. We visit the continental breakfast again just to get us going and moving out of bed. Next, Nicole challenged us with some encouraging words from Proverbs 17:22, reminding us that we can't let our defeats and mistakes bring us down if we want to succeed as a team; we have to be joyful that God has given us more time to play as a team and enjoy what we are doing - playing volleyball.

Next stop - Bob Jones University. The day and time has finally come that we are back in this gym to compete for a national title. We had a little down time to watch the other teams in the competition play each other but before long, it was time for us to start warming up for our own games.

Up first we had the #5 seed, Johnson University Tennessee. This would not be an easy match by any means. They pushed us and really challenged us to play our best. Johnson took the first set from us, which only motivated us to come together and do what we do best - play as a team. We fought hard and won the match 3-1.

After the excitement of winning, we had some time to enjoy family and friends that came to support us while eating some snacks to fuel us for our next game.

It was time to refocus again and meet our next opponent - #8 seed, Randall University. Randall came out pushing and fighting taking the first set from us. After coming together as a team, we decided that we still had some fuel in the tank and we were not ready to give up this game. We gained momentum to really take the second set but the last two would not be easily won. We used every ounce of energy we had left and pulled through as a team to win the match 3-1.

A lot of volleyball was played today so now it's time to refuel (MOE'S!!!!) and recharge for tomorrow. We're ready for what God has in store for us the rest of the weekend.