Sept. 20, 2003

Members of the volleyball squad will be contributing journals throughout the year, giving viewpoints on the team, matches and the season. In the second installment, senior Fiona DeFreitas (Lanham, Md.) and junior Kathy Shahrokh (Ellicott City, Md.) check in from the team's trip to Chicago, Ill.

By Fiona DeFreitas and Kathy Shahrokh

It was pretty cool that we had to leave early, because Maryland was expecting a hurricane. So we made it here early Thursday and got to go to the Sears Tower. Sightseeing was great, except it was freezing. The city was really windy...which we guess is why they call it the Windy City.

On Friday night, we played Loyola-Chicago, and we didn't play our greatest but we managed to pull out a win. It was really important for our team...it's good to know that even when we're not playing our best we still stick to it and follow through.

Today we played Southern Methodist and lost in five games. We didn't play our best, but it makes us even more focused for tonight because we really want to win. At this time last year, we were 11-0 and we went to Denver and lost three games and then we were at 11-3 which set us on a seven-game losing streak. So this year, we want to win tonight so we'll be 11-3 but we'll be on a winning streak as opposed to a losing streak.

Also, the game was our first five-game thriller-type match of the season, so we got to learn how to deal with it. We'll learn how to calm down and play our game during those types of matches and not get so tense. Even though we lost the first two games, we didn't give up, we took it all the way to five and that shows something.

Today's my birthday (Fiona), so I got the wake-up call from my parents wishing me happy birthday...and Kathy made me some art this morning with her fruit. The past couple of years I've been on the road for my birthday and it's not too bad...you get dessert when you go to restaurants sometimes!