University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
UL Volleyball Blog: Kristen Armstrong
9/23/2010 3:06:00 PM | Volleyball
In the fourth installment of the Ragin' Cajuns Volleyball blog, freshman Kristen Armstrong talks about her transition to the college game and this past weekend's performance at the Lamar Tournament in Beaumont, Texas.
This semester has started off as such a blur. It seems like our pre-season training just started a few days ago, but now we are working extremely hard to prepare for our Sun Belt Conference schedule.
As a freshman, I sometimes don't know whether I am coming or going because you're juggling volleyball and class schedule. I can't say enough about the wonderful girls on our team, as well as the coaches and all of the training staff.
The upperclassmen have gone out of their way to help take care of the newcomers by helping us feel so welcomed and making this season such a great experience! When you spend so much time with and around each other as a team, you really get to know, appreciate and depend on each other. I never would have dreamed that our team would come together so quickly, but I think that will likely be one major factors in the improvement we all expect this year.
I can't describe how amazing it feels to be able to play at home and have our fans asking for our autographs, asking questions, or just generally making all of us feel so special and proud. In a very short time, I have begun to understand just what a pleasure and honor it is to be a "Ragin'Cajun" and what a great place this is!
Traveling to tournaments provides an opportunity to experience the anticipation for the matches to come, a temporary break in our training schedule, watch movies, a chance to study (in case Mom is reading this) and an opportunity to rest , or just unwind a bit.
I can't say enough about those supporters who follow us to our away matches. This past weekend we were at the Lamar Tournament in Beaumont, Texas. We let the matches against Albany and Lamar slip, but learned a valuable lesson on what we need to work on before we begin conference play. While we didn't fare as well as we would have liked, we did manage to finish with a 3-0 victory over McNeese State on Saturday afternoon, and we hope to use this as a positive point to begin our conference schedule this week.
We have a hectic week, but we are in luck as our next three matches are here at Earl K. Long Gym. We open our conference schedule here on Friday at 5p.m. against Troy, and then Sunday afternoon at 1p.m. we take on South Alabama. We look forward to a rematch with McNeese State on Tuesday.
We have been working very hard to make this team as good as it can be and we are proud with our improvement, but not satisfied. Our team is going places, and we have the players, the effort, and the heart, but we'd love to see everyone share some energy and enthusiasm by coming to watch some great volleyball this week, we'd love to see you, hear you, and show you what we can do! Geaux Cajuns!
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
