At the Net Blog with Caroline Knop
10/24/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
• Michigan to Challenge No. 7 Penn State, No. 20 Ohio State
Each week, we will give fans an inside look at the Michigan volleyball program with the At the Net blogs. This week, freshman Caroline Knop talks about a pair of wins on the East Coast, the surgery and recovery of two of her teammates, and having the right mindset in practices.
Coming off wins against Maryland and Rutgers was an awesome feeling. Although both teams had not earned a win in Big Ten play, a win is a win and we will take those in an effort to get better for this upcoming weekend where we will play Penn State on Friday night and Ohio State on Saturday night.
This week of practice started off on Monday with just a lift, no volleyball practice. It was nice to have a day off, especially as we enter the second half of the Big Ten season. Night in and night out, it is a battle in this conference so a day off here and there is a good thing for our bodies. Another big event that happened on Monday was that Ally Davis, a junior outside hitter, had surgery. Although she was initially in more pain than expected, she is working through it and will start rehab sooner than later to get back out on the court wearing Maize and Blue.
With midterms continuing this week, we had many girls who were studying constantly all days of the week. But when we come into practice, we come ready to work and "be where our feet are" according to Greg Dale, a renowned sports psychologist. We try to execute this on a day-to-day basis and really worked on this in Tuesday's and Wednesday's practices.
On Thursday, we had a great practice while another Wolverine was unfortunately having surgery. This time it was Kelly Murphy, another junior outside hitter. Everything seemed to go well which means that she and Ally Davis will be hanging out together for the next few weeks and will continue their time together getting rehab and moving at a turtle's pace on crutches.
As we left for Penn State on Thursday night, we, as a team, felt prepared to represent the Maize and Blue well this weekend, taking on two tough opponents but ready to get big wins in Pennsylvania and Ohio. We are worried about one game at a time, so support your Michigan Wolverines at Penn State on Friday night or catch the game on the Big Ten Network. GO BLUE!
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