At the Net Blog with Katherine Mahlke
9/26/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 26, 2014
• Wolverines to Open Big Ten Play in Hoosier State
Each week, we will give fans an inside look at the Michigan volleyball program with the At the Net blogs. This week, freshman Katherine Mahlke talks about the success of the physical tests, potential watch sharing and the excitement of the start of Big Ten play.
After a long and busy weekend at the Michigan Invitational, the team headed into the week ready to do some work. On Monday, we began with video and a short team practice in which we were able to focus on little parts of our game that will contribute to making us stronger as a team. Once practice concluded, we began our physical tests. This week we measured our vertical jumps and tested them with jumping flags. Shortly following that, we headed out to the field hockey field to do our running test, the shuttle. All of us were pretty tired and sore from the weekend, so we all thought the shuttle would be a struggle. However, everyone exceeded their expectations, and there were several PRs and even a couple people had times close to the record. We all agreed that the new blue turf field certainly helped our times, and we are now insisting that we run every shuttle outside (well at least until there's snow on the ground and it hits negative temperatures, which could be any time soon with Michigan weather:). Later on Monday, there was a networking event open to all student-athletes in which we had the opportunity to make career contacts by connecting with former Michigan student-athletes in the business world.
Tuesday's practice began with Carly (Warner) and Abby (Cole) receiving adidas watches for being named to the all-tournament team at the Michigan Invitational. The all-white watches looked so fancy that a few teammates may need to borrow those from Carly and Abby in the future. Practice ensued in the usual format with each of us competing to make one another better. After practice, some members of our team went off to a leadership training session run through the athletic department. The skills learned at this workshop will be brought back to our team and applied in ways that will only bring us closer together. Many of us finished the night at the AC where there were photographers capturing pictures of all the different athletes to be used for an athletic recruiting site. Let's just say there should be plenty of pictures of the volleyball team because majority of the team was there at some point or another in the night.
With Big Ten play in the volleyball world opening up on Wednesday, our own matches for the weekend were in sight. Powering through practice and lift, we were almost ready for the weekend. I know several of us were able to catch the Big Ten volleyball matches on TV that night, which only made us more excited to play this weekend and compete with these teams for a Big Ten title.
Thursday came and went with a quick turnaround of events. We began the afternoon with a normal practice at our normal time, but shortly after we were off running around to prepare to leave for Purdue. We began with scouting then grabbed Cottage Inn for dinner to eat on the bus and finally headed out to meet our bus. To be productive on our four-hour bus ride, we had a team meeting to set goals for the next two weeks. After some discussion, we have set four goals for the next two weeks that will challenge us to be a better team.
After this solid, competitive week of practice we are ready to attack the Big Ten and fight for the top spot!
Go Blue!
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