On the road to an MVC victory
From Jenny Van Kirk ‘10…
Thursday, March 12, 2009. The day we have been waiting for since our first practice in October in finally here. The Missouri Valley Conference tournament commences today in St. Charles, MO, with a banquet at noon and two games this evening. As I mentioned in my previous post, we earned the fourth seed and will play our first game on Friday afternoon.
Our bus left Haussler Hall this morning at 7:30 a.m. For 16 college women, a 7:30 a.m. departure time is a bit on the early side. A normal bus ride for our team consists of watching movies, listening to music, talking to each other, and maybe even doing some homework. However, today’s trip was pretty quiet, as everyone used the three-hour trip to get some additional sleep.
We arrived at our hotel around 10:30 a.m., checked in, and had some time to relax and get organized before starting our day of events. As usual, we were each assigned to a room with one other teammate, which allows us to spend additional time with our teammates on road trips throughout the year. An interesting element of the conference tournament is that all ten teams stay at the same hotel. It is always fun to see the opponents in an environment off the court.
At 11:30 we boarded the bus once again and departed for the awards program and luncheon. The banquet was held at The Columns Banquet and Conference Center in St. Charles. The awards were presented first, followed by a delicious meal. As a result of our success on the court, our team was rewarded with a number of individuals recognized for their accomplishments throughout the year. Monica Rogers ‘09 was named First Team All-MVC, Sonya Harris ‘11 made the Second Team, Skye Johnson ‘09 was named Honorable Mention, and Michelle Lund ‘12 earned a spot on the All-Freshman team. Additionally, Skye Johnson and Sonya Harris were named to the All-Defensive team. These awards are very well-deserved, and we are all proud of their individual accomplishments on the court this year. We will definitely be glad to have them on the court with us this weekend! Not to undermine the accomplishments of my teammates, but the most exciting announcement came when Coach Buscher was named Coach of the Year. She has worked extremely hard this year and has done an excellent job leading our team. This is definitely a great reward for her efforts.
Later this afternoon we will have a short practice at the Family Arena, followed by a quick dinner before we attend the quarterfinal games tonight. Today will be a busy day, but being in the atmosphere of the tournament will prepare us for our game tomorrow.