Oh happy day! It's fall break time for us here at Carson-Newman which means class doesn't resume until Wednesday morning and we get Sunday totally off! But victory never sleeps and tomorrow we begin prepping for our second shot at that relentless Mars Hill defense.  But before I get ahead of myself let's rewind back to last Tuesday.

Last Tuesday we packed our C-N vans and headed through the mountains to Lincoln Memorial University. We call their gym the Hangar because the inside literally looks like an airplane hangar. In the past we haven't had the best record in the Hangar but we always have "fond" memories of the fans when we leave because they are one of our biggest rivals. This year during the 10 minute intermission (we were up 2-0) some of their fans began counting the volleys for two of our freshman as they passed back and forth to get warmed up. We could see the sweat beading on their foreheads as they focused on not messing up but we were crying laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. However they passed with flying colors and managed to keep the ball alive the whole time. We came out with the win and swept them just for Taylor Lowe's birthday! We were once again reminded that the past has gone and that we control our own destiny! Not the fans, the past or any other outside factors.

Wednesday was our day off and one would think we would want to get away from each other. I mean we see enough of each other during the week! But one would be wrong. Somehow we all found each other on the second floor of the library. Even though we weren't all sitting together (because let's face it, no work would be done and we would probably get kicked out because of noise complaints) we were sitting in pairs or groups and snuck creepy Snapchats to each other to keep things interesting. During the week, the library seems to be the social center of campus after hours. Is that how it was at your school? Is that normal? I think that's one reason why we love life at Carson-Newman. We make our own fun in the simplest and least likely places.

Thursday practice began in an unusual way. Some of our girls had a photo shoot with RMJ Tactical Tomahawks and gear. The pictures look pretty hard I must say. RMJ Tactical is a company based in Chattanooga, Tenn. that produces tomahawks! Their tomahawks are used all around the world which includes the use in our Armed Forces and that alone speaks to the quality. Rachel Harper has worked with them in the past and I guess they kind of like her because they decided to sponsor us in our sand volleyball excursions this summer! Totally kidding about "kind of liking" her. Who doesn't love Harper!? Speaking of, Harper is our new hero for the next two weeks. But watch your back Harper, we're gunning for ya!

Then on Friday we suited up for our business trip to South Carolina to take on Anderson and Newberry. We swept Anderson on Friday night but must have missed a spot on the floor because after the match Kiayna O'Neal took the most traumatic and drawn out slip on water I have ever seen and somehow ended up on her stomach. I thought only Kiayna had slipped but I was confused to turn around to find Anna Patton and Morgan Harlan on the floor as well. But they were rolling with laughter. I don't think Anna got up for another 10 minutes. What kind of friends do you have if you can't laugh at them?

Saturday morning we ventured to Newberry and were in for a rude awakening when we lost the first set. We took the next two and thought we would do the same with the fourth when it too began to slip through our fingers. At that moment we saw a sea of navy and white in the Newberry bleachers and heard a bunch of foreign accents yelling and cheering our names. Who could it be? It was none other than the Lads (commonly known as our men's soccer team). And they swooped in after they defeated Newberry just in time to give us momentum going into the fifth set. They were louder than ever and gave us a huge push into a win!  Even after the last ball hit the ground, they continued to cheer Oo-leeeeee, ole, ole, ole, oole, ooooleee…After we high-fived Newberry, we turned to do our cool down stretch as we do after every game, when coach told us to go cheer with our fans! So we rushed over to join the chant and celebrate both of our victories that day. What an awesome way to finish a trip and our first round of conference play.

So there we have it, the first round of conference play is complete and we soared through with a 10-1 record and six of them being sweeps! It is still a little surreal for some of us returners, but boy are we loving it. It feels like we are purely doing our jobs and playing to the level where we know we should be. It seems so simple but put 15 college girls in one room and nothing is simple! Somehow, we break it down to basics and everything comes smoothly. Our team chemistry, leadership and unselfishness comes with ease when you all share the same goal. And we will head into the second round with not content, but confidence that we have earned as we still have much more to accomplish!

Shout out to RMJ Tactical for sponsoring our team and the vision of our volleyball program! You all give us the means to perform at our peaks. When we look good, we play good. Thank you so much, God has truly blessed us with your fellowship.

And as always, thanks for reading and have a great week! 

Thanks for reading,

Kristina (Tina) Hill

God Bless!

Throughout the 2014 volleyball season, junior libero Kristina Hill (Lake Orion, Mich.) will write about her experiences at Carson-Newman. A new installment will be released each Monday afternoon.

- CN -