Hey guys! It's motivational Monday, that means throughout our day our teammates will be sending each other little texts of what gets us fired up to do our best! Each Monday we will get YouTube videos, quotes, Bible verses and all of the above from selected teammates that help us keep our eyes on the prize. This week we got three steps closer to our ultimate goal by beating our last three teams in the conference. HOLLA!!!

Lincoln Memorial University was our first opponent we faced this week on Tuesday. LMU is another one of our rival schools so our crowd gets rowdy when they step into our gym! We defeated the Railsplitters in three sets and swept them back to Harrogate. One down, two more to go.

Friday night was our Family night. Our loved ones flew in from all across the country (literally, Cali to New Jersey) to be there for us as we battled Anderson. It was a beautiful thing to stand on the baseline with the people who have been there for us since day one, supporting our dreams and volleyball careers. That night we had both families with us, our biological families, and our volleyball sisters, honoring the National Anthem alongside us. Once we stepped out to take a picture and capture the grateful moment, our parents stepped off the court to watch us take Anderson down in four. It was an intense battle though! Anderson is also ranked in our region, so that match was equally important for both teams.

Saturday was senior night for our four lovely seniors. And boy did they go out with a bang. We started the day with a quick practice, and then had a pre-game meal with our friends and families to fill our hearts and stomachs. Meanwhile, the underclassman were decorating the gym and preparing Harper's, Kristen's, Lauren's and Jenna's gifts. We all pitched in and got them manicures and pedicures so they could get some extra lovin' and pampering. That gift is temporary but we each wrote them individual letters that they can keep forever to remember the sisters who fought, cried, danced, laughed, played, and celebrated with them through it all. Our game against Newberry that day is one they we will all remember! We were off to an awful start and after dropping the first two games! Something we hadn't done all season. Coach took us into the locker room for the intermission and laid it out for us. There was no way we were losing to THIS team, in THIS way, on This day. It just wasn't in the cards for us! Entering into the third game, he said he understood what we were doing, explaining, "We had won in every way this season, besides being down 0-2, and we just wanted to make sure we were well rounded going into playoffs!" And that next time we should keep him informed. But we did exactly that. We all of the sudden woke up after that large slap in the face, and the team we know and loved made a monumental comeback in the third game beating them by 10 points. Don't mess with our team on senior night! For the next two games we knew we were going to come out victorious if we kept focused. So we did. We played for each pass, set, hit, block, dive or sprawl our seniors made in that gym. The passion each one of us passed back and forth on the court is something I will never forget. We took the next three games from Newberry just to keep our fans on their toes. It was the last game at home of the season! We had to make it memorable somehow. It was all just a part of our master plan.

All of the pedicures, manicures, letters or wins in the world couldn't even begin to thank our seniors for all they have done for our program. They do so much behind the scenes that we won't know about until we walk in their shoes as seniors ourselves. Their drive as individuals is unmatched by any other players we have seen in our conference. When we are feeling defeated in practice or in games all we have to do is look to them for encouragement or inspiration. I'm a junior and I know my class is going to have big shoes to fill! But I like to think that we give our seniors the power to be great leaders because we have the will to follow them. There is something so special about our team. Something that only comes around once in a blue moon, or whatever that saying is. With this in mind we are going to go into the conference tournament knowing that we are still earning RESPECT and that we have everything we need to be successful. Phase two of a national title, complete.  We just have two more with the conference tournament and ultimately, the NCAA D2 championships. Let's do it Eagles, Talons up!! 

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 -