Throughout the 2015 volleyball season, freshman libero Hannah Robertson (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) will write about her experiences at Carson-Newman. A new installment will be released each Monday afternoon.

This week CNVB took on many new challenges and adventures. As a team we conquered a 10-hour bus ride, our first official "W", two new cities including Chi-town and some amazing deep dish style pizza. With all these cool new experiences, it's fun to look back and see that it isn't the places we go, but the people we are with that make the memories.  

We all stumbled to the bus at 7:30 Thursday morning half asleep. When I say stumbled, I literally mean stumbled. I think I dropped my bags at least five times trying to get to the bus.  When we all got up to the bus, we saw that it was decked out in Carson-Newman Volleyball decor.  We all piled in ready to take on the 10-hour bus ride to Michigan! When we arrived in Michigan we were greeted by Tina's adorable family! They were standing out front waving pom-poms and holding C-N colored goody bags. The goody bag ranged from better made Michigan potato chips, to my personal favorite, Tina's grandmother "Nammys" cookies! That night we toured around Grand Rapids and were treated to an amazing meal by the Hills. 

The next day, we woke up and had a light pool workout to awaken our bodies from a long day of traveling and then went and ate a big breakfast. Did I mention we almost got kicked out for not wearing shoes in the restaurant? We simply tried to explain we were from Tennessee and this was our norm, but they didn't seem to quite understand. Needless to say we wore shoes next time. We then headed on our way to Grand Valley State University, where we finally got to lace up for our first real matches. We played two matches on both Friday and Saturday. By our fourth match, we were exhausted, but just before our last match on the second day, coach Kirby threw out a wicked Stanky-leg and it gave us all enough spark and spunk to win our final match in three! We had a very successful tournament, going 3-1 and giving anyone we played a run for their money. The energy on the court was incredible. It was so cool to see all of our hard work from the summer finally swing into motion. Everyone was confident. Everyone was ready to play and everyone had a determined mind ready to stomp anyone who came in our paths. This tournament really set the tone for what this season is going to be like, and I think I speak for us all when I say that anyone who has C-N on their schedule needs to get their minds right.  

After our final match we headed out to Illinois! That night we got a good night's rest before we took on the Windy City of Chicago! We woke up and drove into downtown Chicago, where we got off the bus and took a big team pic in front of the skyline. Then we got our trolley tickets, hopped on, and were instructed to run along and explore, with a buddy of course! Everyone went their separate ways, each group eager to see something new. While others picked popular attractions such as The Bean, Lake Michigan, or maybe the Water Tower that is 9 levels of heavenly shopping! It didn't take long for my "buddy" Ally King and I to get completely separated from all of the groups. And thus, Ally and Hannah take on Chicago in search of friends was set into motion. We walked in a solid circle for I kid you not, at least an hour and a half. The adventures we encountered trying to find everyone would have been enough of the Chicago experience for me. One time, a man that was resting on the side of the street proceeded to help give us directions that might I add, led us nowhere. We somehow managed to pass the Chicago Theatre at least 10 times, each time feeling more and more lost. Then the good Lord above led us to a Disney store (where I proceeded to drop 50 bucks) and then short after to our groups. We spent the rest of the day shopping and exploring together, finally walking with people that knew where they were going. I have never been so happy to see my teammates in my life.   

After a long, exhausting day of new adventures, we headed to our very own Maddie Zyburt's house for a real taste of some Chicago pizza. A big thanks to her awesome family for the pizza, sandwhiches, chili cheese dip, and ice cream sundaes to top it all off! I think I speak for us all when I say that eating Tennessee pizza just won't ever quite be the same!  

After a long week of hard work, tough play and new adventure, we are all ready for our first home game this Friday. Thank you for all your continued support! We hope to see you all there in the stands this weekend with your TALONS UP!

Lots and lots of love for ya'll,

Hannah Robertson 

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