Dec. 15, 2005

Santa Clara University volleyball team has advanced to the program's first-ever NCAA semifinal appearance this season. The Broncos will play top-seeded Nebraska Thursday, Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. (Pacific) in San Antonio, Texas' Alamodome. The match will be televised live on ESPNU.

Each day during Santa Clara's magical trip to the Lone Star State, a Bronco player will offer their insight into the team's activities and experiences.

Today, sophomore Caroline Walters talks about Santa Clara's second day in San Antonio and all the activites that went on throughout the day.

Day 2 - Media Obligations and Texas Hospitality

I definitely got the best day to write about. Yesterday was a travel day with very few things going on, and tomorrow is our game, so if we lose I will be too disappointed to write a good diary and if we win I will probably be too excited to sit down!

We got to sleep in this morning, which was very nice considering that we have been waking up early for the past two weeks getting prepared for finals and various volleyball obligations. Megan, my roommate, and I woke up around 10 and had oatmeal in our room. After breakfast, we met as a team and went over our scouting reports and watched film on Nebraska.

One of the fun things about being here, at the National Semi-Finals, is that we are getting a lot of free things. Yesterday the very hospitable people from the tournament greeted us with "goodie bags" filled with treats from many local companies. Today the presents continued to pour in; I think Nike decided that we needed to look good on TV, so our rep sent us new shoes and socks, as well as a new dri-fit shirt. We also received a very unexpected mp3 player from the NCAA which was awesome!

Today was a very, very busy day. After film, Crystal, the Annas, Cassie, Kim, Kristin, Brittany and I all had to go down to the Alamodome to do our headshots for ESPN. Thinking of interesting facts to say about ourselves in these introductions is always the best part. Today, I think Crystal's was the best! She sang one of our teams favorite songs "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey, it was priceless. We were then escorted back to our team room, which was elaborately decorated by a local high school team from the San Antonio area. On that note, I would just like to say how amazing the people here have been. They have been catering to our every need and I hope they know how appreciative we are of everything.

The press conference came next and was quite an experience. Kim, Cassie, Jon and I all sat up on a podium while people asked us questions. One of the reporters asked me a question and I started answering and then completely forgot what word I was looking for. Finally I got through the question without much more hesitation.

After all media obligations were over, it was time to practice. We took the floor and all of our pre-game jitters were very apparent. This was probably due to the fact that fans were allowed to watch our practice, something that we have never experienced before. We were able to settle down and had a great practice on our court for tomorrow nights National Semi-Final game.

The best part of the night was the banquet that we attended along with the other 3 teams and all of the people responsible for putting on this spectacular event. Before entering the door we took a team picture with an actual live bull. The dinner was fantastic, complete with a nacho bar, chicken, salad, pasta and sausage. As well as peach cobbler for desert! There was a short highlight video featuring all four teams and their road to San Antonio. Not to brag, but our celebration after beating Arizona was the best of the four teams! Each of the head coaches spoke and said nice things about their own, and each of the other teams. It was fun to dress up and see what everyone looked like out of spandex and kneepads.

Now it is off to bed for us Broncos! It is going to be an extremely intense day tomorrow starting early at 10 in the morning for a team breakfast.