The trip to St. Louis was magical in a lot of ways. It was stressful and never-ending, yet exciting and it never felt like it was real. Even on the plane, I had to take a moment to realize where we had come from and how we got here. When we got to St. Louis, the only thing we wanted to do was take pictures next to every single championship sign and get our free stuff. We were living in the moment and pretending like we were professional athletes.
After a long night of rest we had our first practice in the gym. Once again I had to look around and take a moment to remember why we were there. We continued our day doing community service at a homeless shelter. The day was fun and it was a great experience to work together and help others.
That night we headed to the All-American banquet where we listened to speeches and awards. I looked around at how poised and calm the other teams were and then I looked at our team. We were all laughing and moving constantly like we couldn’t sit still anymore. I think a lot of us just wanted to play volleyball and we didn’t understand what all the hype was about.
When Friday morning came I was restless. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t want to do anything but play volleyball. Waiting for our game to begin was torture and when the time finally came we were ready.
In five games we watched our season come to a conclusion, and despite all the anger and sadness inside of me, all I could really do was feel proud. Together we all dominated New England volleyball for three months and took ourselves to a place we’d never thought we’d be. We reached our goal to get to the Elite 8, and even though I wish it didn’t stop there I couldn’t be happier because of what we achieved. I wish I had four more years with Coach Long and the underclassmen, and I wish I could relive this season over again. I was a part of something magical and seeing my teammates grow and Coach lead us will leave an imprint on my life forever.
I don’t think our team will have any regrets and I don’t think we could ever look at the season negatively even if we tried. I am so proud of what we accomplished and I'm honored to have been a part of this team; not only this year but for all four years. We put Springfield College Women's Volleyball on the map, and we proved everyone who doubted us wrong.
The road to St. Louis may have ended and so has our season, but the love that has built between our team and Coach has helped us overcome every difficult moment this year, and this is no exception.
Love wins.
I LOVE THIS TEAM.
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