Kowabunga!

Today we took a break from practice and tackled the High Ropes Course at Dartmouth. We are very fortunate to have the Dartmouth Outing Club, the oldest and largest collegiate outing club in the country, at our disposal.

We conquered the Low Ropes Course this past spring and CRUSHED the High Ropes today.

While each element introduced unique challenges, the zip line was by far our favorite!

Special thanks to our fearless leaders, Becky and Jenny from the DOC, and our filmmakers Lexi, Rachel and Rose.

We're back!

Pre-season officially kicked off for us yesterday and we're so excited! We took some video of our first two days and hope to make daily posts about our progress. Here's our first video. The song is "Everything I Want" by Matthew Puckett.

Order your Dartmouth Volleyball gear

As promised here's the information on how to order some Dartmouth Volleyball gear. The website opened up for orders on July 14th and will remain open until July 21st. This is our one and only gear sale so tell your friends and family!!

84 Days Until Pre-Season...

Not that we're excited about pre-season to begin, but it's only 85 days away! Our team has spent the spring term getting ready to kick some butt and take some names in the Ivy League this fall.

We met all our goals as a team, including crushing our personal bests in the weight room! Go Big Green!

Please enjoy the video - it's a short snippet of a week in the life of the Dartmouth Volleyball team...


P.S. Now that summer has arrived this blog is going on vacation until August. We hope that everyone has a safe & fun summer!

Two Engineers and a Yellow Cat

Well, if that doesn't grab your attention I'm not sure what will. We had a great day today! Our team tackled the low ropes course at Dartmouth courtesy of the Dartmouth Outing Club - the oldest and largest collegiate outing club in the country.

As we were getting started our facilitator, Becky, had the girls name an animal and a color that they could identify with...that somewhat explains the title of this blog. :-)

As Becky led our team through the course she stopped after each section to reinforce the lesson learned and relate how it applied to our team.

Better than try to explain to you the adventures our team had today, I am going to show you. We recently purchased a Kodak zi8 and plan to record some of the great moments that our team has on a weekly basis.

Please enjoy, because we sure did!

Community Service: Cooking at David's House

This past weekend our team participated in their annual tradition of cooking dinner at David's House. This place serves as a home-away-from-home and support for families with children receiving treatment through the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD).

Here are some photos and quotes from the team about their experience this year:
"It was a really positive experience, to be able to transfer our teamwork from the volleyball court to giving back to the Dartmouth community." - Maddy Baird '12

"It was hilarious how much our chemistry as a team transferred into the kitchen. we were all laughing afterward about how we just walked in to David's house, no one even really decided who was going to do what, we just all starting doing something and within a half an hour the meal was cooked. We were like a machine!" - Annie Villanueva '12

"It was really fun to do something great for someone else, especially because in college you get used to having food prepared for you. It was a fun challenge to prepare it for someone else, especially someone in need." - Lexi Campbell '13

"Our team always has a great time cooking at David's House - our experience last weekend was a little bit more interesting than usual considering the fact that we didn't have the coaches there to supervise our cooking. But at the end of the day, I think we managed to whip up a legitimate Italian-style meal, complete with spaghetti, garlic bread, and a big salad. Good work team!"
- Jessie Hartman '11

"We had so much fun together, we're all friends off the court, but it really felt good to do something good for someone else as a team." - Amber Bryant '12

Why I Chose Dartmouth

Since coming back from Spain, I have some time to reflect upon my last two years of Dartmouth. I keep thinking of how fortunate I am to have found such an incredible college that truly fits me both as a student and as an athlete.

I am always asked the question, why exactly did you choose Dartmouth? I always find myself asking the same question. Everyone’s answer is different. Most will say it is because of the incredible opportunities Dartmouth has to offer the students like the chance to travel abroad, or take an off term to find an internship, or do a community service project. This was definitely one of the most influential factors on my decision, but also many other things played an important role in my process of choosing a school.


Coming from Texas, it is rare to find many people who are willing to go to a school anywhere other than the South. I, too, thought I was one of those people. I always thought that I would follow in my sister’s footsteps and go to the University of Georgia and play volleyball for the Bulldogs. Never in my mind did I even consider the chance of me going to a college somewhere in the Northeast. It was not until my senior year of high school that I finally realized my dream of going to the University of Georgia was not my own dream; it was my sister’s dream. I have always done everything that my older sister did because that was all I have ever known. After making this realization, I began seriously considering different colleges all over the country; I did not want to limit myself by just staying in the South. I had not considered all of the other colleges that I had been recruited by, and what great things each of them had to offer.

The college that stood out to me the most was Dartmouth. Although I had never seen the campus, I had only ever heard incredible things about this school. I had one friend who was on the volleyball team at the time and when I approached her about the coaches and the program she talked with me for almost two hours just about how incredible the volleyball program was, and all great opportunities offered by Dartmouth.

I trusted her judgment and came to visit the campus. Instantaneously, I fell in love with both the campus and the volleyball program. The team and the coaches made me feel like I was already a member of the program, and I could honestly feel how excited they were that I had an interest in coming to Dartmouth. I did not have this same sense from any of the other colleges I had previously visited. I just had a sense that Dartmouth was the best fitting school for me.

So I took a risk, I decided to come to Dartmouth, and be a member of the Big Green volleyball program. Even though I was terrified of moving across the country and not having my family close to me, I was comforted by the fact that the members of the team and coaching staff would surround me. This was the first time in my life that I can think of where I made a choice solely on my own and not influenced by what my older sister would do.

By choosing Dartmouth, I get to continue to play volleyball for a Division I program, while also having a life outside of volleyball. We have the freedom to take off terms, and virtually do anything you can imagine. I have spent the past three months in Spain taking classes and traveling all around Europe with two of my best friends.

Most people who play volleyball in college are not blessed with these kinds of opportunities. I am fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of all of the wonderful possibilities that Dartmouth has to offer.

-Kendall Houston '12