Sensational Sophomores

Hello followers!

Today marks the next installment of our fall blog. With our season in full-swing and classes having started, hear from our sophomores who are now seasoned veterans of Dartmouth. Enjoy!


The volleyball team has been on campus since August 18th. With a schedule consisting only of eating, sleeping, and playing volleyball for a month, it’s hard to swing into gear for classes, which finally started on September 21st. Our team represents a variety of majors including biology, engineering, psychology, English, and government, and this term we are collectively taking courses in a number departments such as African American studies, sociology, and earth sciences. Personally, I am on the pre-med track, so this term I am taking Biology 12- Cell Structure and Function. I also am taking a course in the philosophy department (Reason and Argument) and one in the Women and Gender Studies department (Sex, Gender, and Society) to get some distribs (distributive class requirements) out of the way.
BUT the most exciting part of classes starting this fall is that Ivies are also starting! This weekend we played Harvard and won in an exciting 5 game match. We play Penn and Princeton next week, so we are really excited to get two more wins on the road at the start of our season! Go Big Green!
- Rose Dicovitsky '14

I believe that one of the greatest challenges for a student athlete at Dartmouth is developing a strong sense of focus on the task at hand. During preseason, all we are responsible for is playing volleyball. All we need to focus on is becoming stronger, better players. However, once the term begins, life becomes much more complex. There are classes to attend, friends to see, and work to finish. In a single day, aside from volleyball, I may have three or more hours of class as well as any daily errands, meetings with professors, extracurricular activities, or time that I have to spend in the library. Sometimes I am rushing around doing so many things that I barely have any time to breathe. Yet I know that as soon as practice time comes, that is all I can focus on. When I step into the locker room, all the other aspects of my life fall away, and I am just a volleyball player once more. In the gym, I do not think about what homework I need to finish or what test I need to study for. I only think about what I can do to better myself and better my team. This concentration is a skill that I believe directly results from being a student athlete and that will greatly benefit me in my future endeavors.
- Meghan Cooney '14

THE LODJ
It’s a motel from the ‘60s. It’s off-campus. The Lodge (or the LODJ as we affectionately call it) is not the most sought after upperclassman housing, but it has character, and for that its inmates, I mean residents, love it. My roommate, Rose Dicovitsky, and I find lots of ways to keep occupied in the LODJ when we’re not playing volleyball or studying for our Women’s and Gender Studies class. I’ve recently discovered the TV show Dexter, which is a new obsession. Even though he’s killed and dismembered dozens of people, I’d still probably marry him because he’s a nice serial killer and has some rockin’ abs. Rose and I also do fun arts and crafts. We painted wooden letters of our initials to put above our beds so we don’t get confused when we come home late at night from away games. The other night, Rose and I started an invite only two-person dance party. When that got old (which was pretty fast) we decided to film a documentary of our lives in the LODJ. We predict an Oscar in our future. We joke about the LODJ, but all in all, it is what you make of it. We also get our own full bathroom, shower and all! Not too shabby if you ask me. See ya Mid Faye[rweather dorm].
- Vivian Snider

Classes have started, and it’s time to be the student part of student-athlete. In a matter of a few days, things go from your life revolving 100% around volleyball, to having to buy over-priced textbooks and getting to class on time. While things can get pretty hectic, fall term is still one of the best. The campus is beyond beautiful, all the leaves are changing and it’s getting cooler outside. But the very best thing about fall term starting is that we are finally into the Ivy part of our season. All the hard work that we put in the past year – trudging through the snow to winter lifts, waking up early in the spring for sprinting, working hard all summer – is finally getting put to use. We played our first game away against Harvard. Playing in the Ivy League can be a battle, the teams are all fairly even and every point counts. Against Harvard we played 5 tough, tough games. It was a scramble for every point, but we pulled it out in the end, coming home with the W. Focusing on the little things, even when classes make life difficult, is making us better every day. All of the work we’ve done motivates me to keep pushing a little harder, no matter how tired I am. Fall term can be a stressful 10 weeks with so much going on, but keeping my mind on the goal (that ivy ring) reminds me to keep pushing through, keep remembering the little things, and keep going strong.
- Elisa Scudder '14

And We're Off!

Greetings readers! This Fall we've decided to split up our blog entries by class. Every few weeks you will hear from a different class about what is going on in their worlds and in the world of Dartmouth Volleyball. First up, we have the Juniors!

When I walked into my first volleyball workout at the beginning of this summer, I was so nervous that I could barely talk. Seriously, Alissa probably thought there was something wrong with the ’13 who had decided to switch from basketball to volleyball. So, needless to say, there were some butterflies in my stomach on August 18th when the rest of the team joined us here in Hanover. I didn’t have too much time to worry, though, because we started right in on volleyball and workouts. After meetings and an impact test on our first day, we all woke up bright and early and got to show off all the work we had done over the summer by running the fitness test. Once we finished, we jumped right into those lovely preseason two-a-days, accented with lifts and yoga sessions. We even squeezed in a team photo shoot, during which Alissa and I established the 13’s as the class with by far the most swag. Between all of that and the fact that Alissa and I were still in classes, my days felt pretty jam packed. Without realizing it, however, the fast pace at which my life was moving was actually preventing me from being affected by all those nervous thoughts. I didn’t have time to feel anxious! Before I knew it, I began to feel like a part of the amazing and tight knit group that is Dartmouth Women’s Volleyball. All the girls and coaches are so welcoming and caring, and they all made my first preseason unforgettable. I can’t wait for the rest of our season and to see what we all can accomplish together!

- Kylie Kufeld '13

'13 swag:

This past weekend, September 2nd and 3rd, we played our opening tournament at Bucknell. First tournaments provide just a taste of what is in store for the rest of the season. It’s a great chance to see how your team’s offensive and defensive systems match up against other teams.
After 2 and a half weeks of team practices, I was really looking forward to this tournament and excited to see a new opponent on the other side of the net. On Thursday morning, we started off the 7, questionably 8-hour bus ride watching the classic series, Friday Night Lights (season 5). After about three hours into the bus ride, we bombarded a Chipotle for a nice team lunch somewhere in Connecticut. After a few more hours on the road, we finally made it to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania (which I discovered a few years ago is neighbored by Amish towns). We woke up Friday morning to prepare for our match later that day against Manhattan. We had a short team practice in the morning and went over film and a scouting report on our opponents.
When it was game time, we came out strong. Our nerves were calmed by our confidence in our preparation. We swept Manhattan in three games! It was an exciting start! Our momentum carried over to the next day, and we recorded two more victories over Fordham and Bucknell. We didn’t drop a single game all weekend! We left the Bucknell campus as tournament champions. Yannis (Annie Villanueva) and Scuddle (Elisa Scudder) were named to the all-tournament team. It looked like it was going to be a smooth bus ride back to Hanover. Boy, was that assumption wrong.
It was all giggles and smiles, until….our bus decided to struggle: THE STRUGGLE BUS. The power went out about one hour into our trip and we were stuck somewhere in Pennsylvania. We coasted at a bicycle pace until we got off the freeway and pulled into a gas station. We were stranded there for a few hours waiting for a new bus to arrive so Kendall and I decided to enjoy a nice 11pm breakfast at Twin Rocks Diner. We were joined by several other teammates and later by our assistant coaches. Besides being a tad frustrating, this whole dying bus situation turned out to be a great opportunity for a little forced team bonding. You really get to know people’s goofy sides when it’s some unreasonable hour and you're sitting at a diner in the middle of nowhere. Finally our new bus arrived and we made it back to Hanover by real breakfast time. All in all, it was a pretty funny situation and a good story to tell; besides this little mishap couldn’t have happened at a better time.
Aside from the drawn out journey back to campus, bringing home 3 Ws was a great way to start out the season, but the most exciting part about this past weekend was realizing the potential of how great we can be if we keep putting in work and continue to prepare with intensity. We saw the '15s off on their DOC trips and the rest of us are back, getting after it in the gym, preparing for our big weekend at West Point.

- Alissa Santa Maria '13

Twin Rocks Diner: