Northwestern University Athletics
SERVE AND VOLLEY: Entry Nine
4/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 28, 2010
Throughout their careers, Northwestern seniors Lauren Lui and Samantha Murray have been two of the driving forces behind NU's rise to the level of perennial powerhouse. During their final go-rounds with the Wildcats, "Speeds" and Sam will keep NU fans current on the program's latest happenings in their blog, "Serve and Volley."
Hey Wildcat Fans,
So the regular season has concluded. I can't believe it! It has flown by so fast that I can't even express my feelings right now. I'm in shock. The real world is quickly creeping up on me and it's making me a little nervous. However, I have other things on my mind right now and that's tennis.
So this past weekend we headed to Penn State and Ohio State. We weren't able to get a direct flight to Penn State so we connected in Washington, D.C. We had a little scare for a while when we arrived in D.C. and the tennis bags we had gate-checked in Chicago weren't there. The coaches went into a little bit of a panic mode which resulted in half of the 'Cats sprinting through Dulles airport and the other half arguing with the airline person at the gate. It wasn't looking very good for a while, but in the end, our bags made it to our second flight, which was a huge relief. However, that relief didn't last long. As we walked to our connecting flight, we discovered that our plane was a propeller plane. Personally, I'm not a big fan of propeller planes. They're so loud and shaky which makes me very nervous. But the person who was the most nervous was (assistant coach) Jackie Holden. Once she saw that little plane, she was never the same the rest of the day. I've never seen somebody's leg shake as much as hers did. I only became more nervous looking at her so I had to shut my eyes. It was one of the scariest flights I've ever been on. My stomach dropped a few times which reminded me of roller coasters -- which I hate. Some people call that feeling adrenaline and exhilarating; I call it near-death experience. Oh and to top it all off, when we landed, one of the panels inside the plane fell on a man. That pretty much summed up our adventure to State College.
It was quite funny when we played Penn State outside on Saturday. They were having their spring football game that same day, and many people walked behind the courts to get to the stadium. I swear that hundreds of people continually filed in for hours to go watch the game. Oftentimes, these people would make comments that we ignored, but the best ones were when these Penn State fans would mistake us as Lions and cheer for us as they walked by. All of us just kept saying "thank you!"
However, when we arrived in Columbus to play Ohio State, we also had fans. I call them the Turvy clan. Most of you probably know that Kate Turvy is from around that area. It's her home and she brought all her family and friends out. It was a great crowd. At times, I would hear loud cheers and think it was Ohio State who won a point, but no, it was the 'Cats earning a point on the scoreboard. That's one of the best parts about college tennis, people can be as loud as they want and it's perfectly fine.
Lastly, we're gearing up to go to Iowa City for the Big Ten Tournament. We are all very excited for postseason play. Every match is very important and we're doing our best to make everyday worthwhile. The conference has a lot of great teams this year which will make for a great tournament. Hopefully the weather is nice in Iowa and we can play outside. Until next time.....GO 'CATS!!!!!
Speeds
