MONTREAL THIS WEEKEND

Hey guys :)

Good news to start the blog off: we won our second game of the season this weekend !!! We played Acadia on Saturday afternoon and we beat them 3-1. This was pretty exciting as it was our first win in the Performance gym. All the girls were super please (obviously) and I think it leaves us on a great foot leading to our trip to Montreal this week. We will be leaving early on Thursday morning and will be travelling all day. We play Sherbrooke on Friday night, Sherbrooke and the host team, McGill on Saturday and finally, Laval on Sunday morning. We are hoping to earn ourselves a couple wins this weekend although it will be very tough competition. I am excited to encounter new teams and to see what the level of volleyball is in Quebec.  That is all for today, but I will post the next blog either Sunday or Monday with the weekend results :)

Toodle loo ,

Jodie

We Are Getting There

Hey guys, 

A little change of plan, I, Jodie, will be writing the blog for the rest of the year. I know it has been a while since I have posted so I have a lot to talk about. Since I posted last we have played five regular season games; against CBU, Memorial (x2), Dal and Acadia. And I am very pleased to tell you that we won our first game EVER in the Currie Centre against CBU. It was so nice to finally get that win under our belts. We played down in the Rec gym since the Performance gym had been booked already. As a team, we were not too fond of the idea at first but once we stepped foot into the gym everything felt natural. The more enclosed area allowed for it to get it really loud. Once again, the Red Brigade brought their vuvuzelas out and made loads of noise (which we appreciate very much :) ). 

The next weekend we played Memorial at home and although the results were not in our favor I feel like we took big steps that will get us one step closer to our goal of being AUS champs. Also, we presented a cheque to the team that will go towards the Erin Bursey Leadership Award. As you may have heard, Erin Bursey, captain of the Memorial Seahawks volleyball team, passed away this summer following a car accident this summer. She was an excellent volleyball player as well as a great student and volunteer.

Last weekend we made the trip to Nova Scotia where we played Acadia on Friday night and Dal on Saturday afternoon. We played a very, very tight match against Acadia. In the end, we lost the fifth set 16-14. Although it was a disappointing lost, I think we were proud that we were able to come back from losing two sets to none and really compete with our adversary. Our match against Dal was a bit of the same idea. We did struggle a bit in the first set. However, once again we were to bring it back and play another three very tight sets.

This Saturday we will be playing Acadia at home and we are looking to clinch our second victory of the season. I encourage everyone to come down to the Currie Centre on Saturday afternoon at 2pm to cheer us on :) 

That is all for this week,

Jodie #12

Let the season begin

Hello :)

My name is Jodie McGill and I am a third year Kinesiology student from Moncton, New Brunswick. I have been playing for the Varsity Reds for two seasons now, I played at UNBSJ my first year. This season we have twelve girls on the team and we will be taking turns writing the blog every week. We have added three new players to our roster (Paige Nelmes, Tessa Geurts and Kristyn Murphy) as well as a new head coach (Jilliane Goulet).  As a team, we are very excited about these new additions and the upcoming season.

We have been training REALLY hard during both off season and preseason; we can be found in the weight room 3-4 times a week, running the track on Thursday nights and in the gym almost every day. It seems like we would have no time for fun, however we did go on a sweet team retreat in Urbania (about twenty minutes outside of Truro). We went to the Tidal Bore Rafting Park where we had the chance to go rafting and mud sliding during the afternoon and team bonding activities at night. It was an amazing experience.

We also have had the chance to play four preseason games two weeks ago at Dalhousie University. Although we did not get the outcome we would have wanted score wise, we have come leaps and bounds from where we were last year. We do still have a lot to work on but I think that if we keep up with our solid work ethic and dedication at practice, we will have a promising season. Additionally, it was nice to get rid of the first game jitters in order to prepare us for two more preseason this coming weekend against UdeM and STFX. 

That is it for this week- keep an eye out for our next post with results from our games this weekend. If you have the chance, come out and support us :)

 

Thank you, John Ricard.

Yesterday we had a very important game for two reasons. It was Think Pink all weekend on campus and all of the teams worked all weekend and raised a ton of money for breast cancer research. Kristen and Tilly off of the Women's Basketball team actually cut off 10 and 14 inches of their hair and donated it to cancer and raised 3000 dollars in donations to go along with it!

Secondly, yesterdays game against UdeM marked the last home game that our head coach, John Richard, would be coaching at home. He has done so much for the program here and has made a huge impact to all the sports at UNB. He is taking up the position as AD full time next year. I know many owe a lot of their volleyball career to John, so as a thank you we put together some pictures throughout the year to present to John after the game last night. For those of you who couldn't make it, and the alumni now spread out across Canada, I'll be posting it online here as soon as I can for you guys to check it out!

Hope you all had a good weekend and next weekend in Halifax are our last two games of the year!

Happy Superbowl Sunday!

MJ

The Rock

Hey guys

This weekend we travelled to Newfoundland to play two games against MUN. It was a very long weekend and we were all exhausted when we got back but it was a great experience and for some girls on our team, was the first time going to Newfoundland. We unfortunately lost both of our games this weekend but we had some great rallies throughout the game and some girls played awesome. Olivia Babcock was solid all weekend for us passing and digging balls in the back row, and Amber Gamblin did some serious work off the bench for us. Being there all weekend, we had quite a trip.

To start off, the trips to NFLD never go smoothly... ever. We got to halifax around 2:00 pm and our flight was supposed to take off at 3:30. Well, we ended up not flying out until 6:45 due to weather so we had some down time to kill. Luckily our team consists of creative genius' and we made up our own catch phrase game to kill some of the hours. once we got through security (and with a little help from our coach creeping on twitter) we got our photo taken with a couple of Toronto Blue Jays who were also travelling to Newfoundland! The Jays that were there included Brett Cecil, Eric Thames, broadcaster Jamie Campbell, and their mascot (out of costume). Now, our coach took the photo, and yes he's heard his share of lack of photo skills from the girls on our team. A couple of us also got the chance to get a picture with Hall of Famer Robbie Alomar, which was awesomeee! (Not to mention he has the nicest wife!)

It was pretty rainy all weekend and we did also get the chance to stroll down George Street and hit up the mall a couple of times to kill some time. We learnt alot this weekend during our games as we do each time and our second game was better than our first.

Our next game is Sunday @ Acadia and we went to 5 against them last time so it'll be another good match and hopefully we come out with a W.

Have a good week at school everybody!

MJ

Commitment

Hey guys,

So going into Christmas break we played our last league match against St. FX at their home gym. I'm proud to let you know that we finished off 2011 just right, with a 3-0 win against them. We've all had nice breaks, girls have been able to go home from all across the country - Ontario, Winnipeg, Calgary, and in various places from New Brunswick! Though I always love my time at home with my family, I'm always eager to get back into the gym and set up that net.

This weekend we're heading to Newfoundland to play a double header against MUN along with the Men's volleyball team. We'll leave Friday at 9:30 from Fredericton and drive to Halifax, where we will fly out of. It takes a lot of time off the court to be able to be a member of any varsity team on campus, and time management is a crucial skill for every athlete with the classes we tend to miss due to traveling (but so worth it). Every game is an important game, and this weekend is no exception, MUN will be a great team to start off 2012 against and many girls will be able to experience Newfoundland for the first time as well.

Each week I'm going to give you a glimpse of one of my teammates whether it be getting a quote from them, their favourite tune, what they have to do before a game, or any other tid bits that contribute to making our team unique from all of the others. This week I'll start off!

One of the most important things that I have been brought up with in any sport I have played was the value of commitment. In grade eleven and twelve I was in a weight training class in my high school, and was only 1 of 2 girls in the entire class. Each year, one of the tests was to memorize the quote painted on the brick wall of our weight room, and it was our definition of commitment:

"Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality. It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions, and the actions which speak louder than the words. It is making the time when there is none. Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year. Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change the face of things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism."

I have grown up with this belief, and I strongly believe that it is a key element to success of any team, sport, assignment, or any endeavour you take on in your life. Some people may think a volleyball team is just a volleyball team, but being a member of it makes you a member of a second family. You never want to disappoint your family, so I never want to let any of my teammates down. A varsity athlete is something many people dream of becoming, but not all get the opportunity to be. Our team's commitment to the sport, the program at UNB and to each other is something that helps us improve each day, give back to the community, and hopefully inspire others in the future.

I'll be keeping you posted on this weekends events and results, and wish all the best to all the other teams playing as well!

Suggested tunes this week from 4th year Amber Gamblin (#1): We Found Love by Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris.

Well that's all for now folks, keep checking back and I'll see ya next time,

MJ

The First of Many!

Hey guys,

I hope everyone had a fun, relaxing and safe holiday and 2012 has been nothing but good to you so far! My name is Monica Jones, but I normally go by MJ. I'm a 4th year Arts student here at UNB and a co-captain on the women's volleyball team along with Rebecca Glancy. I have the privilege of blogging this year on behalf of the UNB Women's Volleyball Team and to give you guys a little insider scoop on how the team is doing, and to get to know the girls that make up our talented squad.

So here's what we've been up to!

Our team is extremely talented, each girl brings unique and important qualities to our team both on and off the court. We have many new fresh faces this year including Olivia Babcock (Lebero), Katarina Legutky (Left Side) Paige Paulsen (Setter), Jodie McGill (Middle) Vanja Mitrovic (Left Side/Middle) and Leah White (Setter).

So far this year we've played in Boston against NCAA teams, the Dalhousie tournament, and hosted our own UNB Invitational - and that was only pre-season! We've started regular season play and have really come into stride as who we are as a team and strengthening our unit each and everyday.

This blog I hope will give you guys the chance to get a closer look at what it's like to be a member on the UNB women's volleyball team, and keep you posted on our games and team events! I hope you guys stay tuned and read along, we appreciate all the support we get and love hearing you guys cheer at our games!

More to come!

MJ