April 7, 2010
Photos from the Road | NCAA Preview | Tournament Guide
Four Commodores honored at NCAA Banquet
Editor’s Note: Ashley Belden is a senior member of the bowling team from Tijeras, N.M. who will graduate this May. She was a member of the 2007 NCAA Championship team.
After a few long days and a couple more pending, I am nothing but ecstatic to get back to our room, and more specifically my BED, because I am exhausted!
Tuesday was your typical travel day: class until 12:15, left campus around 1:30, scheduled flight departure time 3:40, actual flight departure time 4:40, landed in Philly 7:30, left Philly airport 9:30 (thank you car rental place), dinner 10:00, finally arrive at hotel and in bed by midnight, asleep before my head hit the pillow. If you’ve never traveled with a large group of girls before then I’m sure our coach would agree you are lucky. I can’t imagine why, because it’s not like we mean to be loud or obnoxious. It just happens when you enjoy each other’s company and are constantly laughing at one another for silly situations such as when Ashley (me) was not paying attention and completely ran into the gentleman in front of me in line, full speed ahead.
We have a larger caravan this year than I’ve remembered–four whole vehicles (that’s right, we have an entourage)! Attempting to keep all four vehicles together is the tricky part, especially with northeast drivers weaving in and out of our single file line, unfortunately our license plates don’t clarify that we are from the south. What’s different about the cars this tournament than any other is what we’re listening to– our “Nationals Mix” created specifically for the occasion by Josie Kaye, which I was eternally grateful for after hearing Hot Pocket (Brittni Hamilton’s) choice of music (Ke$ha–dinosaur song…ugghhh awful). That’s right, every car has the same CDs with the same songs on them, mainly pump up music (a.k.a. NOT Ke$ha), the kind that gets us in the right frame of mind for what the week has in store. I think it had some Nelly, Jay-Z, Relient K, Taylor Swift, and Kanye West, so really a mix of everything.
Today was a bit more eventful than yesterday, but still relaxing as the only two mandatory functions were the practice session this morning and the banquet this evening. Practice was good. Everyone seemed to find an area or two where they seemed really confident and comfortable with their equipment. It’s incredibly important to leave a practice session knowing that you have the ability to bowl well because that self-assurance will be visible during actual competition–and I think all of our girls left today with that feeling. Afterwards, girls were allowed to go with parents if they wanted as long as they were back in time and ready for the banquet.
Just as any year, the banquet is always a fun part of the tournament experience, mainly because we get to act girly for an evening and dress up, for some of us even wearing skirts, heels or makeup for the first time! And of course there are pictures-galore to be taken. I think I took over fifty in only an hour’s time. Girls are crazy when it comes to pictures because seriously, how many smiling photos can you have with the same friends? Apparently thousands otherwise, Facebook would be out of business.
Dinner was great, dessert was better, and of course, all the awards that our Vandy girls racked up were marvelous! But, now that all the “fun” has been had its time to relinquish our phones to the phone bucket. That’s right, we are all going to be 3 oz lighter the next few days, no means of outside communication (not including AIM, Skype, or Facebook chat), only ourselves to talk to, in our attempt to meld as a team and focus on what’s important–the here and now (not to sound too corny). Tomorrow’s the start of something great, at least that’s how I see it.
Thanks all!!
-Ash
