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Parra Video Journal

Dec. 9, 2005

On Wednesday morning, we showed up at The Convo around 9:30 to pack our bags. We said goodbye to our fans, boarded a bus and left Athens about 10:15.

When we got to Columbus, we found out that our flight had been cancelled so we had to wait around the airport for about three hours. Finally, we flew to Charlotte and then to San Francisco and finally arrived here in Palo Alto around 9:00 p.m. It was like midnight for us so we just went to the hotel and went to sleep.

Yesterday we went sightseeing in Moon Bay, which is a neat touristy spot with lots of little shops and things like that. Then we went to Moon Bay Beach, took some pictures and got to go in the water. We had practice from 5:00 to 7:00 and then had dinner and went to sleep.

This morning we had a team breakfast and now we're just lounging around until noon, when we'll watch some film. Then we'll practice at 1:00.

I am just so excited for our match tonight. This is where every volleyball player wants to be. They want to be in this position. I just feel so grateful to have this opportunity and to be around 14 girls who are like my sisters now. We get to go through this together and it's such a neat experience that I can't really put it into words.

People have been asking me about my health after seeing me struggle with cramps against Ohio State. During the match, it was just really painful because I was cramping in both my quads and hamstrings but I knew it was just something that I was going to have to work through. My teammates did a great job helping me. Their passing was perfect. I don't think we've ever passed that great before. I really didn't have to move that much but after the last point, it definitely all kicked in. I think it was just an adrenaline rush that got me through but everything ended up working out okay.

Our whole team was jumping around and celebrating but at the time, I was just like, "Get me out of here!" I didn't really get to think about the win and reaching the Sweet 16 until the next day. Looking back on it now and after watching the highlight video, I enjoy it a lot more now than I did that night. My teammates have been enjoying teasing me by calling me Keri Strug (since I had to be carried off the court like the Olympic gymnast).

Since Saturday's match, I've been hydrating myself. I've been drinking a lot of water, taking electrolytes during practice, eating a good amount of salt and I've been feeling a lot better. I was sore for a couple of days but everything's back to normal now.

This really was nothing compared to what I had to go through over the spring and summer. At the end of April, I had surgery on my left ankle to repair some ligament damage. I was in a cast for about six weeks and then rehabbed the rest of spring quarter and all summer in Athens. I slowly regained my mobility and fortunately everything came out okay because for just a brief while, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to be our setter this year.

Another question people have been asking is how we're going to prepare for Arizona, the fifth-ranked team in the country. Well, we noticed that they have some definite tendencies. Like a lot of teams that we've played, there are some particular players that they seem to go to. So we're really going to try to neutralize those particular individuals and get them out of their comfort zone.

For us, the key is going to be the mental preparation that we've done up until this point. We're going to go in and play fearless. We know that we have the capabilities to beat a lot of teams and I think that everybody on our squad has a good mindset right now. I think that we're going to go in having the best possible chance to beat them.

Thanks for following us and reading our journals. Hopefully there will be plenty more to come as we keep advancing through the tournament!

Go Bobcats!

Savanah Parra