Lone Senior - Sarah Harris: Her thoughts about this past weekend and more...

Going into the first match of my senior year I was not quite sure what to expect. After playing for three years with the same group of girls, I was a bit nervous as to how a brand new team was going to react in a competitive setting. Apparently, I was not the only girl on the team who felt the same way, and it definitely showed Friday night. Feeling a little discouraged and angry about the Friday night match, I left the locker room that night and decided that this was not how I wanted my senior year to be, and after talking to a few of the girls, I think we all came to agree that another match like that was not going to fly.

Saturday morning at breakfast with the team there seemed to be a calm about us and a confidence going into our afternoon match. Even though it was not always pretty, we made our mark on Martin Methodist and redeemed ourselves from the previous night. Our nerves were not gone, but they were better controlled and we played more like a team and not just six individuals out on the floor. Even though the majority of the players out on the floor were underclassman, I was very happy with the way we reacted to our Friday night disaster. Having six newcomers out of a roster of eleven does not leave a lot of room for depth on a team, but with the group of girls we have I think we are athletic and competitive enough to have a strong desire to win and be successful this season and still have a bit of fun a long the way.

I have been a student-athlete at Birmingham-Southern for all four years of my collegiate career I have seen a number of changes around me. From new buildings and bodies of water being added to campus to cafe food going from bad to worse. But the biggest changes that have effected me the most are the coaching changes I have experienced every year while at BSC. I have not had the same combination of head coach and assistant coach at BSC all four years that I have been here. Each year I have either a new head coach or an assistant coach, and fortunately enough our team has been successful each year. I was excited to hear that April was going to be the new head coach at Southern because I knew about her from playing volleyball in our home state, Texas. Now with a new head coach and new players the table is set for the future of BSC volleyball and after my days are done here I will be watching to see what happens.

When people ask me how I feel about playing with my sister they are usually surprised by the answer I give. Most people think that playing with their sibling would cause a lot of problems with bickering over stupid things like who's wearing who's shirt. I'm not going to pretend like Hope and I have a perfect relationship but we do know how to put our family relationships aside when we are on the court... most of the time. But with sisterly emotions aside, I really have enjoyed playing with hope last season and watching her grow as a volleyball player and a person.

The first weekend of our long string of away games is approaching and we are working hard every morning in the gym to prepare. I am excited to see what the weekend has in store for us and to see what we can do on enemy turf. GO PANTHERS!
~Sarah Harris (SR, Texas)