Welcome back loyal Seahawk fans! This is UPPERCLASSMAN Casey Dashiell and I am here to tell you about our first road trip of the year! We started our journey Wednesday night as we left the monsoon in Wilmington and headed towards Raleigh. We had a packed van but were missing Chelsea and Emily due to injuries…it’s never the same without y’all! I’ve never seen two freshman more excited about sitting in the back of the van than Kelly and Angie. Somehow Olga worked the system and road in the front seat with Lindsay, why weren’t we ever smart enough to do that?! Riley made out too, having her own seat to herself…something’s going wrong in this world! C Lee and I fitted together like a puzzle piece to sleep away the time. We hit at NC State Wednesday night and as we walked into NC State’s facility, it was hard to miss a three foot picture of coach’s face painted on the wall for all time singles wins. We then road to Chapel Hill and stayed at Coach’s parents’ house where we devoured some food, stared in disbelief at the humongous trophy case packed full, and pass out on the comfiest beds.
On Thursday, we got up early and headed the rest of the way to Virginia Tech, playing the train game the whole way! None of the freshman nor Riley (or Chelsea!) has gotten it yet, but they are troopers, even asking if they can take a train when they’re on changeovers. None of us had been to Blacksburg before so we didn’t know what to expect. However, being beach girls, the mountains weren’t exactly what we wanted to see. We soon found ourselves riding past cow pasture after cow pasture. When we arrived at VA Tech to practice Thursday, it’s safe to say we were all a little homesick. Besides the cow pastures, cold weather, and orange and maroon courts, there was “cow dung surrounding all the courts” according to Ware.
Friday morning came early for everyone, but everyone came out sharp. We had a long day at the courts, eight to eight, and we devoured some food when we got back to the hotel. Unfortunately, Saturday morning seemed to come even faster than Friday and it was tough getting out of bed with our sore bodies. Saturday, everyone battled and played really well. We were definitely the loudest out of every team there. No one can beat Kelly’s cheer for “Big O” while watching Olga’s match! Perhaps Kelly’s other great moment this trip was when we were trying to come up with a new cheer for before our matches. Kelly thought we should cheer “C-E-A, C-E-A, Hawks, Hawks, Hawk”… think about it! Angie had said the night before that she wanted to run in her matches, and she did. You’ve never seen anyone like to run as this girl…that’ll soon change! In between doubles and singles Coach and Ware’s competitiveness came out. With an open court, they battled away at mini tennis, first to 7, no 10, no 15, to see who could win and have bragging rights. Ware had a little advantage by making Coach laugh so hard she almost peed her pants.
We finished up early on Saturday, about five o’clock, so we headed to a restaurant called Cabo Fish Tacos where we watched NC State play VA Tech. We were all pulling for State, except for John of course. Even though we were pulling for State, we weren’t about to verbally show it since they were playing Virginia Tech and we were AT Virginia Tech so we kept our cheering internal..…except for Coach. The restaurant was packed with VA Tech fans yelling and cheering at every play, while Coach sat in the middle of the restaurant yelling “Go State.” Maybe next time!
We also had another outing on Saturday - this one meaningful -- Coach took us to see the Memorial of the students that lost their lives during the horrible shooting at Virginia Tech 3 years ago. To see so many names listed - knowing they were someone's family member, friend and even a teammate - put in a very clear perspective that life really is too short sometimes - - we are so blessed to be healthy active young women surrounded by loving friends, family and teammates and really lucky our only worry that weekend was if someone had a better serve or forehand than we did. It was a very memorable outing for our team. Stay strong Virginia Tech!
That night, C Lee, Linds, and I decided that we should try out the hot tub on our sore bodies. The jets felt great, but if it helped with the soreness, I don’t want to know what I would’ve felt like without using it! Once again, our alarms sounded off long before we wanted them too, and it was a struggle to get out of bed. We all hobbled out to the courts early to get a good warm-up before we were to dominate the day. We ended the tournament strong, everyone “tooah up their opponents,” especially Angie who ran herself to victory in the C Flight for singles!
All in all, we were happy to leave Blacksburg where C Lee’s thought of “what if this is the end—of our lives,” has frightened Lindsay to death, and where we were happy to leave the orange and maroon courts, cow manure, and 37 degree weather behind and head back to the beach! A special thanks to the Cameron’s and my parents for their endless support and goodies they supplied!
