For four days in late February, five Maryland volleyball players visited the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., to take part in the U.S. Women's National Team open tryouts.

Adreene provided a daily account of her experience in Colorado Springs.

I think this week was probably one of the toughest weeks of the season. First, most of us had midterm exams. Second, we had two very close matches over the weekend. One of them we won, and the other one we lost.

We started the week out by analyzing our weaknesses. After two defeats in a row last weekend, it was perhaps the only right thing to do, because you get stronger only if you learn from your losses.

Everyone on the team remembers the first practice of the week. We had to do synchronized jumping jacks as a team. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and didn't finish this exercise as many of us simply lost attention. This showed us that the reason we're losing very close matches is simply because of a lack of focus.

Over the weekend, we had two games. The one on Saturday against Penn was really inspiring for me, and I hope the whole team feels the same way as I do, as this match is one of my best memories from the first half of the season. As I recall from one of our losses several weeks ago, we were told, "You don't look like a team. If you were a team, you would feel it". It was on Saturday that I truly felt it.

On Sunday we lost. Though every single loss brings disappointment, it also gives motivation. We were close, and it means that we have to work harder from the very first practice. Surely all of us should bring more excitement and interest to every single drill, because if you are really motivated and enjoy doing even the toughest drills, there will not be a team strong enough to beat you...  We must do it, Terps!

Coming to Maryland has brought a lot of new in my life, but surprisingly, the most considerable changes for me were not the new climate, language or the different style of life, but understanding that I am now a part of a team.

This has a great amount of advantages since tennis is usually an individual sport, and now I feel support and help from the team. It also requires a lot from me because I must respond by giving best attitude towards what I am doing and help and support the people with whom I have got to work, travel and hopefully make progress. Even though I have been playing college tennis for just two months I feel that this experience has already made me learn something very important. Now I am far more concentrated on the court than I used to be even 2-3 months ago, because now I represent not just myself, but also my university and my team. 

Second, I have started working harder during practices than I used to before I came here because having matches every week makes you finally understand that you have no time to procrastinate and that every single practice may allow you to become a better player if you have a great wish to work and a clear goal. Now, I enjoy tennis more.

Go Terps!
Tali

It's been this way for the past 35 years and for at least one more this is the week that the annual four-week stretch of Carolina-Virginia-Navy-Hopkins begins. This week's Blog takes a closer look at "The Stretch" and a look at this week's opponent - UNC. There's also a quick look at Terps who have scored at least 50% of the team's goals in a victory with regards to Jay Carlson's five-goal outing at Villanova.

Hi Terp Fans!

Spring break is finally here, but that doesn't stop the Gym Terps from practicing! Even though school is out, it's been a busy weekend for the Terps.

Almost half of a season has already passed. The time goes by really fast when we are excited about what we are doing. Every day that we are here, we get new impressions and priceless experience. 

We work hard both on and off the court, and I think we all are getting better every day.

Most of our matches are really tough, but it is adjusting to difficulties that makes us stronger.  Personally, I feel that I have a long way to go. But that's what I like about being on this team and competing in the ACC. As long as I am not satisfied with the way that I'm playing, I can keep trying to do better and keep moving forward.

Being a Terp means paying a lot of attention to the mental part of tennis. Since the first day of practice, our coaches have been very careful about our attitude. Right away they showed us that they will never accept a defeat. 

I mean, we are supposed to do everything to win and believe that we can win in any situation and against any opponent. 

Unfortunately, the last weekend was not lucky for our team. 

We lost our Saturday match against the University of Virginia and won only one doubles match. However, I was very happy about that doubles match. We showed everything we were able to do on the court on that day. 

Also, I was very proud of Vroni, who was very close to beat a player ranked in the top 10.

On Sunday, we played at Virginia Tech. Thanks to the great job of Tali and Olya, we gained two points on courts 5 and 6. But for most of us, that day was really hard, because we were simply not able to implement what we had been working on the week before. Again, we could win more matches. Sarah's singles match and Gabby and Olya's doubles match were very close.

Anyway, we got a very good learning experience last weekend. We fought hard and we revealed the things that we need to improve to make a step forward. 

We have four days to practice and get ready before our next matches. I am sure that we will do better.

Go Terps!

Olga

Hey Terp Fans!

It is not registering in my head that this season is just about almost over. We just had our last home competition, Senior Night, which was sad yet so exciting at the same time.

With the ACC Wrestling Championships set for Saturday at Comcast Center, I will be previewing each weight class in three installments leading up to the weekend. Today, 174 through 285 are under the microscope.

With the ACC Wrestling Championships set for Saturday at Comcast Center, I will be previewing each weight class in three installments leading up to the weekend. Today, 149 through 165 are under the microscope.

We began our week after a tough weekend playing matches. We spent a lot of energy because playing both Saturday and Sunday isn't that easy. Our Saturday match against Columbia opened up my eyes to a lot of things. At this point, I realized how important it is to act as a team. Before that, our opponents at home weren't that strong. This time, we faced a team that was ranked in top 60. It was a challenging match for us, and I felt like what we needed to do was stay together, but under the pressure that Columbia created by being energetic, we were really quiet.  The coaches tried to explain to us that our main problem, wasn't technique, physical condition, or that we were much weaker then Columbia. We just simply needed to be more energetic and aggressive in positive way. After our coaches talked to us, I had a lot to think about on the Saturday night. I think we all did.

The most important thing is that we didn't give up! We had a team talk, and decided to try bring our team together. It is really tough goal for Coach Panova and ourselves to make a team out of five freshman, even though for Sarah it's a second semester. So during our talk, we tried to find our weak spots, and came to conclusion that we should spend more time together! So on Saturday night the baby Terps (freshmen), Vroni and Welma watched a movie in the team room. Sarah picked the movie and proved that she has great taste because everybody seemed to enjoy watching it!

Spending time together helps a lot. It helps us to get to know each other more, and helps the veterans teach baby Terps what it's like to be a team. We could see the progress on the court the next day as we beat Richmond 6-1!

We had the following Monday off, to rest and think over our recent experience. It was important to start our week off well, so we could move forward and get stronger before our upcoming match against VCU. We had to work a lot on our energy, and our coaches gave us a lot of exercises for that so we could practice our cheering and acting as a team. We actually practiced for the first time outside on Wednesday. What a great feeling! So much more freedom. I hope that spring will come soon and that warm weather will come with it!

Friday morning we headed to Richmond. It was a long trip, but we seemed to enjoy it, playing songs, talking and making jokes. During lunch before the match, everybody looked exited to play against such a great team. You could see that we were a team and even the waitress tried to join our conversation because it looked very energetic and fun. We came on court with a different attitude, ready to fight and support each other! Although you could see we were a little nervous, because the doubles started a little tight. It was the second time Gabi and I had played together and it was still sometimes confusing, but we were trying hard and I'm sure we will get much better with a little more team effort and time. We will get much stronger. In singles, we showed so much more energy than before! Our opponents might have been a little more consistent, but the way we were acting on the court, it looked like we had won. Losing 4-3 wasn't that bad because we really showed the improvement in our attitude.

During the weekend we got some rest and we are now ready to work hard, be energetic, and have fun as a team on and off the court. We have to enjoy hitting every ball, as Coach Panova said, that's where the energy will come from. Now we know that and will work on improving our tennis skills for our next match against Virginia on Saturday!

Lets go Terps!

Olga