On The Record With Megan Wong, Part VII

What a “Bar Fight” it was for us this weekend first against No. 3 Cal State San Bernardino Friday night then against the No.18 Cal Poly Pomona. No wonder why the Coyotes are No. 3 in the nation for division 2, they were ready for us from the first whistle. It was not one of our best performances of the year, but it was an actual game vs. Cal State San Bernardino. Although we were tied 7 all in the first game and up 6-1 in the third game we still didn’t play our best and we all knew it. It was our first lost at home putting our home record 12-1, overall record 20-6, and CCAA 11-4.

Despite the fact that we lost respectfully 3-0, we had to put that game behind us since it was done and over with and we had to focus on our next “Bar Fight” vs. Cal Poly Pomona. We knew it was going to be a fight for us to survive this battle. The Broncos had beaten us at their home gym 3-1 the first round in conference and now it was our turn to beat them in OUR HOUSE.

During the whole match every game was close. They had brought their fire the first game to let us know that they were here to play and not planning on going home anytime soon. We then made a turn around and took game 2. The Broncos were a dangerous team and we knew it, but we weren’t expecting them to take game 3 from us. Game 4 seemed like a breeze for our team winning 25-16. We knew game 5 was ours, so we went on our merry way and took it. It was 14-12 with one point left in the match. We served it then they hit it back at us and we dug it like it was pie then Junior Setter Lindsay Brown set Senior Outside Hitter Kristy Sather for the game winning point, but Pomona’s Middle blocker and Opposite, put up a huge block and basically it said, “Not this time, we’re still here and want to play. You’re not winning that easy.” Next they served it to us and we passed it right on target and Brown and Sather connected one last time and BOOM it was over. We had won the match. It was so exciting!!!

Our engine had been on for games 1-3, but we were just cruising, however, games 4 and 5 we finally burned some serious rubber and brought home a “W” for victory giving us another win for our record of 21-6 overall and 13-5 CCAA. This is the best record in school history for the volleyball program and with just 2 more games left we’re not giving up to go 23-6. We play Humbolt this Wednesday away and UCSD Saturday home. It’s going to be an interesting finish.

On The Record With Megan Wong, Part VI

Hey! Sorry I haven't been able to update you on our season lately. I've been busy with school. Anyway, as you can see, it's been a roller coaster ride for our team this year as it has been for many of the other teams in the CCAA. Teams have been beating and losing to other teams unexpectedly. Counting down the final games of the season 1st-5th place are up for grabs. It's going to be a dog fight for this last stretch.

This year seems to have been a tough one for us on the road. We lost to all the BIG teams in away games: CSULA, CSUSB, CPP, and UCSD. This past weekend were crucial games for us against CSUMB and SF State. Down 2-0 vs. the Gators, we managed to come back and take the victory going to 20-5 overall.

Our defense is what is keeping us in the games. As the saying goes "Offense sells tickets and Defense wins championships!" However, Junior Setter Lindsay Brown has been able to connect with Junior Middle Blocker Rikki Buckshins and Senior Outside Hitter Kristy Sather to make our offense unstoppable.

And on a side note Congratulations to Rikki (1st team) and Kristie(2nd team) for being ESPN The Magazine All-Academic Scholars.

Lately at practice we've been playing the error game, which puts in real game situation and it shows who and how our team is making errors when it comes to the real deal.

We face CSUSB Friday night and CPP Saturday @ 7pm. These games will determine if we can play with the BIG DOGS!

On The Record With Megan Wong, Part V

Why us? Why on road trips? Does it really make a difference whether we’re home or away? Well it looks like it does to me. The last 3 away matches we've been unable to come up with a “W.” We were still 'low percentage' like Coach Bear wants us to be (well not quite vs. UCSD). That game we couldn’t seem to find the court. We were hitting and serving balls out of bounds and into the net; not our normal style of volleyball. With Freshman Libero Taylor Krenwinkel out early in the first game with a sprained ankel, we knew it was going to be a tough night for us.

We traveled down south knowing that UCSD was a very strong serving team. That’s how they beat CSUSB. They weren’t afraid of missing, but it didn’t matter. They were not going to let us take away the match from them on their home court. Their crowd was big, loud, and crazy, bigger than Cal Poly Pomona. We’re so used to a low key crowd, not big, loud, and crazy, so of course if affected our game. Coach Bear kept saying that we were scared because of the atmosphere and that we needed to find a way to play like we usually do. We lost games 1 and 2 with no questions asked, however, we put up a fight in game 3, but sadly lost 24-26 and we were back on the plane early the next morning. Like Coach Bear said, “When we’re on fire and playing our game, nothing can go right for our opponent. (like we did to Humboldt Wednesday nigh), but now it’s UCSD beating up on us and nothing is going our way.”

I know our team is stressing about the losses on the road, but we’re not letting down because everyone in our conference is beating each other up, opening doors for us in conference and regionals. We are not finished when we lose, we are finished when we quit and our team is not quitting. We are half way done with conference and still wanting to fight. We start the 2nd round of league this weekend facing big rivals CHICO and Stanislaus. We need a BIG crowd!!!

On The Record With Megan Wong, Part IV

The past 2 weeks have been black and white for our team. Last week when we played at home versus Academy of Art (Wed. Sept. 24), SF State (Fri. Sept. 26), and Monterey Bay (Sat. Sept. 27), it was a breeze for us. We took each team in 3 games (except SF State in 4) giving us a record of 14-1.

This past weekend we were on the road and it was a different story. We traveled down south to play Cal Poly Pomona, ranked 16th in division II on Friday, October 3 and lost in 4 games. It was a full crowd that night. The stands were full, the band was loud, and the fans were crazy. We knew we could win and wanted to win, but it didn’t seem like it when we got out on the court. Saturday, October 4, we drove to Cal State San Bernardino to play the 2nd ranked team in the nation. We came out slow in game 1, but gave them somewhat of a fight in games 2 and 3. It wasn’t our best performance; however, we did what we could do with what we had on the court. There’s only so much an athlete can do for the team, but it didn’t seem we could come together as a whole.

Despite the 2 straight loses over the weekend, we have Humboldt and UCSD to focus on for this coming weekend. Our current record is 14-3 overall and 6-2 in conference, putting us tied for 2nd place with Cal Poly Pomona and UCSD. CSUSB leads at 7-1 in 1st place. We’re not giving up on our goals of winning conference and going to Regionals.

On The Record With Megan Wong, Part III

We fly high no lie you know this, ballin!!! Our team is still going strong, beating every team that comes our way. We had an amazing week, first beating Notre Dame de Namur early in the week on Tuesday then beating the #15 ranked team, Cal State LA, and Saturday beating Cal State Dominguez Hills. This is the best start for the women’s volleyball team here at Sonoma State University in school history.

Our team is unbeatable right now. With setter junior Lindsay Brown out for Tuesday's game and knowing that the big match against the Golden Eagles was going to be a tough fight, she did all she could do to get her ankle healed for Thursday night's game. By Wednesday night at practice she looked as good as new and was ready to take on CSULA and so were the rest of us. That night our team walked into the gym ready to dominate. We are the underdogs!!! We surprisingly took LA in 3 straight games. It was a rather slow and dull game, but we came out on top.

Despite the fact that Coach Bear used 9 out of the 18 girls on the team during Thursday night’s game, all of us were happy with the win. All sports have to deal with politics and coaches favorites. It’s just the way the sports life is as an athlete. There are the starters and the bench warmers or also known as the 1st string and 2nd string players, but the ones who don’t play much complain about playing time and I figure, if a team is doing well with the people on the court or field, why ruin the flow of everything. Volleyball, along with all other sports, is a team sport and we need to do what is best for the team, keep the chemistry going.

Saturday was a different story. We were ready for a quick 3 games so we could send the Toros home early back to the LA County. We weren't joking either because we took care of business and got the job done. Coach Bear, shockingly, played every single one of us eligible players Saturday night against CSULA. It was a fun and exciting night for all of us. Not only did we all get playing time, but we all did well and worked as a team to make our record to 11-1!!!!

Our upcoming games will all be held at our home gym starting at 7pm on Wednesday vs. Academy of Art, Friday vs. SF State and Saturday vs. Monterey Bay. We are not planning on stopping our winning streak just yet!!!

On The Record With Megan Wong, Part II

What can I say??? We walked into Notre Dame de Namur’s gym thinking we had it easy last night, but we thought wrong. They were ready for a dog fight and they weren't giving up. It had been almost 3 weeks since we’d last played them and they’ve been to 3 good tournaments: ours, the UCSD tournament, and the Billings, Montana tournament where they played teams such as Chico, UCSD, CSUSB, and Montana State Billings. They had improved since we last saw them at our tournament wheree defeated them easily in 3 games. It was a different story last night.

First off, we didn’t have our starting setter, junior Lindsay Brown, due to a sprained ankle from Saturday night's game at Chico, but sophomore Devin Scully, put out tons of effort on the court to make up for the absence of Brown. Scully did her best to get the job done as our setter last night and it wasn’t too bad. Knowing that Devin hasn’t set since her senior year in high school, we knew that everyone was going to have to help her out. As a team, we came out nervous, slow, and shocked. Coach Bear wasn’t kidding when he said, “They’re gunning for us.” We weren’t expecting balls to be slammed or tough floater serves, but we finally turned on our engine and started to burn some rubber and soon it was a race to the finish line. Despite the fact that we lost the first game 28-26, we came back strong and won games 2 and 3. We then lost game 4 with our errors, but in the end we defeated the Argonauts for the 2nd time this year, taking game 5 with a strong finish (15-7) , and driving home with a 9-1 record!!!

We play Cal State LA Thursday night at 7pm and they are also 2-0 in conference. We’ll see what happens with Lindsay Brown still injured, but hopefully we, as a team, will have faith, determination, and commitment to believe that no matter who is on the court we will find the power to win!!!

On The Record With Megan Wong

This year has been a major turn around from the previous years for our team. We have 7 incoming freshman, 5 sophomores, 4 juniors, 1 grad student and 1 transfer student who is also a junior. We had a strong showing at the Annual Seawolf Spike (4-0) and the Central Washington Tournament (2-1).

This past weekend, we played against Cal State Stanislaus and won easily, beating them in 3 games. The following night, Saturday, September 13, we put up a fight against our big time RIVALS.... CHICO!!! The team made a statement on Saturday night with a 3-2 win on the road against No. 25 Chico State. It was the fourth straight win for us, which makes our record 8-1 overall, 2-0 CCAA and tied for 1st in conference. We are off to our best start since 2001, when we also started 8-1. We are also enjoying our first 2-0 start to the conference schedule since 2002.

This coming week we play at Notre Dame de Namur Tuesday night and Cal State LA Thursday night at home and Cal State Dominguez Hills Saturday night at home. We can't wait to show them what we've got because we are going to give them a run for their money.