IUPUI senior Kelsey Hoefer's championship experience at the 2012 Summit League Volleyball Championship:
This year’s Summit League volleyball tournament began at
North Dakota State in Fargo, N.D., with teams from Fort Wayne, IUPUI, Oakland
and Kansas City participating. My
experience started at 4 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon as my team started our
journey to the league tournament. On our
bus ride to the Indianapolis Airport the team ate a quick meal from
Einstein’s. We checked our bags and hung
out at the gate until it was time to board the flight. We had a connecting flight through Chicago before
we ended up in Fargo. The coaches rented
vans while the team collected our bags and then we all headed to check in to
our hotel. We arrived at the same time
as Oakland. Both teams helped each other
figure out where our rooms were since the hotel was a maze. We then had Pizza Hut delivered since it had
been a few hours since we had last eaten.
We had quick team meeting then it was off to bed.
Thursday morning, we woke up around 9 a.m. and went down to
the hotel restaurant for breakfast.
After some French toast and omelets we headed to the Bentson Bunker
Fieldhouse to get in a few hours of practice.
All teams were able to get in two hours of practice to get used to the
court, surroundings and atmosphere of the gymnasium. After practice, our team grabbed lunch at
Erbert & Gerbert’s Sandwich Shop for some sandwiches and the teams favorite
chicken and dumpling soup. We enjoyed
reading the stories written on the walls about the characters and sandwich
names. We re-energized and headed back
to the hotel for some down time and study table hours. Coaches were able to reserve a banquet room
for us to devote time to our homework and studies since traveling on the road
and preparing for matches can sometimes be distracting or take away time to get
schoolwork done. We then headed up to
hang out in our rooms and rest. Soon
after that the team started getting ready for The Summit League Volleyball banquet. This was a time where athletes got to hang up
the court shoes and sweats and trade them in for dressy attire and heels. It was really nice to see everyone get
dressed up. Pasta, chicken and salad was
provided for dinner. After the meal, we
got to listen to Summit League Senior Associate Commissioner, Myndee Kay Larsen
and her introduction to each team participating in the tournament. Then they handed out individual and team
awards. It was great to see the
individuals and teams awarded for all of their hard work and dedication put in
to their programs and the sport. I would
like to congratulate everyone that received an award, they are very
well-deserved honors.
Finally, Friday had come.
I woke up thinking ‘game day, the day I had been waiting for’. Sure the trip had been entertaining so far
but I was ready to compete. The semifinal
matchups for this evening were Fort Wayne and Oakland at 5 p.m. and IUPUI and
Kansas City at 7:30 p.m. We headed to
Perkins for breakfast and then to the fieldhouse for an hour of serve-and-pass. We then headed back to the hotel for a little
down time. The team had decided on
Chili’s for pregame meal. Shortly after
we walked in, Kansas City had arrived too.
Film in a hotel banquet room followed after our meal to prepare for our match
that night. We watched for about 45
minutes before we headed to watch the first semifinal match. The Mastodons and Golden Grizzlies battled it
out in a heart-felt five-set match. The
match definitely got everyone in the crowd ‘fired up’ and the second semifinalists
eager to play. Fort Wayne ended up
coming out on top. Our match against the
Roo’s followed. We beat the No. 4 seed
in three sets. When the match ended, my
team grabbed subs from Jimmy Johns since it was late and then headed back to
the hotel to unwind and head to bed.
Saturday morning I woke up very relaxed. I had nothing on my mind but the match I was
about to play later that night. The team
headed to Perkins for breakfast again before we came back to the hotel to
relax. Some of my teammates hung out and
talked with family before we came together as a team for a short serve-and-pass
session and our pregame meal. Serve-and-pass
went very well but you could tell that the team was anxious to play. We headed back to
Erbert and Gerbert’s for our meal but unfortunately, they were out of the
chicken and dumpling soup which disappointed my team. After pregame, we headed back to the hotel to
watch film and scout out Fort Wayne.
Watching film against them was a bit familiar since we had played them a
week ago for the regular-season league championship. We discussed our game plan then headed back
to Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse to prepare for our match against the
Mastodons. The team hung out in the
locker room and listened to music to help pump us up as a team. I felt pretty loose for the match. The atmosphere of the families and fans for
both teams provided for an energetic warm-up and before we knew it, game time
was upon us. Unfortunately, it was not
in the cards for us to win on Saturday night.
We ended up losing to Fort Wayne in three sets. It stung a bit how the team went out this
season but we should not hang our heads.
I am a senior that was a part of the best season in IUPUI program
history.
I would like to congratulate all of the teams of The Summit
League on a great season. Thank you to
North Dakota State for hosting a great league tournament! Good luck to all of the seniors that have put
in so much hard work, dedication and effort into their school, program and the
sport of volleyball! Also, best of luck
the Fort Wayne Mastodons in the NCAA tournament! Represent The Summit League well! We’ll be pullin’ for you ladies!!
-Kelsey Hoefer
Don’t forget to check out the next edition of My Championship Experience as it follows the Men’s and Women's Swimming & Diving Championships, Feb. 20-23 and throughout the 2012-13 season for coverage at each of The Summit League Championships.
