UNLV REBELS

Welcome to a new year and a new follow-upper. Leiana is a tough act to follow, so leave your expectations to yourself and I will try my best. My goal is to give you an insight into who we are and what happens to us during the course of the year. Most of you probably only see us at game time, so this will be a great opportunity for you to learn more about us. And for the rest of you, I hope you are my teammates and I hope you enjoy reading about yourselves and the crazy things you do.

As you can tell I have been slacking with the updates. But don't worry, this will be the first and last time you won't hear from me in awhile. This means that I am going to overwhelm you with what has been happening over the last couple weeks with our wonderful team. If you run out of time, just come back later cause you really don't want to miss all the fun that follows! And if you start to feel that we aren't quite normal, you are probably right.

For all of you team members that might have stumbled upon this piece of work and you aren't mentioned, don't worry you will be in the weeks to follow. This is a long season and there's much more is to come.

Let me just start by telling you all about another REBEL HELL WEEK!!! For those of you who don't know about REBEL HELL, it is our version of preseason double days. But this year it wasn't double, it was TRIPLE!!! (Thanks to all those lucky girls who had to finish summer school.) Personally, I don't know how they did it. I had a hard enough time trying to concentrate on practicing, eating, and shopping (hmm?). School would have been too much for that equation. When they were studying, the rest of us were sleeping -- or maybe just eating.

As you might not know, during this time we spent two weeks in a hotel, so there are a couple more pleasurable memories off the court that helped us survive REBEL HELL this year:

Happy Hour. Don't worry, it was a dry couple of weeks, but we still had some good times with the 2 hours of free food and drinks. The bartender knew us by name, or actually it was more by face and height. We ran his grenadine dry; I don't think he has made so many drinks for free. Maybe one day we can go back and give him some of that hard earned money he deserves. I can't forget the chips and salsa. Sometimes that was the only thing that got us through the night. Did we ever get full? We did introduce Freshman 15 to the newcomer, our skinny, but buff Brazilian. We aren't sure of the cause of this phenomenon: Is it volleyball and our hardcore, muscle building practices? Is it Ms. Annette and her intense preseason extra workouts. Or could it possibly be the endless trips to Happy Hour?!?! The cause is yet to be decided.

Our friends at breakfast (and I am not talking football players). The best omelet makers in town. Sheila found the love of her life or maybe he just found the love of his -- that man sure gave her the royal Embassy Suites treatment. He loved him some Puerto Rico princess.

On to the DYE job. Not bad for amateurs! I am still wondering if the maids miss their white (or not so much white) towels. So much for washing out in two weeks; three weeks later, some of us have faded to pink. Oh, Katie, would you like another? Red is definitely your color.

Skipbo. Kept us sane. Nicki is definitely the master, but Tera you are definitely a close second. These two were out for the kill. I could see you guys on the pro circuit for sure!

Erika's new twist. This was so much better than rafting!!!!!!!!!! Team bonding is much better when you don't have to paddle upstream for hours on end. No more cigarette butts or nasty trash to pick up. Thank you Kim (our asst. coach from last year) for your team bonding idea, but I think Erika has you beat. The games were fun and the desserts were even better! She helped us learn more about each other and we came to realize why we were actually spending hours in the hotel. Thanks Erika.

Leiana. She taught us firsthand the downfalls of healthy eating. If you wanted us out of your room (or the elevator, or the hallway, or off the court) you could have just told us. By the way, your new brows look great!

Amy's side show. Welcome to Las Vegas!! You are now an official Vegas resident. 20 bucks is not bad for your first day on the job. Just think of the possibilities.

Our day off. I don't quite remember this one. It's a blur. The night off was good; it was pure entertainment (thanks boys). Not bad for not being able to leave the hotel, but I don't think anyone has ever done so much people watching. And can someone tell me why we wanted to stay up later?

Military Men. Christina now has a partner in crime. I don't know what it is about men in uniform that drives you guys nuts. At least your new friends made time go by fast (too fast it seems).

Late night swimming. Or as late as we could make it before 11:00. I don't understand how we could be so tired by day and be so wired by night.

And last but not least, Shopping, and I don't mean at the mall. Our nightly 'window shopping' consisted of the balcony. Sometimes the merchandise was not so hot, but it kept us entertained for a few. It was like eighth grade all over again.

I can honestly say that the hotel was a 'not so bad' experience. Every year I wonder about the necessity of having 18 girls spend 24 hours a day together for two weeks when we have the whole season to bond and get to know one another. But as I reach my senior year (a tear, a tear) I DO think it is a good idea (the rest of you can call me crazy). It eliminates the outside world! And at what other time will we have the opportunity to have all our food provided (most important), clothes washed, and rooms cleaned. In return, what did we have to do? PLAY! We had nothing to think about except the job we came here to do. For two weeks, we were focused, determined, and began working toward the goals we made for ourselves and for each other. For those of you that still have years to go, take advantage of this time together. Think positively about the experience and remember that we truly are lucky.

Sorry, got a little long winded.

After our great REBEL HELL experience, we were well on our way to a great season. Without experiencing a whole week of school or even a whole weekend off, we were on our way to St. Mary's for a tournament. As you might know, we got off to a good start for the year (2-1). It should have been 3-0, but we we'll work on that.

Of course there were some memorable experiences from this trip:

Our trip to San Fransisco. It was great fun. The BART subway system was a new concept for most of us. We weren't sure what to think but we saw it all on this venture into the big city:

• DC met a boyfriend. He sure was nice. We think their relationship will blossom cause he isn't from Vegas, so we are looking forward to seeing what happens. He filled us in on all the hotspots in town (DC was excited about this one). I don't think he got the hint that we wouldn't be seeing him at the club.

• The trolley ride. I wonder if the other 20 people on the trolley found it necessary for us to yell the entire way down the hill. I think they enjoyed it (especially those little boys that were left unnoticed until we actually saw them in the pictures).

• Jodi and her pictures. Hey Jodes, maybe next time you can capture that picture of the bridge you wanted. Or maybe you should have tried a couple more times. Maybe you could just try again when you move there with the love of your life.

• Pati and her left out clam chowder. No need to pout Pati, I think you know someone who lives close by and you will return for that forgotten bowl. I am sure this won't be your last time to the City by the Bay.

We did make it back to the hotel safely (even our small town girl -- I knew you could handle it Tera). The arrival was a little later than expected, but no one was complaining. The rest of the weekend was a real treat as well. P.F. Chang's was a night to remember. First, we won (YES!!!!) and two, Nicki got to share her meal with someone special (we will leave his name out of this, but I will tell you he is a member of the coaching staff). We did get our share of desserts, but I can't remember who actually holds the record for number of fortune cookies eaten in the shortest amount of time known to man. Possibly Amy. I think it was her that actually left with the bag (of course we asked the waiter first). Amy, if all those fortunes come true, you are going to be living a very busy life.

All in all, it was a good weekend. We played well for the most part and we were (and still are) excited about the season ahead of us.

I will leave you with a goodbye for now. As you know, we played in our own tournament this weekend, but I know you were all there, so I am not going to fill you in on what happened. We won a game, so that is positive. Should have won three, but we will work on that one for this weekend. I will say that I am happy to be returning to Mr. Lucky's for another year and I am excited to tell you that our friend the waitress (Ms. Muffy/Marie) has gotten married. Congratulations! It was great to hear all the details.

Thanks to all our wonderful recruits from this weekend. It was fun to have you and we all hope to see you again soon! Vegas is the place to be!

And thanks to all the parents that made an appearance this weekend. I know all the girls were happy to see you. You helped fill the stands too, which is always a plus with us. Sarah's parents, thanks for the fruit. It was much better than our usual pregame selection. Thank you. We hope to see you all again soon (how 'bout for our next home game against the big rival, UNR?) or for some of you, we will see in Fresno?

I can't leave without thanking our wonderful hosts at Embassy Suites. They grew to love us and I think they will truly miss us. Anything is better than the football players. I think they were sad to see us leave. But don't worry guys, we will be back next year in full force (minus a few, important teammates of course).

Thanks to Gameworks also for sponsoring a great tournament this past weekend. Can't wait to actually have the time to use our hours of playing. Thanks!

For sure I will have more crazy tales to tell from the windy city, so until then (this weekend), have a great rest of the week and I hope you enjoyed reading about you. For those who aren't on the team, I hope you aren't totally confused.

And if you haven't actually been to a match, we will see you next Tuesday night, 7:00 pm at the Cox Pavilion. We will be playing UNR, home of the Wolves (I think). This one is always a good match!