Greetings from Sunny Sacramento! As the rest of Elon’s student body was just arriving on campus, the volleyball team was packing our bags to embark on our great California adventure. After three long, grueling, and HOT weeks of preseason, we were more than ready for the long awaited journey off the east coast to California.

As a disclaimer, our team finds humor in many awkward and unusual situations. I will try to share these laughs with you in the most articulate way possible. But please don’t judge our silly style. And of course, insert intermittent comments from people around us regarding our height throughout the story.

Anyone who has travelled a lot knows that a long day of cross country travel can bring about many laughs, tears, and unpredictability that can bring even a well seasoned traveler to their knees. And that is just for one person. Imagine trying to orchestrate 14 girls, two coaches, and one athletic trainer. Needless to say, it was quite the ordeal. Our day of travel was no different. We departed Elon, bright eyed and bushy tailed at 9 a.m. Loaded down with shoes, jerseys, ankle braces, and all the necessary gear, we loaded the vans and drove to Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

We proceeded through check in and security seamlessly, even though our excitement was clearly bubbling. Some girls on the team travel by plane often. We have California, Indiana, Illinois, and Florida natives who fly to Elon each time. Others, such as our sophomore Allison Johnson, had never “been west of Tennessee.” (You must read that in your most charming southern drawl because that is how AJ speaks.) Fortunately, we made it through all the security checks and headed to our gate to board the plane.

I almost pity anyone who had to sit on the plane with us on the flight to Atlanta. We had several obstacles. First, we couldn’t seem to fit our travel bags into the overhead compartments. It’s amazing how girls, who can lift 100 pounds, can’t seem to push their bag into the space above their seat. Finally, the flight attendants insisted that it wouldn’t be a big deal to check some of the bags in the front. Second, Lizzie West spilt a water bottle in her bag and had to deal with the residual damage. And of course, 14 teammates will inevitably talk much more than the normal passenger.

Finally, we landed in Atlanta, with very little time in-between our connecting flight to San Francisco. We put on our big girl power walking pants and booked it from terminal to terminal in the world’s largest airport. We grabbed food to go and hurried to our gate only to find that our flight was delayed… indefinitely… due to mechanical difficulties. So we sat, on the floor, with our bags, in the middle of a crowded walkway. It was quite a scene. Finally after a short delay, we boarded our five and a half hour flight for San Francisco.

As we walked on the plane, we encountered some of the same difficulties – finding seats, shoving bags – the whole shebang. Of course, by this point we were old pros, or so we thought. Each seat had a screen, and we were quickly enamored. As we pulled out on to the runway and began to taxi, the screens went blank and the power on the plane went off. Bex (Megan McMahon) has a mild fear of flying, and this power outage did nothing to help her situation. Fortunately, the pilot rectified the situation quickly, and as soon as we knew it, we were soaring miles above the earth en route to the great west.

The screens boasted a trivia game that quickly turned on our competitive side. We spent a large amount of time competing against ourselves along with the rest of the plane. I would consider us pretty smart team, but this game stumped us a few times. We learned that an Arab Spring is a gymnastics maneuver involving a cartwheel with a quarter turn and that Elvis died in 1977. Of course, we could attribute the second question to being out of our generation.

In standard fashion, we took the game pretty seriously. We celebrated and gloated with victories and tried to argue when we got answers wrong. A man named Ken, seated two rows in front of us, couldn’t seem to miss a question. Literally, he was incredible. The screen would display the results of everyone in the top 10 after each question. Our team held our own. At one point Rose, AJ, Nickie, Traci, and I were all on the board for being in the top 10 on the plane. Rose and I also won a round each. We clearly defended Elon’s academic reputation and shattered the dumb athlete stereotype for all the people on the plane.

Finally, five hours later, we arrived in sunny San Francisco. Despite a long and adventuresome journey, we are here and ready to continue our success on the court. We can’t wait to play again and hopefully continue our winning streak out on the west coast.

Until next time, from California with EUVB love.