Elon Phoenix

Kelsey Evans Blog - BRING ON MARCH MADNESS!!!!!

2011-03-03T15:00:00.000-05:00

Hello basketball fans!

I know you all are just as excited as I am that it is finally the best time of year: March! We have been dutifully preparing for our conference tournament this weekend in Chattanooga that I'll talk about a little later. I have quite a few off court stories today, some which might get me in trouble for sharing with you! (make sure you watch the video of Coach Christian on the drum set).

We will start with last weekend and our trip to Charleston, S.C. to play College of Charleston. Well if you've read my previous blog you may remember our bus driver, Tom, who I like to call Mr. Tom Tom (like the navigation system.. I know, I'm SO clever). Well Mr. Tom Tom is not your ordinary bus driver; he goes above and beyond his bus driving duties. I'm not going to name anybody, but we have a few people on the team that have a slight dependency on Starbucks, and when I say slight I'm completely underestimating it. Let's just say, Mr. Tom Tom came to the rescue one night, and like I said before he goes above and beyond his duties, by pulling our charter bus into a front row parking spot.

Coach Barefoot may run this team, but she would have to run over all 17 of us before we let her get in the driver's seat of that charter bus... She's was a little excited about getting to our game!

Once we finally made it to Charleston we rested up for our afternoon game on Saturday. Saturday, which was also Candice's birthday, was a successful day for us as a team, but not so much for poor Candice. Unfortunately, Candice had to leave the game due to a concussion... and on her birthday! The poor girl, we always joke that she is reckless but going and getting a concussion on your birthday is taking reckless to a whole new level! She's feeling much better and should make a full recovery hopefully soon!

Ever feeling stressed? Ask Coach Christian what she likes to do to relieve stress! BUT don't ask Coach Barefoot because it will result in some sort of "dancing" and they are both going to KILL me for posting this video, but it was too good not to share with the world.

Well it's obvious that we do enjoy having a good time, but we also know when its time to buckle down and that time is right aboutttttt..... now! We leave for the tournament today and play Saturday morning against Furman. We've been preparing all week for what will be a tough weekend of basketball. Everyone brings their best game to the tournament and it's time for everyone to step their game up. This is the best time of year, and thanks to a pep talk from Mr. Richard Brenner, we know that entering this post season we control our own destiny. We also understand that it could be gone in any moment, and we can't take a single play or game, or second for granted. This is truly my favorite week of the year preparing for the tournament and then playing in the tournament. It doesn't get any better than this. The emotion and passion for the game is at its highest and that's what I love the most. I can't wait for what this weekend will bring and I hope everyone keeps up with us as we take on one game at a time.

"Wherever you go, go with all of your heart"

See you in Chattanooga!!!

Kelsey

Kelsey Evans Blog - Get in the Zone...The Pink Zone!

2011-02-17T09:43:00.000-05:00

Hi Phoenix Fans!!

Hope everyone is having a great week, and had a wonderful Valentine's day like we did! It's been a while since I've updated you all on our activities on and off the court. We just came off two weekend wins and are currently preparing for our PINK ZONE game this Saturday against Samford, which is also a TV game! Saturday is such a great opportunity for us to show support for those that have or are currently battling with breast cancer. If you read my previous blog you know about Kay Yow being a pioneer for women's basketball, and how she began that journey at Elon! She is such an inspiration to women, and we hope to convey that inspiration with our determination and fight on Saturday.

I'm really excited about telling everyone about our recent activities, especially off the court. One of our teammates, Lei Lei Hairston, had a great idea of doing some kind of regular volunteering in the community as a team. She came to us with the idea of volunteering at the Alamance Cancer Center in Burlington, which allows us to go visit with patients on a regular basis. We're split up in groups of two that go on different shifts between classes and practices. It is a great opportunity for us to get out in the community and show our reciprocated support! Great job Lei Lei!!

Another activity we did this past week was visit Hillcrest Elementary School in Burlington and talk to fourth and fifth grade students about being a student-athlete and setting goals. Each player contributed something different, but the main goal of our visit was to emphasize the importance of setting goals, working hard in the classroom, and never giving up on your dreams. Even the Phoenix came along! The kids loved it, and hopefully it will motivate them to set short and long-term goals, and get on top of their grades, which is the most important thing.

Saturday was a special day for a teammate of ours. Saturday was Tiara Gause's 21st birthday! The coaches attempted to tape her to a chair so she could get her birthday licks, but Tiara might be the quickest person I know, and their little scheme didn't last long. After our win against Wofford, we were able to celebrate her birthday with cake and a little reception. It's nice to take some time out of a busy season to celebrate a birthday (and the cake was awesome)!!

Monday's one point win over Furman was quite the heartbreaker for Furman (clever huh? Valentines day.... heart breaker... you get the idea). Ali Ford came up big with two treys at the end of the game to put us up two, and Aiesha Harper did as well making both ends of her one-and-one to give us a four-point cushion. Furman came down and hit a three and fouled with less than a second left, allowing us to seal the game. A win ALWAYS makes for a better ride home!

It’s an exciting weekend for us, I told you a little bit about Pink Zone, but we also have a very bittersweet night coming up that being Senior Night. Monday night's game against Chattanooga will be our final home game of the season, which is crazy to think it went by that fast. We will honor our three seniors, Julie Taylor, Gabby Oloye and Jess Luedtke, and all their hard work and dedication over the course of their careers here at Elon. I'm extremely fortunate to know each one of them and they have each inspired me in a different way. Three truly special people will leave our program this year, but they have left their mark on this school and on our hearts. I won't get sentimental, but I really encourage everyone to be there on Monday night to send them off in style, because if anyone deserves it, they do.

DONT FORGET:

PINK ZONE: Saturday at 2 p.m. against Samford

SENIOR NIGHT: Monday at 7 p.m. against Chattanooga

Thanks for reading, see you soon!

- Big Kelsey

Kelsey Evans Blog - Keeping Busy!

2011-02-03T13:40:00.000-05:00

Hello fans! I hope everyone is have a great week thus far. It's been another busy week for the team, but since we don't play until next Monday we've had a few days to rest our bodies and minds a little bit.

This past week we had our annual Education Day game in Alumni Gym. Elementary schools from all over the area came to participate and support us in our non-conference match up against Southern Virginia. It's my favorite game we play all year. The gym is always packed with screaming balls of energy, and makes the environment so much fun to play in. A special thanks goes out to all the elementary schools that participated this year and we hope you see you next year as well! I've attached some pictures from the game and after the game that you might enjoy!

After Thursday's Education Day game it was time for us to prepare for our Southern Conference matchup Kagainst Western Carolina, who we lost to earlier in the season. We were able to overcome the Catamounts this time around beating them by 27 points. We pride ourselves on our defense, and on Saturday it was obvious why. We held the Catamounts to four field goals in the first half, and a total of 11 for the entire game. It was so exciting to come together as a team and really buckle down on defense to get the win. That gym is a difficult environment to play in, but we were able to stay mentally and physically tough for the entire 40 minutes. I was extremely proud of the way everyone played, and the enthusiasm we had for one another.

As some of you might know, every Tuesday night the Fat Frogg hosts the basketball radio show for both Coach Barefoot and Coach Matheny. Coach Barefoot called me to ask if I would come say a few words about the win in Cullowhee over the weekend. I'm very glad I went because once the radio show was over Coach Barefoot was honored with a plaque for her recent accomplishment with our win at Wofford. Coach Barefoot recently eclipsed her 200th win at Wofford, and Tuesday night she was acknowledged for this awesome achievement. Congratulations Coach Barefoot.....you made the blog!!!

Don't worry, I'm not finished yet. I saved the best story for last. Wednesday afternoon we took a team field trip to honor and recognize Elon women's basketball's history. Little did I know this would be more than just a history lesson, but a life lesson as well. We took at trip to the legendary Coach Kay Yow's grave yesterday to step back and reflect upon the woman who was not only a pioneer for Elon women's basketball but for women's basketball everywhere. This trip really opened my eyes and made me realize that it's bigger than this. Tomorrow is not promised, and sometimes we get wrapped up in what we're doing and take the gift's that we do have for granted. Every member of our team has a gift, and to be in the position that we're in is truly a blessing. You can't foresee a season ending injury, or even a career ending injury. You can't foresee what tomorrow will bring, but what you can do is take each moment and make the best of it. Squeeze it for everything it's worth and never let a moment pass by because you don't want to look back with regret. That's what Coach Yow taught me yesterday afternoon, and that's something that I'll never forget.

We hit the road again soon to take on Georgia Southern on Monday night, but we'll be back at home on Feb. 10 against UNCG for our White Out game!. Don't forget to mark you calendars for Feb. 19, which is our PINK ZONE game in honor of Coach Yow and the battle every woman has faced to beat this horrible disease. We want to raise more money than we ever have before, but we need your help to do it. Please come out and support us on that day and help us fight the battle against breast cancer. Have a wonderful weekend everyone, talk to you soon!

- Kelsey

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-28T14:32:00.000-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

I can't believe the time has come for me to leave this unbelievable place. It's a bitter sweet feeling to say the least. We had a toast tonight to an incredible journey full of laughter and smiles. This place is indescribable. One of a kind. And I wouldn't have wanted to be here with anyone else but the people I have met along the way. From Raul to my core group of friends, people shape who you are, these people and this place have changed me. I have been able to see things through a bigger lens. I've been blinded for so long, living in my Elon, North Carolina bubble, where I'm comfortable. It's my home. However, I have another home now - Peru. I have seen so many things in the past 24 days that people long to see in a lifetime. What a beautiful place, what beautiful people. I hope I am meant to return here again someday, but if I'm not, I will always hold the memories I have made here. The memories that have shaped me, the people who I have grown to love and will love forever.

Thanks to all of you who have enjoyed this journey with me from afar. I hope I could share with you a small glimpse of this place with you, although words don't do this place justice. Here's to Peru.

Traci

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-25T17:30:00.000-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

Quote of the day: "There will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever- improving path...But this, far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb." -Winston Churchill

Last day at Machu Picchu - WOW. Yesterday was a 4 a.m. wake up call. I didn't even remember picking up the wake up call. We were out the door and off to the bus station at 4:45. We then waited for an hour in the dark at the bus station just to get to the gates of Machu Picchu and wait in line - even longer.

There are two hikes you can do: Machu Picchu mountain (which is straight up the whole way in stairs) or Waynapicchu (where you have to sign your life away before going on the hike). Megan and I chose this one for the experience and to be out of our comfort zone. Only 400 people a day get to go on this hike, that's why we had to get there so early. We got lost for a little while in the ruins before reaching the starting point of Waynapicchu, but once we reached the starting point, we were up, up, up, and away. Raul said if you are afraid of heights, he highly advised you not to go. For most of the hike, there were ropes attached to the side of the mountain that you had to use to thrust yourself up the mountain. It has never felt so good to reach the top of a mountain before. Once you reach the top, you can either go down the way you came or go past the great caves. For the record, it was wet and rainy when we started the hike and didn't know if we would be able to see anything because in the cloud forest, you never know what the weather will be like. Luckily, once we reached the top of Waynapicchu, the sky cleared up and we could see the range of beautiful green mountains around us.

Anyways, we decided to go back down the long way, past the great caves where the Incas buried their mummies. Megan and I took a picture in one of the tombs - a little sketchy if you ask me, but really awesome to be there. We thought we were hiking down the mountain, which we were for some of it. Down some ladders and lots of slippery stairs until we reached the caves, then we had to go back up the mountain to get somehwhat closer to the finish line. We were huffing and puffing to say the least. We were also ready to eat lunch. I think I ate my snickers bar in 2 bites. Then, we started the hike of the sun gate. We pretty much speed walked the whole way and it was raining the whole time. We made it up in 30 minutes and down in 30 minutes. It was worth it. Everything is worth it here.

We were going to hike Machu Picchu today, but it was really rainy and cloudy, so we decided for our own safety, we would just explore the ruins for one more day - getting lost in and out of the Incas incredible masterpiece. Now, we are about to get on the train back to Cuzco. My time here is quickly approaching it's finish line. Although I will be sad to see this journey end, I know, God-willing, I will be back here again someday.

Kelsey Evans Blog - Finish Strong!

2011-01-25T15:20:00.001-05:00

Well fans, it's been a long, tough week of basketball for us. Since the last time I checked in we've played UNCG, College of Charleston and Appalachian State.

We'll start with Greensboro. Most of you may know about Ali Ford's dramatic finish to this game, but you’re in for a treat if you don’t. The entire game was a battle, and in the second half we found ourselves down by 11 points with ten minutes or so to go. We forge a tremendous comeback into the last minute of the game. Everyone stepped up and made key plays down the stretch. With about a minute or so to go we're down three. We come down, run a play, nobody's open. Lei Lei Hairston gets the ball starts to drive sees that the girl is way off, steps back and nails the three. Tie ball game. They have the ball with less than 30 seconds and they try to run the clock down for a last second shot, but with our pressure and defense we force a travel. We take the ball out of bounds with six seconds or so. Throw it in, gets tipped out of bounds by Greensboro. Throw it in again with about five seconds, Ali (from behind half court), takes the ball the length of the court and right before my eyes I witnessed her tiny little body jump from nearly the free throw line, scoop under her defender and BANK, it's good! Buzzer sounds! We win!!! The rush of adrenaline was unlike anything I've ever felt. We had an enormous cheering section, so thank you to everyone that came out! You truly made a difference.

If that wasn't exciting enough for you how does an overtime game sound? We figured our fans would enjoy that... (insert sarcasm here). The following Saturday (we played UNCG on Wednesday) we played College of Charleston at home. We were again behind by 11 points with about three minutes to go. Fortunately, we had Julie Taylor and Ali Ford knock down key shots to put us back in the game. I'll save you all the drama, but instead of us having the ball in the final seconds of play CofC had the ball with 12.7 seconds to go. Luckily Charleston was not able to score in those final seconds and we continued the game into overtime. We outscored them 9-2 in overtime and sealed the second thrilling victory of the week.

If anything was learned from those two games it was how to be tough, not only physically, but also mentally, down the stretch. I was extremely proud of the way we finished those two games and managed to pull out a win. In the end, it’s only W's and L's. Sometimes it may not be pretty, but as long as you get the job done that's all that matters. The Appalachian game taught us that as well. Even though we were down, we never stopped fighting. Unfortunately, we weren't victorious in that battle, but lessons with be learned and we will move on to the next one... but we did have quite the fan section for this game, faces painted and all!

I just want to give a special shout out to all of our loyal fans. It makes a tremendous difference having everyone at the games believing in us and everything we do!! You guys are awesome!

Hope to see everyone at EDUCATION DAY on Thursday at 11 a.m.!!! Have a great rest of the week!

- Big Kelsey

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-24T10:49:00.000-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

Today we visited Raul's hometown of Chinchero, where he was born and raised. A quaint town in the Andes. Home to the center for traditional textiles where both his Mom and Grandma works. It is a place where women weave the finest clothes, socks, hats, scarves, you name it, in order to preserve the designs of the Incan culture. There were all different kinds of women, young and old, but with the same thing in common, preserving a culture. We watched them weave for awhile and we had a tour of how they make the yarn from alpaca wool to the dying of the wool to make beautiful colors. After our tour and walking around for a bit, we all got to try weaving ourselves. It was really hard to catch on to at first, and my helper laughed at me often, but then I started to get the hang of it and probably sat there weaving for a good hour. We got to keep our design. Sitting there, weaving with women who have done this their entire life was a humbling experience. To be immersed in such a crtical part of Peruvian history and culture was a gift.

After weaving, we went to Raul's aunt's house for lunch right across from the textiles center. I tried guinea pig for the first time. They brought it out on a plate. The entire guinea pig - full body picture. If I hadn't have seen that, it probably would have made it taste a little better. However, since I saw a childhood pet in front of me on a platter, it didn't taste as good as I would have hoped. After lunch, we toured Chinchero, visited the town square and the church that Raul was brought up in. It was beautiful perched in the Andes looking over Inca ruins.

We then toured Moray ruins which was yet another intricate Incan design of architecture. We then drove past the Salineras salt complex where there were buckets full of salt as far as the eye could see. Pretty cool.

Tomorrow we are off to Macchu Picchu. As Raul calls it - the new eighth wonder of the world. We will be arriving by train and will be there for three days so I won't have access to a computer. But don't worry, I will take pictures and soak it all in so I can tell you about it when we return. I can't believe we are finally going to Macchu Picchu tomorrow. It's been two years and counting.

Traci

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-23T15:54:00.000-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

A day in the life of the Andes people. A beautiful life. A hardworking life. A simple life. The village of Patakancha welcomed us with open arms after driving almost an hour up the mountain to 14,000 feet and hiking the rest of the way. We brought bread for the children because it is like candy/a major treat for them. We helped out a local family with their land and we each planted a tree. Each tree had our name. They said they wanted us to come back when our trees were fully grown so we could experience the reward of planting something so beautiful. We then helped plow a potato field. They made it look so easy, we made it look so hard.

So fun story of the day: Megan and I really had to go to the bathroom at Patakancha and of course there were none around, so we had to go next to one of the potato fields out back. It was an experience to say the least. Most of all because due to going to the bathroom next to a field, we managed to get Peruvian poison ivy. It burned right away and felt like someone was scratching you. We had to rub the same plant where it had touched us before to help soothe the pain. We laughed it off, but it really hurt at the time :-)

We ate lunch in honor of Mother Earth at a local family's place, cooked from the ground over stones. We had lamb, potatoes and corn. It was delightful. We left the hotel at 7:30 a.m. and got back at 8:30 p.m. It was nice to put myself in other people's shoes for a day, who I respect and admire due to their hard work and dedication towards life and their family.

Tomorrow we will be going to a weaving workshop. We get to weave ourselves with the locals. If it's as much fun as sewing, as we say in the south, "It will be a good ole' time."

Traci

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-21T15:14:00.001-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

Leaving Cusco was bittersweet. I was sad to leave the city but excited to explore the Sacred Valley even more. And explore we did. Our bus dropped us off at the top of the Andes about two hours away from Cusco. We hiked down the mountain for hours in the rain, but it was well worth it. It was one of the Incas major strongholds, carved right into the mountains. There were not hand rails and the trail went straight down, over a bridge, through a tunnel and weaving in and out of the side of the mountain. The views were breathtaking. We were actually in the clouds. We hiked to our lunch in Pisaq (I don't know if food has ever tasted that good). My new favorite Andean cuisine is ricotto relleno - stuffed peppers with meat. Soooo good. After lunch, we drove another hour and did one more hike for the day so we could further understand how inteligent and influential the Incas really were. What an amazing civilization.

We are now staying at a beautiful hotel in the Sacred Valley of the Andes. Megan and I have llamas outside of our window :-) We were more than excited about being able to wake up to them for the next three days. Tomorrow, we will be driving through the mountains to learn from and help the local people. A day in the life of the Andes people.

Traci

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-20T12:50:00.000-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

For our last day in my favorite city (Cusco), we had our second to last spanish class of this course. It is bittersweet because our teacher is absolutely awesome. We then toured a bunch of the ancient Incan ruins and realized how inteligent and unique the ancient Inca civilization was. They built extravagant temples and held ceremonies at the highest places in the city. We were standing on top of Incan ruins, looking down at the beautiful city of Cusco below. The orange roofs of every house, the futbol stadium and the Andes mountains in the distance where objects stuck out to me. Once again, another beautiful place in Peru. I haven't found a place here that I wasn't amazed by.

Journeying farther into the sacred valley tomorrow.

Traci

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-19T17:39:00.000-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

So yesterday and today are kind of similiar days. We start off with Spanish class at our Maximo Nivel School, which was five minutes walking distance from our hotel. We have the same teacher that we did in Arequipa and I absolutely love her. We found out yesterday that she was only 28-years-old but having the time of her life teaching Spanish to kids like us. She lives here in Cuzco. It is such a beautiful city. Located in the Andes, but still has the hype of a ancient Incan town. It reminds me a lot of Salamanca because it is quaint and clean with awesome people. Cuzco is Raul's town as well. We got to meet his one-year-old son yesterday and his wife. His son looks exactly like him and loves his Daddy just like we do. If you haven't noticed already, Raul is the man.

I have to go to class, so sorry this was so short. Today is our last day in Cuzco. We will be touring ancient Incan ruins today. They were great architects that's for sure. Oh by the way, Cuzco is in the Sacred Valley, so I'm finally here - the Sacred Valley. What a beautiful place.

Traci

Kelsey Evans Blog - South Carolina Sweep!

2011-01-19T15:50:00.002-05:00

Hi fans!

Hope everyone is having a great week thus far. It's been a busy week for us after a full weekend playing Furman on Friday and Wofford on Sunday. We have a quick turnaround before our next game tonight at UNCG. It was a great weekend of basketball for us beating both Furman and Wofford in conference play!

It's hard to believe that we are almost half way through our Southern Conference schedule, but it's exciting to play in such a competitive league every night. Some of you may know that for the SoCon Tournament in March each team has adopted an elementary aged class to come and support them throughout the tournament. We were extremely excited to hear about this opportunity and want to really make it fun for our adopted class. This week we did individual video interviews to send to our class describing our hobbies, favorite cartoons, some people danced and Gabby even came up with a rap! It was a fun way for us to get involved and let them know we are really excited about them coming to support us. We also went out and got t-shirts to design Elon themed t-shirts for the class. I didn't know we had such a creative team!

Hope you all enjoyed a sneak peak of what our cheering section will be wearing in March! I hope to see everyone tonight in Greensboro when we take on UNCG. Also, two home games this weekend! We play College of Charleston Saturday in Alumni Gym tipoff at 2 p.m. Monday we take on Appalachian State, also in Alumni Gym, tip-off 7 p.m.! We would love to have your support throughout this tough stretch of games we have coming up!!

See you soon!! GO PHOENIX!

- Big Kelsey

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-18T15:20:00.000-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

Isla Amantani - no electricity, no means of transportation and no America, that's for sure. Yesterday, we took a four hour boat ride to Amantani Island located in the middle of the highest navigable lake in the world, Lake Titicaca. When we got to the island, we hiked up a hill that seemed to take an hour at least. The locals were passing us left and right as we were hyperventilating with each step. Once we made it up the hill, I thought we were at least at the top of some mountain. I was wrong. It was just where we were eating lunch. We ate lunch at one of the local families houses that Raul knows from years past. We had trout straight out of Lake Titicaca.

After lunch, we got divided up into groups of four so we could spend some time with our individual families. I am already missing mine. Megan and I were in the same family, so that was a plus as well. Our "Mama's" name was Dona Augustina. She liked laughing at us quite often. She spoke little spanish and mostly quechua, which is the indigenous language of Peru. We helped her peel potatoes (my Mom would be proud, you taught me well) and other vegetables. We also ground some type of maize with a giant rock. She made it look so easy. It took three of us to do what she was doing in twice as much time.

Yesterday, we also got to hike up to the highest points on Isla Amantani - Mama tata and Mama Pancha. We could choose to do one or the other, so Megan and I decided to do both. A breathtaking and rewarding experience to say the least. We could see Bolivia from both points. It was awesome. After the hike, we ate dinner with our families and then joined the rest of the group for Lake Titicaca dancing in the traditional outfits they dressed us in. Don't worry, I have pictures :-) I had a ball dancing with all of the little kids. They were better than all of us hands down.

Today, we did some work around the house and then played a game of futbol. We didn't last that long since we were at 12,500 feet above sea level, but it was a lot of fun.

After saying an emotional good bye to our families, we took a three hour boat ride to the Uros Island, or the floating island of reed. It was like a dream. What a life. The people were awesome as well, but that's the norm here in Peru.

About to go out to dinner in Puno - the folklore capital of the world. Tomorrow is a nine hour bus ride to Cuzco. This is where Raul is from and I think we get to meet his family. Looking forward to it. Thank you to all who are reading and enjoying.

Traci

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-17T10:14:00.000-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

Sorry about the delay of blogs the past couple of days. Our last hotel didn't have internet and we've had a lot going on as you've been reading. Anyways, every night in Peru, I think to myself, there is no way tomorrow can get any better than today. And you know what? I'm wrong every time. Now I know why Peru is called the land of extremes. We started off at the beach, moved to the desert, now we are high in the Andes at 12,500 feet at Lake Titicaca.

Before we got to Puno/Lake Titicaca here's the summary of yesterday and today. We left Arequipa two days ago and drove straight up the Andes to 16,000 feet. It was a stuggle for me to get up the mountain even though we were on the bus. I got light headed for a couple of hours and felt as though my lungs were closing by the second. We first drove through the National Park full of Vicunas, Llamas, and Alpacas. Vicunas are my new favorite animal. They are a mix between a llama and a deer, except softer looking.

We stopped at the top of the National Reserve at 16,000 feet so we could get adjusted to the altitude and drink some specially made coca tea that helps with altitude sickness. I drank 2 cups. However, I added about three scoops of sugar to drain out the taste of the 20 actual coca leaves floating in my tea. I actually quite enjoyed it though. Next stop, the land of permafrost. It went on for miles. Large and small puddles of water from the ice capped mountains surrounded by beautiful patches of grass. A girl on my trip sprained her ankle jumping across one of the puddles. Elly has taught me well. I wrapped her ankle, made her do the ABC's, ice, elevate, and then I massaged the swelling out as best I could. It's all because of you, Nor. By the way, 16,000 feet above sea level is cold, very cold.

Then we stopped in Chivay (small town in the Andes) where we were droppped off by the bus so we could hike the most beautiful trail to our hotel down in the valley of Colca Canyon - Colca Lodge (the hotel I want to aspire to own one day). It's in at least the top three of my favorite hotels and that's saying a lot coming from me. The hike made me feel like I was in Ireland times a hundred. Gorgeous green pastures with crops that go on for miles, Andeans transporting their crops to town by donkeys and stoned walls lining every corner. Unbelievable. We got to our hotel a couple of hours later and went straight to the hot springs until dinner. At dinner I tried alpaca for the first time. It was surprisingly awesome.

The next morning, we had a 5:20 a.m. wake up call and out the doors we went. We drove through multiple agricultural villages around colca canyon, on the side of the biggest mountains I've ever seen. The dirt roads don't have gurard rails so if you're afraid of heights I wouldn't recommend the window seat. Anyways, we drove two hours into the canyon to get to the Cruz del Condor. This is where we sat for hours, waiting for the eight foot wing spanned condors - the birds of the Incas. I'm not a big fan of birds, but these are big and beautiful soaring high over the Andes. What a life. We then hiked a ways with our Colca Canyon guide Pedro, so cute. Then we ate lunch in Chivay and continued our trek to Puno, the town next to Lake Titicaca. Our hotel is right on the water. I can see the city lights glimmering across the way.

Tomorrow we have a native home stay with families on the Amantani island on Lake Titicaca. Hopefully will be able to write the day after tomorrow.

Traci

Kelsey Evans Blog - Snow Days!

2011-01-12T13:28:00.000-05:00

Hi Phoenix fans!

I am so excited to write this week’s blog following an exciting weekend for us on the road. We went 2-0 in conference play over weekend, traveling all the way to Birmingham to play Samford and Tennessee to play Chattanooga. The snow was a big factor this weekend in our travels, and even though I don’t have a bus breakdown story for you, you might enjoy what I do have!

Friday afternoon we set off on our journey to Alabama taking us about eight hours or so, with a bus driver who was quite the enthusiast. Nobody thought this was as funny as I did, but his name was Tom so I thought it was HILARIOUS to call him Tom-Tom (like the GPS system). Anyway, we made it to Birmingham safe and sound (which we don’t take for granted anymore—see last blog) and woke up Saturday morning to start what we liked to consider our two-game tournament. In our game against Samford we knew we were up against a very talented and disciplined team. With two influential players out, it forced everyone else to step up, like our freshman. Baby (Kelsey Harris—it has evolved from Baby Kelsey to just Baby) and Candice really did a great job providing a spark for us in the second half. I was so proud of the way they matured in this game and it was exciting to see us come together and really play for one another. After we caught a big lead, Samford fought their way back late, but in the end we were able to start our weekend tournament 1-0. After the game we grabbed some food and headed to Chattanooga.

My favorite thing about being in Chattanooga is definitely eating at the City Café Diner. They are well known for their great food and magnificent cakes and desserts. So, of course I had to get a slice of cake.

After we got back to the hotel the coaches discovered an indoor pool that happened to be without heat. Team ice bath! We were not too fond of the idea at first, but after being bribed with a mall trip the participation doubled.

With fresh legs thanks to our ice bath, we were ready to roll on Monday for an afternoon game. The snow almost postponed our game but luckily we were able to move the game up from 6 p.m. to 3 p.m. Our defense and rebounding proved to be just what we needed in this victory. It was exciting to win in Chattanooga and exciting to see different people stepping up each game. Aiesha Harper did an unbelievable job coming off the bench and sparking us in the second half. I was so happy to see everyone come together for that win, but now we must move onto our next task which is Furman on Friday.

Following our game we got on the road and tried to stop for food, but because of the snow the only place that was open was a Bi-Lo grocery store. It was quite comical to watch everyone roam around with lunchables, chips, cookies, easy cheese – such a well balanced diet.

Once we got on the road we decided to stop in Knoxville because of the snow but made it home safely the next morning. Now we’re back from our nearly five-day road trip with our goal complete: to win the weekend tournament. We get back on the court Friday to take on Furman at home so I hope to see everyone come out and support us as we try to continue our winning ways. Hope everyone is being safe in the snow!

- Kelsey

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-11T11:11:00.000-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

Yesterday was a 5 a.m. wake-up call to start our voyage up the Andes to around 8,500 feet above sea level to Arequipa, Peru. It was at least a 12 hour drive up the Pan American Highway, but we had multpile stops in between to make it seem a little better. The drive was beautiful. The highway is carved into the mountains on the coast almost the entire way. It's nothing like driving down I-40, I can tell you that.

First stop, the Nazca fault line. It's the equivalent to the San Andreas fault line in California. It was huge. Once again, I've never seen anything like it. Next stop was 45 minutes later at the walking dunes. There were miles and miles of different size dunes you could walk across. However, it was like sinking sand, therefore, a little difficult to walk across. It depends on which way the wind is blowing as to which direction the dunes face. Next was my favorite stop of the day - Puerto Inca. It was a civilization built by the Incas in the 1400s/1500s on the coast. You could still see the foundation of their houses. Some of us decided to take our first hike of the trip with Raul. We climbed up the rocks, passing the ancient civilization on all sides. We finally got to the top where we could see the beautiful white waves crashing into the rocks and bright blue water for miles. It was worth the trip in itself. I can't even imagine what Macchu Picchu will be like. After our hike, we dipped into the Pacific very briefly due to the cold water. Most people at Elon are from the North so they thought I was being a wimp since I live on the warm Atlantic. Next was a power nap and then time for lunch. We pulled off the highway and sat on some rocks near the coast, so simple yet so beautiful. Found lots of shells and the bus driver had to fix the speedometer on the bus.

Today, we had our first Spanish class at Maximo Nivel school about one minute down the calle (street) from our hotel. Megan and I are in the same class, which is awesome. We just look at each other and laugh half of the time. We love our teacher and pretty much want to be her one day. Her name is Kris. After our awesome Spanish class, we had another sociology class and then were off to explore the city. Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru full of one million people. It's full of cobble stone walkways and Spanish architecture. Much different from Lima. It reminds me of Spain in a way. Historic, beautiful and unique.

Traci

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-09T23:02:00.000-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

Quote of the day: "Adventure is worthwhile in itself." Today was another adventure to say the least. We woke up to llamas outside of our window alongside a beautiful mountain. Our hotel is full of animals roaming the property. Last night when we got here, a llama walked right into the lobby and proceded to come up to us. It was so friendlly and so awesome. Anyways, the other animals I have seen are ostriches, deer, roosters and cows. It is a beautiful valley oasis full of flora and fauna.

For the afternoon, we drove to the Nazca airport. We then proceded to board around a 12 passenger plane, the smallest plane I've ever been on. It was so hot in plane but we were in the air before we knew it - with a lot of turbulence. There were trash bags in front of each seat because it's a common tendency on these tiny planes to throw up. First, because they are not air conditioned and it is 85 degrees outside. Second, because in order to see the Nazca lines, the pilot steers the plane almost on its side and circles the figure in the sand with the wing of the plane. They are still a mystery to everyone, however, there are multiple theories behind them. After the first two lines, I started feeling nauseous along with the rest of my plane. It was a bonding experience.

We then had lunch in Nazca and walked around the aquaducts near our hotel. We then had a friendly game of futbol/soccer in a nice green field in the back of our hotel. We have a 12-14 hour drive up the Andes to Arequipa, 8,000 feet above sea level. Only the beginning.

Traci

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-09T14:06:00.001-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

So we've only been here a few days and I feel like I've lived here my entire life. I've already decided I'm coming back.

Today we took a boat to the Ballestas Islands to see penguins, sea lions and birds (lots and lots of birds). More birds in one place than I've ever seen before. The animals around the islands are protected by guards who switch out monthly (what a job that would be :-)) The sea lions were my favorite, with babies on every rock you saw. Also, the penguins were awesome. Who doesn't love penguins?

After getting off the boat, Megan and I had an unbelievable experience with a few of local children of Paracas. Abril and Mel were the names I remember. The highlight of our trip so far. I have probably said that about everything, but today was extra special. We saw these precious little girls playing volleyball in the street when we got off the boat. Megan and I simultaneously looked at each other and said " Let's go!" We walked over to them and asked them kindly if we could play with them and they welcomed us with open arms. The smiles on their faces were priceless. Although their smiles were not quite as big as Megan and I's...:-) We wanted to stay all day.

Unfortunately, we had to leave our new friends with hope of returning again someday. We then traveled about an hour to Ica where we ate lunch at the oasis. The Ica oasis is full of enormous sand dunes that look like huge mountains. On to the next adventure - dune buggying and sand surfing. Dune buggying was like an hour and a half rollar coaster, except better. We stopped at the top of the dunes for the ones who wanted to sand surf. I was a little hestitant at first with visions of tearing my ACL dancing in my head. The first time down the dune, I slid down on my stomach (I had to work my way up to conquering my fears). Then we drove to the next dune. This one was even bigger. Even though Mom and Dad probably wouldn't have approved with fear of me getting hurt, I conquered my fears and sand surfed down the enormous dune in the Ica desert - what a blessing. After not being able to do anything this time last year, it was pretty awesome to surf down a hill, let alone even being on this trip. Although my muscles are already sore, it was well worth it. I felt like I was on Fear Factor.

After a long day at the dunes, we took a 3 hour bus ride down to Nazca. Tomorrow we fly over the mysterious Nazca lines and have class in the morning. Now that I'm sore and a little sunburn, however content, I will be going to bed. Thinking of you all.

P.S. I'm not sure the next time I will be able to write, but until then, love from Nazca.

Traci

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-07T10:14:00.000-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

Today we had a 6:30 a.m. wake up call to depart Lima for Paracas. Paracas is about a six hour bus ride down the Pan Americana del Sur (Pan American Highway), which extends all the way down the coast of Peru. In route to our destination, we passed the slums of Lima. They are all piled on top of each other on the mountains surrounding Lima. Supposedly, the Peruvian government gave them different colors of paint so they could make their tiny, concrete houses look better in pictures of the city...wow. There is no other way besides walking up the mountain to get to their houses because they are all piled on top of each other. They each built their own house by carrying what they could find/afford of concrete and stones/bricks up the mountain that they call home. Looking at this place that they call home convinced me of taking what I have for granted. I've never seen anything like it.

We drove for miles out of the city watching house by house pass us by. These aren't houses like I'm familiar with back home with yards full of grass and growth. These are houses side by side. In Lima, grass is considered a sign of growth and you only see it in wealthier parts of the city or towns that finally have enough money to plant a patch of grass. After passing the slums, we drove through two different shanty towns or "pueblos jovenes" (young towns). First, we drove through Villa de Salvador. It used to be undeveloped full people and bamboo houses who migrated there after several natural disasters in the Andes and their homes were washed away. Villa de Salvador is only a 40-year-old shanty town, but now it is built up into a place full of business and smiles. It is the same as the slums where the people build their own homes. The first floor always has to be some kind of business where they can make money, and the second floor is their living quarters. I've never seen a harder working group of individuals. Imagine building your own home while also trying to work to get by. Be thankful.

The next shanty town we visited was "Lomas de Marchan." Probably my favorite part of the trip so far. We actually stepped off the bus here instead of just driving through. Raul said in Villa de Salvador, "they will take your socks off before you even notice your boots." Shanty towns symbolize community. They believe they couldn't get by without each other. There is a sense of unity among these families. The children are overjoyed with excitement if you take a picture of them and show it to them. To them happiness comes from the simple things. They are the most beautiful children I've ever seen. Not concerned with anything else but smiling. Even though they have nothing, they don't beg for your money because they don't need it, they have each other. I want to go back already. Maybe one day.

We are now down the coast in the beautiful town of Paracas. Traveling to the Ballestas Islands tomorrow to see penguins, sea lions, condors, etc. Should be an eventful day. Sending summer love from the coast of Peru.

Traci

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-06T21:24:00.001-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

I quite possibly might be the most tired I have ever been, but in a good way. Lima, Peru - population of 9 million. Population of Peru - 29 million. That means around one third of Peru's popluation lives in Lima. Although there are much more people walking around the streets of Lima than the streets of Elon, I thought there were going to be many more Peruvians walking around the streets than we saw today. However, our professor Don Ernesto, told us that the city of Lima goes on for miles and miles, hence why I can't get a clear picture of it yet. Now, I'm not saying this city doesn't feel like a city with people walking, cars honking, and street vendors on every corner, because it is the epitome of a city, but with much more history and culture than any American could have thought possible.

Instead of Raul taking us around the city today, we had a friend of his, Shayla, a native of Lima, show us around the city. She knew everything anyone would want to know about the city. They say Lima is combined of 3 different cultures: Incan, Catholic, and Moorish. We visited St. Francis Monastery which is open to the public and also still used by monks. Besides the Moorish architecture, the most thought provoking part of our tour were the catacombs. I was too tall to fit through most of the passage ways, so I was slighty hunchback for most of our time under the church. There were thousands of bones and skulls of all sorts just piled on top of each other. It was a sight to see.

We then watched the changing of the guards in front of the "Palacio de gobierno," where the President of Peru lives. While watching, we were sitting in the Plaza de Armas/Plaza Mayor which is the city center of Peru. It has a beautiful fountain in the middle with yellow buildings and the rather large Palacio de gobierno surrounding.

We then went to lunch at "Los Escribanos" for our first real Peruvian meal. We first had "Chicha morada," which is a special drink of Peru made out of purple corn. It somewhat resembles grape juice but not quite. No food that I've tasted in Peru is quite like anything in the states. We then had our appetizers (mine was potatoes with peppers in the middle), our main dish (Megan and I got a dish with beef, onions, peppers, and french fries all mixed together) and dessert (the most delicious vanilla ice cream you've ever tasted). This is the way every meal is, which is convenient for Megan and I who are constantly hungry. They say for lunch in Peru if there is no rice, potatoes, or noodles, then it is not lunch. We then went to El Museo Larco, which contains artifacts from pre-Incan civilations. Pretty cool.

Now Megan and I are back in the hotel for a short break before we go see "Circuito Magico del Agua," which is a fountains display in the Parque de la Reserva and attend our "Welcome to Peru" dinner. Supposedly there's dancing involved in our dinner. I'm going to see if I can pull a few strings and get Megan up on stage :-)

Hasta Luego! Mucho Amor a todos( Much love to all)

Traci

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-05T17:37:00.000-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

We have arrived in Lima, Peru! It took us ahwile to get here. Our plane was delayed, we had to wait for at least 20 students bags and we had to navigate our way through Lima to get to our hotel, which is one of the oldest hotels in Lima. Our tour guide, Raul, met us at the airport. I already can tell you he is the man.

Everywhere we go, there are signs that say, "Your journey starts here." The journey of a lifetime started today. We woke up with much anticipation and now we are finally here.

Megan and I played UNO for awhile to pass the time. It was only around a six hour flight, however, we are athletes and can get pretty antsy, so needless to say we went to the bathroom multiple times.

I will try to write more tomorrow about our travels here, but it is 1 o'clock and we have a big day tomorrow of exploring the city of Lima. Buenas Noches!

Kelsey Evans Blog - Happy New Year!

2011-01-04T22:52:00.001-05:00

Hello Fans!

I hope you’re excited about reading this week’s blog because I’m anticipating it to be the best one yet. It’s been a full couple of weeks following our holiday break and there have been plenty of stories to keep you entertained.

First, I’d like to wish everyone a happy New Year! I hope everyone had a relaxing and joyful holiday. Although our break was short, it was a great time to spend with family and friends after we’ve pretty much been MIA since the season started. We traveled back to Elon on Monday, Dec. 27, to prepare for our game against Marshall on Dec. 30. Before we ventured up to West Virginia, the Robertson’s (Robertson Court) invited us into their home and prepared a feast for us! I have to say, I look forward to that meal every year; it was magnificent! We had a chance to play some ping pong (we can make any environment competitive), and to visit with the couple that was so generous in donating our renovated gym. I have to give credit to Mr. Robertson for his impressive ping pong game, and of course Mrs. Robertson is hilarious. If you haven’t seen any of her humorous videos you need to check them out. My personal favorite is “Don’t send a man to the grocery store!” I’ve also attached some pictures from our night.

Prior to our game in West Virginia against Marshall, we came across a little store that caught our attention. The store was called “Heels” and it was appropriately filled with high-heeled shoes. Look at who we found roaming the store.... Coach Christian. She might kill me for putting these on the blog, so just understand that I’m running a large risk here and I may have sprints to run, but I feel it’s necessary to share with you. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Notice the Nike socks…

As you can tell we like to keep it interesting. Well if that wasn’t interesting enough for you, this next story will be. Following our game at Marshall we quickly hopped on the bus in hopes of getting home at a decent hour. And by decent hour, I mean 3 a.m. Well, unfortunately, our five-hour trip turned into a nine-hour trip.

Let me set the scene for you. I’m peacefully sleeping wrapped in my zebra snuggie (see previous blog) when I wake up to everyone yelling. My first thought was “WHY IS EVERYONE YELLING?! I’M TRYING TO SLEEEP!!!” then my second thought was “well I’m awake now, so what is everyone yelling about?” That’s when my over dramatic teammate Lisa Archie looks me dead in the face and says “THE BUS IS ON FIRE, GET YA VALUBALES AND GET OFF!” This immediately sent me into a fight-or-flight response, and of course, I grabbed my snuggie (the only true valuable I have) and ran off into the snow. At this point the bus driver tells us its okay to get back on the bus, so we hesitantly load back on the bus sending the bravest first, Coach Butler of course. We wait to hear what the bus driver has to say and he informs us that we are approximately two hours from the closest bus venue and 3 hours from home. Let’s do the math. It’s 1 a.m. already, plus another 30 minutes to call someone to go get a new bus, plus two hours for them to get to us, and another three hours to get home back to Elon. This all seems a little absurd to wait on the side of the road for that long so we started to think of alternatives:

1. Send Coach Stockdale out to flag down an 18-wheeler with her good looks and flowing blonde hair (This is when those red stilettos would’ve really come in handy).
2. Send our director of media relations, Dan, to strap on a harness and pull us the rest of the way.
3. Call Bart Hussey because it probably wouldn’t take him more than 30 minutes to get to us.
4. Wait it out.

Well Coach Stockdale didn’t show enough leg, Dan wasn’t quite strong enough, and Bart was asleep so that left us with scenario No. 4. To make matters even better they decided it would be a good idea to turn on Law and Order in the back while we waited. I just knew we were going to be the “Based on a True Story” for some chainsaw massacre movie. We tried to make the best out of the situation and go to sleep but that wasn’t happening thanks to Coach Butler and his animal snore. We almost threw him out in the snow. It’s okay though because we got home safe and sound around 7 am. At least it made for a good blog story, and something we can laugh about after the fact.

Waiting, waiting, waiting… Pictures say a thousand words….

Fortunately we were able to recover from this traumatic event with a big win over Georgia Southern on Monday night! It was great to get back on track with our first win of 2011! It was quite an eventful Christmas break, and with classes starting on Tuesday, we say goodbye to our fun and hello to reality. This weekend we will travel to Samford to play the Bulldogs on Saturday in Birmingham before heading to Chattanooga on Monday to play UTC. We’ll be back at home on Jan. 14 to play Furman! Hope to see everyone there and wish us luck in our travels this weekend. We may need it! Happy New Year everyone, thanks for reading!

- Big Kelsey

"PERUsing with Traci Stewart"

2011-01-04T17:43:00.001-05:00

Elon volleyball's Traci Stewart is spending the winter term studying abroad in Peru. Read all about her Peruvian adventures as she shares them with Phoenix fans on our blog.

Dr. Seuss once said "Today is your day. You're off to great places, you're off and away. The world is waiting so get on your way!"

First stop, Miami. I am getting closer and closer to the country I have longed to visit ever since I learned the Spanish language. Although I am perfectly content with sitting at home, watching LOST with my family and the dogs, I am thoroughly excited to fly south for a month and visit another wonder of creation. Sometimes you have to break out of your comfort zone to realize the meaning and importance of life. I already did that once by tearing my ACL...but now I am ready to hike the Andes with my partner in crime, Megan.

The quote of the day in my journal wrote " They say you will never be lonely from the start of each day to its end if you walk life's pathway with love in your heart, and side by side with a friend." A good omen to the start off our trip I would say. Not many people get to travel the world with their best friend. Megan and I are making this a tradition. Two Spanish speaking countries in two years...Mexico, now Peru, next we are thinking Spain.

My mom flew down with me to Miami for work. Probably a good thing because more than likely, I would have been a little too emotional if I would have had to say goodbye to everyone at one time (I'm the baby of the family and maybe a little too attached).

Our plane to Miami was delayed twice. The first time they wouldn't tell us why, the second time was because our flight crew's taxi broke down...so needless to say it took a little longer than expected to get here. Megan anticipated our arrival for hours.

However, we are finally here and we went to a nice dinner in Coral Gables at Season's 52 (one of my dad's favorites). Coral Gables is a cute little town near the University of Miami with lit up Palm trees, lots of unique stores and tasty cuisine. We made friends with, Kat, our the waitress at the restaurant. Her grandma was Peruvian and the rest of her family is from Ecuador and Uruguay. She might even come visit us in North Carolina one day. You think I'm joking, but really she loved us that much. We loved her too of course.

After dinner, we drove around the University of Miami. I think I could get used to palm trees on every corner of my campus, with a big lake in the middle. Also, it's currently 70 degrees outside and the locals think that's cold - wow.

Megan and I have a big day tomorrow. The day is finally here. Peru bound. Sending love from the sunshine state.

Traci

December Performances of the Month

2011-01-03T12:05:00.002-05:00

It's month two of our new feature here on our blog! Each month we will take a look back at some of the most outstanding individual performances by our athletes and then post a poll on the blog site for you, our loyal fans, to vote on. Feel free to comment as well!

Let's take a look back at the month of December and what our staff has looked at as the top six individual performances of the month:

1. Bria Bell (Indoor Track) at Liberty Kick Off – Broke Elon's five-year-old school record with a mark of 25.90 in the 200-meter dash. She also won the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.55 and was a member of the 4x400 relay team which won the meet title.

2. Veronica Day (Indoor Track) at Liberty Kick Off – Won both the long and triple jumps with marks of 18'9.25" and 38'7.5", respectively.

3. Ali Ford (WBB) at Morgan State – Ford scored 24 points and grabbed four rebounds as Elon defeated Morgan State 69-61. She shot 66.7 percent from the field (8-of-12) and connected on six of her nine attempts from three-point land. Ford finished with four assists and two steals.

4. Shon Redmond (WBB) at Marshall – Redmond netted 17 points at Marshall while also grabbing two boards, passing for three assists and swiping three steals. Redmond shot 54.5 percent from the field (6-of-11) and was 4-of-5 from the charity stripe.

5. Jack Isenbarger (MBB) at Duke – Against the nation's top-ranked team, Isenbarger netted 21 points and grabbed three rebounds. He shot 50 percent from the field (6-of-12) and was a perfect eight-for-eight from the free throw line.

6. Roger Dugas (MBB) vs. Gardner-Webb – In a 90-82 victory, Dugas scored a career-high 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting. He finished with a double-double after grabbing 10 rebounds. Dugas was four-of-four from long range in the game.

Remembering 2010

2011-01-01T12:54:00.000-05:00

Now that the calendar has turned to 2011 we wanted to know what your top Elon athletic memories of 2010 were. Is it tailgating at Rhodes Stadium, the softball team capturing its first SoCon Tournament title, baseball appearing in the NCAA Regionals for the third strait year? Or maybe watching the cross country teams host their meet on campus or Stephen Dilger scoring the tying goal against West Virginia with 12 seconds left?

We want to hear the thoughts of the Elon fans out there! What will you remember most about 2010 in Elon athletics?

Favorite Christmas Presents!

2010-12-24T17:46:00.000-05:00

Between trying to knock off the defending national champions and getting a big road win at Navy, the Elon men’s basketball players chatted about some of their best ever Christmas gifts…and some of the weirdest!

Daniel Watts

Best ever gift: Barney slippers, Age 3

John Moody

Best ever gift: James Bond 007 for Nintendo 64

Gary Pope

Topping his Christmas list this year: iPad

Drew Spradlin

Best ever gift: Tree house, Age 8

David Meyer

Topping his Christmas list this year: Katy Perry tickets

Jack Isenbarger

Weirdest gift he ever received: Hand warmers – the kind you put in your gloves when you are outside at a football game!

Chris Long

Best ever gift: Dog, Age 10

Brett Ervin

Topping his Christmas list this year: Heath Miller jersey

Scott Grable

Best ever gift: Go-Kart

Weirdest gift he ever received: Women’s underwear – his mom put the wrong tag on the box!

Sebastian Koch

Best ever gift: His grandma took him to a skate shop where he got to make his own skate board, Age 14

Ryley Beaumont

Best ever gift: Trampoline – it was actually his sister’s gift but he enjoyed it quite a bit!

Roger Dugas

Weirdest gift he ever received: A huge jar of dill pickles!

Terrance Birdette

Best ever gift: PlayStation 2

Lucas Troutman

Best ever gift: Hunting Rifle, Age 14; He also got some real coal when he was a kid!

Lucas Weavil

Best ever gift: Xbox

Josh Bonney

Best ever gift: Roller blades, Age 10

Kelsey Evans Blog - 'Tis The Season!

2010-12-22T11:35:00.002-05:00

Happy Holidays basketball fans!

I hope everyone is getting in the holiday spirit and enjoying the chilly weather. Today marks the first day of our oh-so-generous five-day Christmas break! (Last year we only had 3). We were able to head home on a positive note after a thrilling victory over a talented Davidson team. When I say thrilling I mean up by one with 18 seconds left and they have the ball. Fortunately for us, they missed their final attempt and we went on to win our first conference game. Huge shout out to my teammate Shon Redmond for the biggest play I've seen since being at Elon. Let me set the scene for you. Down by two with less than 30 seconds to play. Shon attacks the basket, steps through two defenders and finishes the basket. But the best part? The whistle blows! AND ONE! Shon was able to finish the three-point play and put us up one point. We then had to play solid defense for 18 seconds to seal it, and we did. Merry Christmas to us! We could not have asked for a better Christmas present. I'm so proud of the way our team fought the entire game. There was a refuse to lose attitude that could be seen in every players demeanor. We're lucky to be able to play in such a competitive and talented conference. I hope you all enjoyed that story as much as I did writing it, but outside of basketball we've had a great week.

Saturday afternoon we had our Christmas party at Coach Barefoot's house. This time of year is truly about family and friends, and we had a houseful of both! The climax of our holiday party was probably when we did the secret Santa. I'm sure you all know how secret Santa works, but if you don't, what we did was pick a name out of a hat and whomever you picked you would be a secret Santa to.

There were some funny gifts, but I must say I had the best Santa of all, freshman Candice Silas. For those of you who know me, you know I LOVE zebra print. My book bag, bed comforter, umbrella, rain boots, various articles of clothing are all zebra print. Well Candice being the genius she is, got me a zebra snuggie! I was instantly mesmerized.

Don't be surprised if you see me around town in that thing. I'm not kidding. We also presented our coaches with a book about the Butler men’s basketball team titled "Underdawgs". We saw a lot of the same qualities in our team and their team and thought it would make for a good Christmas present for all of their hard work. Anyways, our party was obviously a success and everyone LOVED their gifts. So now we're all home to spend time with family for Christmas but we'll be back in action on Dec. 30 to take on Marshall in Huntington, W. Va. I also wanted to wish Coach Stockdale a happy birthday!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and we look forward to seeing everyone next year when we take on Georgia Southern at home on Jan. 3.

Happy holidays and New Year! May your days be merry and bright!

- Kelsey

A Thank You from Clint Irwin

2010-12-16T13:02:00.000-05:00

Dear Elon Family:

First, let me express my deepest thanks to everyone who voted, organized votes and raised awareness during my entry in the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award fan vote. I am incredibly appreciative of the outpouring of support, well wishes and votes from students, faculty, staff and alumni. Without the support from many of you, I would never have been able to place so highly in the fan-voting portion of the contest. While I was not able to take home the first place prize, the staggering amount of votes propelled me to “First Team” status. The mere fact that someone from a school with a smaller student body like Elon could hold down first and second place in a national fan voting contest is a testament to the community here.

As I pursue professional opportunities in soccer, I will always remember my time here at Elon. This truly is a special place and I feel blessed to have been able to elevate Elon University to the national stage with the help of many in this community. The support provided by professors, alumni, students, coaches and fellow student-athletes continues to astound me. I am deeply thankful for all of the opportunities provided by this wonderful institution. This contest merely illustrated what it is about Elon that makes it such an extraordinary place. Again, I would like to voice my sincerest thanks to everyone who made this an amazing experience and showed me what being part of this community really means.

Sincerely,

Clint Irwin

November Performances of the Month

2010-12-09T16:45:00.002-05:00

We’ve decided to come up with a new feature here on the From the Ashes blog. Each month we will take a look back at some of the most outstanding individual performances by our athletes and then post a poll on the blog site for you, our loyal fans, to vote on. Feel free to comment as well!

We’ll get this started by looking back at the month of November and what our staff has looked at as the top five individual performances of the month:

1. Scott Riddle (FB) vs. Western Carolina – Riddle threw for 452 yards and five touchdowns, completing 25 of his 37 pass attempts in Elon’s 45-14 victory. The performance helped him claim the final SoCon Offensive Player of the Week honor of the season.

2. Sarah Schermerhorn (VB) vs. Appalachian State – Schermerhorn helped Elon clinch a share of its first-ever SoCon North Division title by posting 11 kills, four digs and nine blocks in a 3-0 win over the Mountaineers. Coupled with her performance against Western Carolina the next day, Schermerhorn picked up SoCon Defensive Player of the Week distinction.

3. Kelsey Evans (WBB) vs. Fordham – Evans helped the Phoenix to a 91-77 win in the season-opener by recording a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds. She added an assist, a block and a steal while shooting 55.6 percent from the field. After Elon defeated Troy two days later, Evans was honored as the MVP of the Phoenix Classic.

4. Jack Isenbarger (MBB) at South Carolina – In his first collegiate game, Isenbarger went for 22 points on 7-of-11 (63.6 percent) shooting from the field. The freshman connected on 50 percent of his three-point attempts (3-of-6) and was perfect at the free throw line (5-of-5) while also grabbing three rebounds and dishing out two assists.

5. Gabe Latigue (MSOC) vs. Radford – In the final game of the regular season, Latigue scored two of Elon’s three goals, including the game-winner, to help the Phoenix to a 3-1 victory.

Kelsey Evans Blog - Road Trip!

2010-12-06T12:59:00.000-05:00

Hello fans!

I'm so excited to write this week's blog after our first road victory over Morgan State! Since last week’s blog, we've played both No. 10 ranked West Virginia and Morgan State. West Virginia was a great game for our team, and it allowed us to compete against truly one of the best teams in the country. Let's just say BIG EAST really does mean BIG, it might as well just be called the BIG STRONG and AGGRESSIVE EAST. It was a great experience for us and we learned a thing or two along the way.

Today's win over Morgan State was a great game for us to get back to doing the things we're great at as a team. West Virginia, being so aggressive and out in the passing lanes, made it hard for us to execute and do what we wanted to do. With an eight-point win over Morgan State, we claimed our first road win of the year! I'm pretty sure we matched their fans as well, as we had an awesome fan section today.

Our trip to Baltimore was centered on visiting the hometown of our senior Julie Taylor. Julie's family had the team over for dinner Saturday night and we got to spend time with some of Julie's family, which was great. Julie's parents live right in the center of downtown and have an awesome view from the top of their deck where we got our team picture (below).

Coach Stockdale even made a new friend, Julie's brother's new puppy, Olive. I'm surprised Olive wasn't sitting with us on the bench today to be quite honest.

While on the road we try to keep it as interesting as possible. This week coach Stockdale transformed from assistant coach to professional beautician, waxing Ali's eyebrows! Don't worry, I snapped a picture for you!

Also, we got in the holiday spirit by singing Christmas carols on the bus, even if we didn't know the words and just repeated fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!!

Needless to say it was a very eventful week, and we had to do something to keep us occupied while we spent nearly 30 hours on the bus! We take some time off from games due to finals this week and next but we take the floor on December 18 for our first home conference game against Western Carolina. The game will be a White Out at Alumni Gym, and all Elon fans will get a white t-shirt at the door. Hope to see you all there!

- Big Kelsey

Kelsey Evans Blog - When You Get Knocked Down, What Are You Going To Do?

2010-12-01T10:36:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to find the words to describe what took place an hour or so ago, but like a friend told me "Hey, you get knocked down, but what are you going to do now?" my response was simply, "Get up."

We dropped our conference opener tonight to Appalachian State after a sluggish first half. Speaking from within the team I can say that we did not look like ourselves tonight. We were not playing like ourselves, therefore we were not playing as a team. Appalachian capitalized on that. We were able to pick it up in the second half but by that time it was too late. I believe that there is a plan for all of us, and for some reason this was a part of our plan. I believe that this happened so we could see how we respond as a team. Will we stay down or will we get back up? Knowing my teammates, I know the answer to that. We are the Phoenix, and just like the Phoenix we will rise.

We had a moment of inspiration following this game. Our team morale was down, but one of our coaches did a great job of shedding light on our situation. She said we need to be servants to each other. Then we thought to ourselves, "well how many times have I asked my teammate what I need to do for her? What will help her play better?" Ask not what your teammates can do for you, ask what you can do for your teammates. The score of tonight's game did not resemble the team we are, nor how talented we are. We just lost touch, but I have faith that it won't take long for us to get it back. Lessons have been learned and we will move on and only use this to make us stronger. We will build on our mistakes and only improve, we must work every day to get better.

We have to give credit to a very good Appalachian team. They had some really respected wins prior to our game there. They are on a 10-game home winning streak and it brings a lot of recognition to our conference. It's good to know that we do play in a very competitive conference, and that our conference is really stepping up and getting better.

Well, since we've had our share of basketball talk, how was everyone's Thanksgiving? We had a great Thanksgiving here. Coach Barefoot invited us all over to her house for a Thanksgiving meal where we ate turkey, green bean casserole, corn casserole, pudding pie, pecan pie, and much more. I have to give a shout out to my teammate Jess for bringing an excellent pecan pie. It was a huge hit! We really enjoy doing team gatherings like that, and it was really great that coach Barefoot invited us into her house and prepared such a feast along with our assistant coaches (because we know they slaved for hours!)

We hit the road again on Wednesday to take on No. 10 West Virginia on Thursday night, and then head on up to Morgan State for a Sunday afternoon matchup. Three away games in one week, but we'll be back at home again following our exams to take on Western Carolina and Davidson right before Christmas! Thank you fans for all your support and we hope to see you in the stands again soon!

- Kelsey

Kelsey Evans Blog - Some Like to Call Me the Bed Check Enforcer

2010-11-22T09:43:00.000-05:00

Hi fans!

This week's blog comes after a week of tough basketball for our team. We took a tough loss from Virginia Tech on the road, but battled back on Sunday afternoon against Coastal Carolina for a win. We went 1-1 this week, and are 3-1 overall, which is a fantastic start to our season.

I'll start by discussing our heartbreaking loss to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on Thursday night. I'm pretty sure I can speak for our entire team when I say we were fired up about competing against an ACC opponent like Virginia Tech on Thursday. Last year when we went to Blacksburg we didn't play as well as we originally hoped, losing to them 82-46. This year, it was a much different game. At the half, we led 33-30, and came out strong in the second half going up 10 points in the first few minutes (41-31). With 2:51 left the score was tied at 59-all, but unfortunately the Hokies went on a 14-7 run in the last few minutes giving them the 73-66 win. They were a very big and athletic team and I have to give them credit for the way they played down the stretch. I was very proud of the way we performed that night. It was a learning game for us. Thus far in the season we have never been in a close match like that with less than three minutes to play. That loss stung...a lot, but I feel like it will ultimately help us in the long run. After looking over the game we realized what we did wrong and should've done differently. Lessons have been learned, and even though it seems easy to dwell on something like that, we had no time to dry our metaphoric tears because we had a tough team in Coastal Carolina coming into our gym on Sunday.

Coastal Carolina came ready to play Sunday after a suffocating loss to North Carolina two nights before (93-37). Although we started off slow, it didn't take us too long to get rolling! Our pressure and up-tempo play gave us an edge as we took the win over the Chanticleers (BTW- does anybody know what that is? a bird of some sort?). Anyway, we had three people in double figures and it was refreshing to get a win at home after such a heartbreaker at Virginia Tech. A big thanks to all the fans for coming out and helping us get the win!

Yes, games are always fun to talk about but I'm sure some of you are wondering what goes on outside of basketball. Well to be honest, our lives revolve mostly around basketball, but we do have quite a bit of fun along the way. It's a good thing none of us get along (insert sarcasm here).

Funny story, I know in the last blog I talked about how having two Kelsey's on one team may get a little confusing, but now I'm starting to get concerned because not only do we both look when someone calls our name, but we're dressing identical too. The freaky thing is, it's not on purpose. Same name = same brain? I think so (See picture below)!

Oh, and that's not all. Our mother's are even dressing the same to our game...This is getting weird! (picture below)

Funny story number two (I'm just spoiling you guys this week!). The night before our Coastal game, Julie Taylor, Ali Ford and I all had to make rounds and do "bed checks" just to make sure everyone was in by curfew. So we call Candice, who is a freshman this year, and ask her what suite they live in and she tells Ali they are in 203. Okay, I hear 203 and quickly walk up the stairs and I see a young man leaving the suite 203 so I yell to him "OH, OH HOLD THAT DOOR!" I realize Ali is a few steps behind me like she usually is and just go ahead and let her catch up. Well, as I'm walking down the hallway yelling "Kelsey! Candice! Kelly! Anybody home?!?!" I look and notice the name tags on the door that say, "Brenden, Sam, John, Ryan" but of course I notice this after about three of them have their door cracked looking at me like I'm the next person to end up in a Smith Jackson e-mail (Elon joke). I quickly realize the humiliating mistake I've made and RUN outside to find my good friend Ali just observing and laughing. I think my duty as the bed check enforcer has just been revoked.

Well, that's all I have for this week, hope to see everyone at our home game on Tuesday night against Virginia Intermont at 7 p.m. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, feel free to bring us any leftovers! You can usually find us in the gym!

- Big Kelsey

Kelsey Evans Blog - Tournament Champs.

2010-11-15T10:13:00.000-05:00

Hi fans!

I am so thrilled to write this week's blog after an awesome weekend of basketball for us! If any of you followed us this weekend throughout our Phoenix Classic tournament I'm sure you agree with me when I say, we have arrived!

We battled two extremely strong teams this weekend, Fordham on Friday from the Atlantic 10, and Troy on Sunday from the Sun Belt conference. Both Fordham and Troy were excellent competition for us to start off the regular season.

First we'll talk about Friday nights match against Fordham. Fordham, who plays in a very competitive conference, came out strong and physical against us Friday night. Although it may have taken us a minute to get adjusted to the game, once we took the lead we never looked back. With about eleven minutes left in the first half it was a tie ball game, but we soon claimed a 15-4 run to put us ahead. We had our largest lead at about 14 minutes in the second half (63-43).

Fordham, being the scrappy team they are, fought back hard but we never let them get closer than nine. What was most impressive was the five players we had in double figures! We also shot a solid 55 percent from the field and 44 percent from behind the arc. This win gave us a lot of momentum heading into Sunday's matchup against Troy.

Two words to describe Troy's basketball team: physical and athletic. Troy was an aggressive and attacking team, and we knew we would have to keep them off of the foul line and the boards in order to win. The key to us winning this game was the 34 turnovers we forced through the press and holding them to only 12 free throw attempts all game. It was a very exciting win, and I'll go ahead and give a shout out to my teammate and roommate Ali Ford and her offensive rebound she worked so hard for. We like to call where we live the "House of Rebounds." I also want to say congratulations to Tiara Gause on an impressive weekend as well. Coach Barefoot and the staff had a great game plan and scout for this weekend so they should pat themselves on the back for that! We had four people in double figures, including our little freshie Kelsey Harris who we also like to call baby Kelsey. I know she loves all her many nicknames!

Also, a HUGE congratulations to the Elon Volleyball team for winning the North Division and claiming sole possession of the conference title Saturday night! Can't wait to see the hardware! Congratulations to the football team for their win against Furman Saturday afternoon as well.

After a great weekend of basketball we will prepare to face ACC opponent Virginia Tech on Thursday night in Blacksburg, Va. We really appreciate all the fans coming out this weekend to see us play, and hopefully we will see you at our future games as well. Thanks for reading!!!

- Big Kelsey

P.S. Want to know Ali Ford's secret to how she became such a great three-point shooter? Her stretching technique...

Kelsey Evans Blog - Basketball Begins

2010-11-09T09:54:00.000-05:00

After a long awaited summer the cold weather has finally arrived, which can only mean one thing…basketball season is here! It feels like centuries ago when we played our last game and “excited” only begins to scratch the surface of the feelings throughout our team. Let me go ahead and introduce myself. My name is Kelsey Evans and I am a sophomore forward on the Elon women’s basketball team. This blog will give readers an inside look at our team throughout the season. I will be blogging throughout the year including road trips, team functions, and maybe a funny story or two.

The regular season kicks off this week with our annual Phoenix Classic Tournament, Friday-Sunday. We will take on Fordham on Friday afternoon and Troy Sunday afternoon. We’ve had one scrimmage and an exhibition game so far, and both went extremely well! In our exhibition against Chowan we scored 97 points with four people in double figures! The team came out extremely strong pushing the ball in transition and forcing turnovers through our press. It was exciting to see everything finally come together after we’ve been practicing for over a month. The chemistry within the team is undeniable, this team plays incredibly well together and that is the reason for this year’s theme “One Heartbeat.” What this means is that everything we do, we will do as one team with one heartbeat.

To build on this theme we did things such as the Elon Challenge full of team building exercises in the preseason. For example, everyone partnered up and grabbed a blindfold. One person was blindfolded while the other had to lead them on a blind walk using only their voice to communicate.

We also volunteered as a team at Mebane on the Move 5K race, had Nike performance trainers come in for two days to work on different aspects of our game, and last but not least, we went on a team golf outing, which thankfully left everyone unharmed!

Thanks for reading! Hope to see everyone on Friday when we kick off our regular season!! Wear your maroon and gold!!!

- Kelsey Evans

Inside Elon Football With Taylor Durham, Week 8

2010-10-29T20:41:00.000-04:00

September 3, 1994 . . .

Over the past few days, people have asked me to try and come up with another moment that equals the way that last Saturday turned out for the Phoenix and the only one that keeps coming to mind is the season-opener to the 1994 campaign and the last second loss to West Georgia in Carrollton, Ga.

Give Elon a great deal of credit for the second half that the Phoenix played against Wofford. Coach Lembo mentioned during our conversation last night on the radio show that it may have been the most complete effort of the season for 30 minutes when you consider that the offense drove the football for three scores against the top-ranked defense in the league while the Phoenix defense continued to build confidence after the open date by holding the top-ranked offense in the nation (in rushing yards and passing efficiency) to five straight drives that ended in either a punt or turnover. On another note, you have to be proud of the effort of guys like Sean Jeffcoat who went diving for the pylon on the extra effort to try and get the lead late and complete the rally. As Coach Lembo mentioned last night, Sean has done a great job this year in many ways during his final season at Rhodes Stadium which is one of many reasons that you pull so hard for him and the others that wear the maroon and gold on Saturday afternoon. You hope that he and the remainder of this senior class will get the chance to finish off their career in fitting fashion. Four wins gets them to 30 and makes them only the 12th class in program history to hit that mark. It also would give the program four straight winning seasons which would be the first time since the late 1980’s that they have reached that benchmark standard.

The stretch run begins tomorrow afternoon at the long-time home of the FCS National Championship Game. While the title game has moved to a new date (after the first of the year) and a new location (Frisco, Texas), UT Chattanooga has experienced a resurgence under second-year head coach Russ Huesman and find themselves ranked in the top-20 and squarely in the playoff chase for either the automatic bid as the Southern Conference Champion or a potential at-large bid which would mark the first playoff appearance for the Mocs since 1984. The Mocs are led by B.J. Coleman, the transfer from Tennessee and native son. In fact, expect points to be at the ready tomorrow as the two best signal-callers in terms of yards (Riddle and Coleman) and the top three wideouts in the league line up at Finley Stadium. A Chattanooga win tomorrow would give the Mocs six straight for the first time in 30 years (1980) while an Elon win would keep the Phoenix perfect in four trips to Chattanooga.

Last night during our conversation on the radio show, Coach Lembo mentioned that one of the keys will be to turn the page from last Saturday and move forward with an effort that builds on the positives from Homecoming at Rhodes Stadium.

By the way, I mentioned earlier that September 3, 1994 bounced around my thoughts earlier this week. That team (which included WR coach Keith Gaither) would turn the page seven days later and win on the road at Catawba 22-20. Here’s hoping for a similar result for the 2010 edition of the Phoenix when toe meets leather at 2 p.m. from the Rock City.

As always, see you on the radio.

Inside Elon Football With Taylor Durham, Week 7

2010-10-22T16:58:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow afternoon, the Phoenix returns to Rhodes Stadium for Homecoming 2010 and a match-up against the nationally ranked Wofford Terriers. The open date has provided the Phoenix with a chance to get healthy as three key contributors from last season (Jamal Shuman, Lance Camp and Terell Wilson) will make a return to the playing surface at Rhodes Stadium after sitting out time with injuries and working in a limited role two weeks ago in Boone.

Wofford comes in looking to make it two straight at Rhodes Stadium and six straight on the season following the opening loss to Ohio. The Terriers have done a great job in bouncing back from a sub-par year as it relates to expectations in 2009 and they will bring a veteran offense that leads the nation in rushing offense and passing efficiency along with a top-20 ranked defense to the corner of Haggard and Williamson. The Terriers operate out of the wingbone system and have certainly perfected the technique since making the change in the early 1990’s. I mentioned a veteran offense and nine out of the 11 starters will be either a junior or senior for Wofford including the man operating the controls, QB Mitch Allen who ranks in the top 10 in the league in rushing offense and total offense.

I mentioned that the Phoenix come home on Saturday after the road trip to Boone and the open date weekend looking to square the mark in league play at 2-2. With Wofford and Chattanooga over the next two weeks, the Phoenix can have a major say in how the conference race shapes up when Halloween night rolls around as the Terriers and Mocs are both are trying to keep pace in the lead pack. A two game win streak would put Elon right back in several conversations heading to into November and a date in Charleston against the Citadel.

But as the old saying goes, one step at a time and the first step is on Saturday for Homecoming and the Wofford Terriers. The key on Saturday afternoon may very well be turnovers and the historical evidence certainly plays that key out as the Phoenix have won the turnover margin for the last two wins over Wofford while losing the stat category in 2009 at Rhodes Stadium. By the way, a Phoenix win makes it three in the last four against the visitors from Spartanburg which has not been accomplished since the early 1980’s (1978 and 1982 to 1984).

We hope to have you with us at Rhodes Stadium for the 1:30 kick. Just a reminder that David Hibbard and I open up the Cox Toyota Broadcast Booth at 12:30 p.m. for the Best Western Countdown to Kickoff. As always, we invite you to bring your headsets with you to the stadium or follow us on the broadcast if you can’t be there in person.

Until tomorrow afternoon, see you on the radio.

Carving For A Cure

2010-10-22T11:48:00.000-04:00

While the majority of Elon students were enjoying some time away from campus on their Fall Break earlier this week, the Elon University volleyball team remained in town competing and practicing. On Tuesday, while classes were still dismissed, the team spent the day getting into the Halloween spirit with a meaningful pumpkin-carving contest. The team split into groups by position (outside hitters, middle blockers, setters, defensive specialists and staff) and made a game plan for the type of creation they wanted to make out of their pumpkin.

After a great practice and some lifting, the team headed to Elon’s Farmers Market to pick out some pumpkins for the competition. Josh Readling, husband of volunteer assistant coach Tina Readling, generously donated the pumpkins from his Farmer’s Market for the occasion. The groups spread out going after the best pumpkin for their planned design.

“We weren’t quite sure what we were going to design when we got to the market,” said sophomore outside hitter Allison Johnson. “We just kind of let the pumpkin we found guide what we were going to carve.”

Once every pumpkin-carving team had found what they were looking for, the team headed to Eastern Guilford Middle School in nearby Gibsonville for an afternoon volleyball clinic with the school’s volleyball team.

At the clinic, each Elon player paired off with an Eastern Guilford player and taught them different parts of the game. Each middle school player was taught about passing, setting and hitting. Then at the end of the clinic everyone participated in a serving game.

“It was a lot of fun to work with the girls at the clinic,” said freshman setter Cali Estes. “They were really excited to have us there and they worked really hard. I remember being in their shoes and wanting to become a better volleyball player.”

After the clinic, it was time to carve some pumpkins! The team went to head coach Mary Tendler’s house for the Halloween affair and a wonderful pasta dinner cooked by her husband, Blaine. As soon as the team arrived at the Tendler house, the groups took to their carving stations and got to work.

“We ended up using a collaboration of the ideas of everyone in the group,” said senior middle blocker Sarah Schermerhorn. “Caroline did the sketching and we all switched off creating and carving, while taking some breaks in between to eat the yummy dinner that Blaine cooked us.”

About an hour later the pumpkins began to have identities rather than just regular ole’ pumpkins. On one side, the defensive specialists were hard at work on their plan of a snowman, while the middle blockers had come up with ‘Monster’s Ball.’ Not to far from one another, the setters were working on a very detailed carving of an owl, while the outside hitters went with the simple yet classic approach of a pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness. But the staff still hadn’t quite gotten to work on their pumpkin.

There was a bigger picture to all the pumpkin carving than just the fun. This Saturday’s match against College of Charleston is the team’s annual Dig Pink match for breast cancer awareness and research. The match offers a chance to honor those who have fought the disease and remember those who were not able to come out on the winning side.

“I think it’s important to have an event like Dig Pink to raise awareness for those who have conquered the disease, like my mom, but also for those who are currently battling it,” said junior right side hitter Traci Stewart. “It’s such a great way to show our support through the talents we’ve been blessed with.”

At the match, all five pumpkins will be displayed for all to see. Everyone is encouraged to take a look at all the pumpkins and donate money to their favorite. The pumpkin with the most in donations will be deemed the winner. All donations will go towards the team’s $2,000 Dig Pink goal for the Side-Out Foundation.

“The team took a lot of time and energy into carving and did a really good job,” said head coach Mary Tendler. “Voting on your favorite is going to go to a great cause. I think it’s one in eight women that are affected by breast cancer and we like doing anything we can to bring awareness and help raise money for a cure.”

The Dig Pink match against College of Charleston will begin at 7 p.m. in the new Alumni Gym. All fans are encouraged to wear pink. Make sure to check out the pumpkins and vote for your favorite, but here is a little preview!

Defensive Specialists – Snowman

“We found three white pumpkins in different sizes and made a snowman. We carved EUVB on the bottom and three holes for buttons in the middle one. Then we put sticks in for arms and carved a pumpkin face on the top and put a scarf around it. We decided to use a baby pumpkin for a hat to top it off.” – sophomore defensive specialist Melissa Zidar

Middle Blockers – Monster’s Ball

“Ours is more of a scene than just one carved pumpkin. It has a big pumpkin eating a baby pumpkin and then we have a white pumpkin with sparkles and lots of glitz and glam that’s supposed to be Lady Gaga. We found our theme to be a lot like our personalities because middle blockers are controlling, loud and aggressive, so that was definitely incorporated into our group dynamic.” – junior middle blocker Caroline Lemke

Setters – Owl

“We wanted to incorporate a fall theme with breast cancer awareness. Therefore we carved an intricate owl perched on an oak tree (Elon symbolism) with breast cancer ribbons as leaves.” – junior right side hitter Traci Stewart

Outside Hitters – Breast Cancer Ribbon

“We decided in the spirit of Dig Pink weekend that we wanted to do something that would incorporate breast cancer awareness. So we decided to carve a ribbon and paint it pink and write ‘FIGHT’ on the side of the pumpkin. We figured everyone would be familiar with it and recognize what it means.” – sophomore outside hitter Carly Ledbetter

Staff – Pink Pumpkin

No Photo available. Come to Dig Pink to see the finished project!

“We wanted to show our support of Dig Pink by making our pumpkin as pink and feminine as possible. It’s just a very girly pumpkin.” – volunteer assistant coach Tina Readling

Elon Baseball Pro Day

2010-10-06T11:55:00.000-04:00

The Elon baseball team recently held its pro day in front of nearly 30 scouts. The players ran the 60-yard dash, worked on defensive drills and held an intrasquad game. Outfielder David Wood was very impressive in the 60, posting a time of 6.44 seconds. Niko Fraser covered the distance in 6.62 seconds. Check out the video below for a few highlights from the workouts.

Inside Elon Football With Taylor Durham, Week 5

2010-10-01T16:58:00.000-04:00

Elon football color commentator Taylor Durham will take a few minutes each week to offer up his thoughts on the previous week's game as well as the upcoming week in Phoenix football.

Tomorrow afternoon, the Phoenix returns to Rhodes Stadium after road trips to Richmond and Statesboro in hopes of evening up the conference mark at 1-1 and snapping a two-game slide as Elon welcomes in a Samford team that is also looking to get back on the right foot in conference action having dropped a decision to Appalachian State last Saturday in Birmingham.

The Phoenix fell on Saturday night in Statesboro by 17 to a vastly improved Georgia Southern ball club 38-21 but there were positives to pull out of the defeat including Brandon Wiggins and Joshua Jones continuing their stellar play at linebacker with double-digit stop nights. In fact, on Saturday afternoon, two of the best linebackers in the league have at it with Brandon and Samford's Bryce Smith squaring off (Smith leads the league with 11.5 tackles per game while Brandon is averaging 10 per outing and ranks in the top five). Speaking of match-ups, it should be a lot of fun tomorrow afternoon to watch two of the best in the league on the offensive side of the football in Scott Riddle and Chris Evans. Evans, the starting tailback for Pat Sullivan, ranks fifth in the conference in rushing although the Phoenix did a great job in keeping him under wraps last year as part of the 27-7 win that clinched the playoff bid holding him to under 100 yards on the afternoon. Hopefully, the Phoenix can have the same success tomorrow and the same result.

The rain that hit the area during the mid-week should be out of the picture and perfect skies should greet the Phoenix. On top of Family Weekend, Elon will hold two ceremonies during the game. Just before kick, Terrell Hudgins joins Willie Tart, Richard McGeorge and Bobby Hedrick by having his number retired. It is certainly a deserving honor for the Rocky Mount, N.C. native who finished his playing career at Elon with 395 grabs for over 5,200 yards and 52 touchdowns. At halftime, the Phoenix hand out more honors as the softball team is recognized for their Southern Conference Championship during the 2010 spring season. Coach Patti Raduenz will visit with us on the radio during halftime and Scott Riddle will join me during the halftime break as well. Scott and I had a chance to visit earlier this week concerning the retirement of Terrell’s jersey and the impact that he had on the field and off the field for Phoenix football

As always, we hope to see you at Rhodes Stadium tomorrow afternoon when toe meets leather at 1:30 p.m. or we hope that you will have the radio broadcast teed up and ready to go when David Hibbard joins me in the Cox Toyota broadcast booth for the Best Western Countdown to Kickoff at 12:30 p.m.

Inside Elon Football With Taylor Durham, Week 4

2010-09-23T16:12:00.000-04:00

Saturday night in Statesboro, Georgia, Elon opens up Southern Conference play while looking to rebound from a 27-21 setback to Richmond last week.

There are couple of positives to pull from the Commonwealth on the trip back to Elon on Saturday night and the one that jumps off the page would be the line for Aaron Mellette, the sophomore wideout from Sanford who finished with 18 catches for almost 200 yards and two scores. The final catch in regulation would be the one that would tie the matter (courtesy of Adam Shreiner’s PAT) and force overtime. We talked with Aaron during the post-game show and he mentioned about running to the back corner and trusting Scott Riddle to find him on the route. It was some kind of throw and some kind of catch and it should be fun to watch Scott Riddle and a receiving corps that continues to take steps and develop through the season. The other number that jumps off the page would be the double digit tackle effort by red-shirt freshman Ronnie Hardison in the secondary. After losing three starters due to graduation, there were some question marks in the off-season about this group and based on the efforts of Hardison and Chandler Wrightenberry (INT), you get the sense that this group may be starting to find the form as the race for the SoCon Championship begins on Saturday night.

A completely different test awaits Elon on Saturday night. Georgia Southern revamped their coaching staff in the off-season, severing ties with Head Coach Chris Hatcher and bringing in Georgia Tech assistant Jeff Monken. The “Hatch Attack” has it was know in Statesboro for the fast-paced aerial show on offense has been replaced by the multiple option look that has seen great success for Georgia Tech the past two seasons (including an ACC Championship in 2009). Jaybo Shaw, the Georgia Tech transfer, leads the offensive attack with ranks sixth nationally in rushing offense and 12th in passing efficency. The Phoenix will also face another stern test on the defensive end with a group that is led by All-Conference pre-season choice Brent Russell (3 sacks) up front and a defensive secondary that will start two juniors and two seniors. They are expecting 20,000 at Paulson Stadium and I am sure that the Georgia Southern faithful will not need to be reminded that the Phoenix is trying to make it four straight in the win column in the series (no Southern Conference team has accomplished that feat since Marshall back in the mid 1990’s – by the way the Herd was coached by Burlington native and former Wolfpack quarterback Jim Donnan).

As always, I look forward to having you with us on the radio during the week which begins tonight at 7 p.m. with Elon Football Live at The Fat Frogg and continues on Saturday night in Statesboro when David Hibbard and I open the Cox Toyota Broadcast Booth at 5 p.m.

By the way, it should be a great time when we spend a few moments with Terrell Hudgins tonight to talk about the announcement this morning that his jersey will be retired next Saturday when Elon returns home to face Samford for Family Weekend.

It's Always Sunny In Sacramento

2010-09-23T14:35:00.000-04:00

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.

Inside Elon Football With Taylor Durham, Week 3

2010-09-14T11:19:00.000-04:00

Elon football color commentator Taylor Durham will take a few minutes each week to offer up his thoughts on the previous week's game as well as the upcoming week in Phoenix football.

Saturday afternoon in the capital city of the Commonwealth, Elon and Richmond will meet for the third consecutive year with the Phoenix looking to kick-start a four-game stretch that also includes road trips to Statesboro and Boone with a return to Rhodes Stadium for a date with Samford thrown in the middle of the mix.

Elon comes in ranked 7th in both major polls after a 55-26 win on Saturday night over Shaw to cap off Hall of Fame weekend on campus. The Phoenix offense continues to look impressive as Elon rolled up over 500 yards of offense on Saturday night and jumped out to a 28-0 lead by scoring touchdowns on the first four drives of the night. In the process, congratulations go out to Scott Riddle who became the all-time leader in passing yardage for the Southern Conference. As David Hibbard and I talked about during the broadcast on Saturday night, when you sit down and think about the conference and the list of players that have held the mark over the years, it is certainly an impressive feat and one that the senior from Ramseur is well deserving of. We visited with Scott during our post-game show on Saturday night and I thought that it says a great deal about him and this senior class that he wanted to deflect the attention away from the honor and talk about the performance of Aaron Mellette and others who excelled during the win over Shaw. Speaking of Mellette, his 100-yard plus outing gives that group back to back weeks over the century mark. Wide receiver coach Keith Gaither will join Coach Lembo and me from The Fat Frogg on Thursday night to talk about an impressive start for his group.

As I mentioned earlier, Saturday marks the third straight year for the Phoenix and Spiders to get together including a playoff meeting last season and the home opener at Rhodes Stadium in 2008. The squad that Richmond will take the field with on Saturday afternoon to open their new stadium will look different then the one that knocked the Phoenix out of the playoffs last season at UR Stadium. Head Coach Mike London has left to take over the head coaching job at UVa while Eric Ward (who accounted for 276 yards of total offense and the lone Spider touchdown) has departed due to graduation. Head Coach Latrelle Scott has stepped into the program after serving as an assistant coach at Richmond for Dave Clawson and then serving as the wide receivers coach at Tennessee and Virginia over the past two years. He is the youngest head coach in college football having just turned 35 in July and taking away that distinction from current USC Trojan skipper Lane Kiffin. Speaking of the men of Troy, you will be able to recognize the name of the young man who will take snaps on Saturday afternoon in place of Eric Ward. Aaron Corp has transferred to Richmond after playing two seasons at USC. This will be the first of two quarterbacks that the Phoenix will see over the next two weeks that transferred in from FBS programs and back-up service has Jaybo Shaw and Georgia Southern await in the conference opener next Saturday.

But there is business to tend to before the trip to Statesboro and the Southern Conference race. We will begin our radio broadcast at high noon from Robins Stadium and the Cox Toyota Broadcast Booth with the Best Western Countdown to Kickoff on Saturday. As always, we begin our game week broadcast schedule on Thursday night at 7 p.m. with Elon Football Live from The Fat Frogg. We look forward to having you with us during the week on the radio.

Inside Elon Football With Taylor Durham, Week 2

2010-09-08T10:38:00.000-04:00

Elon football color commentator Taylor Durham will take a few minutes each week to offer up his thoughts on the previous week's game as well as the upcoming week in Phoenix football.

After a 41-27 setback on Saturday night in Durham to Duke, Elon opens up the home campaign on Saturday night when the Phoenix welcomes in the Shaw Bears for a 7 p.m. kick to cap a busy Hall of Fame weekend.

Last Saturday night during the radio broadcast, David Hibbard and I talked about how it is hard to believe that this is the 10th season that Rhodes Stadium will open for business. Saturday night, the Phoenix will try to make it two straight years of home-opening wins and improve on the 3-6 mark in that category which includes two wins in the last four home-openers. Of course, if recent history is any indicator then it will certainly be nice to return home as the Phoenix has won 13 of the last 17 at Rhodes Stadium and has won five straight when they have returned back on the wrong end of the scoring ledger on a road trip.

This weekend also marks the 40th annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony and this year’s class will see two former football players, Lamar Adams and the late Whitney Bradham join men’s tennis standout Robert Eskilsson.

Whitney Bradham was a two-way player for the Phoenix and head coach Sid Varney, playing halfback and defensive back along with serving on the special teams and in the process racking up over 3,000 all-purpose yards – including cracking the 1,000 yard mark in 1956 during a 5-5 senior campaign. Lamar Adams will enter into the Hall of Fame with the distinction of being named to a first-team All-American squad in 1992 during his senior season and with career totals of 15 sacks and almost 300 stops. The 1992 squad would finish the season with an 8-2 record (only three teams in the decade would finish with eight or more wins).

Of course, the Hall of Fame festivities will serve as a backdrop to a visit from Shaw University out of the CIAA who come in looking to start the year at 2-0 buoyed by a 30 point win over Virginia Union courtesy of the 57-27 final. Quarterback Kevin Atkins earned conference player of the week honors for his performance of four TD tosses in the win as the Bears sprinted out to a 41-14 advantage. The trip to Rhodes Stadium begins a five-week road swing for the Bears. More importantly, it is the only home appearance for the Phoenix in the month of September as road trips to Richmond and Statesboro await.

As always, we look forward to having you with us on the radio. It is always fun to look out from our view on the third floor of the Woods Center and see the radio headsets in the crowd or to see the packed house on Thursday night at The Fat Frogg for another edition of Elon Football Live starting at 7 p.m.

Inside Elon Football With Taylor Durham

2010-09-02T16:19:00.000-04:00

Elon football color commentator Taylor Durham took a few minutes to offer his thoughts on this weekend's season-opener with the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday evening at 7 p.m.

Welcome to one of the great times of the year as the opening weekend of the college football season gets started around the country on Thursday and the 89th campaign of Phoenix football will begin in earnest on Saturday night at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham for a meeting against the Duke Blue Devils.

The Phoenix, ranked seventh in the FCS preseason polls, and Blue Devils meet for the eighth time in program history and for the first time since before World War II. The team in 1932 came in on the heels of a 3-5 campaign in 1931 and would finish with only two wins in 1932 before finding winning seasons for the final four years of the “Peahead” Walker era at Elon.

The 2010 edition of the Phoenix will arrive in Durham buoyed by a senior class that has already totaled 24 wins over their first three seasons which includes a nine-win campaign last year that garnered an appearance in the FCS Playoffs, the program’s first trip to the postseason since 1981. By the way, the last time Elon achieved eight wins or more for three straight seasons dates all the way back to the 1978 season which happened to be the final year for Coach Red Wilson (1976) and the first two years for Coach Tolley (1977-1978). My broadcast partner David Hibbard and I look forward to having a chance to visit with Coach Wilson during halftime on Saturday night and it is always a great time when Coach Tolley joins us during the season to visit on Thursday nights or Saturday afternoons.

During the course of the season, Elon will face a schedule that represents not only a second-straight year of facing an in-state ACC foe but also two preseason top-10 matchups at Richmond (#6) later this month and at Appalachian State (#3) in the middle of October. The Phoenix will also have four more dates that involve teams receiving votes in the preseason rankings

Saturday night in Durham, Duke will bring in a squad looking to contend in the ACC Coastal Division that features four teams ranked in most preseason lists for the FBS. Sean Renfree gets the nod for the opener with Head Coach David Cutcliffe naming him the successor to record-setting quarterback Thaddeus Lewis. Coach Cutcliffe has been tabbed by some in the national media as “the quarterback guru” and for good reason, having been the offensive coordinator in Knoxville during Peyton Manning’s years with Tennessee before becoming the head coach in Oxford for Ole Miss during the career of Eli Manning. Coach Cutcliffe and his staff (which includes linebackers coach and 1974 Elon graduate, Jim Collins) will try to find the right formula for the first winning season for Duke football since the mid-1990’s.

It should be a great deal of fun throughout the football season and we look forward to having you with us on the radio beginning Thursday night with the first Elon Football Live show at The Fat Frogg followed by the opener on Saturday night from Durham. David Hibbard and I will join you from Wallace Wade Stadium at 6 p.m. with the Countdown to Kickoff followed by a 7:03 p.m. kickoff.

"Tryon the California Life"

2010-07-31T08:48:00.000-04:00

Emily Tryon of the Elon cross country team is spending her summer in Los Angeles as part of the Elon in L.A. program. Each week, Tryon will share her experience with the Phoenix nation in her blog “Tryon the California Life.”

Week Four (An Ode to Frozen Yogurt)

Before I came to this bountiful land of yogurt plenty, I thought that TCBY was the end-all-be-all best place to go for frozen yogurt. I mean I loved it so much that I memorized the entire daily specials menu (Sundae Sundays, Mousse Mondays, Topping Tuesdays…I KNOW I’m not the only one who knows this…). But I was wrong. Oh, how I was wrong.

My first experience with the delicious frozen treat was at a place called Pinkberry. If you’ve never been to Pinkberry before, and you’re faced with the opportunity to go to one…go, but I advise you to do your research first. I was completely unprepared when I walked into Pinkberry for the first time. I was so excited 1) because I’d been seeing the quaint little frozen yogurt shops all over the city and they were just beckoning for me to come inside and 2) it was 10:30 at night - the prime time for yogurt eating.

Anyway, back to my story. I went into Pinkberry very excited, albeit uneducated in the ways. I decided, since I’d never been to Pinkberry before, to order something very simple. As a graduate of the school of TCBY, it is my habit to order toppings sparingly (unless I want to spend $8.00 on a bowl of frozen yogurt). “Original” flavored yogurt with a thin smattering of chocolate crisps seemed like a safe, economic choice, and everyone knows that vanilla frozen yogurt is an always-delicious classic. I should have known something was terribly wrong when the (adorable) boy that was behind the glass partition making my frozen creation looked at me like I was a little weird when I told him that a little bit of chocolate crisps on my original yogurt would suffice. I proceeded to ignore the second warning sign when he asked me if I AT LEAST wanted another scoop of crisps.

I can only thank the gods that the cute Pinkberry employee did not see my face when I took my first bite of what I thought was a sweet vanilla frozen delicacy. What my taste buds were met with upon eating that first bite, instead of a wonderful sugary sensation, was the shocking tart flavor of plain yogurt. Now, if I’d been expecting the taste of plain yogurt, maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad. But as it stood, I was heartbroken. I’d expected so much and gotten so little, and it was entirely my own fault. I’d been offered every opportunity to make something delicious, but my lack of knowledge hindered me to the point where I couldn’t even enjoy my treat. I watched with a curious blend of dismay and envy as my friends cheerfully ate their masterful works of frozen yogurt art filled with delicious things like fruit, granola, and honey.

For the next week, I had the fire of a fierce vendetta blazing through my soul (seriously, yogurt is THAT important to me). I knew it wouldn’t be quelled until I had had another go at Pinkberry and conquered it once and for all. Long story short (well, sort of short seeing as I’m already 541 words into this tale) the combination of chocolate frozen yogurt, walnuts, almonds, raspberries, honey, and victory was the most delicious thing in the universe.

I’ve tried a few other frozen yogurt places since that fateful Pinkberry experience. I took my valuable lesson of not to be conservative AT ALL, EVER with toppings with me and it has served me very well. Yogurtland is my new favorite place in the entire world. Not only do they have about 12 flavors of yogurt and, like, 30 different toppings to choose from, but also your frozen creation is priced by weight. To take it one step further on the awesome scale, Yogurtland is self-serve. That’s right, self-serve. One can go to the furthest reaches of one’s creativity by mixing any of the yogurt flavors and going absolutely crazy putting toppings on it, all for 30 cents an ounce. It’s so ridiculously blissful that I can’t even talk about it anymore because I’ll want it (luckily I’m going there tonight…bet you wish you were in L.A.)!

The last of my frozen yogurt favorites, Menchies, is much like Yogurtland. It is also self-serve and priced by weight, although it’s a bit smaller and is pricier at 39 cents an ounce. BONUS ALERT, they offer free temporary tattoos at the cash register, and everyone loves temporary tattoos!

Anyway, I feel that after a page and a half my ode must come to an end (insert relieved sighs here). I’ll close by saying that if you’re ever in Los Angeles, you simply MUST get frozen yogurt AT LEAST every single day. Twice a day, if possible. It’s that good.

"Tryon the California Life"

2010-07-20T13:46:00.000-04:00

Week Three

So after two weeks of technical issues, I am back with my third entry! Sorry for the delay everyone!

So, everyday I’m somehow reminded of the movie Clueless. That, or of the Nickelodeon show, Rocket Power. It’s usually Rocket Power when I’m in Santa Monica by the pier (the pier in Rocket Power was based on the Santa Monica Pier) and Clueless when I’m driving through Beverly Hills. I’m just waiting for Cher (with her hands full of shopping bags and that ridiculous, dare I say it, clueless look on her face) and Dion (sporting a giant 90’s hat) to just stroll out of one of the stores that I’m passing. I was also legitimately expecting there to be a skateboard ramp somewhere near the Santa Monica pier, just like in Rocket Power. I have not completely lost all sense of reality just yet so I can’t say that I expect to see Otto, Reggie, Sam, and Twister to skate by me. But the longer I stay in this surreal city, the more I realize that it’s only a matter of time. I can’t help it. Weird.

Anyway, other than my constant and uncontrollable thoughts of 90’s/early 2000’s L.A.-based television shows and movies, I’m completely sane. Just thought I needed to let everyone know.

I am still not able to casually walk along Hollywood Blvd. without bending down every five seconds to inspect a name on a star on the sidewalk. I’m like a small child collecting seashells at the beach. Luckily my friends are just as star struck as I am. Sadly, though, I’ve yet to see an actual real-live celebrity. I’m just waiting for the day.

Barring anymore technical issues, I will be back later in the week with another installment!!

"Tryon the California Life"

2010-07-06T12:37:00.000-04:00

Week Two

Well, this has been one of the more interesting weeks of my life. It started off with a trip to the Howard Fine studio where I took an acting class for four and a half hours. As a biochem major, I've sat through my fair share of reeeally long labs, so I was prepared to be bored. On the contrary, the time passed pretty quickly and I was surprised when Marilyn (our teacher) told us it was over. I did a "personalization" exercise. It was...well at least for me...a fantastically nerve wracking experience. We were told to come to class armed with a song that we had strong emotional associations to, a personal object that we would "grab first if our house was burning down", a prepared monologue (scary!) and a favorite poem. I chose to bring "Monsters" by Band of Horses, my sketchbook, a monologue from The Taking of Miss Janie and Mirror by Sylvia Plath. The personalization exercise involved standing in front of the class while our song was playing and doing whatever the heck we felt like doing. It was very personal (obviously) and I was ridiculously nervous. However, I did it without crying or hyperventilating, which means that I'm already exceeding expectations!

On Tuesday, I drove to Santa Monica with my suitemate, Lauren, because she had an interview at Nickelodeon. (fun fact #1: Nickelodeon and MTV share a studio in Santa Monica) (fun fact #2: Santa Monica is the greatest place in the entire world)

Let me just describe Santa Monica as succinctly as I can because I could really go on about it forever. Ok, if I could imagine heaven, it would be Santa Monica, California. Why? Wel l…

· No. 1: There were points in the day where I was actually chilly and needed my sweater (its JUNE!).

· No. 2: There is every store that I could ever want to go in…Urban Outfitters, H&M, American Apparel, along with adorable boutiques (I'm pretty sure I had a miniature seizure out of excitement!).

· No. 3: There are fountains that are part topiary/part metal sculpture in the shape of dinosaurs. They spurt water out of their mouths. It’s kind of the coolest thing ever.

Anyway, I could really go on forever so I'll stop myself at the fountains. I'm going to be spending a lot of time in Santa Monica because I found an internship there at a place called Galerie Anaîs. It's a small art gallery in a place called Bergamot Station, which is this area that has a bunch of art galleries. I've been doing things like designing email blasts, updating their Facebook page and designing postcards. I've been learning about how an art gallery functions and about the art itself. I'm kind of in love with my job.

Other than going to my internship and running on the ridiculously steep, hilly roads (my legs still aren't used to it), I've been exploring L.A. one bit at a time. I just got back from a taping of the Jimmy Kimmel Live show in Hollywood. It was free and Jessica Alba was a guest (I would probably care more about this if I were a boy). The studio is much smaller than it looks on the show. Before the show started someone got up in front of the audience and told us that we should laugh even if the joke isn't funny but it sounds like its supposed to be a joke, and told us to applaud really loud or else the show would be lame.

Diary of a Canuck: Edition I

2010-06-25T11:53:00.000-04:00

Senior men’s tennis captain Philip Nemec, a native of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is spending his summer as an intern at the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Fla. The top singles player on the Elon squad will keep Phoenix fans updated throughout the summer as he works with superstar tennis players, enjoys Wimbledon and eventually makes a trip back to his home in Canada. Below is Edition I of “Diary of a Canuck.”

After four weeks in lovely south Florida, I finally have some time to sit down write a little about my experience here.

I am doing my Leisure and Sports Management Internship here at the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Florida. I am a summer coach in the mornings and work in the main office building in the afternoons. It has been a smooth, fun transition into work here as I have a personal history with the place.

When I was 15, my parents shipped me off to the Evert Tennis Academy to further advance my tennis career. I spent the next three years here before I came to Elon. Now I am back as an intern, looking to learn the ropes of a tennis academy from the inside out, so that maybe I can be involved in the business of running one myself.

Like I mentioned before, I work outside on the court for most of the mornings, and in the office building for the afternoons. I am a summer staff coach, helping with the summer camps. It is not fun to get roasted in 100+ degree weather for five straight hours every day. I am also a hitting partner for head honcho John Evert and the top protégés of the academy. I have been hitting a lot with one in particular, Madison Keys, who is 15 years old and the best 15-year old in the world. She is being compared to Venus Williams and has already beaten Serena Williams in the World Team Tennis League. Afternoons consist of working the front desk in the front office building.

If you are wondering, Chris Evert does make it to the academy whenever she can. She still remembers me! I was one of her favorites. However I am everyone’s favorite — who does not like the seal-bashing, puck-crazy, fur-trading, dog-sledding Canadian that I am!

A couple weeks ago I was asked by the Academy Director to attend a photo shoot for a future book about the anatomy of tennis. I became a model for a day, and I enjoyed it, especially doing workout exercises in tights, red ones! I might just take up modeling after my pictures get out to the world. The book will not actually have our pictures but rather sketches of us that will also consist of showing the specific muscles that are used for each exercise and every stroke in the tennis arsenal. I will be on the cover of the book (not Nadal), crushing a one-handed backhand, shirtless and ripped!

Okay, enough of that. The World Cup has been officially banned from being played on the TV during tennis hours as the coaches are too distracted by it. Out of almost 20 coaches, less than half are American. That’s a lot of distracted staff, and I am part of that group I must say.

But more importantly, the buzz that is constant around here and the globe is the marathon tennis match at Wimbledon between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. 70-68 in the fifth set!!!!!!!!! That is absurd. Total playing time was 11:05!!!!! I watched as much of the fifth set as I could, waiting for one player to either win it, or one to lose it, but neither would back down. For those that do not know much about tennis, there are some crazy stats to know. Both players combined for 215 aces, each broke the ace record for a single match record, which was 78. Isner had 112. The match was just over 11 hours, shattering the old record of 6:33. The fifth set alone broke the old match record.

Now consider this. Nicolas Mahut had to serve down a game to tie it back up for about seven hours before he got broken at 68-69. That is incredible! I have been trying to find the right analogy for it but I really cannot. It just would not give enough justice to the players. That calmness and poise to ignore the fact that you are four points away from losing the match, and the clutch ability to hit four huge serves on Isner’s previous match points, two of them aces, is a testament to the great mental strength of Mahut, who had to be the one to lose the match.

An unbelievable three-day event of tennis that showed the passion, the will, the refusal to lose, and brought the two combatants together as sportsmen and friends rather than enemies, as they had a long embrace at the net after match point. That is the way sports should be, and that is exactly what we saw in an epic battle in only the first round of this year’s Wimbledon. Maybe we will have a few more surprises before the tournament is over.

Okay that’s about all you will get out of me now, time to go spend the rest of my day at the pool, or the beach, or go fishing, or boating, or…

Philip Nemec, Senior Men’s Tennis Player

"Tryon the California Life"

2010-06-16T12:03:00.000-04:00

Week One

So, today was my first day in L.A. and it started off with a REALLY hilly run around the apartment complex, complete with a coyote sighting! As I was attempting to keep up a semi-respectable pace, while simultaneously traversing the steepest mountains I’ve ever encountered, I had an incredible view of Warner Brothers Studios. (You know, those big long buildings that are all in a row and have rounded tops that are always in the beginning of WB movies? You see a short clip of them and the scene kind of ripples like it’s really hot or underwater or something…I don’t really know where I am going with this except that I was having a really difficult time trying to wrap my head around the fact that I am literally IN the place that I’ve only seen in movies and read about in books. It’s a bit surreal.)

After my run, the whole group met up for our first meeting. I can’t say that I was 100 percent present because I hadn’t eaten after my run so a good half of my cognitive function was dedicated to fantasizing about the free bagels that awaited us after the meeting. What I did manage to catch was the basic rules for living in the apartments: 1.) DO NOT make too much noise and 2.) Make sure the old people think you’re endearing and not a hooligan. I also found out our schedule for the day, which included an outing to a Dodgers game. Before today I’d never been to a major league event of any kind, so I was fairly excited.

The game was pretty cool, however I can’t really comment on what actually went on in the game because I didn’t pay much attention. I guess my lack of interest is probably the reason why I’d never been to any major league sporting events. For the majority of the game, I happily ate my frozen lemonade while taking in the scenery, familiarizing myself with the other people who are part of the program and people watching (which was fascinating). I also met my mentor. Everyone who is part of the program has a mentor. The mentor is someone who lives and works out here in L.A. and, well, “mentors” us. I’m not really sure what that entails because I just met mine today and talked to her for about 20 minutes. I did learn that she’s very nice and works in post-production.

Along with the Dodgers game, I had another “first” when I went on a harrowing car ride on the highway. People really do drive like fiends here. I guess that’s why mom won’t let me have a car…but I still want one. However, that’s a battle for another day.

As for the rest of the week, tomorrow I have my first full acting class, which I am incredibly nervous about. Basically everyone in the class is an acting major besides me, so I’m in way over my head right now. Hopefully I won’t embarrass myself too much tomorrow…

Check back for the next edition of "Tryon the California Life."

Super-Sized Soccer

2010-06-14T18:58:00.000-04:00

The Elon soccer team is elated over the U.S.'s 1-1 draw against England to open the World Cup. Senior goalkeeper Clint Irwin rented a 73-inch TV for the occasion. As you can see in the photo, the TV is as wide as a set of double doors!

Under the Lights

2010-06-10T12:12:00.000-04:00

We have been searching through photos at Elon and uncovering some of the best of the year. Check out this great photo taken out at Latham Park as the lights begin to showcase the action.

Freshman Jim Stokes on NCAA Regionals

2010-06-04T10:51:00.000-04:00

Elon baseball rookie Jim Stokes took a few minutes to chat about NCAA Regionals. The Phoenix take on Alabama on Friday at 3 p.m. Go Elon!

Wood Scores Game-Winning Run!

2010-05-27T16:41:00.000-04:00

Check out the photo of David Wood as he runs toward home plate in last night's 1-0 Elon victory over Samford in the Southern Conference Tournament!

2010 Senior Reflections

2010-05-21T12:28:00.000-04:00

While the year-end for Elon athletics is not nearly over, Commencement 2010 is just a day away when 49 Phoenix student-athletes will receive their Elon degrees and begin to drift away from campus to pursue their life goals. Some have professional athletic opportunities, others will continue their education in graduate school and many others will begin life in the work force. These student-athletes have surely touched the lives of many Phoenix fans and their hard work does not go unnoticed. There have been records broken, new team standards set, community needs met and friendships forged that will last a lifetime. As the Elon community says goodbye and good luck, several of the graduates offered some final words about their Elon experience.

Phoenix Field Day!

2010-05-10T13:38:00.000-04:00

A great story about an awesome event! Check out Phoenix Field Day!

Chat with Matt Hinson

2010-05-05T12:33:00.000-04:00

With the baseball season winding down, we sat down with senior outfielder Matt Hinson who will graduate with a degree in business and a concentration in finance later this month. He talked about his role on the team, the upcoming conference tournament and his post-graduation plans.

On his increased role this season…

I am pleased to get the opportunity to play every day and that Coach Kennedy has given me the chance to be in the middle of the order. I hope I can continue to come through in key situations. It was hard to get in the lineup the last few years. Last year we had a bunch of guys with at least 10 home runs who put up great numbers. When you are on a team like that it’s hard to get into the lineup. Luckily, this year I have received that opportunity.

On how the team is faring heading into the home stretch of the season…

We know we can compete with anyone in this league and I think we can compete with anyone in the country when we put it all together. When you lose a tough game it weighs on you, but we have to bounce back and we have to win these next nine games and play well in the tournament to try and get a regional bid. Physically, it’s hard on the body. Playing five days a week your body is going to wear down, but you have to remember that all the other teams are playing just as many games as we are. You have to grind it out and be stronger than they are.

On the upcoming tournament in Charleston, SC…

Tournament time is always fun, especially in Charleston. You get to play in front of a good amount of people and you get to play against some good teams. It’s always fun and anyone can win. I think our team is as good as any team in this league so I definitely think we have a good chance at winning the tournament.

On his time at Elon…

It has been a great experience to play at Elon and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It has been hard at times not playing every day, but it’s a great school with a great coaching staff and a good bunch of players. It’s been a great experience all around.

His best Elon baseball memory…

There have been a few. We have had some good years with some good teams. Winning the tournament (in 2008) was fun and it was a good experience. When you do that you know you are going to a regional. It’s a lot of fun when you know you’re going to get the chance to play great teams in a NCAA regional.

On his plans after he graduates later this month…

I plan to get a job. I’ve made some contacts with people and I am trying to set up some interviews. If I get the opportunity to play at the next level then I will address that when it comes.

His earliest baseball memory…

I remember in tee-ball, I hit a ball one time and it went straight to the second baseman and I ended up scoring. I told everyone I hit a home run.

David Harrison and Billy Devaney

2010-05-03T20:36:00.000-04:00

Check out this photo of David Harrison with Elon alum and St. Louis Rams GM Billy Devaney.

This blog has moved

2010-04-30T20:44:00.001-04:00

This blog is now located at http://elonphoenix.blogspot.com/.
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15 Things About ... Justine Robertson

2010-04-23T15:53:00.000-04:00

As the women's track and field team prepares for the Southern Conference Championship this weekend, we asked junior Justine Robertson to share with us 15 random things about her. Read below to get to know Justine!!

1. My roommates think I'm weird because I eat ketchup with everything.
2. My favorite movie is Fast and Furious. Gotta love Vin Diesel and Paul Walker!
3. During track season I have a permanent bandana tan line on my forehead and a really bad cut off tank top tan line.
4. I love to cook/ bake things.
5. My little brother and I are best friends.
6. I can paint a house like nobody's business.
7. I'm really not all that coordinated... I get made fun of for that on a daily basis. Ha ha.
8. I love drawing and photography!
9. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year.
10. I'm very competetive, I turn everything I do into a competition even if it is something that cant really be competitive.
11. I've been fishing with my dad since I was 3-years-old.
12. I listen to all different kinds of music but country is my favorite.
13. I LOVE MY CAR! I probably spend more time with it than I do with some of my friends.
14. I love dogs! I want to have a doberman when I graduate; they are like big teddy bears.
15. When I get out of Elon I want to coach track and field throwers.

Ode to Clark

2010-04-16T15:06:00.000-04:00

The Elon men’s tennis team will say farewell to its lone senior on Saturday when the Phoenix hosts East Carolina in the final match of the regular season. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of traveling with the team to play at Furman and Wofford. I had heard many things about senior Clark Howell prior to my trip — he is the “glue that holds the team together,” the “heart and soul of the team,” he has “contagious energy,” but I hadn’t necessarily been able to witness those things myself.

While Clark hasn’t played a lot of matches during his time with the Phoenix, his impact is ever present on the courts. After a tough loss at Furman last Saturday, Elon needed a win over Wofford to stay in the hunt for a SoCon Tournament berth. Junior Alberto Rojas got down big in the first set of his singles match — that was until Clark positioned himself beside Alberto’s court for the remainder of the match. Down 5-0, Alberto lost only three more games in the entire match as he took a 7-6 (1), 6-2 win that ultimately clinched the victory for Elon.

While Clark’s importance might never be able to be put into words, here are some thoughts from his teammates and coaches as they thank him with anecdotes and thoughts about their experiences with the co-captain.

Phil Nemec —
“From day one, I knew Clark was the ultimate teammate and friend. He is a modest young man who never takes anything for granted and lives each day to its potential. Though he may not have been a star on the team, he certainly has been the unsung hero for the three years I have been blessed to share with him. He has been as much a part of the success of the Elon tennis team as anyone else and I feel has sometimes not gotten the respect he rightfully deserves. Yet, he never complained and worked hard every single day, on the court, and in the classroom. There is no way a person like Clark can be replaced — an individual who would go to war with any of his teammates. I would do the same for him in a heartbeat, even after Elon. Wish you all the best in the real world Griswald!

Asst. Coach Bob Owens —
“Clark’s enthusiasm for the team and for the sport of tennis is contagious. I will always remember how important he was at the SoCon Tournament when we won. He brought such energy to everyone around him.”

Chase Helpingstine —
“Clark has been an obvious team leader from the moment I arrived at school as a freshman. He brings everyone together and gives the team true motivation. One thing about Clark is that he is always going to be there for each guy on the team. If I have a problem on or off the court, I always know he is the one person I can go to and will always trust. I cannot even imagine what it will be like without him next year, but we need to enjoy the remaining time we have with him. I continue to try and convince him to come back next year to help coach the team!”

Chase’s funniest memory of Clark —
“Clark pulled Carlos’ shorts to the ground in front of the whole crowd after Phil clinched the Davidson match that allowed us to make the conference tournament this year!”

Head Coach Michael Leonard —
“Clark is that teammate who has been a sort of middleman for our program. He is the guy his teammates always go to for advice and the guy the coaches go to when we need to get a feel or a pulse for the team. He always has the team’s best interest at heart, so he is almost like a student coach. He has the ability to look at the team from the outside and know what is best for the group. He has been a great asset to our team.”

Eric Turner —
“We know that Clark will always have our backs no matter what. Every single person on the team looks up to him and can rely on him for anything. He’s the best possible captain a team could have.”

Alberto Rojas —
“Since my freshman year, I feel like Clark has been a bit part of the team’s success simply for the fact that he unites the team. He has been a great friend on and off the court and personally I know that I will miss him a lot. He always brought happiness, great energy and a positive attitude to the team. He always believed in us even when things were not going our way.”

Tommy Darling —
“Clark and I have spent a lot of time together this year. Beginning in the fall, we went to all of the same tournaments together and with him being a captain, he oriented me to the team, college tennis and college in general. He did this then and continues to do it every day, whether it is us just hanging out at his apartment or sitting courtside watching our teammates battle, he has become a very close friend in a very short time. I tell him every day that he had better be around next year! In a perfect world he would be a volunteer assistant coach! He has been the person I have been able to relate to most on the team from day one and I am grateful for his presence in my life both on and off the court. What I would give to have him for one more year! I know he has to start his life and move on to better things. We will all miss him on the road trips and being on the court getting fired up over a line call or a big shot. I know he knows I’ll miss him next year. Love you brother.”

Roomate Quiz - Danielle Lafferty & Hannah Shelton

2010-04-16T11:06:00.000-04:00

After the success of the previous roommate quizzes, we are back with another! This time, we are talking to Elon softball players Danielle Lafferty and Hannah Shelton. Let’s see how these ladies stack up against “From the Ashes” alums TJ Douglas, Chris Long, Chase Helpingstine and Clark Howell. We will start this episode with Danielle answering questions about Hannah.

Favorite TV Show:
Danielle says: True Blood
Hannah’s actual answer: Family Guy
Swing and a miss – Count: 0-1

High School Mascot:
Danielle says: Wildcat
Hannah’s actual answer: Titans
Called strike two – Count: 0-2

Number of Siblings:
Danielle says: 1
Hannah’s actual answer: 1
Ball – Count: 1-2

Favorite Food:
Danielle says: That’s a hard one…she likes everything!!
Hannah’s actual answer: chicken, sushi
I’ll give Danielle a free pass with that answer – Count 2-2

Birthdate:
Danielle says: 6/23/89
Hannah’s actual answer: 6/23/89
Danielle works the count full – Count: 3-2

Morning Person or Night Owl:
Danielle says: Night Owl for sure
Hannah’s actual answer: Night Owl
Danielle takes the payoff pitch up the middle for a single!

Hair or Makeup First:
Danielle says: Hair
Hannah’s actual answer: Hair
Back-to-back singles puts a runner in scoring position

Favorite Color:
Danielle says: Red
Hannah’s actual answer: Green
Foul tipped – Count: 0-1

Pet Peeve:
Danielle says: Getting up early
Hannah’s actual answer: People who talk too much or don’t think before they speak
Swing and miss – Count 0-2

Prized Possession:
Danielle says: Her blanky!
Hannah’s actual answer: Cell phone
DL was caught looking – 1 out

Chore she never does:
Danielle says: Clean her room
Hannah’s actual answer: Dust!
Wild pitch for ball one – Count 1-0

Guilty pleasure song:
Danielle says: Not sure…
Hannah’s actual answer: “Lady Soul” – The Temptations
Fouled back to the bleachers – Count: 1-1

Number of pillows she sleeps with:
Danielle says: 2
Hannah’s actual answer: 3
Strike two – Count: 1-2

Heels or Flats:
Danielle says: Flats
Hannah’s actual answer: Heels
Uh oh…DL’s in trouble now, called strike three – 2 outs with runners at first and second!

Pregame Ritual:
Danielle says: Hit off the tee with only Jackie
Hannah’s actual answer: I don’t really have one
Foul tipped – Count: 0-1 –

Look out! DL calls for a double-steal! Runners advance to second and third

Curling Iron or Flat Iron:
Danielle says: Flat iron
Hannah’s actual answer: Flat Iron
A single scores the runner from third! Score: 1-0

Birth place:
Danielle says: Roanoke, Va.
Hannah’s actual answer: Bedford, Va.
Two left stranded, but not before a runner scored. DL wins this game 1-0. Stay tuned for the second game of the doubleheader when Hannah takes on DL’s answers.

Tennis Fans!

2010-04-16T10:03:00.000-04:00

Elon football players Sean Jeffcoat and Khirey Walker are Elon tennis super fans! They are at every match with posters in hand and cheering voices ready to go! Check out a couple photos from a recent match!

Men's Golf Q&A

2010-04-12T10:39:00.000-04:00

We got a chance to sit down with our men's golfers and ask them some questions! Below you can check out answers from Jayson Judy, Phil Bartholomew, Mike Fekete, Scott Hockemeyer, Alex Luxenburg, Randall Andersen, Steve Dressel, Miller Robins, Jake Mahoney, Tanner Norton, John Somers and Chris Stegemann! Enjoy!

What is your favorite sports movie and why?

Jayson: Caddyshack - best golf movie ever

Phil: Tin Cup - it shows the inner struggle to attain greatness

Scott: Semi-Pro - because Will Ferrell is hysterical

Miller: Remember the Titans - it is inspirational

What is your favorite golf memory?

Mike: Hole-in-one at Wexford tournament

Randall: My first eagle

Steve: Winning the Sea Trails Intercollegiate

John: Going to Davis Love III's house

Chris: The Junior Masters

Alex: My first hole-in-one when I was 12 at the Duke Golf Course

People would be surprised to know that ...

Phil: My favorite book is James and the Giant Peach

Randall: I am a great cook!

Jake: I like gospel music

John: I am very quiet

Chris: Really like old rap

What is the best advice that you have ever been given?

Jayson: Respect is never given, it is earned.

Scott: Work hard and you can't regret how things turn out.

Jake: Be yourself

Tanner: Do your best

When I have and hour of free time, I like to ...

Phil: Play basketball or putt

Mike: Watch half of a movie

Steve: Take a nap

Miller: Play video games

Tanner: Fish, hunt, drive, be with friends

John: Play basketball or go to the gym

If you could compete in any sport against any athlete, who would it be and why?

Jayson: Soccer, David Beckam

Steve: Basketball, Lebron James because he might be the best athlete of our generation

My craziest ambition in life is to ...

Jayson: Live in Italy

Mike: Complete an Iron Man competition

Randall: Sky dive

Miller: Be the CEO of Nike

Tanner: Be on the PGA tour

Any superstitions?

Phil: I place the ball on the tee the same way every hole

Scott: I never mark my ball because I feel I will lose it.

If you could have dinner with three people throughout history, who would they be?

Phil: Ben Hogan, Abe Lincoln, Gandhi

Mike: Bobby Jones, Gandhi, Mother Teresa

What is the most embarrassing song on your iPod right now?

Jayson: Kesha "Tik Tok"

Phil: Lady Gaga "Papparazzi"

Miller: Backstreet Boys " I Want it That Way"

Alex: Taylor Swift "You Belong with Me"

15 Things About ... Lauren Lebak

2010-04-06T10:44:00.000-04:00

We asked women's golfer Lauren Lebak to reveal to us 15 random things about her ... Read below to get to know Lauren, a New Jersey native who loves the South!

1. I'm from the north, but people swear I'm from the south because I love sweet tea, country music, and cornhole.
2. I still stick to my Jersey roots and have an Ed Hardy bed comforter and wear Ed Hardy clothes.
3. The most important thing to me is my family.
4. I love fast food. McDonalds is my favorite and I even wouldn't mind going on a date there.
5. The foods I eat mainly consist of cheese, beef, and chicken. Anything else, especially healthy foods, I probably don't like because I am an extremely picky eater.
6. I want to be young forever.
7. I love sports and my favorite thing to do on a Saturday afternoon is watch Elon football and other college football games.
8. I wear sweatpants so much that when I put on jeans people think I am going to attend some big occasion.
9. The thing I miss most about high school is my basketball team and playing basketball in general.
10. I have no desire to leave the country which is the main reason I don't have a passport.
11. I love to play pranks on people.
12. My sister means everything to me, even though she gets on my nerves just like any little sister does.
13. My favorite place to visit is Haig Point, Daufuskie Island.
14. My favorite movie is Love and Basketball.
15. After my four years at Elon, I hope to attend Elon's physical therapy graduate program and live in the south.

Ask Coach Lembo

2010-04-01T12:13:00.000-04:00

Hey Phoenix fans! A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to submit question for head football coach Pete Lembo to answer! Below you will find answers to a few of the questions! Thank you for all the great questions.

EP: How do you plan on making up for the loss of the top receiver in Elon history? (submitted by Joseph Dennis)
PL: Any time you lose a great player – at receiver or any other position for that matter – the key is for multiple players to step up and seize the opportunity. We have some talented receivers returning. If three or four of them can play with consistency, they could be a dangerous unit. We are also going to continue to utilize tailback A.J. Harris in a variety of roles in the offense. Moving A.J. around in our sets definitely presents challenges for opposing defenses. Multiplicity, balance and tempo are keys to a successful offense. If Scott Riddle has the confidence to spread his throws around to several different players – and they can catch and run – we will continue to be an exciting offense.

EP: What is the biggest change you’ve seen in the program since the first day you stepped foot on Elon’s campus? (submitted by Bradley Utz)
PL: Our credibility as a football program has really skyrocketed with various constituent groups. We have become a very desirable choice for high school recruits – especially in North Carolina. The high school coaches in the Southeast are well aware of our success. When you defeat Georgia Southern for three straight years, the high school coaches in Georgia certainly take note. Even in the Division I coaching circles, our staff has earned a great deal of respect for the overall quality of our program. We continue to approach every day the same way as when we first arrived – taking nothing for granted. At the same time, it is rewarding to receive recognition for progress.

EP: What are your goals for the 2010 season? How do you see the hunger level of the 2010 team? Which players do you see stepping up to fill the void left by the great senior class of 2009? (submitted by Darren Stover and Andrew Taylor)
PL: The primary goals are always to win the Southern Conference and advance to the FCS playoffs. You cannot compete for a national championship unless you make the playoffs first. Of course, every game matters when it comes to earning a playoff berth. The addition of two at-large spots in this year’s FCS playoffs should help quality teams from strong conferences like ours and the CAA. Along with the graduation of our seniors, we lost over 300 games of starting experience. We have some talented young players who will need to mature quickly as we face the toughest schedule in recent years. We should get some questions answered over the next 15 practices in terms of who we can count on the most headed into the fall.

EP: Coming from Pennsylvania, what is your favorite thing about living in the south? (submitted by Barry Baker)
PL: The move to Elon has really been a spectacular one for my family and I. There are so many terrific people in this campus community and in Burlington. Jen has made some wonderful friends and our children have enjoyed the experience at Elon Elementary School. Their happiness is very important to me – especially since I am not at home much! We live less than two miles from campus, so it is a little easier to make the challenges of this job fit with family life. The combination of the people, the weather and the proximity to areas like the beach, mountains and cities make this a great location to live. In addition, I have never met a barbeque sandwich or a rack of ribs that I did not like!

Remember, the football squad is in the middle of spring practice! Here is the upcoming schedule:

• Friday, April 2 – 4 p.m.
• Saturday, April 3 – 9:45 a.m.
• Monday, April 5 – 7 p.m.
• Wednesday, April 7 – 4 p.m.
• Friday, April 9 – 4 p.m.
• Saturday, April 10 – 9:45 a.m.
• Monday, April 12 – 7 p.m.
• Wednesday, April 14 – 4 p.m.
• Friday, April 16 – 4 p.m.
• Saturday, April 17 – 9:45 a.m.
• Monday, April 19 – 7 p.m.
• Wednesday, April 21 – 4 p.m.
• Saturday, April 24 – 6 p.m. SPRING GAME (Rhodes Stadium)
* All practices are scheduled to be conducted on the Hunt and Tucker practice fields unless noted.

Interview with Steven Kinney

2010-04-01T11:56:00.000-04:00

Check out this interview from mlssoccer.com with Elon alum Steven Kinney and fellow Chicago Fire rookie Kwame Watson-Siriboe.

MLSsoccer.com

Anna Milian and Elisa Simonetti - Women's Tennis

2010-03-31T15:26:00.000-04:00

Good, fun story about Anna Milian and Elisa Simonetti of the women's tennis team from News 14 Carolina!

Watch Video!

The squad returns home on Saturday, April 3 at 11 am against Samford at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center.

Urysla Cotton - Women's Basketball and Track and Field

2010-03-30T11:17:00.000-04:00

Check out the great story with Elon's Urysla Cotton on News 14 Carolina!!

See story

Five Questions With ... Justin Hilt and Matt Kirchner

2010-03-28T09:54:00.000-04:00

During the week on the road with baseball, we sat down and did a “Five Questions With...” both Justin Hilt and Matt Kirchner. Here are their answers:

Q: At what age did you start playing baseball:
JH: I was four. My brother, who is a year older than me, had a game, but the other team needed one more player so I played for them.
MK: I was five. It was coach-pitch and I dominated.

Q: What’s your favorite place to hang out off the field?
JH: The locker room.
MK: Our beach house on the Jersey shore. I’d spend all summer there if I could.

Q: What’s your favorite TV show?
JH: Jersey Shore
MK: Curb Your Enthusiasm

Q: What is your pet peeve?
JH: When our laundry doesn’t get completely dry.
MK: Striking out with a man on third and less than two outs.

Q: What’s the most embarrassing song on your iPod?
JH: “I Hope You Dance” by Lee Ann Womack.
MK: “Heartbreak Hotel” by Elvis.

Roomate Quiz - Clark Howell and Chase Helpingstine

2010-03-23T15:39:00.000-04:00

We are back with another installment of the Roommate Quiz, this time testing Clark Howell on his knowledge of Chase Helpingstine from the men’s tennis team. Clark has a lot to live up to, as Chase was impressive in the first part of this quiz, sneaking a few winners inside the lines.

Favorite TV Show:
Clark says: True Blood
Chase’s actual answer: Southpark
love-15 — Clark is obviously still getting warmed up.

Birth place:
Clark says: Chapel Hill, N.C.
Chase’s actual answer: Chapel Hill, N.C.
15-15

High School Mascot:
Clark says: Tigers
Chase’s actual answer: Tigers
30-15

Other sports played in high school besides tennis:
Clark says: None — Not athletic enough
Chase’s actual answer: None
40-15 — That was kind of a low blow by Clark! A simple “none” would have been sufficient!

Dream job:
Clark says: Any job where he could sleep in
Chase’s actual answer: Any job working in sports
40- 30 — I’m getting a little worried I’m going to start a roommate war!

Favorite home-cooked meal:
Clark says: Anything with mac & cheese
Chase’s actual answer: steak, mac & cheese
1-0 — Clark gets a win in a tight game one.

How many siblings?
Clark says: 1
Chase’s actual answer: 1
15-love

Favorite Breakfast food:
Clark says: Buffalo bites from Bojangles
Chase’s actual answer: Bojangles
30-love — Very detailed, Clark!

Birth date:
Clark says: 3/17/89
Chase’s actual answer: 3/17/89
40-love — Someone just had a big birthday last week!

Night Owl or Morning Person:
Clark says: Night owl
Chase’s actual answer: Night owl
2-0 — Hence the need for a job that allows him to sleep in!

Favorite off-campus restaurant:
Clark says: Red Bowl
Chase’s actual answer: Red Bowl
15-love

Neat Freak or Slob:
Clark says: Slob
Chase’s actual answer: Neat Freak
15-15 — Hmm…sometimes I wonder if those who take these quizzes no longer want to be roommates after the truth comes out! Chase did break a stretch of six straight points by Clark with this one.

Movie he watches all the time:
Clark says: Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Chase’s actual answer: Forgetting Sarah Marshall
30-15

Hobbies outside of tennis:
Clark says: sleeping, video games, basketball, ping pong
Chase’s actual answer: golf, basketball, video games, sleeping
40-15 — For someone so “unathletic,” Chase is pretty active outside of tennis!

Favorite color:
Clark says: Blue
Chase’s actual answer: Blue
3-0 — Clark is sweeping through this match pretty quickly

Pet-peeve:
Clark says: People talking during movies
Chase’s actual answer: People talking during movies
15-love — That is so annoying!

Favorite professional tennis tournament:
Clark says: Wimbledon
Chase’s actual answer: Wimbledon
30-love

Favorite pro tennis player:
Clark says: James Blake
Chase’s actual answer: James Blake
40-love — Clark is in a zone right now! I think he got in Chase’s head after the slob comment!

Prized possession:
Clark says: Gold ball he won with his grandfather at nationals
Chase’s actual answer: Droid (cellphone)
40-15

Chore he never does:
Clark says: Take out the trash
Chase’s actual answer: Take out the trash
4-0 — This has obviously been a point of contention in this house.

Favorite video game:
Clark says: Halo
Chase’s actual answer: Halo
15-love

Guilty pleasure song:
Clark says: “Cowboy Casanova” Carrie Underwood
Chase’s actual answer: “She Wolf” Shakira
15-15 — I have this image of Chase belting it into a hairbrush in front of a mirror…

Number of pillows he sleeps with:
Clark says: Three
Chase’s actual answer: Three
30-15

Snore – yay or nay?
Clark says: nay
Chase’s actual answer: Nay
40-15

Electric or Blade razor:
Clark says: Electric
Chase’s actual answer: Electric
5-0

Bar soap or body wash:
Clark says: Body wash
Chase’s actual answer: Body wash
15-love

I have to say, Chase did pretty well last week, but Clark was on top of his game today. I do think there might be some “roommate talks” that need to happen after this edition, but hopefully they can work everything out! Thanks for the help, guys!

Elon Women's Tennis - Anna Milian and Elisa Simonetti

2010-03-22T10:39:00.000-04:00

Elon’s top doubles tandem of Anna Milian and Elisa Simonetti is 11-2 overall and 3-0 in Southern Conference action. The duo has won 10 straight and defeated a ranked doubles team from the University of North Carolina earlier in the season. Our student worker Jaqueta had a chance to catch up with Anna and Elisa and talk to them about their success as a doubles pair and the team’s overall accomplishments this season!

Women's Soccer's Sydney Little Talks About Her Trip to Ghana

2010-03-18T12:43:00.000-04:00

This past Winter Term, Elon senior Sydney Little spent an exciting, fun-filled three weeks in Ghana. A goalkeeper on Elon’s women’s soccer team, Little harnessed her skills in a game against a local Ghanaian team, fought off baboons and stayed with a local family. One of our student workers got a chance to catch up with Sydney about her trip! Check out the video to hear more about her experience!

Elon Football Pro Day

2010-03-18T12:29:00.000-04:00

Elon seniors Terrell Hudgins, David Harrison, Andre Campbell, Nolan Ward and Eric Ludwig worked out for scouts from multiple NFL teams –including the Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos and New York Giants – on Tuesday.

The workouts began in the Elon weight room where the quintet went through the broad jump, vertical jump and bench press. The workouts then moved to the track where they ran the 40 and performed in other drills for the scouts.

Videos and pictures are below!

See a slideshow of pictures from Pro Day

Read the full story

Elon Softball vs. North Carolina

2010-03-16T15:07:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, Jen here! As many of you may know, the Elon softball team is hosting No. 18 North Carolina at 4 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon at East Field. It is the second time this season that the Phoenix has hosted a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the second time that Elon has taken on a ranked team. Elon handed ACC foe Virginia a 10-8 loss earlier this season and was the only team at the Bulldog Invitational to score against the then fourth-ranked Bulldogs.

As I am getting ready for Wednesday’s game, I starting thing about what the North Carolina natives think about hosting the Tar Heels. I asked the four N.C. natives, Ashlee Crewe (Angier, N.C.), Lauren Taylor (Lillington, N.C.), Ashley Myers (Winston-Salem, N.C.) and Morgan Wright (Siler City, N.C.), their thoughts on hosting North Carolina this season.

No. 15 Ashlee Crewe
Junior First Baseman (Angier, N.C.)
“Growing up in North Carolina, the ACC was all that I knew. North Carolina is so well known in the sports world and constantly produces ranked teams and the UNC softball team is certainly no exception. The team has been ranked for as long as I can remember! This game is an opportunity to prove to everyone just how competitive we are this year because nothing will say that better than beating a ranked opponent from our home state! This game is also special for me since this is the last year that I will be playing softball for Elon. It will be an awesome experience to take on UNC on our home field in front of our fans. Our fans have made playing at home easy this year. They have been here through the cold and the rain, ready to cheer us to a victory! Hearing the roar of the crowd during a crucial moment in a game means more to my team and myself that I could ever describe. Being a North Carolinian makes this game a unique experience, but our team recognizes the challenge and is ready to rise to the occasion!”

No. 16 Lauren Taylor
Junior Pitcher (Lillington, N.C.)
“It’s always fun getting to play against one of the top teams in the ACC and the country. I am really looking forward to coming out strong and hopefully getting a win!”

No. 24 Ashley Myers
Sophomore Catcher (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
“Growing up in Winston-Salem, I was always a Wake Forest fan, so I always wanted to beat UNC. I know some of the girls that play for the Tar Heels because I played with or against them for many years. I am approaching this game like every other. We get the opportunity to play at home against very talented athletes. The great thing about this game is that we get to show that it doesn’t matter what uniform you are wearing, it is about how well you play every game, no matter who your opponent is. We are going to come out strong and play like we have played all season and hopefully come away with a win. I am very fortunate to be on a team with so much talent and passion. We are going to just play ball and enjoy being on our home field in front of our fans.”

No. 23 Morgan Wright
Freshman Utility Player (Siler City, N.C.)
“UNC athletics have been a huge part of my life. My dad has followed the Tar Heels for as along as I can remember and my mom has worked there for almost 30 years. I am so excited to have the opportunity to take down the team that I grew up cheering for! Elon is ready for the challenge and can’t wait to play in front of our fans! Go Phoenix!”

So there you have it everyone! It seems like the team is excited and will be playing to win! If you are around on Wednesday afternoon around 4 p.m., come out to East Field and watch the Phoenix take on North Carolina! And don’t forget…Wear Your Maroon!

NFL HOF QB Steve Young and Terrell Hudgins!

2010-03-15T17:31:00.000-04:00

While on campus to speak to the Elon community about entrepreneurial ideals, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young took time out to present Elon standout receiver Terrell Hudgins with a football signed by both Young and his 49ers teammate Jerry Rice. Hudgins broke four of Jerry Rice's receiving records during the 2009 season.

Roomate Quiz - Chase Helpingstine and Clark Howell

2010-03-12T10:32:00.000-05:00

We got rave reviews about our last segment of “How well do you know your roommate,” so we thought we’d try some athletes from a different sport. This time, men’s tennis players Clark Howell and Chase Helpingstine display just how well they know one another off the court. These two have actually known one another since before their days at Elon, so I’m expecting big things! In the first of a two-part post, let’s see if Chase can “ace” this test about Clark! (Sorry, that was a bit cheesy!)

Favorite TV Show:
Chase says: The OC
Clark’s actual answer: The OC
15-love

Birth place:
Chase says: Rocky Mount
Clark’s actual answer: Rocky Mount, N.C.
30-love

High School Mascot:
Chase says: Crusaders
Clark’s actual answer: Crusaders
40-love

Other sports played in high school besides tennis:
Chase says: None
Clark’s actual answer: Basketball
40-15

Dream job:
Chase says: Sports Agent
Clark’s actual answer: Sports Agent
1-0 — Chase takes the first game rather quickly! Just one fault.

Favorite home-cooked meal:
Chase says: Steak
Clark’s actual answer: Barbeque and slaw
love-15 — Clark’s first serve is a big one!

How many siblings?
Chase says: 3
Clark’s actual answer: 3
15-15

Favorite Breakfast food:
Chase says: Biscuitville
Clark’s actual answer: Sausage, egg and cheese biscuit from Biscuitville
30-15 — That one hit the net and bounced over – we’ll give Chase credit for it!

Birth date:
Chase says: 12/7/87
Clark’s actual answer: 12/7/87
40-15 — I’m very impressed with the knowledge of birthdays! Makes me feel bad that I don’t remember all my college roommates birthdays!

Night Owl or Morning Person:
Chase says: Usually in bed by 10 or 11, so I guess that makes him a morning person
Clark’s actual answer: Morning person
2-0 — Not bad. Chase has been doing this to people on the court this year as well!

Favorite off-campus restaurant:
Chase says: Wings To Go
Clark’s actual answer: Wings To Go
15-love

Neat Freak or Slob:
Chase says: Neat Freak
Clark’s actual answer: Neat Freak
30-love

Movie he watches all the time:
Chase says: Forrest Gump
Clark’s actual answer: Forrest Gump
40-love

Hobbies outside of tennis:
Chase says: playing Wii grand slam tennis, laying down
Clark’s actual answer: playing video games, watching Duke basketball, throwing football
3-0 — This was a close call. Clark originally called it out but we called in the referee and they overturned the call, giving Chase the game.

Favorite color:
Chase says: Blue
Clark’s actual answer: Blue
15-love

Pet-peeve:
Chase says: When I come anywhere close to him while brushing my teeth
Clark’s actual answer: Chase brushing his teeth in my room
30-love — I really feel like I need more of an explanation on this one. Clark, can you fill us in – is it only Chase brushing his teeth or anyone who brushes his teeth near you?!

Favorite professional tennis tournament:
Chase says: Wimbledon
Clark’s actual answer: Wimbledon
40-love

Favorite pro tennis player:
Chase says: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Clark’s actual answer: Andre Agassi
40-15 — That ball sailed long on Chase – a rare miss!

Prized possession:
Chase says: His dog, Cannon
Clark’s actual answer: SoCon Championship ring from 2007 season
40-30 — Clark trying to make a game of it!

Chore he never does:
Chase says: He will say that he does everything!
Clark’s actual answer: Clean my sink.
Deuce! — Do I sense a little bitterness by Chase?

Favorite video game:
Chase says: Wii Tiger Woods or Grand Slam Tennis
Clark’s actual answer: Tiger Woods Golf
Advantage Chase

Guilty pleasure song:
Chase says: “I’ll Be Waiting” Lenny Kravitz
Clark’s actual answer: “Wake Me Up Before You Go” Wham
Back at Deuce! — Clark, those are interesting selections!

Number of pillows he sleeps with:
Chase says: Three
Clark’s actual answer: Three
Advantage Chase

Snore – yay or nay?
Chase says: nay
Clark’s actual answer: Nay
4-0 — Clark made that one interesting, but Chase pulled it out!

Electric or Blade razor:
Chase says: Electric
Clark’s actual answer: Electric
15-love

Bar soap or body wash:
Chase says: Body wash
Clark’s actual answer: Body wash
30-love

Way to close it out Chase! I’m impressed. Keep an eye out for the next edition when we test Clark!

Elon Women's Tennis - Youth Day!

2010-03-11T10:30:00.000-05:00

The women's tennis team hosted a Youth Day this past weekend! Check out a few of the pictures!

A Pretty Sight!!

2010-03-06T13:43:00.000-05:00

The scoreboard after Elon's first-round victory over Davidson!!

Let the Madness Begin!!

2010-03-04T16:46:00.000-05:00

It is March! For sports fans, we all know what that means! Let the madness begin!

Many of us from Elon are in Charlotte, N.C. for the annual Southern Conference Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament where we just witnessed the women pick up a first-round victory over Wofford! We know how much everyone loves tournament time, so we thought we’d find out what sparks that interest from all parties involved.

Go Phoenix!

Adam Constantine (Senior men’s basketball player)
The longer you are here, the better you feel! Everything is escalated — your confidence, fan base and support from around the country.

Will Roberson (Assistant men’s basketball coach)
Win or go home!

Lei Lei Hairston (Freshman women’s basketball player)
We are a team that has played well on the road this season and I think that will help us in the long run. With the tournament being so close to home, it really gives our fans a chance to come out and support us like they have all year.

Daniel Watts (Sophomore men’s basketball player)
There is a great community feel to the tournament. Every team is there — you are watching them; they are watching you. Every game could be your last — there is so much weight to each game.

Casey Collins (Elon junior; Pep band member)
We love supporting the team! We play our best and cheer our loudest for them. It is our job to make sure we are supporting them. We like to energize them and take pride in making a lot of noise!

Eric Storsved (Elon head athletic trainer)
It’s tournament time! You just never know what is going to happen!

Elon head women’s basketball coach Karen Barefoot
It is good to play in a championship environment. To be able to play at a neutral arena and focus on the future is something that is really beneficial for a team to be part of.

Terrance Birdette (Junior men’s basketball player)
It is always interesting to see who steps up in the conference tournament. Teams like us, who might not have the best record, have a chance to show that we can compete with anyone.

Chelsey McGinnis (Elon senior; cheerleader)
My favorite part is the opportunity to watch the team play in a championship atmosphere.

TJ Douglas (Senior men’s basketball player)
There is an amped up atmosphere on game day.

Dolores Truitt (Elon supporter)
The festival feeling of the event…and winning!

Urysla Cotton (Senior women’s basketball player)
I love the tournament because this is everything that we have worked for all season! Every team has the same opportunity to cut down the nets. We also get to prove that we are a team that belongs here and deserves to play with the best. With it being in Charlotte this year, we have the chance to play in an arena that we have never played in before and to play in front of a strong Elon crowd.

Ali Ford a Pro Bowler?

2010-03-03T09:29:00.000-05:00

Hey guys its Jen here! I am in the midst gearing up for the Southern Conference tournament! This is a really diverse and talented group of student-athletes and I have truly enjoyed being around them during the season. Since I have gotten the chance to get to know the team on and off the court, I thought I would let the rest of Elon Nation know a little more about the team as it gets ready to follow the Phoenix at the SoCon Tournament.

I mentioned that this was a talented bunch and you probably were thinking that I was referring solely to their basketball savvy. They are a group that has shown me time and time again that they aren’t ‘just basketball players.’

One such player is Ali Ford. As many of you know, Ali was just named the SoCon Freshman of the Year and was an outstanding athlete at Freedom High School in Morganton, N.C. What you might not have known is that she might have a future as a member of the Professional Bowlers Association. At a bowling outing earlier this season and while everyone else struggled to get out of the 50s (Hey, they’re basketball players, they are used to shooting baskets, not rolling an eight pound ball), Ali rolled a 170! That’s right, a 170!

Check out the photo of Ali reveling in her win!

While I have your attention, don’t forget to follow the Phoenix as it begins its quest for its first-ever SoCon Tournament Title on Thursday at 1 p.m. when Elon will take on Wofford.

And if you’re out and about in Charlotte, stop by the local bowling alley. Maybe you’ll see Ali and the Phoenix working on their game!

Baseball Team at Rice

2010-02-26T11:22:00.000-05:00

Hey, Phoenix fans! Chris coming to you today. Well, the Elon baseball team made a successful arrival in Houston, Texas on Thursday night where the Phoenix will participate in the Rice Invitational this weekend.

The three-hour flight from Greensboro direct to Houston was uneventful for most, but while first-time flyers like Seth Canipe had no troubles, that wasn’t the case for Neal Pritchard. Granted, Neal didn’t really get the best plane for his flying experience as the aisle was flanked by two seats on one side and a single seat on the other. Neal was in one of those single seats and before the plane had even began to back away from the gate he had broken out into a sweat and was going white. Luckily he adjusted, somewhat anyway, and was asleep not too long after takeoff. At least he didn’t get a bumpy ride as we only hit one small pocket of turbulence. While waiting for our luggage Neal said he still didn’t feel quite right and I got the feeling that he wasn’t really looking forward to the return trip on Sunday night.

After collecting bags and loading up in vans, we made the 25 minute trek from the airport to Rice University and Reckling Park where the team went through a quick workout around 9 p.m. Central time. While there, former Phoenix team member and Katy, Texas native, Bennett Davis came out to see the team and take some ground balls as he prepares to head to Florida where he’ll be working out for the Tampa Bay Rays. Bennett is hoping to be sent to Tampa’s Single A team in Bowling Green, Ohio for the season. We then loaded back up and headed to the hotel which is your standard Hampton Inn.

Following a restful night and a hotel breakfast the squad will grab some lunch before heading back to the park a little after 2 p.m. for batting practice. The Phoenix then gets the weekend started with a 4:30 p.m. (5:30 EST) game against the sixth-ranked Rice Owls.

Roommate Quiz Part II - Chris Long & TJ Douglas

2010-02-25T17:11:00.000-05:00

Last week you saw how well Chris Long new his roommate and teammate TJ Douglas. Chris went 17-of-21 – let’s see if TJ can match the performance. He is pretty steady from long range but these questions are more like short jumpers…

Favorite TV Show:
TJ says: Modern Family (He has a ton of favorites, that’s the one at the moment!)
Chris’ actual answer: Modern Family/Big Bang Theory
1-for-1 — Chris is well-known as the most avid TV watcher on the team…possibly in Division I basketball!

High School Mascot:
TJ says: Patriot
Chris’ actual answer: Patriot
2-for-2

How many siblings?
TJ says: 3
Chris’ actual answer: 3
3-for-3

Favorite Breakfast food:
TJ says: Egg and cheese biscuit and cranberry orange muffin from Biscuitville
Chris’ actual answer: Egg and cheese biscuit and cranberry orange muffin from Biscuitville
4-for-4 — I’m impressed with the detail on this answer!

Birth date:
TJ says: 9/1/87
Chris’ actual answer: 9/1/87
5-for-5

Night Owl or Morning Person:
TJ says: Night Owl
Chris’ actual answer: Night Owl
6-for-6

Favorite off-campus restaurant:
TJ says: Moe’s/Biscuitville
Chris’ actual answer: Moe’s/Biscuitville
7-for-7

Neat Freak or Slob:
TJ says: Neat Freak
Chris’ actual answer: Little of both, but mainly a slob
7-for-8 – Oh, the first miss! Knowing TJ, he is too nice to call out Chris for being a slob!

Movie he watches all the time:
TJ says: Wedding Crashers/Superbad
Chris’ actual answer: Wedding Crashers/Superbad
8-for-9

Hobbies outside of basketball:
TJ says: reading, tennis
Chris’ actual answer: reading, golf, internet
9-for-10 – This was a tough call – both had reading and an outdoor sport. I decided to go ahead and give him the shooter’s roll.

Favorite color:
TJ says: Blue
Chris’ actual answer: Blue
10-for-11

Pet-peeve:
TJ says: When people argue about things they have no idea about
Chris’ actual answer: Wearing sunglasses indoors or at night
10-for-12 — I agree with Chris on this one! Who do those people think they are?!

Favorite Pro team:
TJ says: None – he is a college guy
Chris’ actual answer: I don’t have one.
11-for-13

Prized possession:
TJ says: iPhone or Mac
Chris’ actual answer: iPhone/Mac
12-for-14 – These guys are good!

Chore he never does:
TJ says: Clean the living room area.
Chris’ actual answer: Take out the trash.
12-for-15 – They both missed this — doesn’t sound like anyone really cleans!

Favorite video game:
TJ says: Guitar Hero
Chris’ actual answer: Mario Kart
12-for-16 — That miss could hurt coming down the stretch!

Guilty pleasure song:
TJ says: Any song from Colbie Caillat
Chris’ actual answer: Any song from Glee
12-for-17 — I’m a little worried about these boys’ music choices!

Number of pillows he sleeps with:
TJ says: Four
Chris’ actual answer: Three
12-for-18 — Come on TJ, no tired legs for the final three possessions!

Snore – yay or nay?
TJ says: nay
Chris’ actual answer: Nay
13-for-19

Electric or Blade razor:
TJ says: Electric
Chris’ actual answer: Electric
14-for-20

Bar soap or body wash:
TJ says: Body wash
Chris’ actual answer: Both
15-for-21 — Generous rims today! We’ll give it to him since ‘both’ wasn’t technically an answer and Chris does use body wash!

Nice work by both our shooters!

Men's Soccer Signees

2010-02-23T11:38:00.001-05:00

A couple photos of some of the men's soccer signees signing their National Letter of Intent!

ELLIOT BROWARSKY

GLENN SCOTT

Roommate Quiz - Chris Long & TJ Douglas

2010-02-10T10:35:00.000-05:00

Basketball players spend plenty of time together…more than enough time, some might say! Besides practicing together, traveling together, lifting together and competing together, junior Chris Long and senior TJ Douglas are also roommates. We decided to test them and see just how much they know about one another. In the first of a two-part post, see what kind of numbers Chris puts up against TJ!

Favorite TV Show:
Chris says: Grey’s Anatomy
TJ’s actual answer: Grey’s Anatomy
1-for-1

High School Mascot:
Chris says: Red Dragon
TJ’s actual answer: Red Dragon
2-for-2

How many siblings?
Chris says: 1 (Kara)
TJ’s actual answer: 1
3-for-3

Favorite Breakfast food:
Chris says: Sausage & egg biscuit, no cheese from Biscuitville
TJ’s actual answer: Sausage & egg biscuit from Biscuitville
4-for-4

Birth date:
Chris says: 8/2/87
TJ says: 8/2/87
5-for-5 – Impressive numbers so far!

Night Owl or Morning Person:
Chris says: Neither, but he might say Night Owl
TJ’s actual answer: Night Owl
6-for-6 – We’ll give him credit for that one!

Favorite off-campus restaurant:
Chris says: Moe’s/Mellow Mushroom
TJ’s actual answer: Moe’s & Mellow Mushroom
7-for-7

Neat Freak or Slob:
Chris says: Neat Freak
TJ’s actual answer: Neat Freak
8-for-8 – Hopefully he shoots this well in the next game!

Movie he watches all the time:
Chris says: Wedding Crashers
TJ’s actual answer: Wedding Crashers
9-for-9

Hobbies outside of basketball:
Chris says: golf, music, studying & reading, beach, guitar
TJ’s actual answer: traveling, tennis, reading, movies
9-for-10 – close, but not quite – if we could give half a point, we would. But, that doesn’t work in basketball, so it doesn’t work here.

Favorite color:
Chris says: Blue
TJ’s actual answer: Blue
10-for-11

Pet-peeve:
Chris says: Needy people
TJ’s actual answer: When someone smacks their mouth while eating
10-for-12

Favorite Pro team:
Chris says: None
TJ’s actual answer: I don’t really follow pro sports
11-for-13

Prized possession:
Chris says: Family
TJ’s actual answer: Family & God
12-for-14

Chore he never does:
Chris says: Take the trash out
TJ’s actual answer: Clean out the inside of my car
12-for-15 – well, at least we gave Chris the chance to get that off his chest!

Favorite video game:
Chris says: Rock Band
TJ’s actual answer: Rock Band
13-for-16

Guilty pleasure song:
Chris says: Any Miley Cyrus or Lady Gaga song
TJ’s actual answer: Any Taylor Swift Jam
13-for-17 - quite a musical selection!

Number of pillows he sleeps with:
Chris says: Four
TJ’s actual answer: Four
14-for-18

Snore – yay or nay?
Chris says: Nay
TJ’s actual answer: Nay
15-for-19

Electric or Blade razor:
Chris says: Electric
TJ’s actual answer: Electric
16-for-20

Bar soap or body wash:
Chris says: Both
TJ’s actual answer: Both
17-for-21

Impressive performance!

Kinney at MLS Spring Training!

2010-02-09T16:17:00.001-05:00

Photo of Steven Kinney with Brian McBride at spring training with the Chicago Fire in Arizona!

Terrell's Fathead

2010-02-08T12:48:00.000-05:00

So Terrell Hudgins was in our office the other day and we all started talking about the Fathead we have of him. Yes, we have a life-size picture of Terrell. The Sports Network gave each finalist for the Payton Award two Fatheads - one for the school and one for the student-athlete to keep. So we've had it in our office since December, just rolled up in the tube it came in. But the other day, Terrell decided to take it out, look at it, walk it around and show it to people. Which prompted us to think we should go ahead and stick it on our wall!! So, Terrell helped us hang it up! I kept telling him that I thought the Fathead was actually bigger than he is - he disagreed and was trying to show us that it really is him! Check out the photos!

Phoenix Beats Heels on the Hardwood!

2010-02-04T14:47:00.000-05:00

It is pretty obvious to most fans that all student-athletes work hard. We know they have practice every day, mixed in with film sessions, weight training and conditioning, not to mention a full schedule of classes, studying and writing papers! But, very few fans know about those people behind the scenes who really make it happen. Those individuals who do all the laundry, run the clocks and help with plays for every practice and shoot around, organize food on team trips, make sure there are extra socks for that one player who forgot his, and of course, keep all the water cups full. I’m talking about the team managers, who have a thankless job and put in countless hours unbeknownst to most.

Now, when you talk to most managers, you will hear of all the things I just described. But, the managers for the Elon men’s basketball team have another experience to add their growing list. Set up by former Tar Heel and current director of basketball operations, Jack Wooten, some of the Elon managers made the trip to Tobacco Road last week for a little in-game action of their own. Elon vs. UNC: The Managers. In the Dean Dome. Fans Welcome.

With only a short time to plan, Jack got Paul Flieger, Justin Bellucci and Carl Brunaes on the court for a quick and dirty practice session last Tuesday. Then the team headed to Chapel Hill on Wednesday to perform under the lights in front of 21,000 screaming … well, ok, that might be an exaggeration, but there were a few Phoenix hoopsters in the audience to witness history. Anyway, back to the game. The Elon squad came out gunning and never really looked back. The teams played a full 40 minutes, and while the Heels managed to cut it to seven late in the game, the visitors came away with the 58-42 victory!

Check out the videos below to see a little in-game footage as well as Paul’s postgame comments. And next time you see someone filling a water cup behind that Elon bench, tell him thanks…and good game.

Q&A with Briana Berne

2010-01-24T19:35:00.000-05:00

Erica sent all our women's tennis players a question and answer for the media guide. Erica chose just a few to put in the guide, but we had such a great time getting to know Bri through her answers that we knew we had to share!! Bri is a freshman on our squad who hails from Atlanta, GA! The women earned two wins on Saturday to open the season. The team returns home on Feb. 4 and Feb. 6. Be sure to head out to The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center to check them out!!

ER: What is your favorite sports movie and why?
BB: Facing the Giants because it’s an inspirational movie all about Christian faith and it's just really sweet. It's one of those tear-jerkers with a very happy ending. (I think I’ll watch it tonight actually!)

ER: What is your favorite tennis memory?
BB: Attending the Georgia Qualifier in Macon every year. All my tennis buddies would be there (often I would travel with my academy or some group) and we would stay at my godfather's house. And that was always nice because a home is always nicer than a hotel. I loved ending a tough day of matches in the Macon heat with a good meal from some restaurant in the company of loved ones.

ER: What is your most embarrassing memory while playing tennis?
BB: Playing in a skirt too small for me.

ER: I came to Elon because ...
BB: Both the academics and tennis are very solid. And, I mean, it's beautiful and I like being in a school where you always recognize faces with smaller class sizes and more of a cozy feel. Also, I love North Carolina and the Southern Conference which comprises some great schools that make for great competition that are all located in areas fairly close to home, making it easy for family to come cheer on Elon women's tennis!

ER: People would be surprised to know that I ...
BB: Have never been kissed (It’s like that movie Never Been Kissed with Drew Barrymore right! Maybe some awesome guy will read this and then meet me in the middle of a tennis court, instead of a baseball field like in the movie, and change this.) I’m just kidding! I’m perfectly fine with it, and I’ll wait for as long as I need to make sure my first kiss is totally special and right and with the best guy imaginable. It sounds kind of cheesy and the situation might seem a little cheesy but I don’t feel that way because I know God has some awesome plans for me!

ER: If you could be somebody else for a day, who would it be and why?
BB: Jesus Christ because he is perfect and he is God and I would love to have the goodness for a day that he has always.

ER: My first car was a ...
BB: 2009 Honda Civic

ER: What is the best advice that you have ever been given?
BB: Let go and let God.

ER: After graduation I would like to ...
BB: Go to medical school and serve God through my academics and through volunteering and service that I would do through out grad school.

ER: When I have an hour of free time, I like to ...
BB: Read my bible, spend time with God, watch sweet movies (romantic comedies are my favorite), dance, jump rope, walk, and basically do any exercise while listening to an AWESOME playlist, clean my room which always seems to get dirty a day or two after I clean it, eat something moderate and healthy if I’m hungry, write in my journal, dream, and call family.

ER: What are five words your teammates would use to describe you?
BB: Silly, random, kind, positive, health-nut

ER: If you could compete in any sport against any athlete, who would it be and why?
BB: Umm…I would like to go up against Martina Navratilova about 25 or 30 years ago when she was in her prime because she’s the fittest tennis player I’ve ever known. She was amazingly disciplined and still is. Plus, I love her net game.

ER: My craziest ambition in life is to ...
BB: Have 3 kids biologically (2 boys and one girl), adopt 2 kids as babies from outside the country, and learn a ton about hospital development and administration and then build a couple amazingly efficient hospitals in America that are the most sustainable, with the most compassionate employees and the most hopeful atmosphere you’ve ever seen or experienced. And all people would know that the main purpose of its construction would be Christ’s glorification (while people from all religions would be welcome), and if the patients were willing to be comforted by Him, doctors and nurses would spread His Word, giving them hope for abundant life on earth and beyond. And it wouldn’t be of normal construction but my hospitals would be the epitome of beautiful, jazzy, welcoming architecture.

ER: Any superstitions?
BB: Nope. Well, I do have to eat a good breakfast before a match (protein, ideally some whole wheat bread for carbs or pancakes). I wouldn’t call that superstition, just common sense.

ER: If you could have dinner with three people throughout history, who would they be?
Jesus Christ, Moses, and King David of the Bible

ER: A place I’ve always wanted to visit, but never have is ...
BB: Spain (ok, I have to pull out more than must one!), Australia, Greece and any Mediterranean country really, Israel

ER: What is the most embarrassing song on your iPod right now?
BB: Winnie the Pooh would probably seem the most embarrassing but… I love it (that and all my many Disney songs :-)

MLS Draft: Steven Kinney

2010-01-19T17:42:00.000-05:00

Check out Steven Kinney being drafted in the MLS!! Move ahead to the 6:30 mark!