Brynja Rodgers' Aggie Volleyball Diary :: 2008 Season

Brynja Rodgers is a sophomore setter for the 2008 NMSU Aggies volleyball team. Byrnja will be filing entries in the Aggie Volleyball Diary throughout the 2008 season giving fans a taste of life on the volleyball team.

October 12th, 2008. Honolulu, Hawai'i. A time and a place this group of girls will never, as long as well live, forget! This 3-0 sweep against Hawaii on their home court is what we practice for! This 3-0 sweep against Hawai'i is what we dream about! This 3-0 sweep against Hawaii is what we sweat for! This 3-0 sweep against Hawaii is something we've never done before and now it's a reality!

After returning from a long road trip to San Jose State and Utah State we had five long days to practice hard before taking on the Rainbow Wahine on their floor, for their homecoming match. We went into the gym every day with Hawai'i on our minds. We went into the gym, the weight room, the classroom and to bed thinking of beating Hawai'i. All the hard work and concentration seemed to be going down the drain as we got behind during game two (1-8 and eventually 3-12). After a few time outs and some great on the fly adjustments from the wonderful coaching staff, we battled back and took game two!

Losing to Stanford and Santa Clara wasn't the end of the world for our young Aggie team. We learned from playing Texas the previous week that stepping up the challange is something that always needs to be done and we did just that getting ready to take the #7 ranked team in the nation, Stanford.

In the locker room we talked about getting excited and bringing energy to the floor. We decided from the begining that we weren't just gonna go out there and try to give Stanford a run for their money, we chose to put our minds to WINNING!

While the weekend might not have been a sucess on the scoreboard it certainly was a win in terms of getting to know the new team and really getting to know each other for the first time. We lost in four games to the University of Illinois Illini and the Oregon Ducks, but pulled out an exciting four game win over North Caronlina on Saturday night.

This past weekend was a wonderful time to get to know our new teammates and spend lots of time together. Our new found chemistry seems to be a positive asset for the team this year. Everyone is getting along great, we are playing with passion, enthusiasm and heart which is more than most teams can say.

Brynja Rodgers is a setter for the 2008 NMSU Aggies volleyball team. Brynja finished second on the team in both assists (612) and assists per game (6.06) in 2007. Brynja will be a sophomore this fall and is majoring in Bio-Chemistry and she'll be filing entries in the Aggie Volleyball Diary throughout the 2008 season giving fans a taste of life on the volleyball team.

Until next time...

This was the final week of Aggie volleyball for this '07-'08 school year. This past weekend the current Aggies team took on the Alumni in a best of five game match. We had an awesome turn out! Many boosters and young Aggie fans showed up to watch the Aggies defeat the Alumni in three quick easy games, but for the sake of FUN we played one more.

The current Aggies proved their worthiness to the alumni in a fourth and final game sweeping 25-8! After the match everyone gathered outside for a wonderful picnic style get together where the players, boosters, coaches and many other Aggie volleyball fans mingled and ate wonderful food!

Brynja Rodgers is a setter for the 2008 NMSU Aggies volleyball team. Brynja finished second on the team in both assists (612) and assists per game (6.06) in 2007. Brynja will be a sophomore this fall and is majoring in Bio-Chemistry and she'll be filing entries in the Aggie Volleyball Diary throughout the 2008 season giving fans a taste of life on the volleyball team.

This past Friday and Saturday (April 11th and 12th) we played at the Texas Tornadoes Training Facility College Spring Tournament. This tournament was jam packed with amazing teams, some top ranked volleyball teams along with some up and coming in the rankings. The University of Southern California, Texas, UTEP, University of New Orleans, Southern Methodist University, Texas State, Wichita State University and the defending national championship team Penn State were just a few of the teams on the tournament team list. At this tournament we played and conquered Oklahoma, Tulane, Arkansas, Baylor and last year's Elite Eight qualifier, the Texas Longhorns.

Brynja Rodgers is a setter for the 2008 NMSU Aggies volleyball team. Brynja finished second on the team in both assists (612) and assists per game (6.06) in 2007. Brynja will be a sophomore this fall and is majoring in Bio-Chemistry and she'll be filing entries in the Aggie Volleyball Diary throughout the 2008 season giving fans a taste of life on the volleyball team.

We went to the University of Arizona this past weekend to play two, five-game matches against the Wildcats. We lost the first match in four games but redeemed ourselves in the second match winning in five.

This first match against the Wildcats was a bit shaky for both teams. Coming off spring break was hard but we had to put the mental mistakes out of our heads and play ball. Without four seniors lots of the underclass men had to step up and step OUT onto the court. Alex Steinmetz did a wonderful job playing on the outside and right side of the court, she roofed a few balls and put down some good kills. Kelli Goodan also had to step up to the plate and play an all around outside position. Goodan showed huge bright spots in her offensive hitting. She tore apart the Wildcat defense!

Brynja Rodgers is a setter for the 2008 NMSU Aggies volleyball team. Brynja finished second on the team in both assists (612) and assists per game (6.06) in 2007. Brynja will be a sophomore this fall and is majoring in Bio-Chemistry and she'll be filing entries in the Aggie Volleyball Diary throughout the 2008 season giving fans a taste of life on the volleyball team.

We have a spring season volleyball tournament this coming weekend. Friday, March 28th and Saturday, March 29th at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

We've been practicing nonstop since the beginning of the semester, working really hard in the weight room and we are ready for this tournament. We can't wait to finally see all our hard work pay off. The off-season is really difficult.

While it is call the OFF season it should really be called "harder than in season". During the spring we have very little matches and tournaments to go to so we spend all our time working out in the gym and the weight room preparing ourselves for the upcoming season.

In the gym our seniors (who are not required to come practice anymore) often show up at the gym as extra bodies and pound balls at us. Our team is composed of 12 players, 10 of which are healthy and on the court at every practice so when the seniors do come to practice we are able to scrimmage and play 6-on-6 drills which are really beneficial.

Because we haven't played a real match in so long the whole team (coaches and all) are ready for this up coming tournament, we just want to play!