Off-Season Community Service Fun

Community Service is something that most students at Middlebury get involved with, and it's a great way to bond with friends while helping those in need in our community.  One popular even that student-athletes often do is the Community Supper.  Every Friday night, all year long, different groups volunteer to cook dinner for roughly 200-250 community members who are in need of a hot, healthy dinner free of charge.  Over 100 of those dinners get delivered to those in the community that aren't able to get there themselves.



It's an amazing feeling to feed that many people and engage with our community.  Many sports teams do this because it takes quite a few people to prepare a meal that large, as well as serve it to that many people.  The Congregational Church hosts the dinners every week, but it's organized by an outside group, and they coordinate the volunteers, but we did the shopping, and all of the meal preparation/serving/cleaning. 

We did our night on Valentine's Day this year, so it was an extra special evening! We wanted to make lasagna, so we actually prepped most of the dinner on Thursday afternoon. Corley and Lucy were on dessert duty, making three HUGE pans of brownies.


Ali cooked and seasoned the meat while Maggie, Jane and I assembled the lasagna.  (No Boil noodles made this task much simpler, and just as tasty!)

The day of we prepared huge bowls of salad by cutting up cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots to add to the greens.  All agreed it was a fun event and would love to do it again! 



The finished product looked great, and we got rave reviews about how good it all tasted, as well as how nice the team was to engage with the community members by not only helping them get served dinner, but also just chatting with them during dinner.  I think we made 11 double pans of lasagna, which is a ton of lasagna!

AND, of course, we had to clean up afterward!  Good job, TEAM!!  The saying, "It takes a Village" is ever so true, and especially in small communities like Middlebury.  This is a win-win for our team since it's a huge help to the community, and rewarding for us to contribute and work together on a project about more than personal betterment.

Season Ends with Banquet at Swift House Inn

 We celebrated our season at the Swift House, which was a wonderful venue for our gathering.  A big thank-you to our supportive parent group who helped fund this event, allowing us to eat great food in a beautiful setting and enjoy each others company!  As you can see, it was also a gorgeous day outside.

After our delicious brunch, we celebrated our Academic All-Nescac award winners, so congrats again to Ali, Beth, Maggie, El, Corley and Jane!




We also celebrated our "rookies" with old school varsity letters!  I've mentioned this in the past, but Chellsa made a letter jacket with hers, and one former alum made a Christmas stocking with her letter on it!  Here are our freshman with their Middlebury M's:Kelly, Manya, Laney, Addie, and Lucy.

We also recognized our seniors.  The team celebrates and honors our seniors on Senior Weekend during the season and had already given them these really cool pillows with pictures from their four years, which has become a fabulous tradition.  Still a fun tradition, but not quite as sleek as that, the coaching staff always gives the seniors a fleece blanket with their number on it and one of their old practice jerseys!  This year, the captains were all three seniors, so we also made them a Mug with pictures of each of them on it, which was fun, especially given our collective love our Dunkin Donuts coffee!  (I have come to realize that not everyone actually likes the coffee, but we all still enjoy the pre-game tradition!)  You can always use another vessel in which to put coffee!

 We also had three awards that the team voted on.  First was the Yellow Jersey Award, given to the person who gave the most consistent effort in practice on a daily basis throughout the season.  This award went to Kelly Ferrero!  Next we had the MCVB Spirit Award, which goes to the person who most consistently demonstrated the positive spirit of Middlebury Volleyball, thus encouraging others and bringing positivity in practice and games, regardless of how things were going.  This went to Beth Neal (for the 3rd year in a row, I might add!)  Our final award was for Panther Pride.  This award is given to the person who is the best teammate; someone who makes those around her better by holding themselves and their teammates accountable to a high standard of excellence, while also being supportive and understanding.  They must also live our mantra of "It's All About the Team!"  This award went to Jaime Donnelly!  These three were very deserving of these awards, and it's a nice tribute to them to be voted for these awards by their teammates.

We also had a special celebration on this day because it was Corley's Birthday!!  My daughter Lois  helped me make a cake, and she decorated it because that's just not in my skill set, so a special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Corley as well!

Swift House does a fabulous job with our Brunch.  It's a picturesque country Inn with wonderful food!!  Again, I want to thank our parent group for helping us keep this tradition alive, and we had a full group there with all of our coaches buy one, and also our Faculty Affiliate with her daughter!  We were just missing Jesse, who helped us out as a volunteer coach this year, as well as our Trainer, Bethany, who couldn't make it either.  It was another really fun year, and we're already excited about next year.  The newbies have now gotten in ED, but we can't make that public yet to follow the rules, but although we're sad to say good bye to our seniors, we're happy to welcome new players for next year.  The cycle of teams keeps going!


Happy New Year, and may 2020 bring you all health and happiness!!

MCVB 2019 Pre Season

Our 2019 season opening dinner this year was at The Knoll, the organic garden at Middlebury!  My house is undergoing a kitchen renovation so we couldn't really host the party there, but the Knoll was such a fun venue that we may have to continue this tradition.  It was a gorgeous night, which helps, of course!

We also have class photos, so here goes:  The Seniors (also the Captains) with Beth Neal, Gigi Alper and Chellsa Ferdinand!

 Now we have the groups by class:  First we have our Seniors and Captains:  Beth, Gigi and Chellsa!












Then we have our Juniors, who did both a regular and a "pinch face" photo!

The Sophomores wanted to do a regular one and a pyramid, with Maggie and Ali on top, and Corley, Jane and Bella on the base!

Last, but not least is our Freshman Class!   We have Addie from FL, Laney from SoCal, Kelly from Nor Cal, and Manya and Lucy from NY.








On an afternoon off, the team went to "cold bath soak" in the Bristol River, and followed that up with a VT Creemee!!  Nothing better to break up pre season doubles than a trip to Bristol Falls and a creemee!

Welcome back to ALL, and great job with pre-season!!  We're excited to play for the first time this weekend, but unfortunately, we will be without our freshmen as they take part in their Orientation Trips!  The rest of us leave for Union on Saturday to play both Manhattanville and Union to open the season!!

2016 Season Begins!

The 2016 season has begun, and I'm already behind on my posts!  I'm going to recap all of pre season right now, and then hope to keep everyone caught up on our season going forward.

We're also posting on instagram @middvb, and also Facebook on a page titled Middlebury College Women's Volleyball, so when I figure out how to properly link them all in one place, I'll get those links here on the Blog for easy access to all things MCVB!

Our season started on August 29th when everyone moved in, and we gathered for the first time at my house for the season opening Team BBQ! We were missing Claire, who had RA duties that day, but were joined by our Faculty Affiliate, Pat Manley, and our Trainer, Judd Mackey and his family, some of whom made the picture.  I think only one of my kids actually made the picture (Lois), and neither of Brian's girls made it as they're all (except for Max) teenagers now!

After the BBQ, we had a day of "administrative details" where we sign forms, do some team bonding activities, and talk about things we need to talk about, ranging from team expectations, goals and team culture,  to anti-hazing, NCAA forms, Green Dot, and the campus culture.


And, then, we started practicing, which included several days of double sessions, and some extra "fitness" which may or may not have included running hills and resting in cool mountain streams.  Doubles culminated last night in an inter-squad scrimmage.

Today was the first real day of not having double sessions, so we celebrated with a shorter practice followed by a "lollygagging session" in the pool!  This of course included spelling out MCVB by both floating (which wasn't as readable from above), and then mostly standing to form the letters, which was much easier to read.  There was some "Martha Washington" hairdos and some diving in the deep end that didn't make the team blog, but I think the pool session was a very positive and needed break!

 We're headed to Union College on Friday to play four matches (SUNY Oneonta, Skidmore, Union and Susquehanna).  Unfortunately, we won't have our freshmen with us as they finish up Orientation with trips of various kinds this weekend, but then we'll all be back together for a week of practice before our first NESCAC weekend on Sept. 16-17.

LET'S GO MCVB!!

Banquet Concludes 2014 Season

We celebrated our Season with a final dinner at the Swift House Inn last night.  What a lovely place, and we want a special THANK YOU to go out to the Underbrinks and the Kolodkas for sponsoring this lovely event.  We'd never have a dinner like that without you, so we all really appreciate your generosity and thoughtfulness.

In a fashion typical of our team, we don't do a big, formal banquet celebration with speeches and presentations, but instead, just get together for a wonderful meal, and laughs and enjoy each other's company.  Pat Manley, our Faculty Affiliate, and Judd Mackey, our trainer joined us as they're both very important members of our team as well as the players and coaches.

We do have a few team awards that the team votes on, old-school Varsity Letters for the freshmen, and the official MIDD Certificate of Participation for everyone, so we hand those out so everyone has a token of appreciation for their efforts during the season.  I think Lizzy mentioned that she actually put her varsity M on a quilt or blanket, which is a great idea.  Then, I thank the captains for their special contributions.  I always recognize our seniors for FOUR wonderful years.  Every year I get them a navy fleece blanket with Middlebury and their # on it so as they cuddle up on their couch next year in whatever part of the country they end up in, they can reminisce about the "good ole days" playing MCVB!  It's a pretty quick award presentation, but hopefully a special one nonetheless.

The captains and team gave the "adults" a cool mug with the team picture on it, and some fun food items for Meg, in addition to a very special Picture Book for the coaches of a snapshot of the season, and a CD of the warm-up music.  THANK YOU for those nice gifts!!

Here are the results from our Team Awards:

Off-Court Contribution:  Kathryn Haderlein
On-Court Contribution:  Lizzy Reed
Most Improved:  Eliana Schaefer
Spirit Award:  Kathryn Haderlein (and Cowie)!

The Captains for 2015:  Kathryn, Katie, and Hannah

Congratulations to everyone, and thank you for a wonderful Season!!

Halloween FUN!!

 Since we played on Halloween, we decided to dress up before practice on Thursday. There's no pressure about it, and in typical fashion, some really got into it, and others didn't dress up at all.  It's all good!  Here are some of our pics, though.

Fall Break Fun

FALL BREAK is a fun time!  NO classes on Monday and Tuesday, so we can change our schedule and do some fun things, in addition to people catching up on work and sleep.  Sunday, several of the team went to Burlington to get great food at the Asiana House, and then did some shopping on Church Street.  I think they were enjoying the colors in a roadside celebration (?) also.  What a gorgeous Fall it's been!



Then, after practice today, we had a Team Activity of....Laser Tag at Whirlie's World, here in Middlebury!  It was a blast, I have to admit.  I think I had as much fun as the rest of them.  We grouped into teams by position, so the RH/S were one group, the OH's were a group (and I joined that one), and then the MH/DS's were a group.  Several people were on their game, and some particularly strong on team strategy, others had their own, personal strategy, too.  Mel was an animal, as was Hannah, and Olivia, and Alice, too.  [I think those were the main ones getting the most points, however, Eliana may have been the "sleeper" of the group as I think she surprised everyone by winning one of the games.  When we did a game of "everyone for themselves," though, Hannah crushed it!! 

We also enjoyed the Bouncy House at Whirlie's World, or at least the OH team did.  A couple of people (Gabi, and someone else) won a bunch of tickets with Fruit Ninja, and Piper and Katie enjoyed a race car driving game!  It was a lot of fun all the way around. 

Tomorrow, we are off to play Colby-Sawyer, and then it's back to the regular schedule of classes etc.  Nerf was a great host at Whirlie's World, so we may have to pay him another visit sometime, and do this again!  :)
 

Olympic Dreams...

Ok, so we watch the movie Miracle every year.  Who doesn't LOVE that movie?!  Lizzy has the inside scoop on the Olympic Training Center at Lake Placid now after training there last J-Term on the Olympic Skeleton Development Team.  Very cool.  She and Kathryn organized a trip over to Lake Placid during preseason on one of our afternoons off so we could tour the rink, check out the Olympic vibe, and just walk around town.  It's pretty close, really, as it takes just about 1.5 hours to get there.

Unfortunately, the freshmen couldn't go with us because of Orientation obligations, but the rest of us all enjoyed our time together, and it's hard not to think about your dreams when you're at the sight of "The Miracle on Ice!"  Another fun fact that I didn't even know was that the 1932 Olympics were also held in Lake Placid, so we have a picture of that Ice Rink also.  Huge difference,as you'd imagine between the 1932 rink, and the 1980 one.  (The 1932 rink looks almost exactly like the old rink at MIDD!)



We even got a tour of the actual locker room TEAM USA was in during the games where the famous speech took place.  (It was much, much nicer in the movie.  We had to remind ourselves that it was 1980 we were talking about, so not many frills there!)







We also did the Olympic Simulator ride, which was where you seemingly are doing five Olympic events, complete with wind in your face, and a bouncing chair to simulate events like the luge, skeleton, bobsledding, and ski jumping (which was actually my favorite!)

 Then, Lizzy took us over to the Training Center where she trains, and even showed us the "push track" for dry training for the Skeleton.  Don't ask what Kathryn has on her head!  We were not allowed to get on the skeleton sled, but Kathryn was trying to really get in the moment, I guess.  :)