Thursday, Feb. 17 - Get in the Zone...The Pink Zone!
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
Thursday, Feb. 3 - Keeping Busy!
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
Tuesday, Jan. 25 - Finish Strong!
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
Wednesday, Jan. 19 - South Carolina Sweep!
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, tipoff 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
Wednesday, Jan. 12 - Snow Days!
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
Tuesday, Jan. 4 - Happy New Year!
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 SVU 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
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010 - 'Tis The Season!
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
Monday, Dec. 6, 2010 - Road Trip!
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
Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010 - When You Get Knocked Down, What Are You Going To Do?
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
Monday, Nov. 22, 2010 - Some Like to Call Me the Bed Check Enforcer
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
Monday, Nov. 15, 2010 - Tournament Champs
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...
Monday, Nov. 8, 2010 - Basketball Begins
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
