Student Blogs #2

Morgan Koopman, McDaniel College Women’s Golf

McDaniel Tournament Fights Through Mother Nature
The weekend seemed to fly by so fast, as it is already Monday and another grueling week lies ahead. A week of many tests and papers awaits, and it was very hard to prepare for them as my weekend was consumed by golf, golf and golf. As I mentioned before, McDaniel College hosted its own golf invitational this weekend at The Bridges Golf Club. Many teams attended the tournament, from Division I, II, and III institutions, specifically, New York University, Kutztown University, SUNY Cortland, Gettysburg College, Nazareth College, and Franklin & Marshall College.

Saturday we had tee times starting at 1:30 p.m. Normally I would not prefer to tee off so late, but for this weekend in particular, it was great because of the weather. Unfortunately, Mother Nature was not too kind this weekend. Both days it was between 35-40 degrees with wind, so if we would have played in the morning time, it would have been even chillier. The conditions were very brutal, and made for tough play on both days; however, McDaniel finished 4th out of 7 teams, and first out of the two other teams in the Centennial Conference (Gettysburg and Franklin & Marshall).

Saturday and Sunday were both very long days. Both days we would make the trip to the course around noon, and not return until about 8:00 p.m. that evening. After such a long day, it is hard to keep a good energy level to begin homework due for the upcoming week. This week, it is especially important to get ahead on all assignments because it is a very important weekend here at McDaniel College.

On Friday, April 1, McDaniel’s “Spring Fling” begins and continues into Saturday, April 2. I have never personally experienced Spring Fling because usually our Conference Championships are held during the same weekend, but for some reason Spring Fling is a bit earlier this year, and it just so happens that we do not have a golf tournament schedule for this day. I have heard many fun and exciting stories about Spring Fling. Apparently, many different fun activities are available for students to do. For example, there are many sporting events that are played throughout the day on campus, as well as music, food, prizes, and even an inflatable moon bounce to jump in! Needless to say, I am super excited to go to my first Spring Fling, and I will certainly enjoy it because I am not be able to participate in years to come due to our golf schedule.

I hope that everyone has an enjoyable week. Until next time…



Vivien Chen, Bryn Mawr College Women’s Tennis

To Give it Your All …

The school year goes by so much quicker when you’re in season. I think this is mostly because my mind preoccupies itself with future match dates, so I am always constantly looking forward to a new challenge or new event. So far, we are scheduled to play Muhlenberg College on Wednesday, March 30, so I think the team is definitely pumped for that match. Before we know it, Wednesday will be right around the corner and soon this week will almost be over; however let’s not forget our match on Saturday against Dickinson College.

Thinking about how many matches the team has played thus far really makes the season seem so short, and that is without a doubt one of the sad parts about it. If you really think about it, the season is quite short, especially in the fall. This has huge importance to me. This means that it is so important to put a lot of effort in our matches (as our coach says: give 200% effort and leave the court knowing you left everything on it), no matter the opponent. This brings up our match against Johns Hopkins University this past weekend. This match was definitely an interesting one especially since it was scheduled to be a “home” match; but because the cold weather would not permit us to play outdoors, we instead played indoors at Swarthmore College. Going into the match knowing that Johns Hopkins is the top tennis team of the conference, did not deter us from giving all our effort. Before the match, we did not think this would be an automatic “loss” for us; instead, we believed that this was a great opportunity and experience for us to play against one of the top teams in the conference and we kept this mindset while playing our individual matches. Johns Hopkins played its game well, and I was more than pleased with our performance and effort against them.

I briefly mentioned before that our location for the match had to be changed last minute. Even though this may seem to pose as a small obstacle that can easily and quickly be fixed, it definitely was not. Sometimes, I feel that team members expect certain things from their coaches. Something like a location change for a match can easily be resolved by pushing the match until the end of the season, but instead my coach made the effort to convenience our team and Johns Hopkins’ team (by saving them a trip and us a match at the end of the season) and hustled to get available indoor courts for us. This meant drafting a proposal, contacting various sources like Swarthmore College’s athletic department and Johns Hopkins’ tennis coach, verifying this change with the referee, getting a time change for the match, and finally, making sure the teams’ schedules would permit this new time of competition.

This common example just shows the lengths in which our coaches take for us, and this should not go unnoticed. Our coaches are always there for us, and therefore I believe we should be there for them too – giving 200% effort during practices and during matches is a good start to show them we care and appreciate them, too.