Wingate, N.C.----Hey everyone! My name is Rebecca Bloemer and I am a junior middle blocker at Wingate University. I can not believe that it is already October…and that we are starting the second half of our SAC regular season! This season has gone by so quickly, but I guess that is what happens when you have a team that works hard and enjoys every moment spent together!

This was a special week for Wingate Volleyball because one of our plays was nominated for the AVCA Play of the Week. It is a play against USC Aiken where Stormi gets a really impressive kill. After getting out of practice early on Thursday, we took a team trip to the computer lab to “watch” the video! We were the only NCAA Division II team nominated this week! We did not receive the winning play award, but we finished second! We were excited to be included in this competition.

For the past three years, I have been impressed with the intensity of our practices here at Wingate. This (past) week wasn’t any different! We came into practice with some things to accomplish; we worked hard until we finished each drill. After a week of practice, we all felt prepared for the important weekend ahead!

Last Friday morning, we left for Carson- Newman. As usual, about ten minutes into the trip, our whole team was asleep! After a drive through the mountains, we beat Carson Newman in four games. The next day we headed to Lincoln Memorial University. As we do each year, we stopped at a lookout so we could enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Tennessee mountains! Before getting on the bus, we took in the captivating view and took a few team pictures!



When we arrived at LMU, we won a five-game battle against the Railsplitters in their home gym. I will never forget this game. Not only was it on my 21st birthday, but I got my first yellow card in a game! As my dad said...the referee just wanted to give me a birthday card, so he gave me a yellow one! Stormi got a yellow card as well! It was in intense battle, but we got to load the bus for the six-hour drive back with a win! It was so awesome that so many parents came to watch us play both places this weekend! It is so nice to have the support of our parents even when we were six hours from Wingate!

We are all looking forward to a busy upcoming weekend filled with home games! This is a four-match week for us...as we started the week with a 3-0 victory over Catawba Tuesday night. We play Tusculum on Friday, Mars Hill on Saturday and Pfeiffer on Sunday.

All the matches are at Cuddy Arena, except Pfeiffer. The Wingate-Pfeiffer match will be held at Carolina Courts, about 30 minutes down the road! We will also be having a clinic for young volleyball players before the game on Sunday! We had Sunday as our NCAA day off…and we did not have school on Monday or Tuesday…these facts will allow us to be well prepared for this exciting weekend of volleyball! We look forward to seeing you at the matches this weekend!

WINGATE UNIVERSITY

Founded in 1896, Wingate University is a private four-year co-educational institution of 2,159 students offering active learning opportunities through personalized instruction, world travel, career discovery and community service.

Wingate offers more than 40 undergraduate majors in arts and sciences, business, communication, education, fine arts, music and sport sciences. It also offers graduate degrees in business, education, physician assistant studies and sport administration. In addition, the school awards the doctor of pharmacy and the doctor of education degrees.

Bulldog student-athletes compete in 17 NCAA Division II sports. Wingate University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past three years.

Wingate University is ranked number three among NCAA Division II Academic All-America® producing schools in the 2000’s with 34 honorees during this millennium. Only Pittsburg State (Kan.) University and Truman State (Mo.) University have produced more Academic All-America® honorees during this time period. Wingate’s 43 Academic All-America® honorees (lifetime) is tops among all SAC schools.

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