This is the second installment this season of a basketball diary that’s being kept by AU junior forward Betsy Morrison. The following account concerns the Eagles’ 2-0 trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

January 21 I’m back again to tell all you - the Ashland faithful - about my life as an Ashland women’s basketball player. It isn’t always as easy as we make it look, you know. Anyway, let me briefly recap the beginning of 2008 for you in case you haven’t been following.

We did NOT start out on a good note when Hillsdale defeated us for the second time this season to start the new year. We made a run in the second half but couldn’t pull out the win. We quickly recovered and came out two days later firing against Tiffin. I would have called it our best game of the year at the time. We put almost 40 minutes of basketball together and played very well as a team. This helped give us a boost for the following week.

We were pretty down in the GLIAC at this time having lost three straight heading into our road trip to Erie. We took down Mercyhurst despite their late charge and finally got ourselves another league win. After Mercyhurst, I was ready to finally beat Gannon in their gym. We definitely came ready to play the Golden Knights. I actually came out and played the best half of my collegiate career, but then was silenced in the second half.

Everyone played really well but we couldn’t quite pull off the victory. Gannon took the lead with 28 seconds left and we were unable to gain it back. It was a really disappointing loss for us because we had finally been on a roll and felt like we were playing good basketball. Lucky for us, I think Gannon was only the beginning of our good basketball.

We didn’t have another game until the following Saturday, so we enjoyed an extra day off of practice while we tried to settle into our second semester schedules. Most of us were not interested in classes starting again because that means less free time and more homework. But class does give us something to do. I am looking forward to my classes this semester except for the fact that I will have to get up early every morning. I am a math education major and I have my junior field experience this semester. This means I get to go to Mansfield Senior High School every morning to observe, teach and absorb as much about the field of education as possible. I guess I have to get used to getting up early sometime, right?

We finished off last week with a trip to Central State, which is somewhere in the Dayton area. We almost squandered a huge lead in the second half, but we found our footing and pulled out a nice victory. Everyone got to play and it was a much-needed victory after a tough week of practice.

All of that brings me to today. It’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day which means no classes. We had a fairly early practice and are done for the day. Our practice was really intense and everyone brought herself which was a positive. We lifted hard and then ate in Convo before going back to our rooms. Did I mention how nice it is having Convo back open since winter break ended? That is definitely a positive in my life!

I have some homework to do but probably won’t end up doing much of it since we only have to go to class tomorrow. I know that sounds bad, but we have to leave tomorrow night at midnight to travel to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to play Michigan Tech and Lake Superior State. It’s a grueling trip, but I am hoping this one is much better than the last two that I have made. So far in my Ashland career, I am a brutal 0-3 when playing in the Upper Peninsula.

January 22

Today has been an extremely hectic day. I spent my first day actually going to school this morning, so I was able to meet the cooperating teacher I will be working with all semester and the students in my classes. It was a lot of fun, and I can tell I will really enjoy my semester there.

I came back and had two classes then went straight to practice. We had another great day of practice. That’s TWO in a ROW! Excellent. This is just what we need going into this road trip. It feels like forever since we have played at home, but we just have to make it through this weekend. I can’t really write a lot about today because I still have to pack, go to night class and make sure I am set for this five-day road trip.

January 23

I just spent almost 14 hours on a bus. Ok, we did stop three times and once was for lunch so I probably was only on the bus for 13. That is a looooong time for a bus ride. Luckily, I got my own seat and was able to sleep most of the time. I usually don’t sleep well on the bus so I can already tell that this Upper Peninsula trip is going to be good. Everyone is usually very “jet-lagged,” but everyone seemed good at practice. We had a basic run-through getting acquainted with Michigan Tech’s gym and preparing for tomorrow’s game.

It will be no easy task taking on the Huskies in their own gym. Tech has a very impressive crowd and a spectacular band that I can only remember as annoying from the last time I was here. Tech is also currently the best team in the GLIAC. A win in their gym would be a season high for us. They are extremely talented and I am looking forward to a good game.

Michigan Tech is one of the schools that I have yet to beat in the GLIAC. Alethea, Lisa, Lynsey, Jessica, and I, the five juniors, have decided we want to beat every team in the GLIAC before our reign at AU is over, we have two left - Michigan Tech and Grand Valley. I am confident that we can knock both of these teams off our “bucket list” this season.

We have a great game plan going into tomorrow’s game and I really just wish it would get here already. All this snow (around three feet of it) is making me antsy. All we can do is sit around in the hotel until we get to play.

January 24

Would you believe it if I told you we won tonight? I’m still not sure I believe it. We defeated Michigan Tech by ONE point! It was a great game and definitely the best that we have played all year. I wish more people could have seen it because everything fell into place for us tonight. Lisa Graue was tearing up the court on both ends and everyone else pulled her own weight as well. Alethea came up with another game-winning shot when she drained a 3-pointer with about 10 seconds left on the clock. We came down and somehow held Tech to just a layup with one second left. Despite my turnover on the inbounds pass, we pulled off the victory when they were unable to get a shot off.

I know, you’re thinking, “How could you turn the ball over on the inbounds pass?” Well, it was a bad pass and I should have thrown it harder. All I can say is it doesn’t even matter anymore because we won. I have really never seen my team so excited. We celebrated to the core as we ran back to our locker room and tried to send some of our energy to the men’s team. However, they weren’t so lucky in their game and couldn’t pull out a win.

Winning wasn’t everything though. Like I said before, we truly played a complete game and Coach Ramsey said we were “poised” throughout it. It’s been a very long time since the AU women have won at Michigan Tech and I am proud that I could be a part of this win. Coach Ramsey was in such a great mood after the game that she even let us go swimming at the hotel tonight. That NEVER happens. We had a blast for the half hour that we swam and enjoyed more team bonding time.

I really love my team. I can’t communicate that to you readers to the fullest extent just in text. I have never been around such a great group of people that I get along with on a consistent basis and really don’t fight with either. I am, of course, partial to my junior class but I thoroughly enjoy the other 12 people on my team. Not a day goes by where I don’t have fun and laugh until my stomach hurts. I only hope that this is noticeable when we are together and that everyone has friends like this.

January 25

We spent another five hours on a bus today. I won’t lie when I say I am about sick of bus rides. At least we were traveling back toward Ashland as we came to Lake Superior State. Lake State is another tough team who will give us another great game. I’d really like to see us pull off a sweep of the Upper Peninsula and remain undefeated against the GLIAC North opponents. I even told everyone in the locker room last night that I smelled a sweep coming. We are not trying to be cocky just confident. Everything seems to be clicking for us, and if that continues, I don’t think there is a team in the GLIAC that can stop us.

I won’t bore you with many details about the team or my boring bus ride today. We’re headed off to scout for Lake State and then practice in our new environment again. I’ll keep you posted on how the game goes tomorrow.

January 26

I write to you one last time this week from the bus. Yes, we are on the bus yet again. We are about an hour from Ashland so I decided I could go ahead and finish my journal for the week. Most people have calmed down and fallen asleep or they are keeping to themselves and listening to their iPods. Anyway, we pulled off another victory today. It was another exciting game even though it shouldn’t have been.

We had as large as a 23-point lead and squandered it down to four. But in the end, we hit some big shots and free throws and came out on top. It at least made the bus ride a lot more pleasant. We, as a team, are totally psyched to be going home for two huge games coming off of two great road wins.

Winning two on the road in the GLIAC is no easy task. Also, Gannon lost today so we took sole possession of second place in the South Division. This is huge for us. If you end up first or second in the division, you get to host the first-round tournament game for the GLIAC tournament and everyone knows home court advantage is always a plus.

Hopefully, we continue to play some excellent team basketball and string on some more victories to our current three-game winning streak. I look forward to seeing all of you at our games this coming week. Thursday against Ferris State is “Pack the House” night so come early and get a free t-shirt If you can’t make it Thursday, come Saturday and watch us take on Grand Valley State (and watch all of us attempt to beat GVSU for the first time in our Ashland careers).

What follows is a week in the life of Ashland University women’s basketball player Betsy Morrison. This diary covers a stretch that saw Ashland lose to West Liberty (86-76 on Nov. 29) and defeat Findlay (71-58, Dec. 1).  Morrison will be providing an in-depth look at the Eagles periodically throughout the season.

 November 27

Practice today was a little rough.  We had yesterday off and had to try to get back in the swing of things with classes and everything, too.  I was hoping practice would have gone better though.  I know that we won two games this weekend and everything, but I wouldn’t exactly call them stellar wins; we struggled in both games doing certain things.

Let me summarize our Thanksgiving weekend for you.  Saturday, we came out entirely too flat and couldn’t really get going until the second half.  We are not a team that can afford to only show up for 20 minutes a game!  This has definitely been our Achilles’ heel so far this season, we have only spurts of great basketball.  It’s early and hopefully this will get better.

 Everyone’s family stayed after our game and we had a nice big dinner.  It was really nice to have everyone in the same room together and I think it’s great for all the parents to not only meet the team but also the other parents and families.  After all of this, it was time to regroup for what we knew would be a tough game the next day.  Sunday was just an all-around crazy experience.  For starters, there was a 10-minute delay 15 minutes into the first half because a light in the gym caught on fire.  No really, it was flaming! After we got that resolved, we went into the locker room up two in what I would call a decent half.  The second half wasn’t much better.  We had no problems scoring, but couldn’t seem to come up with a defensive stop! Our defense still seems to be coming together and hopefully it continues to progress.  We want to hold opponents to way fewer points than we have given up.  We ended up pulling out the win when Alethea hit an unbelievable shot with .2 seconds left on the clock! She pulled up from like 24 feet and drained it! It was so exciting!

Anyway, back to the issues at hand.  We had a lackadaisical practice and it should have been better.  Alethea, Lisa, and I need to do a better job as captains coming out and making sure everyone is ready to go at practice, but everyone needs to take responsibility for bringing herself too.  We’ll just brush this off and come back tomorrow ready to go.  We have two huge games to prepare for this week!

 November 28

            Today’s practice was much better.  I think we have a really good game plan going into the West Liberty game and everyone is ready to go.  I am excited because it was a good game between us last year and I think this game should really challenge us before Findlay.  We worked out the kinks we had defensively and are ready to guard their shooter who averages 22 points a game.  As a team, they shoot a lot of three’s, so we are going to try to take that part of their game away and force them to do other things.

            I am also really excited for the game tomorrow because one of my high school teammates plays at WLSC so this will be the first time we play each other.  It’s kind of weird to see someone who I used to play with everyday wearing the opposing team’s jersey.  It should be pretty fun, but I am also nervous.

 November 29

            We lost tonight in another lackluster game.  I really felt like we had them in the second half and then all the sudden I looked up and we were down.  We had dug ourselves too big of a hole and couldn’t dig out.  It’s disappointing because even though West Liberty is a great team, I believe we should have beaten them.  I was really disappointed in myself too.  I had a terrible first half and could have done a lot more to help my team.  I ended up having a pretty good game, but I can’t come out playing badly like that.

As a whole, our team seemed to struggle at times offensively which hasn’t really been much of a problem so far this season.  It was good to play a team with outstanding defense because it taught us a lot about what we needed to fix and they really challenged us.  And once again, we did not play the kind of defense that we are capable of.  We just all need to step it up a notch and just take care of business.  I think we’ll get there though.  The problem is we need to get there quickly.  GLIAC play starts on Saturday!

 November 30

            Today’s practice was pretty basic.  We really just prepared for Findlay.  Everyone seems very excited for the Findlay game because it’s the opening game for us in the GLIAC and it’s a South Division game also.  I personally have never lost to Findlay because we have beaten them twice each season for the past two years.  I would love to keep that streak going and open with a 1-0 record in the GLIAC.

            I am really nervous for the game tomorrow because I know a lot of people are coming to watch us, and I know how important it is to start off well in the GLIAC.  I just hope I don’t completely blow it and have a terrible game.  I know even if I am not on offensively there are a lot of things I can do for my team and I just hope that everyone has the same attitude.  We need to make the best of each possession and play awesome defense.

 December 1

            What an exciting win! We came out and put everything together to play a really good game today! And the men’s team upset Findlay’s men’s team who was fourth in the nation! It was a great day for Ashland basketball!  Like I said, we came out and did everything that we had to do.  We executed offensively and came up with some great plays defensively.  Each time that Findlay tried to make a run on us, we were able to hold them off and come back with a run of our own.  No one really had a bad game and that was helpful too.  Hopefully, we can continue to build off of this game today and keep progressing while preparing for our next games against Hillsdale and Wayne State. Even with a great win today, there is a lot of work to be done and a lot of improvements that we can make.

Ashland University women’s soccer goal keeper Marie Supanich provides an inside look at her preparation as she got ready to play against top-ranked Grand Valley State on Sunday, Sept. 30. The game was played at the AU Soccer Complex and Grand Valley State won, 8-0.

After our tough, hard-fought, 2-1 loss to Ferris State on Friday (Sept. 28) it was time to turn my thoughts to what was sure to be a hard battle against the No. 1 ranked team in the nation, Grand Valley State.

I knew the key to my own personal success was to keep myself calm and try to distract myself for the next 40 hours or so. I wanted to make sure I got enough sleep, ate well and kept my nagging injuries under control as much as possible. My goal was not to get myself too motivated too early or even worse, too nervous. I spent Friday night watching our volleyball team defeat Ferris State and watching a movie with some girls on the team.

Saturday was a relaxing day around campus. I woke up for a morning team practice spent by loosening up our legs, followed by lots of stretching. After a nice pancake brunch, the day was spent supporting the other teams on campus. I watched volleyball and men’s soccer. As I lounged around the dorms with many members of the team I continually struggled to keep my nerves and excitement under control throughout the night.

But finally the time came and it was GAME DAY. I woke up early for a team breakfast at 9. The nerves had definitely hit me by 10 and those butterflies in my stomach were present as I lay in the training room getting treatment on my back. I tried to turn my nerves into motivating energy. I listened to my favorite playlists on my iPod that had everything from Shakira and Michael Jackson to Ziggy Marley.

Prior to walking out on the field, the team sat on the carpet outside our coach’s office listening to music, which as usual turned into many players singing and dancing along. We take this time before each game as a way of keeping our spirits high with much chatter and laughter.

Once I walk on the field I spend a few personal moments gathering my thoughts. That’s my way of mentally and spiritually preparing myself for the game. When it comes time for warmups, we have proven to be a team of habit. We play the same songs every time we warm up, there’s no deviation from our routine.

At 35 minutes prior to game time I separate with the goal keepers to proceed with our specific physical preparation. A warmup for me is very important in preparing myself for the game and often foreshadows what kind of performance I will turn in that day.

At 10 minutes before the game I go out for the coin toss. Then it’s the playing of the national anthem and finally GAME TIME. All the nagging pains in my body and nerves subside to what will be a 90-minute battle that will prove to test my inner resolve.

As a goal keeper I am often put in a situation that is developed by the opponent. As the last man back, the battle of play rests on my shoulders. Therefore, coming into any game, I try to focus on the things that I can control. I am forced to work with the situation and focus on such things as my body position, footwork and communication.

The first half proved to be a battle. We were working hard and definitely putting forth the necessary effort, but not connecting the pieces. We were down, 2-0 and knew that in the second half we would need to mentally get more involved and make smarter decisions that could create better scoring opportunities.

Unfortunately, the second half proved to be a greater test than we were up for. Our mental breakdowns eventually turned to physical breakdowns, which allowed Grand Valley to easily capitalize on many of their opportunities.

After a game like that, the only thing you can do is move on. The next step as a team is to bounce back from this loss. We have one day to rest our bodies and then one more practice to prepare ourselves for the next game on Wednesday against Tiffin (Oct. 3). The test now is to focus on what is in front of us and to work hard and regain some pride.