Hurricane Irene - Jessica Croucher

From sophomore Jessica Croucher, a native of Australia

Friday morning we were meant to leave for our first tournament as a new team to William and Mary, which I was hyped for to see how as a team we would pull together against other teams.

To hear Thursday afternoon that the tournament was canceled I was disappointed, but understanding that our safety was at risk with the Hurricane Irene moving up the east coast. So Friday we had a short practice session where coach told us that we would have the weekend off due to campus being closed.

Overall my weekend consisted of keeping in contact with my family letting them know I was alright, and resting trying to look after all my current injuries for the up coming week of practice and next weekend when we travel to Cornell University. I am excited for next weekend when we go to Cornell University as we will finally be able to play and to see how far our hard work as a team will get us, hopefully walking away from the tournament with our heads held high and some wins under our belt.

--Jessica Croucher

Hurricane Irene - Sonya Inderbitzin

From sophomore Sonya Inderbitzin:

After we found out on Friday afternoon that our tournament at William and Mary was cancelled, I was very disappointed. I was ready to beat my sister's Alma Mater in Bucknell University, but unfortunately hurricane Irene had interrupted our plans. Dover was not hit very hard by the hurricane with only strong winds and lots of rain, although many other places were not as lucky. Hopefully we will use this extra week of practice to our advantage and play well at our tournament against Cornell.

--Sonya Inderbitzin

Hurricane Irene - Sonja Banicevic

Senior Sonja Banicevic is also from over seas (Croatia) and has probably never experienced a hurricane.

On Friday morning we were supposed to leave for our first tournament this season in Virginia. All of us were very excited because we were ready to start playing the games after the long preseason practices. Unfortunately, on Thursday night coach Renee called Elisa and said that tournament is cancelled because of hurricane Irene. BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. We had just packed our bags and looked over the other team stats. We were ready to go.

So, on Friday instead of playing against another, different, team in Virginia, we had team practice. Coach told us that we have two days over the weekend (not that she wanted us to have weekend off :) ), because school was closed due to the hurricane. Actually, the weekend was long and boring without volleyball. On Saturday we could not go out of the building because wind was very strong and it was raining the whole day. We were ready for the Irene with our water, food and candles but fortunately it did not hit Dover that bad. I am glad that we had the power all the time, or otherwise I would die!:)

This weekend we are finally and hopefully going to Ithaca, NY for our first tournament. It is really time to start playing and I am excited to see how we will do. This is the first time we will be playing as a new team at the tournament. Our games are on Friday at 2pm and 5 pm. On Saturday the game will be at 10 am. Follow us!

--Sonja Banicevic

Note: You can follow live stats at the Cornell Invitational here.

Also, DSU Volleyball is on twitter, follow behind the scenes action at twitter.com/DSUVolleyball.

Hurricane Irene - Elisa Herrmann

This post is from another senior, Elisa Herrmann. She's originally from Germany... not sure how many hurricanes they experience there!


Thursday afternoon I received a call from Coach Arnold telling me that the tournament at William and Mary was canceled due to the hurricane warnings for the East coast on that specific weekend. I was very disappointed about this news, as I really wanted to go play and see how our new team could hold up against other teams. I'm a senior, and I was really not willing to give away anymore games or opportunities to play. I was actually very excited, I had looked up the stats already for all the teams and saw some chances for us to win games that weekend.

Instead, I had to unpack my bag again, looking forward to having a slightly extended preseason. Expecting Hurricane Irene, the university closed down Saturday and Sunday and postponed classes to begin on Tuesday.

The weekend itself was very boring. The weather outside was too bad to do something anywhere. So, I rested a lot, watched TV and looked at the schedule from time to time as to what I really was supposed to be doing by now. The hurricane turned out to not be that bad in Dover, no power-outage.

I am looking very much forward to the upcoming weekend when we will travel to Ithaca, NY to compete versus Cornell, Niagara, and UTEP. Even though I have have the feeling this will be one of the tougher tournaments to play,I can't wait to finally start traveling with the team and getting to have fun doing what I love to do.


--Elisa Herrmann

Hurricane Irene - Megan McDonald

As everyone knows (and if you don't, you've probably been living under a rock), Hurricane Irene hit the East Coast this past weekend. We were very lucky to only have major winds and rain and minor flooding here in Dover. Our thoughts and prayers are go out to those who had it worse than we did.

The hurricane threw major wrenches in our team's plans for the weekend and we'll have a few players blog about their experience this weekend. For some, it was their first time dealing with a hurricane. For others, not so much.

Our first post comes from senior Megan McDonald.


This weekend our tournament at William and Mary was canceled because of Hurricane Irene. I was pretty bummed when I found out that the tournament was canceled but I was also relieved that we were not going to go out and brave the storm. Luckily, there was only a lot of rain and strong winds and the power did not go out.

Anyways, we have a tournament this Friday and Saturday at Cornell in Ithaca, NY and I am excited to see how well we can work together as a team and finally get the season underway.

--Megan McDonald