Toni Jones

Past Entries

Entry 1

Entry 2

September 20, 2004

Although history seemed to be repeating itself as Ivan the Terrible rained over the city with multiple inches of water and strong winds, the women of the Emory volleyball team remained focused during practice in preparation for our weekend tournament against a cast of NAIA teams. We definitely did think about Hurricane Ivan after practice when we were forced to go out into the storm in pursuit of our vehicles or dorms to escape the horrible weather.

We were all excited about our trip to Tennessee and for a few reasons: it was our second and final bus trip, the fact we would be playing Lee University, one of our big rivals, and finally, we were thrilled about traveling to dry land.

Early Friday afternoon, all the players and coaches gathered once again to hit the road and to our surprise, Ralph's Magic Cool bus from our trip to Mobile was warmed up outside the Woodruff P.E. Center ready to transport us safely to Cleveland, Tennessee. As we loaded Ralph's charter, Alex, the team chef, distributed the earthy treats she had prepared in celebration of KC's 22nd birthday. That was the best dirt I have ever eaten!

The bus ride passed quickly as the travel time to Cleveland, Tenn., is approximately two hours. We made the most of those two hours watching Mean Girls as a team--good movie! No doubt, we will have some lasting inside jokes as a product of watching the fairly accurate dramatization of any given high school student's unfortunate misadventures.'

Of course we had to get a little lost before actually arriving at the university, but when we got there, it was time to play! We crammed 22 bodies into our locker room for the weekend. As we arranged our belongings in the cubbies of what is usually a men's changing room and entertained ourselves with the flushing of urinals, we took into account the two matches we were about to play. It was time to get focused.

After our two matches concluded, we loaded bodies, on the brink of starvation, onto the charter to partake in some Italian grub with our favorite and most faithful fan Joe Goodson, Coach Jenny's longtime friend and Morehouse College's football trainer. While waiting for our food in the restaurant, my dining buddies and I entertained ourselves by checking out the attractive male servers, scarfing saltine crackers (all of them!…well, we did leave one packet in the basket), and testing new ring tones on our mobile phones. It is not an exaggeration to say that we will have a good time in any situation.

Following dinner, we headed to the hotel and checked into our rooms. We immediately took turns in the shower then hit the hay. It was important for us to get rest for it was somewhat of a late night and we were looking at an early start the next morning.

Day two of the tournament began with a little "Riding of the Pony" in our locker room. It was considerably early, and there is nothing like jumping up and down with a little singing and dancing to get a group of young ladies ready to play some volleyball…and it worked!

We warmed up with a great deal of energy that morning. Although the tournament ended on an unfavorable note, we learned some more important things about our team that will inevitably help us move forward.

As we rolled back into the wonderful city of Atlanta Saturday afternoon, we were greeted by cool breeze, clear blue skies, and warm sunshine, all much more characteristic of the weather Emory students are graced with on a typical September day. With nearly 48 hours of time to rest ahead of us, we left each other with the anticipation of a fun weekend and a week of great practices to follow.

We have to get ready for an AMAZING home tournament this weekend! YEAH EAGLES!!!

Toni Jones is a sophomore from Spanish Fort, Ala. She would love to answer e-mail questions from Emory recruits and fans.